The Brief

Lyle and Erik Menendez, who have spent more than three decades in prison for fatally shooting their parents in their Beverly Hills mansion, were resentenced on Tuesday, moving one step closer to potential freedom.

After a day-long hearing, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic reduced their sentences from life in prison without parole to 50 years to life. This makes them eligible for parole under California's youthful offender law because they committed the murders before they were 26.

The brothers were found guilty in 1996 of murdering their parents, Kitty and José Menendez, in 1989 — when Erik was 18 and Lyle was 21. The brothers maintained that the killings were in self-defense, saying they had been sexually abused by their father and feared for their lives.

While there has long been a small but vocal group of supporters defending the Menendez brothers, a Netflix documentary and docudrama brought renewed attention — and sympathy — to the brothers' case last year. Their defense has also claimed there is new evidence bolstering their sexual abuse claims.

In October 2024, then-Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón recommended the brothers be resentenced, citing the "complexities surrounding sexual violence" and their "continuous rehabilitative efforts during their incarceration." His successor, Nathan Hochman, who was elected a month later, disagrees — but his attempts to block the resentencing process have been unsuccessful.

All of that culminated in Tuesday's hearing, during which the brothers' lawyers argued that they no longer pose a risk to safety and several members of their extended family lobbied for a second chance.

The Menendez brothers, now in their 50s, attended via video from prison and addressed the judge directly — apologizing for killing their parents and for lying in the ensuing court proceedings.

Erik said there was no justification for his actions, which he called "criminal, selfish and cowardly." But he also said he had "come a long way on this path of redemption," adding, "I will not stop trying to make a difference."

Judge Michael Jesic cited the brothers' rehabilitation work on themselves and others — as well as supportive letters he had received from corrections officers — in his resentencing decision, LAist reports.

"I do believe they've done enough over the last 35 years that one day they should get that chance," Jesic said.

The brothers' fate now rests with state parole officials and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has the power to either veto or grant them clemency. According to the DA's office, the state parole board is already scheduled to hold a hearing on June 13 "as part of a separate bid by the brothers for parole."

In the meantime, here's a look at how the case got here — and what might happen next.

Who are the Menendez brothers? 

Lyle and Erik Menendez spent their early years in New Jersey. The family moved to the Los Angeles area in 1986 as their father, José — an immigrant from Cuba and successful RCA record executive — rose through the ranks of the entertainment industry.

They moved into a seven-bedroom mansion in Beverly Hills two years later. But the brothers say there was a dark undercurrent to their privileged lifestyle, alleging that their parents subjected them to years of emotional, physical and sexual abuse.

In August 1989, as José and Kitty Menendez were watching TV in their living room, the brothers walked inside and shot them to death with newly purchased 12-gauge shotguns. The brothers later called 911 and said their parents were killed by intruders.

Authorities initially suspected potential mafia involvement, due to the extreme nature of the crime scene and José's business connections. But they increasingly focused their attention on the brothers, who had embarked on a lavish spending spree in the days and weeks after the killings.

In early March 1990, Beverly Hills Police arrested Lyle in connection to his parents' murders. Erik, who was in Israel for a tennis tournament at the time, turned himself in days later.

Erik Menendez, left, and his brother, Lyle, sit in a Beverly Hills courtroom in 1992.

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What happened in court? 

The case captivated much of the country, in part because Court TV broadcast the brothers' 1993 trial live.

Defense lawyers for the brothers argued that they had acted in self-defense, with the brothers saying they feared their parents would kill them to silence stories about the alleged abuse. They alleged that José subjected them to physical and sexual abuse for years while Kitty — described as an unstable alcoholic who also abused them — let it happen.

Prosecutors, however, argued that the brothers were motivated by greed and money — their father's estate was worth nearly $15 million at the time of his death.

In that trial, each brother had his own jury. Both of them deadlocked, resulting in a mistrial.

In their second trial, the judge limited the amount of testimony and evidence presented about the brothers' claims of sexual abuse, a core pillar of the brothers' self-defense strategy.

