The Brief

Two members of the Los Angeles City Council joined progressive policy advocates Wednesday to call on the city to allocate an additional $4.5 million for mental health crisis response services that rely less on police.

Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez and representatives from LA Forward, a group that advocates for affordable housing among other issues, urged the city to budget $2.5 million in the fiscal year that starts July 1 to make emergency dispatches more efficient. They also said L.A. should earmark $2 million to evaluate what kinds of programs are currently paid for with city funds and how they might be streamlined.

At a morning news conference held outside City Hall, speakers called on residents to comment during a budget hearing scheduled for later in the day.

Mayor Karen Bass’ $12.8 billion budget proposal includes $50 million for community-based organizations for violence prevention and intervention, civilian crisis response and anti-recidivism services, according to a budget summary.

Hernandez said during the news conference that putting more money into better crisis responses would save the city money “by investing in prevention rather than reaction.”

“We’re asking the city to invest in building alternative crisis responses that are life-affirming, that are culturally humble and will provide our communities the care they need when they need it most, in their moments of crises,” she said.

Godfrey Plata, deputy director of LA Forward, said centralizing dispatch efforts could go a long way toward getting people the right mental health crisis response in a timely manner. He said the process is not as simple as pressing a button to call for medical assistance from the fire department.

“[Dispatchers] have to manually call different services in order to reach that service,” he said.

L.A. recently launched a pilot program that sends teams of clinicians — not police officers — to respond to incidents involving people in mental health crises. A separate program, known as the Crisis and Incident Response through Community-Led Engagement, or CIRCLE, focuses on crises involving unhoused people.

A third effort partners the L.A. County Department of Mental Health with local fire stations to send teams made up of a driver, a licensed psychiatric technician and someone who has personal experience with mental illness.

Jason Enright, who has a son with autism, said he doesn’t have any good options to call for help when his child is in crisis. He said the options the city provides don’t cover his North Hollywood neighborhood and responses from the county mental health department take too long.

Enright said he worries what a police response might look like if his child is in crisis. He cited a recent LAist investigation that found nearly a third of LAPD shootings since 2017 involved someone living with a mental illness and/or experiencing a mental health crisis.

“It’s just terrifying as a parent,” he said. “You don’t want to call for help and have that lead to the death of your loved one.”

In March, L.A. partnered with three local nonprofit organizations — Exodus Recovery, Alcott Center and Penny Lane Centers — to provide two unarmed teams in each of three service areas spread across L.A. The teams are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week within the LAPD's Devonshire, Wilshire and Southeast service areas.

Tracee Porter of LA Forward, who worked as a cab driver for decades, said she’s seen many people in crisis on the streets, and she agonized over how to help them. She recalled seeing a man in Long Beach throwing lit matches at a building.

She said she thought the man was in psychological distress and called 911.

“But I was terrified with that call, what would happen if the wrong people responded. Would they just shoot him or what have you?” Porter said.

The full city council has until June 1 to adopt or modify the mayor’s proposed budget.

L.A. resident Jeff van Hoy is setting aside his jerseys and hanging up his scarves after Team USA's brutal 4-1 loss to Belgium last night.

"It feels like Halloween is over," said the diehard American soccer fan, who's been rooting for the national team since it last played on home soil in 1994. "That holiday that you so look forward to celebrating, it's all come and gone. … You have to say goodbye to that aspect of joy for a while."

Van Hoy's team — that eternal underdog, American men's soccer — had a good run. It beat Paraguay in the opening match at SoFi Stadium, making it all look so easy to a local audience more groomed for American football or baseball at Dodger Stadium. The U.S. men came out of the group stage on top, even after a last-minute loss to Turkey, also here in Los Angeles.

Then, they beat Bosnia and Herzegovina. But all that momentum came to naught. The team looked ragged in the Round of 16, bamboozled by a more experienced European team. The moment was further soured after FIFA allowed U.S. striker Folarin Balogun to play despite a red card in the previous match, following an intervention by President Donald Trump.

Watching from Los Angeles, van Hoy was saddened by the loss. But surprised? No way.

"I'm so used to dealing with disappointment," he said in a phone call Tuesday morning. "I try to make sure that I allow myself the joy of hope and excitement when the team is doing well, but I'm always ready for the wheels to come off."

Such is the life of an American soccer fan. With low hopes of seeing the U.S. reach the final, for van Hoy, the World Cup is about his bottomless love of the game — and the buffet of experiences and celebrations that come with the tournament.

A soccer player himself, van Hoy first attended the World Cup when the U.S. hosted the tournament in 1994. He joined his dad at the opening U.S. match against Switzerland in Detroit, which ended in a 1-1 tie. The U.S. went on to defeat top contender Colombia at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, before getting beat in the knockout stage of the tournament.

Van Hoy was enamored. Since then, he's attended four more World Cups, from Germany to South Africa to Brazil and now back in the U.S. again. Along the way, he couch surfed in Kaiserslautern, Germany, where he watched the U.S. tie Italy 1-1 in 2006. He saw a sports journalist wrestle to get his backpack back from a baboon in South Africa in 2010 on his way to the Cape of Good Hope. He was in the crush of fans at a massive fan party on Copacabana Beach in Brazil in 2014.

This World Cup, his first in more than a decade, he went to four matches. Two he attended in Inglewood, just a short trip from his home in Mid City. But seeking that storybook feeling that marked his last few tournaments, van Hoy and his son also took to the road to support their other favorite team, the Netherlands. They drove 22 hours each way to Houston to dance with a sea of Dutch fans clad in orange and watch the Netherlands play Sweden. Then they drove to Tijuana and caught a flight to Monterrey, where they saw the team take on Morocco and lose.

