The Brief

That dream event for a food writer, the L.A. County Fair, starts today at the Pomona Fairplex, and runs through May 26.

What better way to test your palate — and stomach — than scarfing down fried food in all its rainbow variety? So earlier this week, I went to the fairgrounds to attend the media food preview.

I was accompanied by a cadre of local food influencers I recognized from Instagram and TikTok. (Like me, their family members are no doubt asking them if this is really what they do for work.)

Howdy, Thummer — so named because he appears to have been hitching a ride since his debut 75 years ago.

(

L.A. County Fair

)

We were given goodie bags with various branded L.A. County Fair ephemera, much of which includes the likeness of an anthropomorphized cartoon pig named Thummer, who has been the face of the fair organization since 1948. He looks good for being in his 70s — not a wrinkle on him. (He's named Thummer because his hoof looks like he's thumbing a ride).

In addition to the Thummer-themed goodies, the bag contained a white bucket hat. I was instructed to take it to a booth where an airbrush artist would personalize it with my name and a couple of preselected designs. So I dropped it off and was told to pick it up later. More on that soon.

So there we all were on a slightly overcast morning in Pomona, where internet culture and fair culture mixed like a cartoon crossover episode warning about the dangers of taking drugs. Yet, instead of a moral message, my compatriots and I were primarily focused on how many creative angles we could film ourselves stuffing our faces under the best lighting.

I peeled myself off, made a plan for my review of the fairgrounds tasting menu, and set off.

Meatball mozzarella corn dog

Much like the name itself, this was a mouthful. But not in the ways that you’d expect.

My first bite of the battered "dog" was not what I'd hoped — juicy meatball, gooey cheese. Instead, I got a large helping of only slightly melted mozzarella, which felt somewhat disappointing.

I took matters into my own hands, removing the dog from its stick, tearing it apart and searching for the meat as our hunter-gatherer ancestors would have. I was successful. But the meatball lacked any seasoning and couldn't be rescued, despite numerous dunkings into a side of marinara sauce.

Rating: 1 out of 5

Anaheim chile poppers

The Anaheim chile popper, topped with a cheese sauce and crushed Flamin’ Hot Cheetos ranked high in our taste test.

(

Gab Chabrán

/

LAist

)

Next up was a series of grilled Anaheim chiles, cooked down and dolloped with a queso-like dip, almost bechamel adjacent, similar to what might be found in a homemade macaroni and cheese. It was then sprinkled with crumbled-up bits of hot Cheetos.

I was surprised how much I liked this. Perhaps I was showing my age, but the simple construction of peppers, cheese, and spicy bits worked exceptionally well.

I’m not usually one to go for Hot Cheeto-branded products for fear that it might wreak a certain kind of havoc on my insides, but this particular dish felt decently balanced. (And indeed kept my insides intact).

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Jerk lobster mac and cheese

The jerk lobster mac and cheese, a savory bomb, filled with spice.

(

Gab Chabrán

/

LAist

)

Speaking of mac ‘n cheese, it was time for the next dish, which felt like something conjured by Chat GPT when you type "fair food.” To my surprise, this dish with its bookoo flavors managed to walk the line between salty and spicy hot.

The meatiness of the lobster was so prominent that I pondered how many lobsters had lost their limbs for this dish. Despite that passing thought, I continued with more forkfuls, chasing the spice dragon to get my fix, with the flavors releasing just the right amount of dopamine in my brain.

After finally coming to my senses, I found myself extraordinarily thirsty but still feeling like a million bucks, and it was time to find something to drink before I consumed my next dish.

Rating: 3 out 5

Pickle lemonade

LAist Food Editor, Gab Chabrán, ponders his fate while taking a sip of pickle lemonade.

(

Marcellina Chappelle

/

LAist

)

Luckily, the good people at Hot Dog on a Stick had me covered. The local chain has been around since 1946 (making it two years older than one Thummer the pig), when it made its debut at Muscle Beach near the Santa Monica Pier.