That trial ended in 1996 with each brother convicted of first-degree murder. They were sentenced to two consecutive life prison terms without the possibility of parole.

What have the brothers done in prison?

The first 20 years of that prison sentence saw the brothers kept in separate prisons, but they have been housed in the same San Diego correctional facility since 2018.

The brothers' lawyers have described them as model prisoners who have given back to others.

Both brothers got married behind bars: Erik married his pen-pal-turned-wife Tammi in 1999, while Lyle married Rebecca Sneed in 2003. Sneed announced their separation in 2024 but said she remained "forever committed to the enduring fight for Lyle and Erik's freedom."

Lyle earned a sociology degree from the University of California, Irvine through a prison program.

Kim Kardashian — the reality star and criminal justice advocate — wrote in a 2024 essay that both brothers "have earned multiple college degrees, worked as caregivers for elderly incarcerated individuals in hospice, and been mentors in college programs." Those efforts include launching a beautification project in their San Diego prison.

Even as he lobbied against the brothers' release at Tuesday's hearing, calling them untrustworthy, Deputy District Attorney Habib Balian acknowledged that they had "done great things" in prison by starting and participating in rehabilitation programs for others, per LAist.

A combination of two booking photos provided by the California Department of Corrections shows Erik Menendez, left, and Lyle Menendez.

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What new evidence has emerged? 

Lawyers for the brothers filed a habeas corpus petition in May 2023, asking a judge to consider new evidence of their father's sexual abuse.

That evidence includes a letter Erik wrote in 1988 to his uncle Andy Cano, describing sexual abuse by his father. Their lawyers had not known of the letter before the brothers saw it mentioned in a 2015 Barbara Walters television special and asked about it, according to the Associated Press. The LAist reports it was only discovered after Cano's death.

Another piece of evidence comes from Roy Rossello, a former member of the Latin boy band Menudo — which was signed under RCA during José Menendez's tenure. He claimed in a 2023 docuseries that José had drugged and raped him in the 1980s, when he was a teenager.

The brothers' case reentered the spotlight the following year, not only because of the emerging evidence but because of new coverage: the true-crime drama Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story (which Erik has criticized) and The Menendez Brothers documentary both arrived on Netflix in the fall of 2024.

Weeks later, two dozen Menendez relatives gathered in Los Angeles to push for the brothers' resentencing.

Joan Andersen VanderMolen, Kitty Menendez's sister, told reporters the brothers "were failed by the very people who should have protected them."

"[In the 1990s] the world was not ready to believe boys could be raped … Today, we know better," she added. "It's time to give them the opportunity to live the rest of their lives free from the shadow of their past."

What happens next? 

The brothers are eligible for parole under California's youthful offender law, but are not guaranteed to walk free anytime soon.

The California Board of Parole Hearings is the body responsible for determining whether individuals are suitable for release. According to its handbook, that process typically involves a consultation, then an initial parole hearing.

If the panel denies parole, it must do so for a period of three, five, seven, 10, or 15 years — at which point the individual would get a subsequent parole hearing. Even if the panel does approve parole, that decision can be reviewed and vetoed by the governor, under California law.

The governor's parole review process can take up to 150 days after a parole hearing, according to Newsom's website. Newsom said in February that he had directed the state's parole board to investigate whether the Menendez brothers would pose an "unreasonable" public safety risk if released.

He said the findings would be presented to the district attorney and the judge presiding over the resentencing process — and stressed there is "no guarantee of outcome here."

"My office conducts dozens and dozens of these clemency reviews on a consistent basis but this process simply provides more transparency, which I think is important in this case, and more due diligence before I make any determination for clemency," Newsom said.

The Menendez brothers are already scheduled for a board hearing on June 13, related to a separate petition for clemency. It's not clear if that will also serve as their parole hearing.
Copyright 2025 NPR

Data center builders don’t tell the public how much water they use, according to a new report — and the industry is encroaching into water-stressed and vulnerable communities.

