The Brief

A former Southern Poverty Law Center official has been charged in the Department of Justice’s broader criminal case against the Alabama-based civil rights group, a frequent target of conservative critics who claim the nonprofit is politically biased.

Heidi Beirich, a political extremism expert who left the law center about six years ago, was named in an indictment unsealed Wednesday.

Beirich, 59, of Palm Springs, is charged with wire fraud conspiracy, conspiracy to submit false statements to a federally insured bank and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering. She was charged in the government’s existing case against the SPLC in Montgomery, Alabama.

In ankle cuffs and wearing a red T-shirt, Beirich made her initial court appearance for a bond hearing in Riverside on Wednesday afternoon. She did not enter a plea, and U.S. Magistrate Judge David T. Bristow ordered her to surrender her passport and appear in court in Alabama within two weeks.

The judge released Beirich on her own recognizance after prosecutors declined to file a request for detention. Her lawyer, Michael Proctor, said in court that Beirich is a “highly, highly responsible, pro-social and trustworthy” member of society with no criminal history.

Outside the courthouse, Proctor said his client is innocent of the charges and described the case as politically motivated.

“She has dedicated her life to fighting the KKK, neo-Nazi groups, extremists. And for all of that life’s work, we’re all safer. We’re all better as a community,” he told The Associated Press. “It is not just ironic, but terrible, that for this work she’s been indicted by the current Department of Justice.”

Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the new charges at a news briefing in Washington but did not name Beirich. CNN was first to report on the charges against Beirich.

“This is exactly what we said would happen in a case like this,” Blanche said. “Our investigators and the U.S. attorneys and the agents working the case will keep on working it even after the initial indictment.”

An SPLC spokesperson said the case against it and Beirich “will not shake our resolve.”

“Taking on violent hate and extremist groups is among the most dangerous work there is, and we believe it is also among the most important work we do,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “We are confident in our position and look forward to presenting the evidence and making our case in court.”

Beirich led the SPLC’s Intelligence Project, which incurred the anger of conservatives with its annual report on organizations that it classified as hate groups. Critics accused the law center of unfairly tarnishing right-wing groups with the same label that it applied to white supremacists.

Beirich co-founded the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism in 2020 after leaving the SPLC. She has testified before Congress about far-right extremism and is frequently interviewed about the subject by news outlets. Her current organization did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment Wednesday.

A superseding indictment filed in June appears to refer to Beirich as “Employee-2” and by her former title as director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project.

The indictment alleges that between 2007 and 2023, more than $4 million in donated funds were secretly funneled to people who infiltrated or were associated with violent extremist groups. Prosecutors said some of the money was used for recruiting new members and purchasing Ku Klux Klan robes and materials for cross-burning ceremonies.

The indictment says “Employee-2” oversaw the payment of donor money to SPLC informants or “field sources,” including KKK members and white nationalists who initially approached the SPLC for help leaving the extremist organizations. The SPLC employee was in a romantic relationship with a source who infiltrated a neo-Nazi group at the direction of the law center, the indictment alleges.

Proctor said Beirich “won’t be silenced or intimidated by the government’s false and politicized allegations.”

Kunzelman reported from Washington and Chandler from Montgomery, Alabama. Associated Press writers Eric Tucker, Alanna Durkin Richer and Collin Binkley in Washington and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

On Wednesday morning, Los Angeles Unified School District students returned to campuses for the first day of school. For many, that meant coming back to schools located near a Boyle Heights warehouse that burned for more than a week in June.

The disaster forced the district to relocate summer programs at several nearby schools, including Christopher Dena Elementary. But on the morning of back-to-school, Maria Bravo said she was ready for her third-grade son and sixth-grade daughter to get back into Dena Elementary classrooms

“ I know that they're going to be in a good place here,” Bravo said. She said her kids needed a new routine after a summer spent largely indoors, trying to avoid the heat and the smell of rotting food wafting from the Lineage warehouse.

