The Brief

The last time there was proof of a mountain lion roaming the Verdugo Mountains was in 2018, when P-55, also known as Adonis, was captured by hidden wildlife cameras.

It was a big deal then, because the Verdugo Mountains had lost another male cougar in 2017. Biologists at the time were hopeful that Adonis would mate with a known female in the area called Nikita. When Adonis left the area, Nikita stopped appearing on the cameras.

But last December, a handsome male cougar was captured by the camera of wildlife photographer Johanna Turner.

Local residents of the Verdugo Mountains call him the La Tuna Puma whom wildlife photographer Johanna Turner captured on camera last year.

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Courtesy Johanna Turner

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Turner is a consultant with the Cougar Conservancy and she’s been documenting the movement of Southern California’s mountain lions in the Verdugo Mountains since 2011.

“It has, you know, several canyons with year-round water sources and lots of deer and no competition,” said Turner. Residents share the mountain space with native species and the area attracts avid hikers who enjoy exploring the shrubbery.

For Turner, seeing another puma wander the Verdugos is exciting.

“As long as he doesn't bother people, he should settle in really nicely.”

Right now, the mountain lion’s main threat is Canyon Hills — a 221-luxury home development slated to be built in the heart of his territory.

The trajectory of the Canyon Hills project spans 20 years, dating back to its approval in 2005.

At the time, local environmental activists and community members opposed the project that’s set to rise on both sides of the 210 Freeway in Sunland-Tujunga.

Resistance has resurfaced now that the project’s developer, Nevada based Whitebird Inc, has applied for a grading permit to begin shaving off 80 feet of ridgelines.

When Emma Kemp, a Tujunga resident, heard about the grading permit, she reached out to local wildlife advocates, botanists and Gabrielino/Tongva and Fernandeño Tataviam tribe members to mobilize their efforts to stop the development project. She formed the community group No Canyon Hills and started a petition to request a second environmental impact report (EIR) that, as of now, has over 170,000 signatures. 

“This is an opportunity to press pause and reevaluate before we further fragment the habitat here,” said Kemp.

Emma Kemp, a Sunland-Tujunga resident and co-founder of No Canyon Hills, bends down to smell fresh buckwheat in the Verdugos.

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Gillian Morán Pérez

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LAist

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The argument

Approval for the project was based on an EIR approved in 2004.

The No Canyon Hills group and other wildlife advocates are demanding the city intervene and request another EIR. But Whitebird Inc. attorney Jack Rubens stands by the city’s decision made years ago.

“A second EIR cannot be required for the Canyon Hills Project because it's fully entitled and doesn't require any further discretionary approval,” Rubens said.

And there’s another issue that No Canyon Hills says underscores the need for a new EIR. The proposed development stands in a Very High Fire Severity Zone, according to the city of Los Angeles Fire Protection Bureau.

The area has seen multiple wildfires in the past, the latest being the La Tuna Fire in 2017 which destroyed five homes and charred 7,200 acres of land. To this day, the surviving scraps of burnt trees and bushes remain.

A charred tree in the middle of the Verdugos.

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Courtesy Rio Asch Phoenix

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Rubens says that if anything, the development will help mitigate wildfire risk.

“It will provide a new southern evacuation route for those residents to La Tuna Canyon Road in the 210 Freeway and include a new 1 million-gallon water tank close to the existing neighborhoods.”

Rubens adds the road will give firefighters better access to the hillside once the road system is constructed.

The city’s role in the project

Dean Wallraff is an attorney working with No Canyon Hills and the executive director of Advocates for the Environment. He was part of the original effort to stop the Canyon Hills development when it first came to city council back in 2003.

Wallraff sent a letter to the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety, the Los Angeles City Planning Department, and Councilmember Monica Rodriguez’s office arguing that the grading permit would be discretionary and would trigger further review from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

Per CEQA guidelines, a project is deemed discretionary if it requires a public agency or body, like a city council, to exercise its judgment and approve or disapprove the project.

Kemp met with Rodriguez in April to discuss the Canyon Hills project, but Rodriguez said her hands are tied.

Here’s what she said in a recent statement to LAist:

We asked City Planning if the grading permit requires discretion and their response was — no.

Instead, the permit is deemed ministerial. That means “a governmental decision involving little or no personal judgment by the public official as to the wisdom or manner of carrying out the project.” In short, a public official can’t use their personal, subjective judgment to carry out a decision on the project.

What’s at stake

A stream of water flowing through the Verdugos.

