The Brief

Heavy smoke from the Airport, Line and Bridge fires has been giving Southern California communities a hard time for multiple days now.

When smoke and ash settle into your neighborhood, it irritates your eyes, nose, throat, and lungs. That can cause long-term damage, which is why it could be time to start wearing a mask.

How wildfires affect your health

When you breathe in wildfire smoke, very small particles get inside your body. But what those particles are, exactly, depends on what’s burning.

Ed Avol is a professor emeritus of USC’s Keck School of Medicine and was chief of its environmental health division. He said the first thing most people think about with wildfires is the wood aspect.

“I think what people often forget, though, is we often are also exposed to a lot of other things,” Avol said. “For example, if buildings are involved, or if cars or vehicles or other materials are involved, you get into all other kinds of exposure.”

Smoke can be made up of things we can see and things we can’t, which is why masks can help. Avol said there’s a lot of dirt, debris, and dust in smoke — often referred to as particulate matter. But we also inhale gasses like carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and more.

“Health studies show and tell us that persistent exposure to these sorts of things can affect our respiratory system and can affect our cardiovascular system,” Avol said.

Groups who are especially sensitive to smoke include:

• People with asthma
• People with cardiovascular diseases
• People with respiratory diseases
• People over 65
• Young children
• Pregnant women

Is there a difference between smoke and ash?

The view from Griffith Park as a plume rises from the Bridge Fire burning in Angeles National Forest on Monday

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Being around either of these can cause problems for you, but there is a difference. Avol said the larger ash particles — things we can visibly see — may be less of a problem for a couple of reasons.

“We can see them, so we know to avoid them,” Avol said. “Secondly, because they’re larger, if we’re breathing through our nose, they tend to be taken out by the filtration systems in our nose. The larger particles get trapped either in the upper airways or in our nose, and then we just sort of blow our nose and sneeze it out.”

The more difficult issues are the smaller particles that get into our respiratory system. Once they pass the air blood barrier in the lungs, they can get into the circulatory system and go anywhere in the body.

When should I start wearing a mask?

If you’re very close to the fires or in a smokey area, Avol has some tips for how to tell when it’s time to put one on.

“If you go outside and can smell smoke, if you go outside and see that the sky is kind of brownish, gray, hazy… then you might consider, depending on your respiratory health, consider wearing those masks,” Avol said.

You can also check air quality maps around you to see what pollutant levels are. If your neighborhood is in an orange, red or even purple area, then it’s time.

What mask works best against smoke and ash?

One of the best masks should already be familiar to you from the pandemic: an N95 mask. These are particulate respirators recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies. Ones with a valve are fine to use.

“These are masks that are rated and tested to provide protection to at least 95% effectiveness for small particles, which are exactly the main problem, the main culprit, if you will, in wildfire smoke,” Avol said.

These masks are regulated by the CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and will have “NIOSH” printed on them. N95 masks will almost always have two straps that go around your head — not ear loops — for a tighter fit that prevents outside air from getting in.

3M brand N95 particulate respirators are displayed on a table.

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KN95s are similar to N95s, but these Chinese-equivalents aren’t regulated by NIOSH and use ear loops. Still, these masks are 95% effective and have less air leakage than a surgical mask.

The mask market is also riddled with fakes, so consult the CDC’s guide to spotting them if you’re not sure about the authenticity of your N95. The CDC has a list of NIOSH-approved respirators. Approval numbers are also required to be printed on the product, which can be looked up on the CDC’s certified equipment list.

A P100 respirator mask could also protect you from smoke, but Avol said those go beyond what most people need.

What about kids?

If you’re looking to protect your children, hold on before strapping N95s to their faces. NIOSH hasn’t approved these masks for kids, which means there is a dearth of sizes.

“Trying to put an adult-sized face mask onto a child just doesn't work because it doesn’t seal well against their face,” Avol said. “It basically just leaks and so you mistakenly think you’re protecting your child and you’re not really doing that much.”

The mask does come in smaller adult sizes that could fit an older child’s face, or you could opt for a child’s KN95 mask.

Avol said another solution can simply be going inside. That reduces your child’s exposure to the outside, provided your home is not leaking air.

“It may be a better day to do more reading,” Avol said. “Dare I say even watch TV or do something to minimize the increased ventilation on these particularly smoky days.”

Resources to prep and cope with wildfire

• Listen to The Big Burn, our podcast that will get you motivated to get ready
• Wildfires are getting worse. What you need to know
• Every day is now fire season. Let's get you ready for the next wildfire burning near you
• Evacuation terms can be confusing. Here’s what they mean and how to sign up for alerts
• How to keep yourself safe from wildfire smoke
• This is why fire officials don't want you to stay and defend your home
• What does 'containment' of a fire mean, exactly
• What to do — and not do — when you get home after a wildfire
• If you want to help fire victims, resist the urge to volunteer

Big Bear’s famous bald eagle couple, Jackie and Shadow, now have a pair of eggs to look after.