“They're going to find ways to keep them busy and active, and at the same time safe," Bravo said.

Principal Robert Salazar said classrooms have air purifiers and there’s a plan to bring students inside if rotting food smells interrupt recess or lunch.

“ It's like three plans — we have, A, B and C,” he said.

Karoline Linde, a 5th grade teacher at Dena Elementary, brought souvenirs back from a summer trip to Croatia to include in her Medieval Times unit. " You want the kids to succeed. You want the kids to do their best," Linde said. "That's my job as an educator. How am I gonna do that?"

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However, as has been true throughout the summer, the odor varied across the neighborhood.

At Eastman Elementary, Ivett Dominguez walked her child to Eastman Avenue Elementary School and told LAist the smell outside was “consistent and annoying,” but that she didn’t notice it inside her son’s classroom.

Other parents were more critical of the district’s decision to reopen the schools while the clean-up continued.

LAUSD Superintendent Andrés Chait visits a classroom at Belvedere Middle School the first day of the 2026-2027 school year.

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Andrés Chait, LAUSD’s superintendent, said preliminary attendance results showed about 92% of students enrolled at campuses near the burned warehouse came to the first day of school, exceeding the district’s overall attendance rate of 90%.

“[I have]  gratitude to our communities for having faith in us and in the measures that we took,” Chait said.

He said the district will take “corrective action” where lead and other toxins are found and that he’s directed his team to look into other ways for the district to advocate for climate justice.

“ Our primary role always is to provide education and academic advancement, but I think we can do more than that,” Chait said.

Some environmental health experts and advocates who reviewed the district’s testing results told LAist that school officials have more work to do on testing and cleaning at some campuses.

Environmental testing raises questions about long-term fire impact

District officials said environmental tests — which they released the day before school started — concluded the Boyle Heights warehouse fire did not result in widespread contamination at nearby campuses and affirmed the decision to reopen schools.

Soil tests found lead levels that exceeded California’s acceptable threshold at two elementary school campuses — Christopher Dena and City Terrace. The district said in its report that staff will evaluate whether more testing or cleanup at those sites is needed.

Carlos Torres, director of LAUSD’s Office of Environmental Health and Safety, said the front lawn at City Terrace and the tree wells at Dena, where elevated levels of lead were detected, have been fenced off.

At Christopher Dena Elementary in Boyle Heights, school officials fenced off a tree and a patch of soil where environmental testing found elevated levels of lead.

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Torres said the district doesn’t believe the lead is tied to the warehouse fire.

“Most likely this could be from things like lead-based paints from use in the past. It could be from agricultural use,” Torres told LAist on Tuesday. “There isn't such a thing as clean soil anywhere.”

The district said the levels of several other substances, including ammonia, formaldehyde and manganese, were low enough that they did not threaten the health of students or school staff.

Teacher Jose Salazar introduces Belvedere Middle School students to the different components of the career and technical education class which include engineering, child development and criminal justice on the first day of the 2026-2027 school year.

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Jill Johnston, an associate professor of environmental and occupational health at UC Irvine, agreed that elevated lead levels in the soil at nearby schools could have been present before the warehouse fire.

But she expressed concern about test results for ammonia at three schools within two miles of the Lineage warehouse: Eastman Avenue Early Education Center, Humphreys Avenue Elementary School and Stevenson College and Career Prep.

Two indoor samples and one outdoor sample from those campuses were found to have between 319 and 327 micrograms of ammonia per cubic meter.

“Ammonia is a respiratory irritant,” Johnston said. “It can affect lung function, particularly in kids… Breathing in ammonia, particularly at levels that are much higher than background concentrations, is something we want to try to avoid, especially for vulnerable kids.”

California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment sets a 200 microgram safety limit for chronic exposure to ammonia, meaning situations where people are breathing in the chemical compound continuously. District officials noted that the test results were far below the state’s 3,200 microgram limit for acute exposure, meaning about an hour or less.

