The Brief

New data from the Port of L.A. for March released on Monday shows a 7% increase in exports compared to the same month last year, with 132,000 containers leaving the port despite the turmoil in the Middle East.

“That's the highest output number for the export containers that we've seen in nearly two years,” Gene Seroka, the executive director of the Port of L.A. “While encouraging, we have much more work to do to develop a consistent upward trend."

The overall percentage change in container traffic in and out of the port in March is in the single digits, a 3% drop compared to the same month last year. Seroka said that’s because uncertainty over tariffs a year ago led companies to scramble to get their products through ports.

The longstanding trade deficit continues

However, while there’s an upward trend in exports, the data confirms something that’s been true for years: the U.S. is in a trade deficit. In March, overseas companies sent about three times more goods to consumers here than were sent out of the port by American companies. Last month, the port processed over 380,000 incoming containers, mostly from China, Vietnam and Japan.

That trans-Pacific commerce is insulating the Port of L.A. container volume from one of the most consequential geopolitical conflicts in recent memory — the war with Iran.

“So far, it's a concern, but it's not a worry,” Seroka said.

An electric top handler moves cargo off of semi-trucks at the Port of Los Angeles.

(

Joel Angel Juarez

/

CalMatters

)

Foreign shipping companies that do business with the Port of L.A., as well as ports in the Middle East, are doing what they can to protect their trade with the U.S., Seroka said.

“The transpacific business is the most lucrative of any east west [trade] for the service providers and shipping lines… they'll go to great lengths to make sure those supply chains remain intact,” he said.

The port is the busiest in the Western hemisphere, generating more than $300 billion in trade last year, making it an important regional and national economic engine.

But the war is affecting shipping companies and consumers in other ways. The price of gasoline has gone up, as well as cargo ship fuel, which will likely be passed on to consumers.

As a potentially historic El Niño continues to build, Gov. Gavin Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency on Monday ahead of winter storms and high tides that could wreak havoc on the state.

Forecasters predict that much of California could have above-average precipitation and temperatures this winter. The potential storms could pile on top of El Niño-induced higher sea levels and record-high king tides.

As a result, Newsom is directing state agencies to begin preparing vulnerable communities and roads, stage emergency supplies and work in at-risk areas to reduce flooding potential. He has also directed state agencies to fast-track permitting and cut red tape to ready the state for El Niño effects.

Cars drive on Highway 101 flooded by the “King Tides” on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, near Corte Madera in Marin County, California.

(

Ethan Swope

/

AP Photo

)

“We are preparing for this El Niño early because every Californian deserves to be safe in their home, connected to their community, and protected when severe weather comes,” Newsom said in a statement.

El Niño forms when tropical trade winds weaken or reverse, allowing warm ocean water near Asia to slosh toward the Pacific Coast. That warming can reshape the jet stream and bring stormier weather across California while disrupting the ocean’s nutrient-rich upwelling, heating coastal waters, raising sea levels and stressing marine life.

National forecasters with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report that the natural climate phenomenon is strengthening, with a greater than 90% chance of a very strong event and a 75% chance of a historic event this fall and winter.

Exactly what the weather will look like this fall and winter is — quite literally — still up in the air. But similar events in past El Niño years have brought torrential downpours, coastal flooding, mudslides, power outages and giant waves.

“Climate-driven El Niño conditions could mean months of dangerous weather, heavy rain, strong winds, deep mountain snow, flooding, and Californians should understand this clearly,” said Caroline Thomas Jacobs, director of the California Office of Emergency Services. “Storms are among the deadliest disasters we face here in California, and one of the greatest dangers is still people underestimating the power of water.”

To prepare for what might happen, the emergency proclamation mobilizes resources in support of the state’s flood-risk-reduction efforts. The California Department of Water Resources has staged 4.4 million sandbags, 400,000 tons of rock, 68 stockpile locations, eight warehouses and 211 flood material containers across the state. State leaders have not yet put a price tag on the flood work.

Laura Hollender, deputy director of the Department of Water Resources, stressed that Bay Area counties, like Marin, that deal with flooding issues should alert the public as soon as possible about the risk because “even without storms” coastal areas may see flooding this winter.

“I think early messaging and early preparation for those communities is going to be really important this year,” Hollender said.