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Courtesy Rio Asch Phoenix

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“This is one of the only one of the few recreation areas for the city of Los Angeles,” said Lydia Grant, president of the Sunland-Tujunga Neighborhood Council.

The Verdugos are rich with native species including the crotch bumblebee which is listed as federally endangered under the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service. Having lost 70% of its habitat over the years, the bumblebee is also listed by the state as a Species of Greatest Conservation Need.

A trek into the Verdugo Mountains will lead you to other native fauna, like the Hollyleaf Cherry tree, which amateur botanist Haley Hopkins says is a keystone species. It provides food and habitat to other creatures. One of the oldest Hollyleaf Cherry trees stands on the proposed site of Canyon Hills.

“It's like this ripple effect because then there's gonna be less bugs around because they're not gonna have as much food. And then that's gonna hit your birds next, and then your small mammals, and then …that means apex predators,” says Hopkins. The La Tuna Puma is a critical apex predator.

The bush poppy, a plant known as a fire follower that sprouts in areas that went through wildfires.

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Courtesy of No Canyon Hills

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LAist

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Devlin Gandy, a conservationist, says that the Verdugo Mountains function as a “completely viable wildlife habitat and corridor in a ring perspective that encircles a suburban sprawl” connecting the Tujunga wash to the Hahamonga Watershed near the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

When the final EIR came out in 2004, it did not detect any mountain lions throughout the area. It described the potential for wildlife using the pathway between the Tujunga Wash and the Verdugo Mountains as “tenuous at best” and that ultimately, the proposed development would not affect that connection.

But that was then, and this is now say local wildlife advocates, and there’s plenty of cougar scat to show that they do pass through the area.

To that point, Rubens says that Whitebird has already taken measures to address wildlife movement.

“Whitebird revisited this issue with Caltrans in connection with an approval that was required for the project and agreed to construct two wildlife friendly fences between the freeway."

The southern edge of the project provides an additional potential movement path for the mountain lion, even though it's an unlikely path due to its proximity to noise and light from freeway vehicles,” said Rubens.

A screenshot of the developer Whitebird Inc's proposed Wildlife Movement Path that would create a fence around the housing development

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Courtesy No Canyon Hills

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Elephant Hill serves as inspiration

Doug Carstens, another environmental attorney helping No Canyon Hills, recalls a similar battle that started in 1984 and ended in 2007 — the fight to save Elephant Hill.

Residents in El Sereno mobilized to save Elephant Hill, one of the few parks in the area filled with walnut groves.

In 2004, the L.A. City Council at the time approved a 24-lot development that was proposed in 1984 but locals found out that the developer expanded that to 56 lots without further review. The community partnered with Carstens' law firm to contest the development.

It wasn’t until 2007 when former Councilmember Jose Huizar persuaded the council to withhold issuing a building permit until another EIR was submitted by the developer. The developer sued, but in the end, the city council purchased the land, declaring victory for locals.

While the Elephant Hill case was different, Carstens says that that story serves a purpose.

“I think it's at the heart of this, which is, can you do further environmental review and are you legally required to when an approval, you know, was granted at a certain level, so many years ago,” said Carstens.

'We're all connected to it'

In a recent conversation between No Canyon Hills and the developer, the developer said they would consider selling the land — for upwards of $10 million.

Kemp says that’s a huge deal for their fight and they are courting philanthropic foundations and local conservancy groups to save this portion of the Verdugos.

At a community meeting in early June, supporters of No Canyon Hills gathered to hear about the project's status. Supporters filled the pews of the Church of Verdugos and their chatter electrified the air.

Community members gather at the visioning event hosted by No Canyon Hills.

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Gillian Morán Pérez

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Kemp called it a “visioning event” where people could come together and share ideas.

Nathan Nuñez, a Gabrielino Indigenous cultural keeper, said that it’s important to save the cultural resources, the plants, the animals, the land saying, “we're all connected to it.”

Jen Ho, a La Crescenta resident, left her house for the first time in five months after having her baby to attend the meeting.

“I'm really committed to protecting the land for future generations on top of wishing this land be kept intact for wildlife and plants. I would love for this people-led movement to become a pivotal changing point in how L.A. city governs."

The newest Air Force One jet, gifted to President Donald Trump from the Qatari government, arrived ahead of schedule Friday to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.

