The Brief

In 2024, a group of Southeast L.A. residents filed a lawsuit against Sterigenics, a company operating in Vernon that uses a controversial chemical to sterilize medical equipment.

On Thursday, those plaintiffs cleared a key hurdle that now paves the way for their case to potentially move forward to a trial or settlement.

Residents say Sterigenics has knowingly exposed them and their neighbors to unsafe levels of ethylene oxide for decades, without warning them of the potential health risks. Ethylene oxide is a colorless gas that’s central to the sterilization process — it’s also a known carcinogen.

Residents say the company is responsible for their cancer diagnoses, or for the deaths of their loved ones.

In the nearly two years that residents have been seeking relief from the court, dozens of other local residents have also filed lawsuits against the company, along with people who were diagnosed with cancer after working at a business that operates next to Sterigenics.

The company, which has denied wrongdoing, filed several motions for summary judgment against the plaintiffs — a legal tool that can be used to keep cases from going to trial.

But after two days of back and forth in a downtown L.A. courthouse, Judge Lawrence Riff denied all the motions.

What kind of relief do residents want?

Most of the plaintiffs in the original case have been diagnosed with breast cancer. The others — including a toddler and a man who fell ill when he was in high school — have been diagnosed with leukemia, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, stomach cancer or other conditions. The plaintiffs also include long-term Maywood residents who’ve lost a parent or spouse. All of them have lived less than a mile away from Sterigenics.

Court documents show that the Maywood residents want a jury trial and seek compensation for past and future medical expenses, funeral costs, lost wages, and the fear and “mental anguish” of being sick or watching a family member die.

Their lawsuit also asks Sterigenics to:

• keep its emissions “within health-protective standards”; 
• immediately notify regulators when their equipment breaks down;
• provide real-time reporting of its emissions to community members;
• and pay additional penalties to deter the company from committing future violations.

The group filed its lawsuit against Sterigenics and its affiliates in March 2024. Other residents filed at least six more lawsuits later in 2024 and 2025. Two more local lawsuits have been filed against the company this year. Plaintiffs in these other cases seek similar compensation.

There are currently two trial dates set for the original case: Jan. 25, 2027, and April 15, 2027.

What is Sterigenics’ history in LA?

Sterigenics runs two facilities in Vernon. Every year, the company sterilizes more than 45 million medical supplies, including surgical kits, syringes, heart valves, and pacemakers. These products then go out to nearly 100 healthcare manufacturers.

Vernon is a small, largely industrial city located five miles southeast of downtown L.A. Maywood is an adjoining city with more than 23,000 residents, most of whom are Latino and working class.

At the hearings this week, attorneys for Sterigenics and its parent company, Sotera Health, insisted there’s not enough ethylene oxide flowing in the neighborhood to cause cancer.

According to Judge Riff, the methodology of an expert Sterigenics relied on was “not sufficiently reasoned,” in part because her assessment of ethylene oxide emissions in the area surrounding the facility did not account for changes over multiple decades.

LAist has reached out to Sterigenics for further comment.

You might have braved the process to get a seat at SoFi Stadium for one of the eight FIFA World Cup 2026 matches in L.A., or maybe you’re gearing up to head to a community watch party.

Either way, you can maximize the celebration, avoid traffic and save your wallet by taking transit.

LAist prepared the following guide to help folks get to and from the stadium, L.A. city watch parties and tips on using bikes and scooters to get around the region.

Getting to the stadium

L.A. Metro is the countywide transportation agency and is the official public transit provider for the World Cup matches in the city. It’s partnering with more than 10 regional transportation and charter providers to get people to and from the stadium.

Where is the stadium: All eight of the matches will be at SoFi Stadium, or L.A. Stadium, as it will be called during the World Cup. The address is 1001 S. Stadium Dr., Inglewood, CA 90301.

