The Brief

Colleges and universities across Los Angeles County are adapting to the ongoing impacts of several deadly, destructive fires, including the Palisades Fire on the west side of L.A. and the Eaton Fire to the east in Altadena. Several campuses have closed, reopened or moved instruction online throughout last week and this week. With many campuses returning from winter break this week, students, staff and administrators are grappling with a challenging start to their new academic term and devastation in their communities.

Additionally, some campuses are providing resource hubs, for their own students and employees as well as their surrounding communities. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has set up disaster recovery centers at Pasadena City College and UCLA, which are serving as one-stop-shops for resources.

Campuses close, classes move online

Several colleges and universities, including Pasadena City College, UCLA, Pepperdine University and Occidental College, either temporarily closed campuses or moved to remote instruction.

Pasadena City College, which was in the middle of its winter intersession when the Eaton fire broke out, closed both of its campuses from Jan. 8-12, according to campus-wide emails. The college resumed in-person instruction Monday.

Superintendent and President José Gómez sent an email describing the community hub that has been created in a parking lot on the main campus. Several organizations, including the YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles, the Pasadena Unified School District, the Young 9 Foundation, the Pasadena Humane Society and the Rotary Club of Pasadena, have been helping sort donations and distribute essential supplies like food, water and clothing to thousands who have been affected. On Sunday, the college provided a meeting space for first responders and government officials to answer community questions.

“I think this is a great testament to how committed our leaders are and also seeing all the community members coming together to donate and support,” said Student Trustee Irene Wong. “It’s been really heartwarming and hopeful to see the community come together for those in need.”

The college will continue to provide free meals with World Central Kitchen through Jan. 15 and has established a Community Relief Fund for those affected. There is also a tech lending program for students and staff who need access to laptops and Wi-Fi.

On the west side of the county, Santa Monica College closed its seven campuses from Jan. 8-12. All but one re-opened Monday. The Malibu campus remains closed with staff working remotely and instruction taking place online after the area was evacuated due to the Palisades fire. Santa Monica Police Department is using a parking lot at the Performing Arts Center campus as a temporary command post to support nearby firefighting operations. The college website lists several resources that students can access, including hotel rooms, meals and mental health resources. Santa Monica College has also established a Disaster Support Fund. 

All nine campuses in the Los Angeles Community College District closed from Jan. 9-11, with staff working remotely and instruction moved online, due to concerns about air quality, safety and increased traffic. Campuses returned to in-person classes Monday, though students and employees can request accommodations if they need them.

Aracely Aguiar, president of Los Angeles Pierce College in the San Fernando Valley, said, “we’re being flexible, because we know that many of the faculty members and the students could have been impacted.”

Aguiar said that several Pierce faculty have lost homes in the fires, and the Foundation for the LACCD is fundraising to support the district’s staff and students who are affected. The Pierce campus is also serving as an animal evacuation center for the Palisades fire, housing more than 200 horses and other large animals.

Students walk through the UCLA campus in Los Angeles on Feb. 18, 2022.

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Raquel Natalicchio

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When Eva Lemmon, a freshman at UCLA, first heard the news of the LA fires, it felt like her freshman year of high school, when she heard school was going online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It kind of reminded me of when we went into quarantine,” Lemmon said. “I think everybody was very disoriented, especially because school had just started.”

The winter quarter began at UCLA on Jan. 6, but will remain online through Jan. 17.

UCLA is not in the evacuation zone of the Palisades fire, but in a letter from Chancellor Julio Frenk, the switch to remote instruction is to prioritize the community’s “safety and wellness.”

Lemmon grew up in L.A., attending middle and high school in the Pasadena area. Lemmon has left the UCLA campus for now and is at her parents’ Manhattan Beach home.

“(L.A. is) my favorite place in the world,” Lemmon said. “So many places that I used to hang out in middle school, high school, places that I would go hiking out in West LA — it’s insane to me to think that these places are gone. It’s just going to feel so different, even if it’s rebuilt.”