Caltrans will also place traffic-control, road-closure and snow-removal equipment along the highways most at risk. The California National Guard will also be ready for things like flood response and search-and-rescue operations.

Plastic sheeting and sandbags are placed outside a home along Golden Hind Passage, as residents prepare for potential king tide flooding, in Corte Madera, on June 15, 2026.

(

Gustavo Hernandez

/

KQED

)

State agencies are also preparing for the adverse effects of too much precipitation, flooding, landslides and debris flows by fast-tracking permitting and identifying other ways to cut red tape.

“The emergency order is very clear that we are to exercise whatever emergency authorities we have and our entities within our agencies have to enable this work to happen quickly and efficiently to be in place for when this fall weather could come this winter,” said Wade Crowfoot, California Secretary of Natural Resources.

Newsom’s order also directs the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services to expand multilingual messaging about preparedness, power outages, extreme weather, evacuation and alerts.

State leaders are also prepared to ask the federal government for assistance if needed.

“We remain hopeful that they will be responsive when we do have the need, if we were to get an incident that rose to the level of needing a federal declaration,” Thomas Jacobs said.

This story first appeared on Long Beach Post.

When a school suddenly loses its name, what should the new one represent? At the Long Beach campus formerly known as César Chávez Elementary, students and parents had a clear-eyed answer: It should represent them.

Long Beach Unified is kicking off an official renaming process for the school, and at Thursday’s back-to-school night families came ready with their suggestions.

Sea Lion Elementary (a nod to the school’s mascot) and Long Beach Elementary have proven popular choices among students, according to one Chávez teacher. 

Many suggestions from parents converged around themes of unity, community and place. Dimarrie Price, who has three daughters at Chávez, suggested “Third Street Elementary” while Elicia Duran, whose daughter is in second grade, suggested “Golden Elementary,” each inspired by the streets bordering the school. 

Other parents said they hoped a new name could emphasize inclusion and togetherness. Johanna O. suggested Our School, and S. Kennedy — who asked not to have their full names printed — proposed The Family School. “It’s important to unify people by utilizing words that connect people,” Kennedy said.  

Long Beach Unified removed the school’s original name after revelations surfaced in March that Chávez had sexually abused girls and women. Since then, the school community has been using makeshift monikers and DIY-ing their school spirit wear to avoid invoking the labor activist.

“We just say ‘school,’” said Chávez parent Natalia Bermudez, an approach other parents said they’ve adopted in the vacuum of a new name. At back-to-school night, Laura Martinez sported a T-shirt adorned with patches that obscured Chávez’s name. New apparel featuring Sea Lion Scholars was also available.

A 2019 event celebrated Cesar Chavez Day at Cesar Chavez Elementary School.

(

Bill Alkofe

/

Long Beach Post

)

Calls for LBUSD to adopt a new name have mounted as other schools, parks and monuments named for the political activist have had their names taken down. In the last six months, the district has removed murals depicting Chávez, unveiled new art and removed signs with the school’s name, priming the campus and community for a new identity. 

In the meantime, parents have been talking to their kids about the upcoming change, attempting to tailor the message to young children. 

Martinez’s daughter, a current Chávez student, heard about her school in the news, prompting Martinez to explain the situation. “There’s people in this world that do good things that are for good causes, but do bad things to people,” she said she told her daughter. “Just because they’ve done something right doesn’t make them a good person inside.”

Some Chávez parents explained that once more information had surfaced, they could no longer honor Chávez as they had previously — and that they had a responsibility to course correct. “We find out things and we do our best to correct what we can control,” Elicia Duran said she told her second grader. 

Now, the school community is being invited into the district’s process, and on Thursday, students and parents began submitting their suggestions

Though the district nomination form says that proposed names may fall into one of three categories — place, idea or person — one parent shied away from selecting a person’s name in case negative information comes to light in the future, she said. 

She said she wished the renaming process had occurred over the summer. Now, she said she hopes the process is completed by the end of the school year so that her fifth-grade daughter’s promotion certificate will say “anything but Chávez.” 

Proposed school names will be accepted through Friday, Sept. 25, and students, families, staff and members of the school community can submit names through an online Google form, at a community meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 23, or in the Chávez front office, according to a letter from the school’s principal, Brenda Ocampo, to the Chávez community. 