The report, by the think tank Next10 and researchers at Santa Clara University, finds that planned data centers — the ganglia of artificial intelligence — are spreading to regions reliant on overtapped groundwater and strained surface water, with potentially major effects in the Central and Imperial Valleys.

But, reinforcing previous studies, the researchers found that a patchwork of state, federal and local policies allows data center operators to avoid publicly disclosing their actual water use.

California lawmakers tried to address this last year, but California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed the measure. Now, the legislature is trying again, with bills mandating disclosures about water use and planning.

“We have this huge build out, and we have very little data,” said Irina Raicu, who directs the Internet Ethics program at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University.

Paired with California’s precarious water supplies, Raicu said, “It’s just not a good combination.”

Shaolei Ren, an expert on the environmental impacts of AI at UC Riverside who was not involved in the study, said the findings point to a much broader problem.

“Limited publicly available information about data center water use makes it difficult for communities, water providers and researchers to have meaningful public discussions and responsibly assess power-water trade-offs,” Ren said in an email.

Murky water use 

Few environmental impact reports for California’s data centers were publicly available online, the researchers found.

Raicu and co-author Iris Stewart-Frey, a professor of environmental science, went looking for the reports, meant to assess and disclose a project’s impacts for both nature and people under the landmark California Environmental Quality Act.

They found almost none. The ones they did find were largely for facilities in the city of Santa Clara.

Through interviews with planning officials, they discovered that projects can slip through with little environmental review if they fall under certain size or water use thresholds, or if they meet a city or county’s criteria for other approval pathways. These include something called ministerial approval, which requires planning agencies to approve a project that meets local zoning and other standards.

Even for data centers that undergo more stringent environmental scrutiny, the researchers found that documentation is rarely available to the public.

In the few cases the planning documents were posted publicly, the information — on the data center’s owner or operator, size, type of cooling system, the amount of water used, whether it’s recycled or potable — was often “missing, contradictory, or vague,” the report said.

The researchers said they contacted water providers in areas where data centers cluster, seeking usage data. None responded.

A shift to vulnerable regions

California’s data centers mostly cluster in the south San Francisco Bay Area and the city of Los Angeles, with smaller concentrations in Sacramento and San Diego.

But the report noted large, planned projects in rural and less affluent regions — like in Santa Clara County’s Gilroy, as well as in the heavily agricultural Imperial Valley.

“They need a bunch of cheap land,” Raicu. “If we’re not careful, they will end up being pitched, very convincingly, to communities that have real needs — without enough attention being paid to the water part.”

Khara Boender, director of state policy for the Data Center Coalition, which has opposed bills mandating more granular water-use reporting, said in an email the industry is “committed to being a good neighbor.”

Boender argues that data centers collectively “used significantly less water than other essential industries in 2025, including the agriculture, power, food and beverage, and semiconductor sectors,” but the coalition offers no data to back that up.

Collective use matters less than local impacts in a state where each community has its own mix of water supplies and strains, according to a previous study published by a team at UC Berkeley.

Whether data centers use a lot or a little water relative to agriculture or other industries, “what matters most is the scale of new local use compared to available local supply,” the Berkeley team concluded earlier this year. “Unfortunately, this picture is clouded by data deficiencies.”

In this week’s report, the Santa Clara University team drilled into those local supplies and community vulnerabilities to anticipated expansion.

“We’re at the brink of this happening in California,” Stewart-Frey, the environmental scientist, said. Her report, she added, isn’t advocating against data centers. But “communities should know what they’re getting themselves into.”

Debates over proposed data centers are erupting in a Kern County desert community with dwindling groundwater and in the hot Imperial Valley, which draws from the strained Colorado River. 

Monterey Park residents in the San Gabriel Valley successfully opposed one data center project over environmental concerns and inadequate information and secured an upcoming vote on a citywide ban.

In a letter to city officials, a representative for the developer dismissed opponents as “rage-baiting an uninformed mob to pressure your decisionmaking.”