According to UCLA’s website, the university’s Economic Crisis Response Team is providing resources to students displaced by the fires. It is also providing temporary housing to employees who have lost their homes.

Occidental College in northeast Los Angeles is currently not in the Eaton fire evacuation zone. However, the campus was temporarily closed from Jan. 8-12 due to its proximity to the fire. The campus reopened Monday and classes will resume in-person on Jan. 21 for the spring semester.

Logan Morris, a third-year student at Occidental College, was visiting home in the Bay Area for winter break when she first heard about the fires. Her initial reaction was mixed — fear for what her future at the school would look like and grief for those in the LA area.

“What if I don’t have a school to go back to?” she said.

Now, as a member of the LA community, she wants to do what she can to help when she returns.

“I do feel very connected with LA and want to help the best that I can,” Morris said. “I want to help bring back what makes LA, LA I want to be able to be a part of seeing it come back to life.”

A pedestrian walks on the campus of Occidental College in Los Angeles on Dec. 20, 2022.

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Pablo Unzueta

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CalMatters

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The Palisades Fire is 2.5 miles away from Pepperdine University’s campus in Malibu and, according to the university’s website, the fire does not pose a threat to the campus. Classes resumed from winter break online on Monday and will continue to be taught remotely until Jan. 19. The university is providing resources to students who have lost their homes, supported by the Pepperdine Strong Fund. The fund initially provided support to the Pepperdine community following the Franklin Fire that broke out on Dec. 9 in Malibu and burned more than 4,000 acres, 2.4 miles from campus.

Nearby campuses provide flexibility, support for employees and students

Several Los Angeles-area colleges have remained open, but are providing remote work alternatives, masks, and other support due to air quality, nearby evacuations and other challenges. These campuses, including Loyola Marymount University, Cal State Los Angeles and the University of Southern California, have not been evacuated and are not in evacuation warning zones, but are taking precautions.

At Loyola Marymount, which is located in the Westchester area of LA, the new semester began as scheduled on Monday. However, the university is providing accommodations to students, faculty and staff displaced by the fires.

At USC, classes resumed after winter break on Monday as scheduled. Students, staff and faculty can request N95 masks to help protect against the poor air quality. According to the USC Website, students with asthma, COPD, heart conditions or other sensitive health conditions can request a temporary housing reassignment through a Google Form. For faculty displaced by the fires, the university is helping them find temporary housing.

At Cal State Los Angeles, located in east LA, spring semester classes are set to start on Jan. 21, the regularly scheduled date. Patrick K. Day, vice president for student affairs, sent a campus-wide email outlining resources the school is providing, such as the Golden Eagles LA Fires Recovery Fund, which will help faculty, staff and students who live in neighborhoods affected by the fires and are in critical need. Counseling and Psychological Services will also have special “triage hours” for students who need mental health support. Day shared how moved he was by the support of the Cal State LA community.

“These gestures of care are evidence of a community coming together during a time of great loss, pain, and uncertainty — it makes me proud to be a Golden Eagle,” Day wrote.

Students mobilize to help raise money and support for LA communities

Within days of the start of the Los Angeles-area fires, student leaders mobilized their organizations to engage in mutual aid efforts and share resources.

Leila Salam, a third-year student at UCLA, discussed how several of her classmates and friends have family who have evacuated or lost homes in the fires. As the chapter chair of CALPIRG at UCLA, a campus organization focused on public interest advocacy, she and other members started their own fundraiser.

“We had people share out information on their social medias, of, like, where people could donate, and then call friends and family members personally to kind of tell them about the issue, why it’s important, and then ask for donations,” Salam said. “And just through doing that event for three hours, we were able to raise over $1,000.”

Salam is working with other campus organizations and leaning on her organization’s network of 25,000 students across UC campuses to host a donation drive this week. By continuing these efforts, she hopes to “make an even bigger impact.”

Orange Coast College sophomore Evelyn McCready is a boatswain, or youth leader, of a Sea Scout group called “Ship 550 Malolo.” Her group is organizing a donation drive Jan. 18. Although the group is based in Long Beach, she said members have been affected by the fires.