How do you get there on Metro: Metro is offering direct shuttle service to the stadium from several locations in L.A. and Orange counties:

• Hawthorne/Lennox Station
• Crenshaw Station
• LAX/Metro Transit Center
• Near LAX hotels
• El Camino College
• Harbor Gateway Transit Center
• Culver City Transit Center
• Torrance Transit Center
• Union Station
• Downtown Long Beach
• Downtown Santa Monica
• North Hollywood Station
• Pierce College Station
• ARTIC Anaheim Station 
• Newport Transportation Center

You can catch a stadium-bound shuttle at locations throughout L.A. and Orange Counties.

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L.A. Metro

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When: Shuttles to the stadium begin service at least three hours before kick-off depending on which location you’re leaving from, and they’ll run up to 90 minutes after the matches end.

How often: The shuttles will generally run every 10 minutes. For the Pierce College Station and Newport Transportation Center, the shuttles will run every 30 minutes.

How to pay: You can tap the fare machines directly with your credit or debit card. Or you can go old-school and use a physical or digital TAP card. There are several ways to get a TAP card, including using your smartphone or picking one up at a Metro station. Here is a page with more details and instructions.

How much: The same as usual: $1.75 one-way.

Ok, but how do I get to the shuttle locations?: There are a few different options.

The shuttle pick-up and drop-off locations are well-serviced by existing transit. You can use the Transit or L.A. Metro mobile apps to help with trip planning.

And yes, you can drive, too. For most of the shuttle locations, you can reserve parking via SpotHero on Metro’s official World Cup page. You can also use ride-share or taxi services.

The only pick-up and drop-off location that doesn’t have any kind of vehicle access, including rideshare, is the LAX Metro Transit Center. But that station is accessible by five different Metro bus lines and two rail lines.

Bonus: If you’re looking for a souvenir to commemorate your time on transit during the World Cup in L.A., make sure to pick up a special TAP card. You can see the designs and where to find each one here.

How to get to the watch parties

There are going to be more than 100 free watch parties in the city of L.A. at different park locations. It’s part of an initiative called Kick it in the Park. You can find out more about the watch parties here.

Some of the locations are accessible on Metro rail.

• MacArthur Park. You can take the B or D line to the Westlake/MacArthur Park Station.
• Seoul International Park. The D line stops at the Wilshire/Normandie Station, which is about a half mile away from the park. 
• Sycamore Grove. The A line stops at the Southwest Museum Station, which is less than half a mile from Sycamore Grove. 
• Stoner Recreation Center. The E Line stops at the Expo/Bundy Station, which is about half a mile away from Stoner Recreation Center.
• Cheviot Hills Recreation Center. The E Line Palms Station is just less than a mile away. 

Check out the city’s interactive website to learn which Metro, L.A. Dash or other regional transit can take you to the Kick it in the Park events.

Other cities in the county are also hosting watch parties, including Santa Monica, West Hollywood and Culver City.

Micro-mobility solutions

Taking a bike share or scooter could be helpful to get to and from transit stations or to go a short distance that isn’t well-served by transit. There are a few different options here:

• Metro Bike Share. Metro operates a fleet of regular and electric bikes that you can find at docking stations throughout L.A. Use the L.A. Metro app to find docking stations near you that have available bikes or to find stations where you can return the bike when you’re done using it. There are different prices depending on how long you anticipate needing a bike, and you can pay with your TAP card. 
  

• Lime. The private scooter and bike-share company recently expanded into the Valley and now offers a total of 15,000 vehicles in the city of L.A. Its vehicles are also accessible in West Hollywood and Long Beach. You can use the Lime or Uber apps to book the vehicles.

  The company is launching a “fan pass” this summer that includes 90 minutes of riding over the course of five days for about $13. You can purchase the fan pass more than once. It’ll be available between June 5th through July 12th. If you don't have access to the internet on your phone but still want to use a Lime vehicle, you can text "Unlock" to 415-463-3473. You will receive a text back with instructions on how to proceed from there.

What does rebuilding after the 2025 L.A. fires mean to you? That's the question LAist asked you in February.