The chain has built a name for itself slinging corn dogs and lemonade, and we were greeted by a row of employees wearing the iconic red, white, blue and yellow uniforms. This particular day, however, they had a new addition to the menu: pickle lemonade.

To say that I love pickles would be a drastic understatement. My fridge at home contains at least a couple of jars, not to mention the occasional jar of relish.

After taking one sip, it became clear that HDOAS had knocked it out of the park. The fresh, sweet lemonade and the salinity of the pickle brine played off each other exceptionally well. Its flavor combination resembled a fresher version of my preferred Gatorade flavor, Limon Pepino (cucumber lime).

After a couple of sips, though, one thing became abundantly clear: the salt content of the drink left me even more thirsty. Mission definitely not accomplished.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

A break from eating to watch some pig races

I then realized it was time for the pig races, and we made our way over to the small racetrack. A gentleman who owned the pig racing company played an EDM version of Cotton Eyed Joe to hype up the audience, who were about to be inundated with cuteness from the little pigs running as fast as they could.

The hype worked. My fellow internet personalities danced and twerked, filming each other for meme-worthy moments to share with their followers.

After the pig races, we were informed that we would be treated to a special race featuring baby lambs. Let me tell you, if you haven’t witnessed four baby lambs making their way down the racetrack to get to a bottle of milk at the end while Justin Timberlake’s Can’t Stop the Feeling is playing, then you truly haven't experienced life.

Behold the Ga LAist bucket hat, his parting gift after stuffing his face at the L.A. County Fair Media Day.

(

Marcellina Chappelle

/

LAist

)

It was then time to pick up my personalized, airbrushed bucket hat. I wandered over to the booth, excited to see “Gab Chabran LAist” as I’d ordered, along with my selected image of a corn dog (because what else), so that I could be the envy of all my friends and co-workers.

Instead, it came with the inscription “Ga LAist.” Sigh. When I went back and asked if I could get another, I was told that was what I had written down (it wasn’t) and that there were no more hats. I wasn’t going to fight over a free airbrushed hat. I accepted my fate as Ga LAist and moved on.

Time for dessert

Gab Chabrán, LAist food editor, gets lost in the cheese while consuming his Korean corndog covered with condensed milk and Fruity Pebbles.

(

Marcellina Chappelle

/

LAist

)

I went down to the final stand, which advertised Korean Corn Dogs. The Korean-style corn dog offered that day was deep-fried, slathered with condensed milk, and topped with Fruity Pebbles.

I felt myself fill with childlike excitement, as if the entire day's events had been leading up to this, misnamed bucket hats be damned.

I took my first bite and found cheese — a surprising amount, which buried the hot dog underneath. Truthfully, although cheese is sometimes a feature of K-dogs, it’s not something I usually order, so it caught me a little off guard.

Rating: 1 out of 5

Where's the antacid?

At that point, it was time to hit the brakes. The oversaturated, condensed milk corn dog batter had stolen a little bit of my soul, and it was time to call it a day.

I knew that I'd had my fill of cheese, fried food, and general county fair overstimulation, and I should call it while I still had a modicum of dignity.

I felt fine after consuming everything I did that day, I attribute that to having a strong stomach (knock on wood).

That being said, I'm glad the county fair only comes around once a year, so I don't have to subject myself to this type of abuse regularly.

Ga LAist out.

As Los Angeles homeowners grapple with the expense of rebuilding after last year’s devastating fires, an L.A. City Councilmember is putting forward an idea that could lower some costs.

Councilmember Traci Park, who represents the Pacific Palisades, has introduced a motion to explore waiving part of the city’s portion of the local sales tax for fire victims who purchase rebuilding materials in the city.

The 1% of the local 9.75% sales tax that goes into the city’s general fund would be given back to consumers under the proposal. The waiver could apply to lumber, appliances and other rebuilding goods purchased within the city.

The motion, introduced Friday by Park and seconded by Councilmember John Lee, says: “The City should do everything within its power to alleviate the financial burden for these residents and businesses in order to facilitate their return and stabilize the Pacific Palisades community.”