“We have many scouts that are currently living around active fire zones,” McCready said. “One of the groups that frequents our base is based out of Altadena, one of our own camps that’s called Josepho was destroyed in the Palisades fire.”

McCready was motivated to help because of how frequently California wildfires have occurred and cited an oath she took as a Sea Scout. “Part of [the oath] is to be prepared to render aid to those in need,” she said. “So, it is simply our responsibility to help the victims of the fires, because, well, we could be next.”

Alpha Tau Delta, a professional nursing fraternity at UC Irvine, has collected a variety of donations, from baby formula to medical supplies.

Mandy Bautista, a second-year student at UC Irvine and media manager for Alpha Tau Delta, said he was glad to contribute to the cause. “It’s beautiful to see our community come together for these efforts, and if everyone comes together to help for a common cause, we can make such a substantial impact to those in need,” he said.

More resources can be found here:

• Foundation for California Community Colleges: Wildfire and Disaster Relief 
  
• UCLA: How you can help
  
• PCC: Fire Updates & Support
  
• Pasadena City College Community Funds
  
• SMC: Disaster Relief Resources
  
• LACCD: Fire Resources and Support
  
• USC: Community Resources
  
• Mutual Aid LA Network
  
• Anakbayan UCLA Community Call

Delilah Brumer and Victoria Mejicanos are College Journalism Network fellows. Camelia Heins and Khadeejah Khan are contributors with the College Journalism Network, a collaboration between CalMatters and student journalists from across California. CalMatters higher education coverage is supported by a grant from the College Futures Foundation.

Just last week California’s secretary of state officially certified that nearly two-thirds of Californians voted to pass Proposition 50, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to temporarily gerrymander the state’s congressional maps in favor of Democrats.

Nevertheless, Republicans and the Trump administration are hopeful a federal district court panel meeting in Los Angeles this week will intervene to bar the state from using the new maps next year.

California Republicans, who sued Newsom and Secretary of State Shirley Weber the day after the election, are staking their challenge on the argument that California’s primary mapmaker illegally used race as a factor in drawing district lines, giving Latino and Hispanic voters outsize influence at the expense of other racial and ethnic groups, including white voters.

This, the Republicans argue, means the maps amount to an illegal racial gerrymander and a violation of the 14th and 15th amendments. Although Section 2 of the federal Voting Rights Act allows for race-conscious redistricting, they add, case law and judicial precedent have set a strict standard that requires a minority group to prove they have been systematically outvoted by a majority that consistently votes together to deny the minority their chosen candidate.

But the Prop. 50 opponents’ odds look slim, especially after the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority recently blessed Texas’ new maps, overturning a lower court’s finding that Republicans there had engaged in unconstitutional racial gerrymandering.

“It is indisputable that the impetus for the adoption of the Texas map (like the map subsequently adopted in California) was partisan advantage pure and simple,” wrote conservative Justice Samuel Alito in a concurring opinion supported by Justices Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas.

And then there’s the looming possibility that the Supreme Court, in a separate case, could outlaw entirely the use of race in the redistricting process, which could render California’s new maps — as well as the previous ones drawn by the independent citizens commission — unconstitutional. That would also give Republicans a major advantage in Southern states, where several districts drawn to increase Black Americans’ voting power currently are represented by Democrats.

Despite the long odds, the ailing California GOP has run out of other options for resistance. The passage of Prop. 50 is likely to mark the beginning of the end for several of California’s Republican House members, who have been forced to decide whether to run in their current, now less favorable Republican districts, switch to new seats or drop out entirely.

One of them, Rep. Darrell Issa, who represents parts of San Diego County, even considered relocating to Texas and running for a Dallas-area seat that would be more friendly to Republicans, but the president reportedly refused to endorse him for the already contested Texas seat, so he decided to stay.

The legal challenge claims the Prop. 50 maps cause “stigmatic and representational injury” by placing certain candidates, such as Republican Assemblymember David Tangipa of Fresno, who is Polynesian, into districts drawn with a specific racial or ethnic minority group in mind.