At home, he also enjoyed seeing Los Angeles outside of the stadium, where Angelenos got to experience some soccer madness at city watch parties and fan events, whether they were fans of the sport or not.

Now that the U.S. is out, van Hoy is already looking forward to the next World Cup in 2030. Will the U.S. stand a chance then?

"I thought this was a little too early for us to win the World Cup," he said. "But in five or 10 years, I think we should have a team that's good enough to compete."

In the meantime, he'll be cheering for LAFC here in Los Angeles. There's always the next soccer match.

Boyle Heights families of school age children impacted by the warehouse fire have until Wednesday afternoon to apply for $250 cash assistance payments.

The money comes from the LAUSD Education Foundation’s “compassion fund,” a mixture of donations from individuals and the California Community Foundation.

“ There's tremendous stress and anxiety about how to pay for rent, food [and] childcare,” said Sadie Jefferson, the executive director of the independent nonprofit that frequently supports LAUSD students and programs.

Jefferson said families are reporting asthma flare-ups, missed work and a lack of access to their homes.

An estimated 13,000 Los Angeles Unified families live within two miles of the Boyle Heights warehouse fire. The fire started on June 17 at a refrigerated warehouse owned by a company called Lineage and burned for eight days. The blaze filled the air with acrid smoke and there’s been reports of foul smells, pests and concerns about water-quality as the clean-up continues.

How it works

Families can apply in-person on Wednesday July 8 from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at:

• Sunrise Elementary School— 2821 E. 7th St. 
• Humphreys Avenue Elementary School— 500 S. Humphreys Ave.
• Belvedere Middle School— 312 N. Record Ave.

The application requires families to provide a student’s ID.

Families can also connect with district counselors and other resources at those same schools.

Jefferson said the foundation will support more families if more donations to the compassion fund come in.

The foundation started the compassion fund in 2025 to support families in the wake of widespread immigration enforcement actions throughout Southern California.

Jefferson said the Foundation has distributed nearly $900,000 in cash gift-cards from the fund and that most families make less than $20,000 a year.

 ”We wanted to make sure that people had the dignity of choice on how to use the funding in a way that made sense for their families,” Jefferson said.

LAUSANNE, Switzerland — The IOC advised Olympic sports bodies on Tuesday to end a three-year program vetting Russians for neutral status ahead of qualifying events for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

The move was expected since the International Olympic Committee advised two months ago that athletes from Belarus, Russia's military ally in the full military invasion of Ukraine, should be allowed again to compete with their full national identity.

"The IOC stands in solidarity with the Olympic community of Ukraine, which the Olympic movement has supported since the beginning of the war, and will continue to do so," the Olympic body said in a statement after a meeting of its executive board.

The IOC eased entry requirements to its own events for Russian athletes and teams while provisionally lifting its suspension since October 2023 of the Russian Olympic Committee.

The terms of that suspension — imposed when the Russian Olympic body incorporated regional sports councils from occupied regions of Ukraine — no longer applied, the IOC said.

Just 32 athletes from Russia and Belarus competed at the 2024 Paris Olympics as approved neutrals, and combined to win five medals. The Russian team had more than 300 athletes at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and won 71 medals.

The IOC did not yet approve letting Russian athletes and teams compete with their flag and anthem. That decision will come "at an appropriate time," it said.

The next Olympic competition is the 2026 Youth Summer Games in Dakar, Senegal opening Oct. 31.

The IOC said to "address the lack of confidence in the global sporting community relating to the return of Russian athletes to international competition," those athletes must give multiple doping controls and be part of a recognized testing program.

The IOC said it will continue to "not organize IOC events in Russia or invite Russian government or state officials to its events."

Copyright 2026 NPR

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Businesses impacted by the Lineage warehouse fire have access to recovery resources.

Inclusive Action, the Boyle Heights Chamber of Commerce and the Hustle & Heart Collective have launched the Boyle Heights Fire Relief Fund for Small Businesses, which will provide financial assistance to brick-and-mortar businesses and street vendors directly affected by the fire.

Resources may also be available through the city’s BusinessSource Center, which offers grants, business advising, financial counseling and other services.

Boyle Heights Fire Relief Fund for Small Businesses

The program aims to award grants to 500 affected small businesses and vendors in Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles near the Lineage facility.

Who qualifies?

• Brick-and-mortar businesses
• Street vendors
• Home-based businesses

Grant amounts:

• Street vendors: Up to $1,000
• Brick-and-mortar businesses: Up to $3,000

Eligible ZIP codes:

• 90022
• 90023
• 90033
• 90063

Application requirements:

• Business website and email address (organizations will assist applicants who do not have these).
• Proof of address, utility bill and lease agreement (if applicable).
• Street vendors can upload photos of their business if they do not have traditional business documentation.
• Number of employees.
• Applicants will be asked how they plan to use the grant funds.

For additional information, visit the frequently asked questions page.

Apply by July 13 at inclusiveaction.jotform.com/261790764235059

Small Business Recovery Services

Through the city’s established BusinessSource Center, NEW Economics for Women, impacted businesses will have access to recovery resources to help stabilize operations and retain jobs, including:

• Small business recovery grants of up to $1,000 for eligible businesses directly impacted by the fire
• Industrial air purifiers for severely impacted businesses
• One-on-one business advising
• Assistance applying for disaster relief programs
• Access to capital and micro-loan opportunities
• Business continuity and recovery planning
• Commercial lease and financial counseling
• Marketing and customer recovery strategies
• Technical assistance with permitting and regulatory requirements
• Referrals to additional local, state, and federal business assistance programs

More recovery assistance

Visit the city’s Boyle Heights Recovery Updates website for more resources available to displaced workers and other employment services.