After that, the submissions will be reviewed and narrowed by an advisory committee, including parent representatives and Lucy Salazar, the director of engagement for LBUSD. On November 4, “a recommended school name will be brought forward for consideration by the LBUSD Board of Education,” according to another letter from Ocampo. 

“It’s been healing for us,” Ocampo said of the renaming process.

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

From the outside, the Gothic architecture of Masjid At-Thohir does not immediately announce itself as a neighborhood mosque.

The white facade, arched windows and steep roofline are now home to an Islamic community of Indonesians in Pico Union. 

For years, Indonesian Muslims in Southern California gathered at the Indonesian Consulate on Wilshire Boulevard for prayer. The congregation transformed a diplomatic space into a temporary spiritual refuge. The arrangement worked, but there was always a longing for home. 

“The idea is you want to have a space where you belong, be someone who is regular, and have a safe space. Those are things where you can grow as an individual,” said Honest Qashidi, 33, who serves as the resident Imam at Masjid At-Thohir. 

Women pray inside the mosque.

(

Avidha Raha

/

The LA Local

)

For Indonesian Muslims living across Los Angeles, it has become a kind of third space somewhere between the private world of home and the demands of work and public life. 

That distinction matters in Los Angeles, where the Indonesian community is substantial but geographically dispersed. Unlike communities with a concentrated ethnic neighborhood, Indonesian Angelenos do not have a single “Indonesia Town” around which daily life revolves, Qashidi said. The mosque on Kenmore Avenue is that constant for the community.

“For the elders, it’s where they find their nostalgia. It’s a home away from home. But folks that grew up here, and trying to make sense of what it means to belong in a place; that is the aim of what I am trying to do in this space,” Qashidi said. 

A gift to a father and community

Built in 1920, the building once served as the place of worship for the Los Angeles Samoan Community Christian church.

When that congregation left the neighborhood, the church’s pastor negotiated a deal in 2017 to sell the building to the Indonesia Muslim Foundation, the nonprofit group that coordinates activities in Los Angeles for the Indonesian Muslim community.

The nonprofit purchased the building for approximately $1.8 million, according to Qashidi.

Today, the historic structure is home to what many Indonesian Muslims in Los Angeles had long been missing: a mosque of their own.

A devotee praying from the Quran in the almost empty hall after the main prayer is over.

(

Avidha Raha

/

The LA Local

)

Qashidi said, “The pastor wanted this space, if it were to be passed down, it would still stay a space of worship.”

The sale and conversion of the building was made possible by Indonesian billionaire Garibaldi Thohir, former CEO of Alamtri Resources Indonesia, one of the world’s top coal exporters. Garibaldi studied at USC and his brother, Erick Thohir, was also educated in Southern California.

The doors at the mosque officially opened in March 2022 after several delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The mosque was named “At-Thohir” to honor their late father, Mochamad Thohir.

 “When we were studying in Los Angeles around 2015–2016, my father often visited,” Garibaldi said at the mosque’s opening, according to reporting from Indonesian media. “When he was going to Friday prayers, he often complained about the lack of a mosque nearby owned by the Indonesian community. That’s why we promised to make it happen.” 

‘I will make food every single Friday’

Calling At-Thohir simply a mosque misses the spectrum of events inside. Located not too far from Pico Boulevard, the mosque shares the neighborhood with other religious institutions like the Sae Han Korean Church and the Pico Union Shalom Ministries. 

Food is a big part of the social life, turning prayer gatherings into opportunities to linger over familiar flavors. Every Friday, after the prayer, lunch is served in the backyard. Home-cooked Indonesian food items like bakwan, satay, soto ayam, perkedel, tahu kuning, telur balado and tempeh. 

Lola Kamelia, left, Resy Ismail, Raninta Nailah and Lily Yulani serve lunch on a Friday after prayer.

(

Avidha Raha

/

The LA Local

)

Lily Yulani, 53, one of the women who helps with food every week, joked about her teenage son’s pronunciation of perkedel, a simple mashed potato patty dish. 

“My son cannot pronounce P-E-R-K-E-D-E-L yet, so he calls it C-R-O-C-O-D-I-L-E,” Yulani giggled. 