On Friday afternoon, Trump toured the luxury Boeing 747 plane that initially stirred controversy. The plane was one of the biggest foreign gifts ever received by the U.S. government and raised legal and ethical questions after Qatar offered to replace the presidential jet last year. Trump said last May he'd be "stupid" not to accept the offer. Industry groups originally said the plane could be worth approximately $400 million.

Trump also spoke standing in front of the plane, thanking the Emir of Qatar.

The president praised the workmanship of the plane, describing it as the "world's most luxurious plane." He also called it the "largest Air Force One ever built," adding, "It flies further and faster than any Air Force One."

"This plane was transformed into a flying White House at a level of luxury that nobody's ever seen before, probably even almost outside of an airplane," Trump said. "Nobody's ever seen anything like this, and in only 10 months, a timeframe no one thought possible."

The exterior of the jet is no longer light blue, silver and white — a fixture since the Kennedy administration. Trump unveiled the new red, white and blue color scheme.

"It was time for a change. … Everything was designed good. It was my taste," Trump said, saying that he approved the new color scheme, which reflects the American flag.

The VC-25B Bridge aircraft will now undertake its commissioning flights, what the Air Force calls a "final exam" for the plane. The plane was modified after serving the Qatari Head of State.

"Once these flights are successfully completed, the aircraft is officially 'commissioned' into the active executive airlift fleet and becomes available for presidential missions," an Air Force press release said.

The aircraft from Qatar will "serve as a bridge until the [long-term] VC-25B is delivered," according to earlier communications from the Air Force. The plane was delivered well before expectations. The Air Force originally estimated the plane would be delivered in 2028 but said by modifying requirements it could deliver the first aircraft in 2027. The modifications "were carefully crafted to prioritize mission over aesthetics, leaving much of the previous head of state interior layout minimally changed," the Air Force said.

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ken Wilsbach praised the delivery.

"Many thought it could not be done, but the United States Air Force was able to execute and provide a secure, reliable airborne command post on an accelerated timeline," he said.

Vice President JD Vance has delayed his trip to Switzerland to negotiate the terms of a peace agreement with Iran on Friday.

It's unclear exactly why the talks were called off at the last minute, with hundreds of journalists already waiting in the alpine city of Lucerne.

But the delay raises questions over the sturdiness of the memorandum of understanding to end the war, signed by President Donald Trump on Wednesday.

It came as Israel continued to heavily bombard Lebanon, despite the agreement promising to end all military operations, including in Lebanon.

Lebanese media said at least 18 were killed in overnight strikes, and Israel said four of its soldiers had been killed in fighting in southern Lebanon.

Here are more details about the agreement and challenges they face in this latest effort to end the conflict:

US lifts naval blockade

There was immediate progress after the preliminary agreement to end the three-and-half month conflict that has killed thousands of people across the Middle East, rocked the global economy and pushed millions more into poverty around the world, according to the United Nations.

The United States lifted its naval blockade on Iran.

The short memorandum of understanding also promises to end military operations on all fronts and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial waterway through which much of the world's oil, gas and fertilizer must pass to reach global markets.

The agreement prompted President Trump to celebrate on Truth Social writing: "Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!"

But there are still many potential pitfalls. Even before the agreement was signed, Trump made its fragility clear: "It's a memorandum of understanding," he said at the G7 summit in France. "If I don't like it, if they don't behave, we'll go right back to dropping bombs right smack in the middle of their head."

The document doesn't solve the underlying reason for why the United States and Israel went to war with Iran. It creates a 60-day window — extendable by mutual agreement — for the two sides to resolve the enmity that goes back many decades.

Israel remains defiant against the deal

The preliminary agreement promises to end all military operations, including in Lebanon. Israel has invaded and taken large swaths of southern Lebanon in an offensive it says is targeting the Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah, which has killed more than 3,800 people, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has made clear that Iran considers Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon essential. "Without the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the territories they occupied during this war, the war has not fully come to an end," Araghchi said.

Israel wasn't involved in the negotiations with Iran — though Trump said at a press conference this week that he had sent Israel a copy of the document before he signed it. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has remained defiant, saying his troops will remain in southern Lebanon for as long as Israel's security requires it.

The conflict in Lebanon is causing an extraordinarily open rift between Trump and Netanyahu. "He's a very difficult guy," Trump said of the Israeli prime minister recently said to The New York Times.

On Thursday, Israel's military released a new map ⁠showing an expanded area of southern Lebanon occupied by its troops, which it describes as a buffer zone.

"Trump's agreement does not bind us," Israel's far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, wrote on social media on Monday. "We are not partners to this agreement that does not ensure our security."