Fire survivors may feel the world has moved on, but we know that you are in the process of pouring foundations, moving to a new temporary home, settling into a new community and perhaps waiting for a chance to return to the areas that burned in Altadena, Pasadena, the Palisades and Malibu.

So we wanted to hear your stories — and also see photos that capture this moment of your lives. With the fires a year and a half behind us, here are a couple of your stories.

A new start in Altadena

For Missi Figueroa, rebuilding has meant being drawn back to Altadena.

“I felt this weird connection after the fire to this place, like it felt like a grave of my old life, and I just wanted to be here,” Figueroa said. “We looked and thought about moving elsewhere. We just wanted to come back here.”

Her husband, Frank Figueroa, felt that rebuilding is also a part of healing.

“I can’t wait to see everyone else here move back and how tight the community will be,” he said. “I think it will be much stronger.”

The Figueroa family were at the tail end of rebuilding their home in February, including an ADU, where their daughter was standing before it was finished.

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Missi Figueroa

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The children of Missi and Frank Figueroa enjoying raspados outside their newly built home. The local elotero still walks their neighborhood in Altadena.

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Missi Figueroa

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In February, the Figueroas were nearing completion of their new home. They shared a photo of one of their children smiling through the window of the then-unfinished ADU.

They passed the final inspection May 8 and got approval to move back to Altadena, which they have called home for over 10 years. Theirs was the 12th fully rebuilt home in Altadena, and they have since returned to the neighborhood.

The home was to their specifications, including adding lots of tiles and reusing bricks from their former home in the planter in the front.

Missi and Frank Figueroa embrace in front of their new home.

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David Rodriguez

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LAist

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Jose Hernandez, their contractor with Structural Prime Builder, was determined to get the Figueroa family moved in in six to seven months.

“I was blessed that they basically trust us to build their home,” said Hernandez, who runs the family-owned business.

The Figueroas said one thing people should know about rebuilding is the importance of having a contractor you can lean on. They found that in Hernandez.

“I think it’s really important to find someone you can work with, a contractor who you can trust and talk to,” Missi Figueroa said.

Frank and Missi Figueroa sit on a blue bench with their contractors, Danna and Jose Hernandez from Structural Prime Builder, outside their newly constructed home in Altadena.

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David Rodriguez

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LAist

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Share your story

LAist is still hearing stories and receiving photos from fire survivors on what rebuilding means to them. We want to hear from homeowners, current or former renters, business owners and more.

So far, we’ve heard from survivors living in temporary homes, living in RVs on their lots, creating art and starting to rebuild a new home while wondering what comes next.

Share your story in the survey below and we may include your pictures and stories in an upcoming feature. We won’t publish anything you share without your permission.

Framing a new home in the Palisades

Darrin Hurwitz stands in front of his family’s new home under construction in the Pacific Palisades.

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David Rodriguez

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LAist

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Darrin Hurwitz and his family moved to Pacific Palisades from Washington, D.C., in 2022. A big reason they chose their neighborhood was to have a city experience and be close to nature.

Their home was destroyed in the Palisades Fire.

The framing of their new home is almost complete. They are the first house on their street to start rebuilding.

For Hurwitz, rebuilding has felt like “a second job." There was the stress of many decisions — as well as feeling like part of something larger.

“Everyone is dealing with these issues in a different way,” he said. “But ultimately, we are excited to be part of the rebuilding process and thrilled to come back to the Palisades in about a year.”

Darrin Hurwitz and his family lost their home in the Palisades Fire. Their home is the first to be rebuilt from the ground up, and broke ground in early February.

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Darrin Hurwitz

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The Hurwitz home’s framing is almost completed by mid-May.

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Darrin Hurwitz

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Since he’s been in the neighborhood to see the start of construction, Hurwitz said he has found it invigorating to hike the trails. He shared a photo with LAist of the view from a hilltop, where he can watch his neighborhood being reborn.

The Hurwitz home is under construction in the Pacific Palisades.

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Darrin Hurwitz

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Hurwitz and his family are living in Santa Monica while their new home is built. He is optimistic about the progress he and his family have made.