Raicu pushed back. “If those communities are uninformed about the issue — whose fault is that? Who should be informing the people so that you don’t have this kind of pushback, if there is no need for it?”

New laws v. Big Tech

Last year, Assemblymember Diane Papan, a Democrat from San Mateo, authored a bill requiring data center operators to report estimated or actual water use to their water supplier when seeking or renewing a business license or permit.

Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed the measure amid industry pressure, saying he was “reluctant to impose rigid reporting requirements about operational details on this sector without understanding the full impact on businesses and the consumers of their technology.”

Now, Papan is trying again with two bills. One largely reprises last year’s measure, with additional reporting required to the city and county. The other would bar local governments from approving new or expanded data centers unless the developer discloses information about their water use and plans.

It would also set other requirements — like prohibiting development in overdrafted groundwater basins in places like the San Joaquin Valley, unless state water managers OK it.

“You cannot manage what you have not and cannot measure,” Papan said. “The public likes transparency, and they should.”

Both bills cleared a key legislative chokepoint this week but face staunch opposition from the tech industry and business groups.

“If they run out of water, guess what happens? And they can’t cool their systems — are they going to succeed?” Papan said. “To which I say, help us help you.”

Nestled between Historic Filipinotown and Echo Park is a bookstore turned artisan craft space turned food market, all within 900 square feet. Every Sunday, A Good Used Book on Glendale Boulevard transforms from a retail bookstore into what they call “Sunday Funday Market.”

Founders Jenny Yang and Chris Capizzi spent seven years operating as a pop-up without a brick-and-mortar location. Opening their doors to local vendors pays homage to their own roots selling at Los Angeles markets, from the Melrose Trading Post to the Pasadena Rose Bowl Flea Market.

“Mega giant online sellers have the scale and the resources and the patience and the reach to capture most people,” Capizzi said. “Whereas for us, I think we have to be really creative — we have to band together.”

Nestled between Historic Filipinotown and Echo Park is a bookstore turned artisan craft space turned food market, all within 900 square feet. Every Sunday, A Good Used Book on Glendale Boulevard transforms from a retail bookstore into what they call “Sunday Funday Market.”

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Yang and Capizzi’s long history of vending at markets taught them how isolating running a small business can be. At their market, they aim to build connections with each vendor and strategize the best timing and layout so everyone can succeed.

“[Amazon and Barnes & Noble] are Goliath, and we’re not even David — we’re just the ant underneath David’s foot,” Capizzi said. “I think we can do what we do and try to get as many people, at our level or even smaller, to get together.”

Weekly markets at A Good Used Book have captivated the neighborhood since its opening in October 2023, with charming names like “Sunday Funday,” “Saturday School” and “Hi-Fi Friday Night,” plus hand-drawn flyers by well-known artist Noah Harmon. Now, it’s become a weekly occurrence where LA pop-ups can display their own crafts, allowing local readers to indulge in a little more than a pocket paperback.

Each week holds a Pandora’s box of niche snacks, crafts or trinkets you didn’t know you needed, ranging from Southeast Asian-inspired trail mix to natural incense sticks to vintage Japanese audio equipment. One week you might be enticed to adopt a kitten from a rescue booth outside, another week you might impulsively get a stick-and-poke tattoo in the back of the store.

Nestled between Historic Filipinotown and Echo Park is a bookstore turned artisan craft space turned food market, all within 900 square feet. Every Sunday, A Good Used Book on Glendale Boulevard transforms from a retail bookstore into what they call “Sunday Funday Market.”

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Nick Ducassi

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On one sunny Sunday afternoon, Brandon Stanciell hand-tossed fresh pizza dough on the sidewalk outside the bookstore. His 2-year-old pop-up, Pizza Ananda, which he named after his daughter, is an homage to her and to Italian cooking, a hobby he started during paternity leave. An hour before the market closed, Stanciell had already sold out and garnished his last pepperoni-and-hot-honey pie for one lucky customer.

