The Brief

The climate crisis is so huge and overwhelming, it can be paralyzing to many of us. We all want to know that one thing that will really make the difference.

But guess what? There’s an app for that. There's of course no silver bullet to addressing the climate crisis, but a new app, Dashboard.Earth, aims to help users shake out of climate paralysis, take meaningful climate actions — and get rewarded for it.

The app, which launched publicly about six months ago and is currently in beta, gamifies climate action and education, and was curated specifically for L.A.

“I think at the end of the day, everybody wants to try and figure out what they can do on an individual level to make an impact either locally in their community or on the global scale,” said Kelly Shannon McNeill, associate director at the water conservation non-profit advocacy group Los Angeles Waterkeeper, which partnered with the developers to help design the app. “The goal for Dashboard.Earth is serving up bite-sized, really accessible, step-by-step actions that almost anybody could take regardless if they're a renter, a homeowner, etc.”

At this point, the app has three main actions — composting, electronics recycling and saving on energy. There are also plenty of actions like water conservation, tree planting and energy saving that point to rebates from, for example, the L.A. Department of Water and Power. The more actions you take, the more “sprouts” you gather — people with the most sprouts are more likely to win a weekly prize, such as a gift card to a local vegan restaurant or other rewards in partnership with local businesses. It also shows how people near you are taking similar actions to foster community.

A screenshot of the dashboard.earth app.

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“Climate is a really big problem, and to solve a big problem, we each need to start where we are with what we have. And for each of us, that means our own lives, our own homes, within our own families,” said Lauren Turk, director of strategic partnerships at Dashboard.Earth. “We've done the work of identifying the key actions that really matter in L.A. so that people can get started where they are with what they have.”

The financial incentives are also mostly tied to local utilities, such as LADWP and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. There’s also a calculator for incentives linked to the federal Inflation Reduction Act.

And not everything is just on the app — once you sign up for the app’s newsletter, you can join in-person climate action events too.

Turk said Dashboard.Earth is not complete and they are continuing to change the product based on user feedback. For example, they’re working to potentially develop pathways around “greening” your commute and eating a more plant-based diet. They aim to expand the app statewide by the end of the year, with curated pathways for communities across California.

A screenshot of the dashboard.earth app.

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Of course a single app won’t save the world — there are no silver bullets when it comes to addressing human-caused climate change — but for the smartphone-centric society we now live in, apps can be an effective tool to help people engage with meaningful climate action at an individual level. It can even be something of a gateway to starting to participate in broader, more systemic action.

And the reality is, to make a dent on climate, both individual and systemic action is needed — and individuals do have power to tip the scales towards broader social change — just 25% of a community’s population is needed to tip the scales to change social norms, according to 2018 research from the University of Pennsylvania.

How the app was developed

There are a lot of climate apps out there, but this one is unique in its hyperlocal focus — and financial incentives — and close work with local organizations, said Turk.

The app’s actions were developed over several years in partnership with local nonprofits that work on climate resilience, such as Accelerate Resilience Los Angeles and TreePeople, as well as LA Waterkeeper, Promesa Boyle Heights and Resilient Palisades, who helped develop the water conservation and bill savings paths. Homeboy Industries is a partner on the new electronics recycling path.

Over several years, pilots were run to identify what got people to engage. LA Waterkeeper led the water conservation pilot case studies with Promesa Boyle Heights and Resilient Palisades. That pilot revealed both the opportunities and limits to the app — most of the engagement came from the affluent Pacific Palisades, where they focused on water-saving rebates for actions such as transitioning lawns to drought-tolerant landscapes. In Boyle Heights, the messaging was more about indoor water conservation and bill savings, but engagement remained low.

Drought-tolerant native wildflowers.

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“The adoption in every community has not been equal and that's something that we're proactively working with Dashboard.Earth on to figure out how we can make this more accessible for everyone,” said McNeill.