Case is in Los Angeles court this week

The challengers, who include Tangipa, the California Republican Party, several Republican voters and the Trump White House, are asking a three-judge panel for the Central District of California to grant a preliminary injunction on the maps before Dec. 19, the date when candidates can start collecting signatures to get their names on the 2026 primary ballot. A preliminary injunction would temporarily prevent the maps from being used in an election.

On Monday in court, the Republican challengers presented their case, arguing that since supporters of Prop. 50 publicly touted that the maps increased representation for Latino voters, state lawmakers and consultant Paul Mitchell, who was hired to draw the maps, took race into account. Therefore, they must justify how their new districts meet the standard for permissible racial gerrymanders, attorneys argued.

“It is legal to race-based redistrict under the Voter Rights Act. Section 2 protects it. But it also gives you guidelines,” Tangipa told CalMatters in an interview after testifying in court on Monday in Los Angeles. “In Sacramento, they did not follow those guidelines.”

Tangipa asserted that even though Democratic lawmakers intended primarily to increase their party’s ranks based on political ideology, “They used race to justify that end goal.”

The plaintiffs sought to have Mitchell testify, but the court denied a request to force him to take the stand to explain whether he intentionally tried to increase the voting power of specific racial and ethnic groups. Since Mitchell lives more than 100 miles away from the court, he was out of the reach of a subpoena. Still, the judges questioned his blanket use of “legislative privilege” to resist producing documents the plaintiffs requested.

At one point, as a redistricting expert testified, the plaintiffs focused on a line from Democratic former Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire’s public statement after the Legislature passed the package of bills paving the way for the Nov. 4 special election.

“The new map makes no changes to historic Black districts in Oakland and the Los Angeles area, and retains and expands Voting Rights Act districts that empower Latino voters to elect their candidates of choice,” McGuire’s statement said.

McGuire announced last month that he will challenge Republican Rep. Doug LaMalfa in one of the newly configured Prop. 50 seats.

But proponents of the new maps argue they intended purely to create a partisan advantage for Democrats, and any increase in voting power for certain ethnic or racial groups was incidental.

Ultimately, 'it was endorsed by the voters'

Also complicating the GOP’s challenge is that California voters overwhelmingly approved the maps.

“Even if we assume that the Legislature improperly considered race, ultimately it went into effect because it was endorsed by the voters,” Emily Rong Zhang, an assistant professor of law at the University of California at Berkeley School of Law, previously told CalMatters. “They would have to show that the voters had the intent to create districts that disproportionately favor the voting power of a racial group over another.”

One unknown is how the Supreme Court will rule on a case that questions whether it’s constitutional to even consider race as a factor when redistricting.

The justices are weighing in another ongoing case, Louisiana v. Callais, whether to strike down a part of the federal Voting Rights Act that requires the creation of districts in which racial and ethnic minorities have a chance to elect their preferred candidate. If the ruling is retroactive, a decision to strike it down could invalidate both California’s old and new maps.

Regardless of how the Supreme Court rules, other states have jumped into the redistricting effort or are contemplating entering the fray. In addition to Texas and California, four other states have already implemented new congressional maps, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Virginia, Maryland and Florida have also taken some steps toward redistricting.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

FIFA said on Tuesday it plans to sell $60 tickets for each of the 104 games of the 2026 World Cup — an announcement that comes after an outcry over prices for the tournament that will be held next summer across the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

"Fans of the national teams that have qualified for the FIFA World Cup 2026 will benefit from a dedicated ticket pricing tier, which has been designed to make following their teams on football's greatest stage more affordable," FIFA said in a statement.

But these tickets — called "supporter entry tier tickets" by FIFA — will be available only to supporters of qualified teams and are limited in quantity.

Only 10% of the total number of tickets provided to each qualified team would be available at $60 per game, including the final. Given that each team gets 8% of the available tickets per game, the effective number of tickets available at that price would be only 0.8% of the stadium capacity for that game, or 1.6% for both teams combined.