“It takes time for people to figure out what to do, to figure out their financial situation, to decide whether to return to an area that has been ravaged by a natural disaster,” Hurwitz said. “I am optimistic where things are headed. The Palisades will be back in maybe three years or five years or seven years, but it will come back.”

The soft hiss of fat dripping onto white-hot binchotan. The alchemical smell of both sweet tare sauce and charred meat. If you closed your eyes, you could easily imagine yourself parked at the counter of any number of South Bay yakitori joints.

But this is Three Pigs, a Long Beach-based pop-up and catering operation, that roves around the region, one week perhaps at a street fair, another in the parking lot of a donut shop.

It’s the work of partners Allison and Vasili Tavernakis. In just under two years, they’ve built a community of dedicated diners from Orange County to Los Angeles, drawn to their personal market-inspired take on traditional Japanese cuisine.

Three Pigs owners, Vasili (left) and Allison Tavernakis.

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Yakitori is what first launched Three Pigs, so. So there are always skewers on the menu, like a juicy beef kushiyaki skewer dabbed with wasabi.

But there’s also always something special and even ephemeral to be had. Maybe it will be hearty kakuni don, a bowl of rice topped with meltingly tender soy-braised pork belly, a jammy soft boiled egg, and daikon and bok choy sprouts. Or perhaps you’ll find a hyper-seasonal dish like nowhere else: yuzu-scented whipped tofu, charred broccolini, sake-cherry agrodolce, and sprouted watercress.

Three Pigs is restaurant-quality cooking unbound from the financial and creative trappings of a brick-and-mortar space.

“The challenge is what keeps me excited,” Vasili said. “I want our pop-ups to feel like if you changed our bamboo plates, you’d feel like you were at a restaurant.”

A restaurant-quality dish at Three Pigs.

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Courtesy Three Pigs

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Organic growth

Allison and Vasili are both hospitality veterans. The pair met while working at a restaurant in Torrance: Allison as a manager and social media director in the front of the house, Vasili as a chef in the back of the house. After their shifts, there were few options for late-night bites. Inevitably, Vasili said, they’d find themselves at Japanese izakayas, where they and their coworkers could build camaraderie over skewers and small plates.

It was during those post-work meals that Vasili became enamored with yakitori. But it wasn’t until the pandemic lockdowns that Vasili ever attempted to cook it himself. It was a slow process, learning the techniques and honing the recipes that called back to those late-night meals that he sorely missed. For Allison, who is Japanese-American, the dishes spoke to her own flavor memories and family traditions.

Eventually, they became confident enough to invite friends over for dinners to try out new dishes.

Still, the idea of a pop-up seemed far off. It wasn’t until a friend who owns a store in downtown Long Beach offered a pop-up opportunity that Three Pigs started serving the public. After that first smashing success, which saw their entire menu sell out, the operation has grown organically ever since, building on community connections and word of mouth to find new avenues to share their food.

Evolution and ambition

If you pay enough visits to Three Pigs’ pop-ups, you can watch the pair continually push boundaries.

“On a recent visit to Japan,” Vasili recounted, “we saw a vendor with a gorgeously long irori-style grill with fish standing on skewers. In Japan, irori is a multifunctional space in the home for both heating and cooking. I hadn’t seen a vendor do that before, so I thought I could try building one.”

So he did. Then he sourced ayu, small fish prized in Japan for their sweet, delicate flavor. The fish were skewered whole and arranged vertically around lengths of charcoal stacked in the center of the grill. The result was not just an approximation of that inspiration from Japan, but an homage to the craft and care of Japanese cooking. Even attempting such a cooking method is something no other pop-up, let alone a brick-and-mortar restaurant, is likely doing in Southern California.

Casual pop-ups are only part of the Three Pigs experience. Allison and Vasili also host a dinner series. And it’s at those dinners where Three Pigs’ creativity is truly at play.