Johnston said closing schools would have been a difficult decision for district officials. But she said additional scrutiny and monitoring at those three schools is warranted.

“If they're also kids from the neighborhood, they're being exposed at home,” she said. “It just builds this evidence that we've been observing over the last several weeks, that toxic chemicals associated with the activities at Lineage are getting into the community, and in this case, is getting inside the schools.”

East L.A. has a long history of pollution linked to nearby freeways and dense industrial development. In May, about 25,000 gallons of crude oil spilled into the streets after an underground pipe ruptured.

“This continues to remind us where our schools are located and how vulnerable our communities and schools are,” said Rocío Rivas, school Board vice president and representative for the neighborhood. “I think it's important to elevate the testing and continue to monitor regardless if there's a fire or not.”

The teachers union sent a letter to the superintendent on Aug. 6 with more than a dozen demands related to Boyle Heights schools, including additional environmental testing, heating, ventilation and cooling system upgrades.

“Fire-impacted school communities deserve more than assurances — they deserve an actionable plan that puts health and safety first,” wrote Gloria Martinez, president of United Teachers Los Angeles.

LAist reporter David Wagner contributed to this story.

With kids headed back to classrooms for the school year, environmental health officials with LAUSD say there is no significant health risk from air contamination for students in Boyle Heights and the surrounding neighborhoods.

Residents, though, continue to worry about the health effects of air pollution from the Lineage warehouse fire. They're still reporting headaches, nausea and difficulty breathing weeks after the fire was put out.

The fire began June 17 and burned for nearly a week, sending a plume of thick smoke into surrounding neighborhoods.

Then, after the fire was extinguished, tens of millions of pounds of refrigerated food stored in the massive warehouse rotted, sending foul odors and pests into the surrounding neighborhood. Lineage said 92% of the food had been removed as of Tuesday.

What's being measured

Much of the air quality data collected in the area after the fire comes from South Coast Air Quality Management District sensors located at Eastman Avenue Elementary School and Robert Louis Stevenson Middle School, both of which are less than a mile from the warehouse.

They take readings on an hourly basis and publish the data online.

Here's what these air quality monitors have been recording over the last few months:

• PM 2.5: The sensors at the two schools have been monitoring fine particulate matter since they were installed on June 19. They are able to pick up particles as small as 2.5 micrometers, or about 30 times smaller than a human hair. Particulate matter, in this case, was mostly associated with smoke generated while the fire was active.
• Methane: The sensors started measuring methane on July 9. Methane is a greenhouse gas that can be harmful to the environment and is only harmful to humans at extremely high concentrations. The sensors have picked up levels that are fairly typical for the region.
• Hydrogen sulfide: The sensors started measuring hydrogen sulfide on July 9. Hydrogen sulfide creates what’s often described as a “rotten egg” smell, and is the chemical that caused some of the stench created by the rotting food left behind after the fire. Still, scientists say just because people can smell it, that doesn’t mean the levels of hydrogen sulfide are high enough to cause harm. They say they haven’t seen huge peaks.
• Ammonia: The devices were not equipped with ammonia sensors until July 23. Like hydrogen sulfide, the chemical is also created by rotting food. Unlike hydrogen sulfide, ammonia was also used as a refrigerant at the facility. Ammonia levels have spiked repeatedly since the sensors went into use, with the most recent spike at the beginning of August. Scientists say ammonia exposure can have adverse health effects, especially on children and other vulnerable populations. Officials say levels are not consistently high enough to pose a risk.

What additional testing found

The Air Quality Management District also employed mobile monitoring to test test for several other compounds in neighborhoods near the fire immediately after it started.

While officials reported finding high levels of particulate matter, they reported other pollutants — including hydrogen fluoride and several toxic metals — to be mostly fall short of public healths standards that would raise concern. For example: Levels of bromine and chlorine while elevated stayed below the state’s short-term exposure threshold, which officials say is not unusual during structure fires.