One big issue on the water conservation side, she said, is that most financial incentives available are rebates, rather than direct install programs, so lower income folks can be left out since it may not be financially feasible to wait to receive a rebate after purchasing, for example, a low-flow toilet or faucet. And there’s the digital divide, so an app can’t replace grassroots in-person organizing.

Another issue is that renters don’t always have the power to take those bigger actions, such as transforming grassy lawns. McNeill said in that case, the app can be a helpful education tool. Her family rents a house, and she said she’s used the app to educate her landlord.

“I have not been successful at encouraging them to take advantage of the amazing rebates that we have for lawn transformation, but my small act of rebellion is I have just turned off the sprinklers, so we're at least not wasting water, especially during the winter,” she said with a chuckle.

While all the actions may not work for everyone, the main ones — separating food waste, recycling electronics, and taking action on energy efficiency — are things most anyone can do.

How the app helped one Angeleno take action

Separating food waste from the trash is one of the primary actions on the app, and most users are doing it for the first time, said Turk. Keeping food waste out of landfills is essential to lowering the super planet-heating gas methane — decomposing food waste in landfills is largely why they’re California’s third largest source of methane. (Learn more about L.A.’s composting effort here).

Walter Avelar said he had no idea keeping food waste out of the trash was such a powerful climate action until the company he’s a general manager for partnered with Dashboard.Earth to improve their sustainability efforts. Now, the Granada Hills resident and his family are experts at separating their food waste.

He’s also asked his team and managers at work to download the app and work to compost themselves they share pictures when they do to motivate each other, he said. And he’s considering speaking with the elementary school down his street to see if they compost, and asked his daughters to ask their high school about taking action on food waste.

A photo of some of Walter Avelar's family's food waste. They're all now experts at separating their food waste from the trash.

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“The reason no one’s doing it is because no one’s educated,” Avelar said. “I did not even know California had a law for you to start doing that. It's just talking about it, encouraging it, and you have to lead by example as well.”

There’s research that supports that when a neighbor takes an action, the trend catches on — for example, a 2020 study found that for every 100 Southland homes that converted their lawns to drought-tolerant landscapes using a rebate from the Metropolitan Water District, an additional 132 nearby homes were inspired to convert their own grass as well.

The app provides an alert about how many other people in his neighborhood are participating in separating food waste from the trash. Avelar said he just wishes the impact calculator — which currently uses an average calculated through the Environmental Protection Agency’s waste reduction model — was more specific to the amount of food waste he’s actually separating. Turk said the team is working on developing a more pound-for-pound translation so users can know exactly how much they’re diverting from the landfill.

Much of L.A.'s food waste will end up at Recology, a composting facility just outside Bakersfield.

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Avelar said he’s always cared about the environment, but hadn’t ever had the time or knowledge to take action, until he got on the app.

“I work a lot, but it’s about making a commitment to yourself, to my family, and just being educated,” Avelar said. “There's so much food that we throw away and I did not know that it creates gasses and it affects animals, it affects us, it affects everyone. And if we don't stop, I mean, I can't even imagine what's going to happen in 50, 60 years, or even when my girls have kids.”

Even his mother-in-law, who’s visiting from Panama, is fully on board now, Avelar said.

“Now, I come home after work and there's already a bag [with the separated food waste],” Avelar said. “It’s amazing. And all we did was talk about it. So I'm sure she's going to be taking it back to Panama.”

It's 1,000 days out until the Paralympic Games come to Los Angeles, and organizers have released a preview of the competition schedule.

The opening ceremony for the Games will take place at SoFi Stadium on Aug. 15, and the closing ceremony will be at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum on Aug. 27. That's according to a first look published by private Olympic organizing committee LA28 on its website, which lays out the days for which each sporting event is tentatively scheduled.

It's the third time L.A. is hosting the Olympics, but the city's first Paralympic Games. Athletes will compete in 23 sports across a span of about two weeks. The Paralympics will follow the Olympic Games, which will take place in July.

The Paralympic schedule provides a sketch of the excitement ahead for the summer of 2028.

