The Brief

A judge on Friday set a long-awaited resentencing hearing that could lead to Erik and Lyle Menendez being released from prison. The move came after their attorneys withdrew a motion to recuse the district attorney from the case.

The resentencing hearing, which is now scheduled to start May 13, could go at least two days.

The backstory

The Menendez brothers were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the 1989 shotgun murders of their parents in their Beverly Hills home.

In arguing that they be resentenced and released, their attorney Mark Geragos says they’ve been rehabilitated and pose no risk to society.

Nathan Hochman, the newly-elected Los Angeles County district attorney, disagrees.

Recusal request

Hochman personally appeared during the hearing to argue against a motion by Geragos that his office be recused from the case — a motion that was later withdrawn.

Hochman also asked the judge to reverse himself and allow the District Attorney’s Office to withdraw the resentencing motion, originally filed by Hochman’s predecessor George Gascón.

The judge denied Hochman’s request.

Confidential report

Hochman also sought to convince the judge to allow prosecutors to use a comprehensive risk assessment during next week’s hearing. The assessment, produced for the parole board, says the Menendez brothers pose a moderate risk to society. Other reports place them at a low risk.

The judge will decide that issue during the hearing.

Renewed interest

The Menendez brothers’ case has drawn renewed interest after the recent release of a Netflix documentary and dramatic series.

Erik Menendez is now 54 years old. Lyle Menendez is 57. They were 18 and 21, respectively, when they committed the murders.

Sexual abuse

Geragos also claims there’s new evidence the brothers' father, Jose Menendez, sexually abused them. The brothers have long claimed, including in court, that they killed their father and mother after years of abuse.

Prosecutors argued their motive was greed — that they wanted early access to their inheritance.

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Friends & Family Flea is returning to Koreatown. Organizers plan to make the flea market a monthly event in the neighborhood and offer reduced registration fees for local vendors.

The market will take place on Nov. 21 and Dec. 12 from noon to 5 p.m. at Un-Other Space at 524 S. Western Ave.

The first market was held in September and drew more people to the space than organizers expected. Friends & Family Flea co-founder Kioh Park said more than 400 people RSVP’d but roughly 650 to 700 people attended.

Some attendees told Park they lived just a few blocks away and had learned about the market through social media or The LA Local’s coverage.

The response convinced the organizers to continue. 

“It was a trial, but definitely we saw the demand from the vendors and attendees,” Park said. “That’s why we want to keep pushing this.”

Organizers plan to invite back vendors from the first market while bringing in new vendors.

They plan to keep the market at Un-Other Space as vendors and attendees responded well to the indoor venue, Park said. 

Attendees play Go-Stop with the LA Hwatu-Hanafuda Club at the first Friends & Family Flea in Koreatown on Sept. 26, 2026.

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Courtesy of Friends & Family Flea

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The organizers are also trying to make the market more accessible to neighborhood businesses. Vendors based in Koreatown can qualify for a reduced registration fee by providing proof of their address, such as a driver’s license or mailing address. Vendors from outside the neighborhood pay a different rate.

“Just so we can have more people who live in that neighborhood and then who do small business there join,” Park said.

The resident-rate program is part of their broader goal of building markets around individual neighborhoods, Park added. 

The flea grew out of Park and Byun’s experience building MAUM Market, a traveling market for Asian and Asian American makers. Park, who grew up in South Korea, first visited Los Angeles in 2016 and later moved to Koreatown, where the two met and developed their business.

“L.A. Koreatown was really, it was really kind of a shock. It feels like a late 1980s, early 1990s, Korea vibe. So it reminds me of my childhood. And there’s a lot of mom and pop shops, so it was really an interesting experience for me,” he said.

Park said he had struggled to apply to established flea markets as a vendor because of language barriers and complicated paperwork.

“Back in the day, I didn’t speak English well, I wasn’t able to understand English well, and the process, paperwork was all very complicated,” he said.

Park said organizers plan to continue their partnership with the Koreatown Youth and Community Center, with proceeds from sales of Friends & Family Flea hats going to the nonprofit.

For more information about becoming a vendor, check out the Friends and Family Flea webpage.

An Orange County judge has approved a $125 million settlement with the company that owns a chemical tank in Garden Grove that failed earlier this year, forcing about 50,000 nearby residents to evacuate for days as the tank threatened to explode.

The agreement between the Orange County District Attorney and GKN Aerospace sets aside up to $100 million for a claim program for residents and businesses who were forced to evacuate.

What’s covered in the claim program?

Those affected can be reimbursed for expenses like hotel stays and loss of wages. That includes:

• Up to $300 a night for lodging, up to five nights
• A $500 payment per household for the loss of using their home
• Up to $500 per day in lost wages for hourly employees who missed work due to the evacuation, up to three working days
• Up to $5,000 per day in lost profits for businesses that had to close during the evacuation

An additional $8.5 million will be used to reimburse government agencies that responded to the emergency.

The company has agreed to a safety plan, which includes new equipment and upgrades to existing equipment, and monitoring and oversight for at least the next seven years.

What’s next?

GKN says it will hold a community event on Oct. 27 so residents can learn about the claim program, though details about the event haven’t yet been released.

The company says now that the agreement has been court-approved, the claim program will open “as soon as possible.” To prepare, GKN said residents should keep receipts related to their expenses during their evacuation.

"Additional guidance on acceptable documentation will be provided when the program opens," according to a company FAQ site.

Police in Santa Ana are investigating the theft of trading cards worth at least $963,000 that were taken from a FedEx truck parked outside of a company that verifies memorabilia.

The truck was broken into on Oct. 13 near Professional Sports Authenticator, also known as PSA, which authenticates trading cards, autographs, comic books, and other memorabilia and grades their condition, Santa Ana Police Department spokesperson Natalie Garcia said in a news release. Pokémon and sports cards were among the items that were stolen, the release said.

The driver had left the truck unattended, Garcia said in a follow-up email Tuesday. How long the driver was gone is part of the investigation, she said.

The truck’s lock was gone and two pallets were taken, she said. A third pallet was disturbed.

“The estimated value of the stolen cards at the time of the incident was $963,000. However, the exact value of the stolen items has not yet been determined,” Garcia said in the news release.

Nick Andrews, a card collector near Boston, told The Associated Press the value of what was taken could be much higher.

PSA’s parent company, Collectors, said it has “deactivated the certificates for the stolen cards and notified marketplace partners so they can be on the lookout for rare and serialized items.”

The company also said it contacted affected customers directly and arranged for compensation based on fair market value.

Both FedEx and Collectors said they are working with law enforcement.

“The security of our customers’ shipments is a top priority,” FedEx spokesperson David Westrick said in a statement.

FedEx referred additional questions to police.

Some people who identified themselves as customers posted online that they got an email from PSA explaining what happened to their cards. They were worried they would never see them again or receive proper compensation.

Andrews, who collects vintage sports and Pokémon cards, told the AP in a phone interview that he was not affected by the theft but has heard from at least two dozen people who were.

“Thousands of cards, most likely, and millions of dollars, most likely,” he said of the losses collectors suffered.

He said one person who submitted cards for grading on behalf of several people told him that they lost half a million dollars in declared value.

PSA’s parent company did not get into specifics on losses in its statement.

“We understand the impact this has on collectors involved, many of whom see these cards as far more than a financial asset,” the statement from Collectors said. “Our team is focused on supporting them. We take this incident seriously, and we will continue working with law enforcement to hold those responsible accountable.”