At a Santa Monica nursery a few months ago, Three Pigs paired an ambitious tasting menu dinner with an ikebana class hosted by Tiger Blossom Studio. In between flower arranging lessons, Allison and Vasili served a farmers market-driven menu that saw dishes like a hamachi crudo in a pool of strawberry ponzu, spiny lobster in a caviar and white miso beurre monté, and a hojicha panna cotta with craggy, dehydrated black sesame cake.

“We try and create an experience, not just food on a plate,” Allison said. “We see this as an entire restaurant experience that happens to be outside in the community. We get to interact with customers in a more intimate way, ask questions, and have a conversation.”

But that conversation isn’t just one with customers old and new. It’s a dialogue between memory and place, Southern California and its seasons, and tradition and evolution.

No matter where you find Three Pigs, you can always guarantee there will be something new on the menu.

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Four years ago, Adan Matul was selling a Guatemalan sweet bread called pan de Xela, out of a street cart in the San Fernando Valley. Now, Matul and his family run El Sabor Auténtico de Xela, a Guatemalan restaurant and bakery in Chatsworth.

Matul opened the restaurant in February with his partner, Yolanda Barrios, and her daughters, Hellen Rodas and Selena Barrios. The family works together every day to bring dishes and pastries from their ancestral home of Quetzaltenango.

“Everything we serve here is a reflection of our roots — the dishes our parents cooked, what we snacked on, the bread we had with our coffee,” Matul told The LA Local. “We want our bread and dishes to evoke memories of home, the warmth that we felt eating our mothers’ food.” 

A basket of Guatemalan breads from El Sabor Auténtico de Xela.

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Andrea G. Mendez Ochoa

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The LA Local

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The demand that led to El Sabor Auténtico de Xela opening its doors reflects a broader shift in L.A. Los Angeles County is now home to the largest population of Guatemalans outside of Guatemala, with more than 280,000 residents as of 2025 — a roughly 35% increase over the past decade. As the community has grown, so has the visibility of its food, even as many Central American immigrants face increased immigration enforcement and political pressure.

“We’re living in a time where so much systemic harm has been done to our people,” Rodas said between greeting customers at the restaurant. “We’re told we need to assimilate to thrive in this country, and that mindset took so much of my cultural identity when I was a child. Part of my healing has happened through working here.”

Growing up Guatemalan American in Los Angeles, I know that feeling. For years, food from our homeland was hard to find — even in one of the most diverse food cities in the world.

That’s no longer the case.

Across L.A., dishes like pepián, garnachas and tapado are moving from the margins to the mainstream. What was once hidden is now defining neighborhoods.

These five restaurants capture that shift.

No. 5 Puchica Guatemalan Bar & Grill

Tapado, a Garifuna recipe popular among the Guatemalan community residing in the Caribbean coast, served with rice and a Mojarra Frita.

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Andrea G. Mendez Ochoa

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The LA Local

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Walk into Puchica and you’ll likely spot a wall of photographs — Lake Atitlán, Antigua, Tikal. There might be live Chapin music filling the room. There will definitely be some of the best Guatemalan food in L.A.

Owner Ronan Lurssen, a native of Suchitepéquez, and his wife, Taryn, have made it their mission to bring regional Guatemalan cooking to Los Angeles — and that means going beyond the usual menu.

Puchica is one of the few restaurants in the area serving tapado, a coconut-based seafood stew from Guatemala’s Caribbean coast. The dish traces back to Garifuna communities — Afro-Indigenous people whose roots come from West African survivors of shipwreck and the Indigenous Kalinago and Arawak people. 

The tapado here delivers on that lineage. The broth is rich and creamy, the seafood layered with deep umami flavor. It arrives with rice and mojarra frita — a whole fish, scored, garlic-lime marinated and fried until the skin shatters and the meat pulls clean. The plate comes with tortillas to make fish tacos that you should definitely dip into the broth. It’s a dish that demands you slow down and find comfort in the experience of finishing everything on the plate.

No. 4 Mi Cocinita Chapina

Carne Guisada from Mi Cocinita Chapina served with a salad, rice, and mash beans. The Guatemalan dish on the left corner is called Hilachas, a shredded beef stew.