Vice President Vance hit back at critics in the Israeli government, warning at a press conference that "Donald J. Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time."

Trump signed the deal to avoid 'economic catastrophe'

The agreement promises "the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts" — including in Lebanon, where Israel has continued its offensive. Iran and the United States also promise "not to initiate" any further war or operation against each other. Not long after Trump signed the memorandum, U.S. Central Command said Thursday it had ended its naval blockade of ships to and from Iranian ports, as promised in the agreement.

Iranian state media reported the country's national security council will suspend tolls paid by ships for 60 days, per the deal, but that ships must still request Iran's permission — through a newly established Persian Gulf Strait Authority, before passing through the Strait of Hormuz, which was once considered an international waterway.

Increased ship traffic through the strait will come as a relief to Trump, whose approval ratings have been sliding as Americans see soaring gasoline prices and spiking inflation. Last month Trump insisted he doesn't think about Americans' financial situation in his approach to Iran.

But this week he acknowledged at a news conference that he had signed this agreement because he "didn't want to see an economic catastrophe."

The memorandum gives major concessions to Iran

Trump has repeatedly called the Iran nuclear deal — formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — presided over by President Barack Obama in 2015 the "worst deal ever," and Trump abandoned the agreement in his first term in office. But the framework agreement signed this week hands major financial concessions to Iran that could ultimately go much further than the Obama-era arrangement.

The document says the U.S. will work with regional partners to create a fund of "at least $300 billion" for Iran's reconstruction and economic development. Vice President Vance has said Gulf Arab nations would invest that amount.

It also promises that the U.S. will unfreeze Iranian funds and assets that amount potentially to tens of billions of dollars. Mohsen Rezaei, military adviser to Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, told CNN Iran wants to see the release of $24 billion.

These commitments do depend on further negotiations. But the Trump administration also plans to issue sanction waivers to allow Iran to immediately sell its oil. The waiver concedes a major point of potential leverage at the start of these 60-day talks.

And the interim deal also opens the door to ending all U.S. and international sanctions on Iran. Iran has been under a plethora of U.S. sanctions since the 1979 Revolution. The penalties have kept Iran cut off from the global economy, preventing it, for example, from accessing the international banking sector. This new pledge goes far beyond the JCPOA deal, which removed some sanctions in exchange for Iran reducing its stockpile of uranium.

The negotiation over Iran's nuclear program

President Trump has boasted he will achieve a much "better" agreement than the JCPOA. The substantive talks on this are yet to begin, but so far, the commitment Iran has made in the memorandum that it "shall not procure or develop nuclear weapons" is the same promise it has made for years, including in the 2015 nuclear accord.

The details of Iran's nuclear program are complex and technical. The JCPOA was negotiated over years by the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Russia and China, with nuclear physicists and non-proliferation experts, and ran to 159 pages. Trump's framework was negotiated bilaterally by Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner — a property developer and the president's son-in-law. An Iranian diplomat who spoke to NPR on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly told NPR they believed the last round of talks with the Trump administration did not progress because "the Americans at the table did not understand the subject."

The U.S. had been negotiating with Iran over its nuclear program before abruptly launching the bombing campaign with Israel on Tehran that began this war on Feb. 28. For this latest round of talks, Witkoff and Kushner visited the national lab in Oak Ridge, Tenn., earlier this month for consultations with a team of technical experts that could play a role in nuclear negotiations with Iran.

Has Iran come out of the war stronger?

Trump began the conflict promising to set conditions for regime change in Iran. "I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand," he told Iranians in a televised address on Feb. 28. "When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take."

It was a nightmare scenario for the Iranian regime, to face down the bombardment from two of the world's most powerful militaries. The war killed more than 3,300 Iranians, according to state media, including top leaders, and pounded the country's infrastructure and armed forces. But the regime's survival, and its ability to target U.S. assets in the region and control the Strait of Hormuz, empowered Iran.

The country has learned "that threatening the Strait of Hormuz works," Bill Cassidy, Republican senator from Louisiana, said in a blistering attack on the Trump administration. He called the offensive against Iran "the worst foreign policy blunder in decades."

Iran's response forced the Trump administration to set aside the goal of regime change to focus on seeking a way to reopen the vital strait.

"The only 'achievement' of the ceasefire is the likely reopening of the Strait of Hormuz — which was open before the war started. And we will apparently pay Iran to do so," Antony Blinken, who was secretary of state under former President Joe Biden, posted on X.