“I love that places like this allow us all to meet at once to share what we have and give it to the community around us,” Stanciell said.

Nestled between Historic Filipinotown and Echo Park is a bookstore turned artisan craft space turned food market, all within 900 square feet. Every Sunday, A Good Used Book on Glendale Boulevard transforms from a retail bookstore into what they call “Sunday Funday Market.”

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Nick Ducassi

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The LA Local

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For the owners, building a community market is about deepening relationships with the people who walk through their doors. In an increasingly digital landscape, it is also a reciprocal partnership among local businesses.

“A lot of people talk about community building nowadays as a marketing strategy,” Capizzi said. “But I think the actual community building comes from talking to each vendor and each customer and being a consistent presence in the neighborhood.”

Nestled between Historic Filipinotown and Echo Park is a bookstore turned artisan craft space turned food market, all within 900 square feet. Every Sunday, A Good Used Book on Glendale Boulevard transforms from a retail bookstore into what they call “Sunday Funday Market.”

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Nick Ducassi

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The LA Local

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While customers browsed for unique titles, Gerin del Carmen worked her booth of ceramic dishware, oyster-shaped trinket holders and vases resembling miniature boxes. As a ceramicist, del Carmen draws from her Filipino heritage, including the Balikbayan boxes that represent immigrants sending gifts to family in the Philippines.

“Sharing the community and your space is such a big deal. This is not a huge, gigantic Barnes & Noble store,” del Carmen said. “It has so much foot traffic, and the fact that [the owners] are setting up and sharing the space once or twice a week with other vendors and other artists is huge.”

Yang and Capizzi may think of themselves as an “ant underneath David’s foot,” but A Good Used Book is building a colony of vendors, rooted in community.

Whether you and your friends are looking for a brunch spot to cater to everyone's palates, or taking a trip to the historic Grand Central Market, food halls make for an easy, affordable place to satisfy cravings — especially in SoCal, where diverse selections of dishes reign supreme.

But these spaces fill a void much deeper than our appetites. They bring new life to old storefronts, factories or even airfields (see list below), and can offer a way to keep dollars within the community by becoming a hub for local businesses.

With that said, here's a short list of food halls where you'll get more than just a killer meal.

For good vibes

BLVD MRKT food hall on the corner of 6th Street and Whittier Boulevard in downtown Montebello.

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BLVD MRKT is an open-air food hall in downtown Montebello that feels like a party. The 8,500-square-foot space currently has five eateries, or "concepts" as they're known in the restaurant industry, and hosts live DJs every Friday night and Sunday during brunch. They also host Open Vinyl Night on the second and forth Tuesday of every month, where patrons get $2 off beers and margaritas from Alchemy Craft if they bring a vinyl record to be played in the BLVD courtyard.

The space is pet-friendly and has growing concepts like Los Taquero Mucho, which offers classic al pastor, grilled chicken and slow-cooked carnitas tacos, as well as specialty flavors like vegan tacos with whiskil sautéed in coconut milk, and Pork Belly Cochinita Pibil Tacos, perfect for those who crave crispy, slow-roasted pork with a hint of sweetness.

Los Taquero Mucho participates in BLVD's incubator program, run by co-founders Barney and Evelyn Santos. The program offers mentorship to local entrepreneurs until they can set up shop permanently.

Pork Belly Cochinita Pibil Tacos with salsa from Los Taquero Mucho at BLVD MRKT in Montebello.

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BLVD MRKT is part of the couple's commercial real estate development firm, Gentefy. Its mission is to invest in retail and hospitality projects that ignite economic development and revitalization in Black and brown neighborhoods.

"Blvd Mrkt is our first project," Barney Santos wrote in a text message. "It was our social proof to prove to banks, investors and cities that a socially conscious business model could exist in a traditionally overlooked area."

VCHOS Pupuseria Moderna also has a spot in the BLVD courtyard, offering handmade pupusas with filling choices such as shrimp with spinach and cheese, and tender beef birria with a side of consommé, onions and cilantro. Coffee lovers can get an Oaxacan Mocha at Cafe Santo, or stop by Cold Pizza for a wood-fired slice.