The L.A. Unified School District also tested for other substances, including lead and formaldehyde, and says schools in the area are safe for students. At the same time, they flagged that lead levels at two schools are higher than California’s acceptable standard.

South Coast AQMD did not respond to LAist's questions before publication time.

Air quality monitors near the Lineage warehouse measure four main substances: particulate matter, methane, hydrogen sulfide and ammonia. But scientists say there could be other pollutants that aren't being picked up.

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Why ammonia is concerning 

Despite assertions from environmental health officials that the neighborhoods around the warehouse are now safe, some scientists and community members continue to worry about air pollution.

Jill Johnston, associate professor of Environmental and Occupational Health at UC Irvine, said the spikes reported in ammonia levels are particularly worrisome.

“Ammonia is an air toxicant. It's a respiratory irritant,” she said. “[It] can also cause eyes, nose, throat irritation, and suppression of your lung function.”

Johnston found that ammonia levels have been spiking ever since the sensors that pick up the chemical were installed in late July, and as recently as the last few weeks.

An analysis published Aug. 5 by the Community and Environment Research Lab at UC Irvine and East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice found high levels of ammonia in streets close to Lineage.

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UC Irvine

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Environmental health officials with LAUSD say the ammonia levels found at nearby schools were not persistent or widespread enough to amount to a health hazard.

Johnston stopped short of saying it’s definitely the cause of the symptoms local residents continue report, which include headaches, nausea and difficulty breathing.

“Those symptoms can come from a lot of different chemicals, so it's not like a linear correlation there,” Johnston said.

Still, she says there’s simply not enough understanding of how long-term ammonia exposure affects the human body, especially when it comes to children and other vulnerable populations.

Why it's hard to detect other pollutants

The ammonia could also be a sign of other contaminants that have yet to be tested.

“Ammonia may just be a marker of a whole mixture of pollutants coming from the site,” Johnston said. “We just totally don't know yet because those haven't been fully characterized.”

The bottom line is, Johnston says, air quality monitoring has its limits, and there is a lot that isn’t measured or understood when it comes to air pollution following industrial fires like the one at the Lineage warehouse in Boyle Heights.

The limitations go beyond industrial fires.

Scientists have developed technology that’s significantly more advanced than the standard sensors used by most air quality management officials for routine pollution monitoring. The more complex sensors can pick up a wider range of pollutants.

More advanced technology, however, is also more complicated to use, which limits its use in the field.

How to report an air quality issue

South Coast AQMD gives you three ways to file a complaint:

• Call 1-800-CUT-SMOG (1-800-288-7664)
• Visit www.AQMD.gov/Complaints
• Using the South Coast AQMD Mobile App

Be prepared to share:

• Date and time of what you experienced
• Type of air quality event (odors, dust, asbestos, smoke, etc.)
• Odor description (gas, chemical, rotten eggs or other familiar odor)
• Address or location of suspected source

A U.S. District judge will soon decide who controls hundreds of millions in federal funding meant to address L.A.’s homelessness crisis, as the Trump administration looks to sideline the region’s embattled lead homelessness agency.

The court will determine whether the L.A. Homeless Services Authority can submit an application for $240 million in federal funding this year and, if not, who can step up to apply for the homelessness money instead.

Homeless services providers across L.A. County rely on the annual funding to pay for shelter beds, housing and services for 11,000 people, according to local homelessness officials.

This year, the crucial federal funds are in limbo after the federal housing department suspended the agency, known as LAHSA, from grant activity in June, citing mismanagement. LAHSA responded by suing the Trump administration and asking the court to block the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s suspension while the broader legal fight plays out.

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter is expected to decide soon whether to temporarily block the suspension and allow LAHSA to continue to receive federal funding and perform other responsibilities while the case proceeds to a trial next year.