Trump has countered critics by saying on social media that anyone who thinks he hasn't "been tough enough on Iran," when the stock market is high and oil prices are falling, is either jealous, bad or stupid. And Vance called on critics to "have a little bit of faith in the president of the United States."

But in a hard accounting of the war, the facts are undeniable: Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz gave it the leverage to secure from Trump concessions that unlock vast sums of money — even more, potentially, than under Obama.

And regarding Iran's nuclear program, the Iranians so far appear not to have offered Trump any more concessions than they did at the Geneva talks two days before the U.S. and Israel launched their offensive in February.

Now new negotiations are set to begin, and the Iranians will be coming to the table having shown Trump, and the world, the power they can wield over the global economy.

The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has witnessed more than a century of American history, in all its heartbreak and majesty. Crowds have gathered around it in protest and in praise, to denounce American wars and hear great voices sing and speak.

Today, it's the center of a slimy controversy.

President Donald Trump said in April he found the water in the reflecting pool "filthy" and "disgusting." He authorized a no-bid contract to resurface the basin of the 2,000-foot long pool and paint it "American flag blue" in time for July 4th celebrations.

"I have a guy who's unbelievable at doing swimming pools," the president crowed, before the National Park Service gave out no-bid contracts for sealing and upgrades.

After weeks of renovation, the project has cost taxpayers more than $14 million and … the reflecting pool looks green. And I mean green. Like the Chicago River on St. Patrick's Day. But that river is dyed green for a day. The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is green because of algae.

Look, algae happens. It's clouded the reflecting pool since it was first filled in 1923. Algae blooms flourish when sunlight falls on warm, sluggish water — like you'd find in a shallow, still pool absorbing the glare and swelter of a Washington, D.C., summer.

But a University of Virginia satellite analysis commissioned by the Washington Post saw more algae in the Reflecting Pool this month than at any other time in the past five years.

The Interior Department says workers have deployed "a state-of-the-art ozone nanobubbler filtration system" to banish the algae.

"President Donald J. Trump is an expert builder who has fixed the reflecting pool for good," spokesperson Kate Martin said in a statement this week, "unlike the failed and extremely costly attempt by Obama and Biden."

That's a reference to a major project during President Barack Obama's first term to stop the pool from sinking and add a filtration system.

In these deeply divisive and partisan times, it's good to remind ourselves that many issues aren't just Republican red or Democratic blue. The Reflecting Pool algae doesn't care about our party lines. It's green, and it's not going anywhere.

Two smoke relief centers are now open for residents impacted by the Boyle Heights warehouse fire.

The centers in Boyle Heights and East L.A. offer resources such as masks, food, water, temporary shelter, pet assistance and information from public health and air quality officials. They’re open 24 hours a day until further notice.

The city’s Department of Recreation and Parks and Councilmember Ysabel Jurado’s office opened the Pecan Recreation Center as a smoke relief center Friday. A second center opened Saturday at City Terrace Park through the office of L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis. 

Here’s where they’re located: 

The fire broke out Wednesday, prompting an hours-long shelter-in-place order due to hazardous materials, including ammonia.

On Friday, a wind-driven flare-up at the site of the fire sent plumes of smoke over the city, hours after a second shelter-in-place order was lifted. Residents in the immediate area reported seeing ash on their homes and cars. On Saturday, many across Los Angeles County — from Pasadena to the West Adams neighborhood — also reported smelling smoke and experiencing poor air quality.

Two smoke relief centers are now open for residents impacted by the Boyle Heights warehouse fire.

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Courtesy City Terrace resident

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Jurado and her team were in the residential neighborhood near the fire site Friday, distributing air purifiers and masks. She said community groups, including Proyecto Pastoral, Running Mamis and Centro CSO, also went door to door distributing masks. 

Residents can contact Jurado’s office at Boyle Heights City Hall to request air purifiers and masks or to make donations at (323) 526-9332.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass spoke outside the building Friday evening, praising firefighters’ efforts. She added that people in the area could expect to continue to see smoke, and she urged people and their pets to stay inside as much as possible. She asked people to wear masks when they needed to go outside.

“We know that this is concerning. This is inconvenient, but we are doing everything we can to end this as soon as possible,” she said. “And we want everyone to be safe in the meantime.”

Read more:

• What materials burned in the fire and what to know about air quality
• How to keep yourself safe from the dismal air quality driven by fires

The post Smoke relief shelters open for residents impacted by Boyle Heights warehouse fire appeared first on LA Local.