But the actual number of $60 tickets could vary. Each country would determine which of its fans qualify for the cheaper tickets. In the statement, FIFA requested that countries "ensure that these tickets are specifically allocated to loyal fans who are closely connected to their national teams."

Some fans had called prices 'a betrayal'

FIFA's announcement comes after many fans reacted with outrage at the prices for the World Cup next year, which range from $140 for a handful of initial-round games to as much as $2,735 for the U.S. opening match against Paraguay that will be held in Los Angeles next year.

Prices for knockout rounds surge even more, with FIFA charging charging $4,185 for the cheapest ticket for the final that will be held in July next year in New Jersey — and $8,680 for the most expensive seats.

That's much higher than previous World Cups. For example, the most expensive ticket for the 2022 final at the last tournament held in Qatar was about $1,600.

Unlike previous World Cups, FIFA has yet to publish a list of prices, instead adjusting them across different sales windows without an announcement. Fans found out about the price changes after FIFA opened its latest lottery window last week, which allows fans to apply for tickets until Jan. 13.

And many fans were upset. The Football Supporters Europe, a group that represent fans across the region, called ticket prices "a betrayal to the most dedicated fans." On Tuesday, the group said on X it welcomes FIFA's latest announcement, but added it was not enough.

"Based on the allocations publicly available, this would mean that at best a few hundred fans per match and team would be lucky enough to take advantage of the 60 USD prices, while the vast majority would still have to pay extortionate prices, way higher than at any tournament before," Football Supporters Europe said.

Demand appears high, however

FIFA has defended its pricing policy, saying it's adapting to prices in the North American market. It has also consistently responded by saying it's a non-profit organization that steers the majority of its revenues from the World Cup "to fuel the growth of men's, women's and youth football throughout the 211 FIFA Member Associations."

Despite the outrage over its prices, FIFA is seeing strong demand for next year's World Cup. On Tuesday, FIFA added it had already received 20 million ticket requests during this current sales window, with weeks still to go before the lottery window closes.

But for supporters, following a team throughout the tournament could be prohibitively expensive in 2026 — and not only because of high ticket prices.

The cost of travel across the three countries has also surged, including hotel prices, making it likely that next year's tournament will be among the most expensive World Cups ever staged for fans.
Copyright 2025 NPR

Huntington Beach appears to be running out of options in its effort to stave off state housing mandates after a recent California Supreme Court decision.

California requires cities to plan and zone for housing to meet the needs of the population at all income levels. In the most recent planning cycle, Huntington Beach was told it had to plan for 13,368 new homes.

The city balked, and the state sued Huntington Beach in 2023 for failing to comply.

The city’s argument, in a nutshell

The city has argued it doesn’t have to comply because it’s a charter city, which gives it more autonomy in some areas of governance than non-charter cities.

Huntington Beach also has said that planning for such a large number of units would force it to violate state environmental laws. A state appeals court in a September ruling didn’t buy either argument.

What’s next?

A San Diego court now must determine penalties against Huntington Beach, even as the city has vowed to keep fighting the housing mandate. An appeals court has ordered the lower court to give the city 120 days to approve a housing plan.

Other remedies the court will consider include:

• Suspending the city’s ability to approve building permits — essentially bringing all development in the city to a halt; or, on the opposite end of the spectrum,

• Forcing Huntington Beach to approve any and all applications to build homes — in other words, completely removing the city’s discretion to plan for development. 

The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Jan. 16.

More animals are being run over on Los Angeles streets than ever before, and the lingering effects of the pandemic may be partly to blame.  

Through November of this year, the city’s MyLA311 service has fielded 31,093 requests for “dead animal removal,” an increase of more than a thousand from the same time last year. It marks a 37% increase from five years prior, and is the fifth straight year of increases.  

Fraser Shilling of the Road Ecology Center at the University of California, Davis, studies the impact of transportation on animal populations. While one of the drivers of the increase is the continual loss of habitat from urban development, Shilling says the after effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are also playing a role. The protracted lockdown sparked a boom in pet adoptions, which he says has now transformed into an increase in animals being let go by their owners.  