Jackie welcomed the second egg of the season around 5:10 p.m. Monday, according to Friends of Big Bear Valley, the nonprofit that runs a popular YouTube livestream centered on the nest overlooking Big Bear Lake.

More than 22,000 people were watching the livestream when Jackie welcomed the new addition, up from more than 14,000 viewers when the first egg arrived Friday afternoon.

The season so far

Jackie laid the first egg around 4:30 p.m. Friday, with Shadow stopping by to see it for the first time about 10 minutes later, according to Friends of Big Bear Valley records.

It was almost exactly a year after the feathered duo welcomed the first egg of the 2025 season.

Jackie tends to lay eggs three days apart, and the second egg arrived right on schedule.

Jackie could be seen rousing and puffing up her feathers about a half-hour before laying the second egg. She made a high-pitched whistling tea kettle noise a little before 5 p.m. Monday.

Officials from Friends of Big Bear Valley have told LAist those behaviors are signs an egg is imminent.

“She looks almost royal, because all of her feathers are out and it's just — I cry,” Jenny Voisard, the organization’s media and website manager, said with a laugh last week. “It's usually pretty amazing.”

The eagle pair typically takes turns caring for their eggs. Shadow visited the nest for nearly three hours across nine incubation “daddy duty” sessions on Sunday, according to organization records.

What’s ahead for the nest

Jackie has laid up to three eggs in a clutch, including in each of the past two seasons, so fans could see another egg arrive this week.

A clutch refers to the group of eggs laid in each nesting attempt. Bald eagles generally have one clutch per season, according to Friends of Big Bear Valley. A second clutch is possible if the eggs don’t make it through the early incubation process.

For example, Jackie laid a second clutch in February 2021 after the first round of eggs was broken or destroyed by ravens the month before.

The Big Bear eagles also practice delayed incubation, which is when Jackie and Shadow don’t apply their full body heat to the eggs until the whole clutch is laid.

Waiting to incubate full time helps the eggs hatch closer together, making the chicks more similar in size and age, which the organization says gives them a better chance of survival.

Jackie and Shadow successfully delayed incubation for their trio of eggs last season, according to Friends of Big Bear Valley. Sunny and Gizmo hatched and later went on to fledge, or fly away from the nest for the first time, last summer.

Chicks? Chicks soon??

Once egg-laying is over, the chick countdown is on.

Jackie and Shadow's usual incubation time is around 35 to 39 days, starting when the eagles begin to fully incubate their clutch, according to Friends of Big Bear Valley.

Last season, the first egg hatched at around 40 days old, the second egg hatched around 38 days old and the third egg around 39 days old.

“Pip Watch” — short for pipping, which is the first hole an eaglet makes as it emerges from its egg — is typically announced by Friends of Big Bear Valley before chicks break through each season.

Last year’s Pip Watch kicked off in March, a few days before the first chick hatched in the nest.

The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights announced a new lawsuit Monday against federal immigration agencies for claims of inhumane conditions at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in San Bernardino County.

The organization claims people detained in the Adelanto facility lack drinkable water, healthy food, clean clothes, places to sleep and access to medical care. Failing to provide these basic necessities, CHIRLA says in court documents, amounts to punishment — violating detainees rights to due process.

“ We are really at a moment where we are seeing a human rights crisis right before our eyes,” CHIRLA policy director Jeanette Zanipatin said at a news conference Monday. “And the detention centers, especially the one at Adelanto, is where we are seeing it unfold in real time.”

Immigrant Defenders Law Center, Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP and Public Counsel are assisting in the case against Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security.

 ”We're asking both that the judge force Adelanto, the detention facility, to ensure that basic medical care is being provided, that basic hygiene and sanitary conditions, food and water are provided, and that oversight is conducted over the facility,” said Alvaro Huerta, director of litigation and advocacy at Immigrant Defenders Law Center.

ICE and Homeland Security have not responded to LAist about the case or claims in this article.

A question of constitutional rights

When CHIRLA announced the lawsuit on Monday, Zanipatin said there has been “a long history of unsafe and abusive conditions” at the Adelanto facility. She referenced a July 2025 report from the nonprofit Disability Rights California that found conditions at the facility were “dangerous and inadequate for all people, especially for those with disabilities.”

Court documents filed by CHIRLA also reference previous reports that found issues at the facility, including a 2018 report from the DHS Office of Inspector General that found “a number of serious issues that violate ICE’s 2011 Performance-Based National Detention Standards and pose significant health and safety risks at the facility.”

Those issues included findings of nooses in detainees’ cells, improper use of disciplinary segregation and inadequate medical care.