In a crowded hearing in Los Angeles Aug. 6, Carter appeared to be searching for a middle path that would acknowledge legitimate concerns about LAHSA’s history of dysfunction but avoid what he described as “the stark, god-awful situation of 11,000 people hitting the streets” if none of L.A.’s federal homelessness grants came through this year.

“If that occurred … I’d want to know what’s happening on the national level with HUD,” Carter continued. “And I want to know if Los Angeles was being punished.”

A woman pushes her belongings past a row of tents on the streets of Los Angeles on Feb. 1, 2021.

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What’s the backstory? 

LAHSA applies for and distributes federal funding for the entire regional homeless response system, including various other local government agencies and hundreds of nonprofit service providers across 85 cities within L.A. County.

The federal government argues LAHSA should not get to play that role anymore because it failed to meet federal oversight requirements, pointing to longstanding concerns about the agency's financial management and accountability.

“We simply cannot continue to fund failure,” said Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. Attorney, in court last week. “We are the federal government, and it is our money.”

LAHSA’s attorneys and local officials dispute the characterization the agency had violated any federal grant requirements. They said the suspension was abrupt and politically motivated.

“The actions will hurt the unhoused in Los Angeles and all of the stakeholders that service them — and that is the whole point,” Keri Curtis Axel, an attorney representing LAHSA, argued during the hearing last week.

Scott Turner, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, speaking at the Dream Center in Los Angeles in August 2026.

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How does L.A. receive federal homeless dollars?

LAHSA is a joint powers authority established by the city and county of L.A. to coordinate and manage public homelessness funds. One of LAHSA’s many responsibilities is serving as the region’s designated applicant for federal homeless assistance grants.

That responsibility was delegated to LAHSA by a separate federally mandated regional body called the L.A. Continuum of Care.

Run by a 21-member board, the L.A. Continuum of Care is responsible for setting regional funding priorities and designating the local entity that applies for federal homelessness grants. Continuums of Care are required across the country to apply for and receive federal money.

The under-the-radar coalition is the one forum where various government agencies and nonprofits are forced to sit down at the same table and collectively set priorities for how to spend homelessness funding.

“HUD chose instead to drop a bomb into the region and disrupt the most stable part of the homeless services response system,” said Shayla Myers, an attorney representing the L.A. Continuum of Care, who intervened in the lawsuit.

After it suspended LAHSA, the region’s chosen applicant, HUD said the local Continuum of Care no longer met federal requirements, and “remedial action” was necessary.

HUD proposed opening the application process up to allow homeless services providers to ask the federal government for money directly, bypassing LAHSA entirely.

The federal housing department has said it would delay starting that direct application process until after an order from the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

Myers called the suspension of LAHSA an “end-run around the congressional mandates” that require the decisions be made locally.

“This is just HUD’s latest attempt to take community control away and insert its own priorities into that funding stream,” she said.

LAHSA Commissioner Stephanie Graves and Gita O'Neill, LAHSA's interim CEO, at the press briefing for the 2026 homeless count at the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority Commission Room in Los Angeles, on July 24, 2026.

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If not LAHSA, then who?

LAHSA’s attorneys argue it’s the only agency equipped for the task, and point out that HUD has consistently awarded it grants for decades.

City and county officials have offered to potentially step up and submit the application in LAHSA’s place, but last week Carter, the federal judge, questioned their ability to do so, especially on such short notice.

Until last week, the deadline to submit the application for federal funding was Aug. 26, a factor pressuring Carter to act quickly.

That changed a day after the L.A. hearing, when a federal judge in Rhode Island struck down HUD’s grant regulations for this year's federal funding competition.

With that ruling, the application deadline no longer exists.

This year’s grant application process will start over after the federal government publishes new regulations later this year.

In the short-term, LAHSA is asking for temporary relief on the suspension from federal grant activity while awaiting trial.

Ultimately, the homelessness authority is hoping for a permanent injunction throwing out its suspension by HUD as illegal.