Resy Ismail, 65, the woman in charge of serving and preparing food on Fridays, said that much of the food is donated, but she will not let that stop her from giving back to the community. 

“Whether there is a donation or not, I will make food every single Friday,” Ismail said. 

Ismail is a rantang chef and brings the food from her home in stacked, metal containers. She is proud to serve the community and initiated the meal system in the mosque and continues to coordinate with whoever wants to contribute to the weekly food distribution. Together, they bring different home-cooked items to put together a meal for the visitors at the mosque. 

Imam Qashidi said that in a multicultural setting food becomes a gateway to culture. Born and raised in Los Angeles, he attended high school in Jakarta, Indonesia, completed his undergraduate degree in Egypt and is currently pursuing a degree in Islamic Studies from Bayan Islamic Graduate School.

“When you are in America, and you grew up with whatever background you have, the starting point is just food,” Qashidi said. 

The lunch is served to the guests at the mosque.

(

Avidha Raha

/

The LA Local

)

Third space

Apart from food being the most visible marker of community within the diaspora, there are regular Islamic studies classes on weekends taught by Qashidi. There are also workshops on calligraphy, immigration rights, digital literacy and Canva. 

Additionally, there are also dance and music classes that do not happen inside the mosque, but in the adjoining auditorium.

People can enroll in a traditional plate dance, or musical performances like Angklung and the Bedug, a large drum traditionally associated with communities in Indonesia.

Raninta Nailah, 13, a Pico Union resident and food distribution volunteer, tries to come to the mosque whenever she’s not in school. 

“It’s very close to my community and I feel safe,” Nailah said. “I come to Saturday school here for social studies and I feel good because I have been learning new stuff.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have required more polluting facilities built near homes and schools to undergo environmental review — a decision that keeps in place looser rules he championed to speed up development in California.

The bill authored by Sen. Catherine Blakespear, a Democrat from Encinitas, responded to fears raised by a chemical incident in Orange County that led to evacuation orders for 50,000 people.

It would have narrowed an exemption of the California Environmental Quality Act that covers a broad swath of advanced manufacturing sites. Only facilities handling the final stages of production would have kept the exemption.

In his veto letter on Friday, Newsom said Senate Bill 954 would have effectively repealed the advanced manufacturing exemption.

“Protecting communities and strengthening California’s advanced manufacturing economy are not mutually exclusive goals,” he said. “The exemption was designed to advance both and should be given a meaningful opportunity to work.”

Newsom added that if problems arise, the Legislature should address them through targeted changes “not by preemptively rolling back our progress.”

Blakespear in a statement said she’s disappointed by the veto and will raise the issue again next year.

She pointed to the near disaster GKN Aerospace in Garden Grove as an illustration of the danger.

“We should not have to wait for another emergency before recognizing that sweeping – and rushed – exemptions from environmental review need reasonable guardrails,” she said. “Protecting communities and workers is not an impediment to economic growth – it is part of responsible growth.”

Roots in last year's budget fight

The veto is a setback for legislators who advocated for fixing last year’s major overhaul of the state’s landmark environmental law, which Newsom had a heavy hand in shaping and pushed through by threatening to withhold budget funds if lawmakers refused to act.

Lawmakers went along with the overhaul, but expressed concerns about an unprecedented, broad exemption for polluting manufacturing sites from strip mines to clean energy projects.

Environmental advocates said the bill would have still allowed for manufacturing developments, with guardrails to protect communities.

“It's really unfortunate that we have to wait until something bad happens before we make an adjustment,” said Kim Delfino, a lobbyist for environmental justice groups. “A foundation of environmental law is the precautionary principle: that we try to protect instead of waiting for something bad to happen. This is flipping it on its head.”

Asha Sharma, deputy director at Sierra Club California, said California is losing “an important opportunity to protect communities that are once again being asked to bear the risks of industrial development without the safeguards and public participation they deserve.” .

Business and industry groups, including the Bay Area Council and the California Manufacturers & Technology Association, opposed the bill and praised Newsom’s veto, arguing it would stunt economic development.

“From autonomous vehicles and clean energy systems to revolutionary medical devices and digital technologies, advanced manufacturing is building the future and creating the good-paying, high-skilled jobs that California desperately needs,” said Libby Schaaf, chief executive of the Bay Area Council.  

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