Would it make much of a difference? 

Economists told LAist the proposal could help many homeowners mitigate the high cost of rebuilding, but likely wouldn’t tip the scales for under-insured, under-resourced property owners.

“It wouldn't hurt if it's very well designed and easy to use,” said Alexander Meeks, a director at the Santa Monica-based Milken Institute. “But I'm not sure if it's really going to tackle the scale of the financial challenge that survivors are facing.”

Meeks noted that the tax waiver wouldn’t lower up-front costs such as environmental testing, architectural design and permitting. And it may not help homeowners sourcing raw materials from outside the city.

Zhiyun Li, a UCLA Anderson School of Management economist, said the waiver could help some homeowners justify the additional cost of rebuilding more fire-safe structures.

“Homeowners must typically pay out of pocket to upgrade to IBHS+ standards, which are more stringent,” Li said. “The tax waiver could encourage upgrading to IBHS+ standards or investing more in mitigation, thereby reducing future risk and improving the likelihood of maintaining insurance coverage.”

What’s next for the proposal? 

The proposed tax relief would not be available to properties that have been sold since the fires started in January 2025.

The motion has been sent to the City Council’s budget and fire recovery committees. If approved by the full council, it would require the city administrative officer, the Office of Finance and the city attorney to report back to the council within 60 days on options for crafting a tax relief plan.

The motion calls for the report to consider factors such as how to minimize the burden of administering the tax relief, what documentation homeowners would have to submit and what it would cost the city to oversee the program.

Senate and House Republican leadership have resurrected a stalled plan to fund the Department of Homeland Security after a record 47-day funding lapse.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said in a joint statement on Wednesday that the House will take up a measure passed by the Senate last week to fund most of DHS except Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol through the end of September.

Republicans would then attempt to fund ICE and Border Patrol for three years using a party-line budget reconciliation bill that would not require support from Democrats.

"In following this two-track approach, the Republican Congress will fully reopen the Department, make sure all federal workers are paid, and specifically fund immigration enforcement and border security for the next three years so that those law-enforcement activities can continue uninhibited," Thune and Johnson wrote.

The agreement comes nearly a week after House Republicans dismissed an identical plan, refusing to take up the Senate-passed measure and instead passing a 60-day short term funding bill for all of DHS that had little chance of overcoming Democratic opposition in the Senate.

Johnson called the agreement a "joke" and President Donald Trump declined to publicly endorse the deal. Trump had previously resisted any package that did not include his push to overhaul federal elections known as the Save America Act.

"I think any deal they make, I'm pretty much not happy with it," Trump told reporters last week.

Democrats welcomed the agreement as in line with their pledge not to give ICE any more money without reforms after immigration enforcement agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. But the deal does not include any of the policy demands Democrats are pressing for, such as a ban on masks for immigration enforcement officers and requiring warrants issued by a judge, not just the agency, to enter homes.

"For days, Republican divisions derailed a bipartisan agreement, making American families pay the price for their dysfunction," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote in a statement Wednesday. "Throughout this fight, Senate Democrats never wavered."

Trump seemed to bless the revived plan earlier Wednesday, writing on social media that he wants a party-line bill to fund immigration enforcement on his desk by June 1.

"We are going to work as fast, and as focused, as possible to replenish funding for our Border and ICE Agents, and the Radical Left Democrats won't be able to stop us," Trump wrote.

Despite the shutdown, ICE has been minimally impacted because Republican lawmakers approved $75 billion for ICE through another party-line budget reconciliation bill last year.

Congress is on a two-week recess, but the Senate and House could move to fund all of DHS except ICE and CBP as early as Thursday using a procedure known as unanimous consent that allows the chambers to circumvent formal voting as long as no member objects.

Even during a recess when most members are not in Washington, this could be unpredictable, especially in the House, where many hard-line conservatives oppose a deal that does not fully fund DHS.

"Let's make this simple: caving to Democrats and not paying CBP and ICE is agreeing to defund Law Enforcement and leaving our borders wide open again," Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., a member of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, wrote on X. "If that's the vote, I'm a NO."