Carter said he was interested in setting a trial date as early as February 2027.

Many immigrants come to Southern California to start businesses. But with federal raids targeting them and the cost of starting an enterprise rising due to inflation, learning how to become an entrepreneur has become increasingly challenging.

Some small business owners are getting help navigating this tough economy from the government of the country where they were born. Mexico’s consulate in Los Angeles held a graduation ceremony on Tuesday for its yearly Consular Entrepreneurship Program for Mexican Women Abroad.

It took place in a lecture hall at the consulate’s MacArthur Park offices without the musical fanfare of academic ceremonies but very much with the same feeling that the graduates accepting their certificates of accomplishment marked a learning milestone that will open better economic opportunities for this target demographic.

Consul General Carlos González Gutiérrez said the program’s goal is to help “the mothers, the women who are at the center of our community and who want to develop their own businesses … in order to raise a family.”

Consul General of Mexico Carlos González Gutiérrez, left, talks about organic soaps with a small business owner who graduated from the consulate's business training program.

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This is the program’s seventh year. A total of 112 women have now participated in the program. Organizers and graduates told LAist that this year’s training felt more significant due to the tension in Latino immigrant communities in the wake of federal raids that ramped up last year, along with sharp cost-of-living increases.

Help with business plans, finances and permits

The program enlists professionals working in credit unions, small business development groups and businesses large and small to train budding entrepreneurs.

Maricela Martinez is the director of Mariachi Lindas Mexicanas.

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“It is important for me to learn about taxes, how to register the brand, how to promote and do branding,” said Maricela Martinez, who signed up for help with her musical group, Mariachi Lindas Mexicanas.

She’s run the band for 20 years, but nearly stopped after the pandemic and federal immigration enforcement led many Latinos, she said, to forgo mariachi entertainment.

Martinez was one of about nine graduates who showed off their businesses in a post-graduation reception. The tables were filled with products ranging from rosemary-infused essential oils and organic soaps to desserts and notary services.

“I signed up for this program because I had the dream of having my own business,” said Saray Pallares, who stood behind marketing material she created for her budding notary business. “I am a single mother of four.”

Saray Pallares signed up for a business training program offered at the Mexican consulate in L.A. to start her notary business, La Firma Latina.

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The items on Pallares’ table included a black polo shirt embroidered with her business’s branding. Her company’s name, La Firma Latina, can be translated as The Latina Firm, or The Latina Signature.

Pallares said she learned the most from training given by a marketing professional with a Guadalajara-based restaurant chain that has opened in Montebello. Sharing a culture and language with the trainer and the other budding entrepreneurs gave her the kind of support she felt was missing from business classes she took at community college, Pallares said.

Help mustering up courage as a woman and an immigrant

Extensive arrests of immigrants in Southern California by federal agents last year sowed fear in immigrant communities. But some of the participants in this program said that’s not holding them back.

“That's more of a motivation to keep going, to keep fighting, to keep pushing back,” Pallares said. “I was thinking of having my business name in English, and I said, ‘No, I want to help my community. I want them to be able to say I trust her because she speaks Spanish.’”

That environment has been another roadblock for these participants, who also need to balance their work at home with their entrepreneurial dreams.

Claudia Shah, a consultant at the L.A. County-based Small Business Development Center and a program trainer, said that this program has its own challenges. Twenty-nine women started the course, but only 15 reached graduation, she said, because of family and work responsibilities as well as the fears women have that keep them from finishing the course.

“[For] some of them, it’s the language. Some of them, it’s technology,” Shah said. “Fear is always there, not knowing what to expect.”

Wendy Alvarez, right, describes her graphic design business at the offices of the Mexican consulate in L.A.

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Shah said some even asked whether registering their businesses could lead to negative consequences for their immigration status.

But for those who completed the course, she said, the positive economic ripple effects will be felt in their households, their neighborhoods and the region.