The day after the Opening Ceremony, the first medals will be awarded for para athletics, wheelchair fencing, shooting para sport, para equestrian and para cycling track. Wheelchair rugby and boccia competition will start before the Games officially begin, starting a couple days ahead of the opening ceremony.

Blind football, wheelchair football, sitting volleyball and more sports will close out the summer of Olympic competition in Los Angeles, ahead of the closing ceremony.

The Los Angeles Paralympics also will welcome a new sport to the games: para climbing.

You can find the first look at the Paralympic schedule here. A more detailed schedule will come out next year.

Here’s a look at the Olympic schedule.

An ongoing dispute over maintenance of parts of the system that powers the LAX Automated People Mover could be the reason the long-awaited train won’t open until next summer, or even later, according to public documents reviewed by LAist.

The current dispute adds to a long series of disagreements between the city and LINXS, the group of companies contracted to design, build and operate the train, that have led to the ongoing saga of delays, hundreds of millions in cost overruns and diminishing public confidence that there’ll ever be a rail-only connection to LAX.

An L.A. County Civil Grand Jury report released earlier this year claimed that LINXS has used the dispute resolution process and “political pressures” to force contract extensions and additional compensation throughout the design and construction process.

In October, LAist reported about how the train’s estimated completion date moved from early 2026 to next summer. The dispute detailed in the public documents offers a more specific reason for the delay, which was previously opaque.

Dispute over metering cabinet equipment

In February, staff from city agencies directed LINXS to repair faulty equipment in a metering cabinet, according to a summary of the dispute and findings by a third-party evaluator. While the type of equipment isn’t specified, it’s likely related to measuring the power distributed throughout the system.

Power was partially shut down during the period of repair work, which lasted until July 2025.

That power shut-off delayed critical testing of the technology that allows for central control of the train’s systems, according to the third-party evaluator.

The third-party evaluator’s report said LINXS argued it was not required by contract to perform the repair work and is entitled to a schedule extension and compensation. The third-party evaluator, whose recommendations are not legally binding, agreed with LINXS’ position.

Los Angeles World Airports, the agency that manages LAX and the Van Nuys Airport, did not participate in an August hearing regarding the dispute, the third-party evaluator’s findings said.

The agency “rejected” the third-party evaluator’s conclusions, according to a November report from a management consulting firm retained by project lenders to monitor project progress.

What happens next?

According to the project contract, if a dispute remains unresolved after inquiring with the third-party evaluator, the next step is for LINXS to file a claim under a section of state law that governs complaints against public entities.

A section on the California Tort Claims Act on the Sacramento County Public Law Library website notes that the claim is a required precursor to any civil action.

“Filing a claim gives the agency the opportunity to settle the claim before a lawsuit is filed and to investigate the claim so that it can properly defend itself, or to correct the conditions or practices that led to the claim,” the website states.

The management consulting firm’s November report notes that LINXS “formally submitted” a claim on Oct. 21, triggering a 60-day period for the city to “respond to the claim and sets out the basis for the LINXS entitlements to relief.”

“Submission of [the] claim was explicitly requested by [Los Angeles World Airports] as a precursor to negotiation,” the report continues.

The status of the Automated People Mover

In a statement, Los Angeles World Airports said it’s not "unusual" to see "contractual disputes" on large capital projects like the Automated People Mover and that the train is still on schedule to open to the public next summer.

“LINXS continues to assure us the train will be ready for the FIFA World Cup, but we have back up plans in place to ensure an outstanding experience for all fans who visit Los Angeles,” the statement added. “[Los Angeles World Airports] does not comment on pending legal matters.”

Construction on the project is nearly complete, and most of the current work is focused on testing and ensuring all the parts of the system work together.

In November, Fluor, one of the companies that makes up LINXS, reported to investors that they can expect the Automated People Mover to “reach substantial completion over [the] next 3 quarters.”

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which was also named in the documents about the dispute, declined to comment.