“Basically, pandemic pets are being abandoned,” Shilling said. “Before they get picked up by animal control, they’re out on the street getting hit.” 

Cats made up nearly a third of animals picked up last year, according to the Los Angeles Department of Sanitation. Dogs accounted for 17%. Raccoons and opossums were the third- and fourth-most common. The vast majority of pickup requests are for animals that have been struck by vehicles. Others include requests to collect pets that have died at their owner’s home.

Want to know the number of requests in your neighborhood? Sign up for the Crosstown Neighborhood Newsletter and get stats about crime, traffic, housing and more for where you live.

Overstuffed animal shelters

Los Angeles has a massive feral cat population, estimated to be close to one million.

In 2020, the Los Angeles City Council approved the Citywide Cat Program aimed at trapping and spaying or neutering stray cats to prevent unwanted litters. But the program’s progress is facing constraints due to local funding challenges, as well as a nationwide veterinarian shortage. 

In August, the City Council unanimously approved a motion increasing the dollar amount pet owners are reimbursed by the city for spaying and neutering their pets, for an estimated cost of $9 million. A proposal from the city administrative officer recommended giving the higher reimbursement rates to shelter-based programs like the Citywide Cat Program, which would have cost an estimated $21 million over three years. That plan was not adopted.  

At the same time, the city’s shelters are overflowing with intakes. Through October of this year, Los Angeles Animal Service shelters took in 36,330 cats and dogs, per the department’s Woof Stat reports, a 6% increase from the same time last year and a 46% increase from the entire year of 2020. Its dog shelter program currently is operating at 123% capacity.  

San Pedro, Los Angeles’ southernmost neighborhood, had the highest number of dead animal removal requests in the city this year, with 922 as of Nov. 30, a 15% increase over the same period in 2024. 

As of Dec. 9, the animal shelter in San Pedro also had the highest dog occupancy rate of any of the six shelters in the city at 159% capacity. 

“Like many shelters across the country, LA Animal Services continues to experience overcrowding and operates at overcapacity, despite the department’s ongoing efforts to promote spaying and neutering, encourage pet adoptions and fostering, and working with rescues to help place animals,” Animal Services said in a statement. 

Where the city meets the wild 

The highest rates of wild animal collisions occur in dense urban areas surrounded by natural vegetation. Van Nuys and Northridge — ringed by the Santa Susana, Santa Monica and San Gabriel mountains — were the neighborhoods with the second- and third-most dead animal reports. While cats were still the most common animals being picked up in Northridge zip codes, according to data from the Department of Sanitation, the region had numbers of opossums, squirrels, coyotes and deer that were higher than the citywide average 

Requests for removals in 2024, the most recent year for which the animal breakdown is available, included 366 coyotes, 191 chickens, 27 turtles and four turkeys. 

The number of dead deer last year was 63, around half of what it was in 2020. While that sounds like an improvement, it actually indicates a dire trend.  

“The population of deer in California is going down by 10% a year, and the population killed by traffic is about 8% or 9% per year, suggesting that the decline in deer in California is directly tied to roadkill,” said Shilling of the Road Ecology Center.  

Habitat loss from urban development is typically accompanied by an increase in traffic, according to the Road Ecology Center’s annual roadkill report. The city has been fast-tracking new development under Mayor Karen Bass’s directive focused on affordable housing, and over 5,600 units have been approved in the San Fernando Valley since 2023, according to the city planning website.  

The best solution to curb wildlife roadkill, Shilling said, is for people to drive more slowly. The second best is fencing along major roads and highways that have become hotspots. He said wildlife crossings — like the slated Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing in Agoura Hills — are ineffective at stopping roadkill unless accompanied by deliberate fencing.  

How we did it: We examined more than eight years of reports from the city’s MyLA311 service data. In addition, we broke down the requests by neighborhood. We also analyzed data from the Department of Sanitation and the city’s Animal Services Department. Have questions about our data or want to ask a question? Write to us as askus@xtown.la.