For eclectic tastes

Rodeo 39 Public Market in Stanton.

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An O.C. favorite, Rodeo 39 Public Market lives on Highway 39, also known as Beach Boulevard, in Stanton. This 40,000-square-foot space is an eclectic mix of more than 20 food and drink concepts and retailers. There are three outdoor patios and five murals, plus an arcade, tattoo shop and photo booth. Food options cover everything from Lil' Breezy's adobo breakfast burritos to Cajun crab fries at The Crawfish Hut.

Mural by artist David Flores outside of Joystix arcade at Rodeo 39 Public Market.

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Rodeo's menu choices make it well-suited for a casual weekend brunch. At its entrance sits Here & There, where you can grab a coffee or matcha latte, or try one of their signature drinks like the Iced Vienna, a combination of milk with caramelly demerara sugar and your choice of matcha or espresso, topped with sweet cream and garnished with sea salt. The result is a drink that's smooth and not too sweet.

Eggyo bulgogi egg sandwich with spicy mayo at Rodeo 39 Public Market.

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Eggyo, a recent addition to Rodeo, offers Korean corn dogs and fluffy egg sandwiches on crispy, house-baked milk bread. Try the bulgogi option with spicy mayo for a savory kick. If you crave a cocktail, venture over to CAPO, which also serves craft beer. Or just sit on one of their sun-filled patios while you decide what to try.

For a page from history

The Hangar in Long Beach.

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The Hangar is a 17,000-square-foot food hall that pays homage to Long Beach's aviation history. It sits on former Boeing Co. land where military and commercial aircraft were built. Today, it serves as a dining destination at the Long Beach Exchange Shopping Center, or LBX, neighboring the city's international airport.

This space currently has a mix of 14 food concepts and two retail shops. Patrons can enjoy local favorites outside their flagship locations, like the Joe's Special bagel sandwich from Cassidy's Corner Cafe, with bacon, egg and the star of the show — tangy jalapeño cream cheese. Fans of spice can try Jay Bird's Nashville Hot Chicken, which offers chicken sandwiches and tenders, and Blazin' Fries, all with six levels of heat.

Historic aviation photos are displayed above food concepts at The Hangar food hall at LBX in Long Beach

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Inside, there are vintage pictures of aircraft that were built at the site, and a wall of clocks showing the time in cities named Long Beach across the country.

A Pan Am Hawaii travel poster (left) and a TWA Spain travel poster (right) at the patio of The Hangar food hall.

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Outside, you'll find patio seating with umbrellas where you can sit and watch the occasional plane fly overhead. Or sit and enjoy the adjacent display of towering Pan Am and TWA posters promoting travel to Hawaii, Spain and Paris.

For fun and work

Mercado La Paloma on Grand Avenue in South L.A.

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Open since 2001, the approximately 34,000-square-foot Mercado La Paloma sits in the Figueroa corridor of South L.A., and is known for its focus on community, art and culture. From rotating art exhibits to colorful tiled tabletops, this space feels like it was made to nurture creativity.

Interior of Mercado La Paloma.

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There are meeting rooms to rent starting at $25 an hour. It's a space where locals can bring their laptop to work or study, or have a long conversation with a friend, with bites from six acclaimed restaurants.

Holbox's Erizo dish at Mercado La Paloma.

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At the Mercado, visit Holbox for Michelin-starred seafood dishes like Erizo — velvety sea urchin laid atop a bed of tender scallop ceviche. The combination is fresh, flavorful and oceanic. Tip: If you can swing it, come on a weekday to avoid a long line, or order ahead.

For something sweet, walk over to Oaxacacalifornia Cafe & Juice Bar for a Spicy Pineapple Juice with a gingery kick, or go for the classic pairing of Hot Oaxacan Chocolate, made with your choice of water or milk, and light-as-air conchas crowned with a solid layer of vanilla or chocolate streusel.