LAist also reached out to LINXS and the companies that make up the group, but did not receive any response.

The management consulting firm also did not respond to emails requesting an interview.

Once spanning parts of the Inland Empire and the outskirts of the Coachella Valley, the newly redrawn U.S. Congressional District 41 will be uniquely different.

When voters approved Proposition 50 in November, it allowed California to use new congressional maps drawn by Democratic state officials to elect members of Congress from 2026 through 2030. Before this, maps were drawn by the state’s independent redistricting commission.

The maps — which state Republicans are trying to block — are expected to benefit Democrats.

Shortly after Election Day, California Republicans announced they were challenging Prop. 50 in federal court, arguing the new district maps favor Latinos at the expense of other groups in violation of the Constitution. The federal Department of Justice filed last week to join the lawsuit. A similar legal battle playing out in Texas — where congressional maps were redrawn to favor Republicans — saw the new maps blocked Tuesday by a federal court.

At the moment, Prop. 50 is going forward in California, and the new maps put the previously safely Republican 41st Congressional District in Riverside County in a now primarily blue district in L.A. County and even a small portion of Orange County.

“There's a lot of changes and some musical chairs that are happening,” Jodi Balma, political science professor at Fullerton College, told LAist. “Your house hasn't moved, but your congressional district boundary has moved around you, and so you might be interested to know who is likely to represent you at the end of the 2026 elections.”

Here’s how the chairs have shifted and why it matters in this corner of Southern California.

Why is the race for District 41 unique? 

Balma said District 41 is unlike many other California districts in the wake of Prop. 50.

“The others, you could kind of understand how the borders changed and some segment of the district remained the same,” Balma said. “But this one just wholesale was picked up from the Inland Empire and moved to Los Angeles, and it's a completely new district.”

The new district brings together residents who might have different lived experiences and cultural backgrounds, said Sara Sadhwani, assistant professor of politics at Pomona College.

“This district is substantively and geographically quite different from that, so you certainly can't compare 41 from before to 41 today,” Sadhwani said. “We have seen an incredible amount of growth throughout the Inland Empire, and notably, many Latino and Black communities moving into the Inland Empire, and with them brings a different kind of politics.”

While those communities might lean Democratic, she added, they have varied interests.

“For whoever wants to run in District 41, or any of the districts representing the Inland Empire, I think that those are some of the dynamics that they will need to be attuned to in order to earn those voters' votes,” Sadhwani said.

What are the big changes?

In the original map, District 41 stretched from Norco to Palm Desert. It included Lake Elsinore, Menifee, Palm Desert and La Quinta. Census data show that the congressional district originally was made up of 56% white, 30% Latino, 7% Asian and 6% Black voters. Before the passing of Prop. 50, District 41 was represented by Republican Congressman Ken Calvert for more than 30 years. Calvert now is running for the newly drawn 40th District.

The original District 41 has been sliced into several congressional districts. Norco and part of Corona now are included in the new District 35; Menifee and Lake Elsinore are in District 40; and Palm Springs and La Quinta are split into separate districts.

Whereas Prop. 50 made some slight regional changes to certain districts in Southern California, the newly redrawn District 41 encompasses completely different counties — including parts of L.A. and Orange counties.

District 41 now includes Whittier, Downey, La Habra and Los Alamitos. More than half the voters in the newly redrawn area are Latino, 28% are white, 11% are Asian and 5% are Black, according to state Census data.

Who could represent the new District 41? 

Rep. Linda Sánchez, currently representing the 38th District, announced her run for the newly redrawn 41st. Sánchez could have chosen to run in either the new District 38 — which includes Bell, Diamond Bar, Rowland Heights and part of Yorba Linda — but chose the new District 41 instead.

“After Proposition 50 passed and split my current district, deciding where to run was an emotional but ultimately an easy choice — I chose home,” Sánchez said in a statement. “Boundaries may change, but my commitment to fighting for the people I love will never waver.”