“Based on interviews with detainees and medical staff and a review of independent reports,” the report states, “we concluded that detainees do not have timely access to proper medical care.”

CHIRLA claims in their lawsuit that Adelanto leadership rejected the findings of the inspector general report and took no corrective action.

The concerns raised by CHIRLA as they announced the lawsuit closely resemble the findings of Disability Rights California, which also claimed detainees were not provided adequate medical care, food, water or clean clothing. The organization also reported that some people had limited access to communication with their loved ones.

Huerta claimed that the conditions in the Adelanto facility are poor by design.

“ Adelanto, like most ICE prisons, is engineered to be so punishing, so relentlessly soul crushing, that people abandon their rights and accept deportation even when they have strong asylum claims or a clear pathway to legal status,” Huerta said.

He said 32 people died while detained by ICE nationwide in 2025, and at least 6 more have died in January. Two people died at Adelanto last fall, Huerta said.

Family members speak out

Mariel Garcia told LAist she would call her father, Gabriel Garcia-Aviles, nearly every day. That ended when he was detained by immigration agents in Costa Mesa on Oct. 14.

Garcia-Aviles had a work permit, his daughter said, but he was detained and taken to Adelanto. She said she tried many times to ask the facility staff to allow her to call her father, or even to get an update on his condition, but she was never able to talk to him again.

Worried, she said she got a call from the staff at Adelanto.

“ They called me the day he was passing away,” Garcia told LAist, “They're like, go tell your family and friends to come and say their last goodbyes because your father's in critical condition.”

Her brother, Gabriel Garcia, said that when they arrived at the hospital their father was intubated and “lifeless." Still, he said, there were law enforcement officers standing outside the hospital room.

Garcia-Aviles died Oct. 23 at age 56.

Jose Ayala also talked about the loss of his brother, Ismael Ayala-Uribe, while he was detained in the Adelanto facility.

“ He was there for about a month and we knew nothing of his condition,” Ayala said at Monday’s press conference, “just that he was sick and that he wasn't getting any help when he asked.”

Ayala said his family learned of his brother’s death when the police came and knocked at their door. He said staff at Adelanto did not tell them Ayala-Uribe had been hospitalized or that he needed a surgery, which ICE said in a news release was for an abscess.

Ayala told LAist that he was able to talk with his brother over the phone a couple of times when he was detained, and Ayala-Uribe was joking with him about the poor conditions of the facility causing him to lose weight.

“ One of the last things he told me,” Ayala recalled, “was, ‘We'll see who comes out skinnier.’”

He said his brother was 39 when he died on Sept. 22, 2025.

CHIRLA alleges in court documents that staff at Adelanto were aware Ayala-Uribe was having a potentially life-threatening medical emergency three days before his death, but he was taken back to his cell after being seen by the facility’s medical team.

An ICE news release said Ayala-Uribe “was evaluated by an on-call medical provider Sept. 18, provided medication, and returned to his dormitory,” but did not mention the severity of his condition.

The cause of both deaths remain under investigation, CHIRLA said in an accompanying news release.

The second deadly shooting of a U.S. citizen by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis is raising the prospect of a partial government shutdown at the end of the week.

Senate Democrats say they will not vote to fund the Department of Homeland Security without new guardrails for immigration enforcement.

But that opposition may also torpedo the larger $1.3 trillion spending package needed to keep large swaths of the federal government operational past Friday night.

"The appalling murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti on the streets of Minneapolis must lead Republicans to join Democrats in overhauling ICE and CBP to protect the public," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote on Sunday. "People should be safe from abuse by their own government."

Democrats were already raising alarms about the conduct of immigration officers before the latest killing in Minneapolis on Saturday.

Last week, all but seven House Democrats voted against the funding bill covering homeland security, which includes money for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection.

At the time, a few Senate Democrats also pledged to vote against the funding when it reached them this week, though the response across the Capitol was far from the near-unified opposition in the House.

That is because the House sent the DHS funding over to the Senate tied together with billions in spending for defense, health, transportation and other federal agencies, in part to expedite the process as Congress races to meet a Friday deadline to keep the government fully open.

"The hard truth is that Democrats must win political power to enact the kind of accountability we need," Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the top Democrat on the Senate appropriations committee, wrote in a statement last week saying she would vote for the total package.

After Pretti's shooting on Saturday by a Border Patrol agent, Murray said she would join her Democratic colleagues in opposing the funding.

Congress faces Friday deadline to avert a partial shutdown

The timeline was already tight once a winter storm delayed the first Senate votes of the week until Tuesday night. But the renewed debate over immigration enforcement is complicating the task more.

Schumer wants to cleave the DHS measure from everything else. The other remaining spending measures have overwhelming bipartisan support. Democrats want to continue negotiating the DHS funding bill without shutting down large parts of the government.