If a member does object, that could require waiting for another vote when all members are back from recess.

Claudia Grisales contributed reporting.
Copyright 2026 NPR

California clocked its second-worst snowpack on record Wednesday, a potentially troubling signal ahead for fire season.

It’s an alarming end to a winter that saw abnormally dry conditions briefly wiped from California’s drought map in January, for the first time in a quarter-century.

Though precipitation to date has been near average, much of it fell as rain rather than snow. Then March’s record-breaking heat melted most of the snow that remains. The state’s major reservoirs are nevertheless brimming above historic averages and are flirting with capacity, and a smattering of snow, rain and thunderstorms are dousing last month’s heat wave.

But experts now warn that California’s case of the missing snowpack could herald an early fire season in the mountains.

On Wednesday, state engineers conducting the symbolic April 1 snowpack measurement at Phillips Station south of Lake Tahoe found no measurable snow in patches of white dotting the grassy field.

“I want to welcome you call to probably one of the quickest snow surveys we’ve had — maybe one where people could actually use an umbrella,” joked Karla Nemeth, director of the California Department of Water Resources. “We’re getting a lot of questions about are we heading into a hydrologic drought? The answer is, I don’t know.”

State data reports that California’s snowpack is closing out the season at an alarming 18% of average statewide, and an even more abysmal 6% of average in the northern mountains that feed California’s major reservoirs.

Only the extreme drought year of 2015 beat this year’s snowpack for the worst on record, measuring in at just 5% of average on April 1st, when the snow historically is at its deepest.

“I think everyone's anticipating that it will be a long, busy fire season,” said Lenya Quinn-Davidson, director of the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources Fire Network.

“Without a snowpack, and with an early spring, it just means that there’s much more time for something like that to happen.”

‘It’s pretty bizarre up here’ 

In the city of South Lake Tahoe, which survived the massive Caldor Fire in the fall of 2021 without losing any structures, fire chief Jim Drennan said his department is already ramping up prevention efforts.

“It's pretty bizarre up here right now. It really seems like June conditions more than March,” Drennan said. “People are already turning the sprinklers on for their lawns.”

Without more precipitation, an early spring may complicate prescribed burning efforts. But Drennan said fire agencies in the Tahoe basin can start mechanically clearing fuels from forest areas earlier than usual.

“That means we can get more work done,” he said.

It also means homeowners need to start hardening their homes now, said Martin Goldberg, battalion chief and fuels management officer for the Lake Valley Fire Protection District, which protects unincorporated communities in the Lake Tahoe Basin’s south shore.

Goldberg urges residents to scour their yards for burnable materials, create defensible space and reach out to local fire departments with questions. The risks are widespread — from firewood, wooden fences, gas cans, plants, pine needles — even lawn furniture stacked against a house.

“In years past, I wouldn't even think of raking and clearing until May,” Goldberg said. “But my yard's completely cleared of snowpack, and it has been for a couple weeks now.”

‘A haystack fire’

Battalion chief David Acuña, a spokesperson for Cal Fire, said fire season is shaped by more than just one year’s snowpack.

Climate change has been remaking California’s fire seasons into fire years. And California’s recent average to abundant water years have fueled what Acuña called “bumper crops of vegetation and brush.”

“Most of California is like a haystack. And if you’ve ever seen a haystack fire, they burn very intensely because there's layers of fuel,” Acuña said.

Like Quinn-Davidson, Acuña wasn’t ready to make specific predictions about fires to come.

But John Abatzoglou, a professor of climatology at UC Merced, said the temperatures and snowpack conditions this year offer a glimpse of California in the latter decades of this century, as fossil fuel use continues to drive global temperatures higher.

How this year’s fires will play out will depend on when, where and how wind, heat, fuel and ignitions combine. But it foreshadows the consequences of a warmer California for water and fire under climate change.

“This,” Abatzoglou said, “is yet another stress test for the future in the state.”

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