There are 80 House seats up for grabs in the California primary election, as well as 20 Senate seats. More than half of those are in Southern California.

No one else has announced their candidacy for District 41 yet, but that could change. The deadline to decide to run in the June primary is March 6. Here’s an election schedule.

The California Science Center unveiled Tuesday the first of many launch vehicles, engines and other artifacts set to be installed in the museum’s 200,000-square-foot expansion coming to Exposition Park.

Once complete, the new Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center will include multi-level galleries built around a towering centerpiece — the space shuttle Endeavour — displayed in its 20-story vertical launch position.

It’ll be the only place in the world where visitors can see an authentic space shuttle in its “Go for Stack” position, which is what museum officials called the process of moving each of the space shuttle components into place.

Museum admission will be free.

Jeff Rudolph, president and CEO of the California Science Center, said the $450 million expansion is California’s biggest “endeavor” yet to inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers and explorers.

“The enthusiasm that people have when they come in and see this stuff and get excited about it will hopefully lead to many more people, young and old, but particularly young people wanting to pursue more education in science,” Rudolph told LAist.

Museum officials expect to announce next year an opening date, according to Rudolph.

A look inside the center

The Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center will feature three main galleries: the Samuel Oschin Shuttle Gallery, the Korean Air Aviation Gallery and the Kent Kresa Space Gallery.

Guests will be guided through hundreds of exhibits and authentic artifacts focused on the exploration of the universe — including rocket ships that carried humans into space and telescopes used to view stars and galaxies beyond our reach.

A real Electron launch vehicle from Rocket Lab in Long Beach spans several stories tall in the Kent Kresa Space Gallery.

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The first artifacts in the expanded museum were placed in the Kenta Kresa Space Gallery, including a three-story-tall Electron launch vehicle from Rocket Lab in Long Beach.

Adam Spice, chief financial officer of Rocket Lab, told LAist the Electron helped lower the cost of getting to space by sending satellites in smaller, cheaper rockets. The new center is an opportunity to get up close and personal with an Electron for the first time outside of a factory.

Spice said he hopes it’ll show visitors their dreams can become a reality.

“They can be part of something much bigger than probably they ever thought they could,” he said.

The first artifacts installed in the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center include a solid rocket booster segment. Kenneth Phillips, aerospace curator, shows the scale of the piece, which has flown into space several times.

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The solid rocket booster segment will become a walk-through interactive experience in the Kent Kresa Space Gallery.

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A segment of a solid rocket booster that flew into space several times is laid on its side on the second floor of the gallery.

Kenneth Phillips, the California Science Center’s aerospace curator, told LAist it’ll be turned into an interactive exhibit with audio, video and educational graphics.

“It's 12 feet in diameter, so people can actually walk through it and learn about the function of it from the inside out literally,” Phillips said.

Visitors will be able to get up close and personal with a space shuttle main engine.

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A detailed model of a space shuttle main engine is set up next to the solid rocket booster. Three of those main engines helped boost space shuttles into orbit by providing about 20% of their power, Phillips said.

What's next

Construction of the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center started more than three years ago and is on track to be completed in the coming weeks, according to museum officials.

With construction of the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center weeks away from completion, crews have started to put in landscaping around the outside of the expansion.

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The exterior of the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center as of Tuesday.

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The remaining exhibits and artifacts will then be installed over "many months," Rudolph said. Officials expect to announce next year an opening date for the expansion.

The California Science Center also is looking to raise about $70 million more for the $450 million project before it opens. You can learn more about its “EndeavourLA” fundraising campaign here.

Catch up on our coverage ...

• Last chance to see the Endeavour before the space shuttle is taken off public display indefinitely
• Another major milestone for the space shuttle Endeavour’s 'Go For Stack' mission is here
• The final lift for space shuttle Endeavour’s 'Go For Stack' mission
• The Endeavour’s new home is more than halfway done. Here’s a first look at the exhibits
• The Endeavour space shuttle’s new home is inching closer to completion