The funding measure needs to reach a 60-vote threshold to pass, meaning some Democratic support is needed for it to clear the Senate. But disentangling different parts of the legislation requires buy-in from Republicans, and so far, GOP leadership has not indicated that they are willing to separate the funding bills.

Flowers, signs and mementos are seen Monday at a makeshift memorial in the area where Alex Pretti was shot dead by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis. On January 24, federal agents shot and killed Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, while scuffling with him on an icy roadway.

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Senate Majority Leader John Thune's communications director, Ryan Wrasse, wrote on X on Monday that the Senate will proceed as planned to consider all the funding bills together.

"A government shutdown, even a partial one, does not serve the American people well," he wrote. "Hopefully Senate Democrats, who are actively engaged in conversations, can find a path forward to join us before this week's funding deadline hits."

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, the appropriations committee chair, told The New York Times over the weekend, "I'm exploring all options. We have five other bills that are really vital, and I'm relatively confident they would pass."

Collins, who is up for reelection and whose state is also a target of immigration raids by the Trump administration, is among the Republicans who have expressed fresh concerns about the tactics, calling for an investigation.

A handful of Republicans have called for congressional hearings or offered sharper criticism.

"My support for funding ICE remains the same," Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., wrote in a statement. "But we must also maintain our core values as a nation, including the right to protest and assemble."

Even if Democrats could convince Republicans to agree to separate DHS funding from the rest, that would mean the legislation needs approval again in the House, which is on recess until Feb. 2. It is unlikely that House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., would call members back to Washington early, increasing the risk of a partial shutdown.

Why Democrats are willing to risk another shutdown

Before this weekend, few lawmakers expressed appetite for another shutdown after a record 43-day one this fall. For weeks, Democrats withheld their votes from a short-term funding measure to reopen the government without a deal to extend expiring health insurance subsidies.

Eventually, a handful of Democrats joined with Republicans to reopen the government, with the promise of a vote on the subsidies. That vote failed in December. The deal included the passage of three bipartisan spending packages for veterans, agriculture and other areas through the end of September 2026 and a short-term extension for everything else through Jan. 30.

Congress has already passed several more full-year funding bills through September, but the measures still awaiting final passage in the Senate account for 75% of annual federal discretionary spending.

But even Democrats who ultimately voted with Republicans to end the last funding stalemate now say they will vote against the DHS funding despite the risk of another shutdown.

"We have bipartisan agreement on 96% of the budget," Sen. Catherine Cortez-Masto, D-Nev., wrote in a statement. "We've already passed six funding bills. Let's pass the remaining five bipartisan bills and fund essential agencies while we continue to fight for a Department of Homeland Security that respects Americans' constitutional rights and preserves federal law enforcement's essential role to keep us safe."

Federal agents look on as demonstrators gather near the site of where Alex Pretti was fatally shot by.

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Holding up the DHS funding bill would not halt the administration's immigration crackdown. Last summer, Congressional Republicans allocated $75 billion for ICE over four years in President Donald Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill."

Democrats say they do not want to give ICE the roughly $10 billion base funding that is on the line now. But more so, Democrats see this as rare leverage in the minority to extract policy changes.

Democrats already negotiated to include $20 million in funding for officer-worn body cameras, plus more funding for oversight and a reduction in funding for enforcement and removal operations and detention bed capacity. But most Democrats said this did not go far enough.

Democrats want more sweeping reforms to reign in the tactics, such as prohibiting ICE from deploying excessive force and explicitly preventing them from raiding places of worship, hospitals and schools. Republicans previously rejected these demands.

The DHS funding bill also includes funding for the Transportation Security Administration, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

But Democrats are betting that the American public is on their side. A recent New York Times poll found that a majority of respondents said the federal immigration tactics have gone too far.

Nearly $1.3 trillion in federal funding is at stake

The funding fight over DHS is the latest dispute over funding in Congress. Last year, the Trump administration moved to rescind billions in federal funding appropriated by Congress for foreign aid and public broadcasting — and proposed a budget slashing nondiscretionary funding by some 20%.

Instead, the final legislation keeps federal nondiscretionary spending essentially flat. For example, the administration called for cutting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention budget by 50%. Under the bipartisan health spending bill, the agency's funding would remain roughly unchanged.

Bill Hoagland, senior vice president of the Bipartisan Policy Center and a former longtime appropriations committee staffer, said this is striking considering Congress has mostly followed Trump's lead.

"Congress is starting to show a little bit of backbone," Hoagland said. "I think there is increasing recognition of the need to have Congress exert its power of the purse."

Hoagland also notes that Congress is nearly a quarter of the way into the fiscal year, so once lawmakers greenlight the remaining funding, it will not be too long before the appropriations process begins again.
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