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Andrea G. Mendez Ochoa

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The LA Local

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Mi Cocinita is a little hole in the wall that serves some of the best traditional Guatemalan dishes in the area. Nestled on the corner of Malvern Avenue and Venice Boulevard, it is known for its authentic Guatemalan breakfasts. 

Put some pep in your step with Mi Cocinita’s desayuno tipico — eggs, savory mashed black beans, fried plantains, queso fresco and your choice of chorizo or puyaso steak, a cut of sirloin with a thick layer of fat. 

You can also start your day here with carne guisada, a savory stew featuring beef simmered in a thick, rich gravy and potatoes. 

No. 3 Amalia’s Restaurant

Sopa de Mariscos served with rice and the Plato Amalia’s with rice and homemade tortillas.

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Andrea G. Mendez Ochoa

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The LA Local

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Amalia’s Restaurant is a rarity in L.A. — a Guatemalan spot that’s been holding it down since 1994. Long before the current wave of regional Central American cooking, Amalia’s was serving Koreatown’s Guatemalan community, quietly becoming a neighborhood staple.

The sopa de mariscos is the move here. Built on a deeply seasoned tomato broth, the soup is loaded with fish, shrimp, crab and mussels, simmered down into something rich and restorative. It’s the kind of dish that hits immediately — briny, citrusy, just enough lime to cut through the depth.

If you’re hungover, it’ll fix you. If you’re not, it’ll still feel like it did.

No. 2 Shucos LA

Shucos’s churrasco plate offered a variety of assorted meats served with a Russian salad, rice, beans and homemade guacamole. The bistec encebollado at the top with Agua de Jamaica.

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Andrea G. Mendez Ochoa

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The LA Local

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Shucos started as a backyard setup near Jefferson Boulevard and 41st Street in 2020. Within a few years, it grew into a storefront in Commerce, fueled in part by a steady rise on TikTok, where staff showcased their Guatemalan-style hot dogs to a wider audience.

Those hot dogs — known as shucos — are a staple of Guatemala’s street food scene. Built on a toasted bun, they’re loaded with grilled meats, guacamole, cabbage, grilled onions and the classic trio of ketchup, mayo and mustard. Messy, smoky and fully loaded, they eat more like a full meal than a snack.

But the menu goes deeper. Shucos also serves a range of traditional dishes, including bistec encebollado, salpicón de res, pollo en crema and churrasco.

The churrasco features meats that are tender with a strong char, the seasoning pulling everything together without overpowering it. On the side, garnachas — crisp, saucy and so delicious, they were consumed in a matter of minutes. 

No. 1 El Sabor Auténtico de Xela

A shuco mixto from El Sabor Auténtico de Xela. A shuco is a street food staple from Guatemala that combines multiple meats in a single toasted bun. Above left is carne adobada and above right is Pepián.

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Andrea G. Mendez Ochoa

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The LA Local

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A true one-stop shop for Guatemalan food, El Sabor Auténtico de Xela earns the top spot on this list. The restaurant and bakery showcases dishes from the Quetzaltenango region alongside a lineup of nostalgic snacks like Tortrix chips and Chiky cookies and sodas like Tiky.

Matul often points first-timers to the Pepián, Guatemala’s national dish. The stew is rich and layered, rooted in both Mayan and Spanish traditions, with slow-cooked meats and vegetables in a thick sauce made from roasted tomatoes, tomatillos and toasted seeds. It’s served with rice and tortillas — simple on paper, deeply complex in flavor.

Rodas recommends the caldo de res, a hearty beef soup packed with corn, cabbage, zucchini and potatoes. It’s the kind of dish that hits even on a 100-degree day.

But the standout is the carne adobada. The meat is tender, deeply seasoned, with a subtle smokiness that lingers. It’s served with Russian salad and Guatemalan chow mein — a local adaptation shaped by Chinese immigrants in the late 19th century that has since become a staple of the cuisine.