The Brief

It can be difficult to watch a parent or loved one age, especially when they begin to need assistance. And it is even more of a challenge when you're tasked with becoming their primary caregiver.

On a recent episode of LAist's daily news program AirTalk, which airs on 89.3. FM, host Larry Mantle talked with gerontologist and director of the USC Family Caregiver Support Center Donna Benton about how to navigate the challenges of being a caregiver for a parent or parents — and got some tips from both Benton and AirTalk listeners on things they wish they'd known when taking on caregiving responsibilities.

Start a conversation early

When it comes to discussing your parents’ needs and wishes for elder care, Benton said it's best to plan ahead and not wait until there's a crisis.

“It's a heavy conversation to have, but I know most parents want to lessen the burden of their kids if they can,” she said. “So having that conversation, thinking through those things, is really, really helpful.”

AirTalk listener Anne in Huntington Beach is a caregiver for both her parents and seconded Benton's advice. She said one of the challenges she faced when first starting their care was trying to meet her parents’ needs and expectations for what at-home care looked like for them.

“That's probably one of the biggest lessons I learned is to have a conversation with your parents early,” Anne said. “What do you want? Are you OK being in a home? Do you want to be in your own home? And what does that look like? What do we need to do now to make sure that that can happen?”

At-home care requires financial planning and may entail modifying the home to make it more accessible for your aging loved-one, all things that need advanced preparation. It may also be beneficial to include your parent in the planning and decision process beyond just asking them what they want.

Diana in Fullerton emailed saying that when her father needed additional care, he helped interview home caregivers and that gave him a role in choosing who looked after him.

Know your options

“I think what's helpful for adult children is if [they] can learn about what options are out there, and what questions to ask about services and support in advance,” Benton said.

If your parent or loved one wants to stay at home, Benton said you'll want to find answers to questions like, what services are offered to help enable that? What do they cost? If your parent wants to stay at a facility or assisted living home, what places are in your area?

“Many times when [they] say, ‘Oh, I don't want to leave my home’ it’s because [they] have an image of a nursing home, but there are housing options that are in between...an assisted living facility or smaller, shared housing,” Benton said.

For those trying to make arrangements for loved ones who live out of state, Benton said to reach out to the area agency on aging, who will be able to tell you what the local resources are.

It's also important to understand what financial options are open to you and your loved one.

“Of course these do change, but there's some standard ones you should understand and help your parent understand,” she said. “What does Medicare pay for? What does Medi-Cal pay for if they're eligible?”

Reframe the idea of who is in need of care

Probably the biggest challenge when caring for an aging parent is getting them to accept your help in the first place. After all, you're their child and they may feel strange having the caregiver role reversed.

Benton recommends using this to your advantage, and appealing to your parent’s desire to care for you. Rather than framing the task as something your parent can no longer do on their own, Benton said to turn it around on yourself, as something you want to do or something that is actually helping you instead.

“If there's an objection, you might say, ‘I'm doing this because it makes me feel good. Let me do this as a favor because it makes me feel a little less anxious,’” she said.

It’s OK to ask others for help

Caring for an aging loved one can be isolating and exhausting. Benton said it's important to build a team around you for support so you can find time to also care for yourself. This can be siblings, other family members, or friends.

“Ask your parent, ‘If I can't be there or when I'm not there, who else would you like to help you?’” Benton said.

Anne in Brea said she leans on her sisters for help when caring for their mother.

“We take turns with things during the day so that I can get a little break and my sister, who was taking care of her, can also get a break,” she said.

Mark in the Fairfax district wrote in recommending people use a senior living consultant to help find the right care for their parents.

“I think using consultants can be really wonderful because they know the services and the right questions to ask, and they can cut some of that frustration that you're going to feel,” Benton said.

And finally, be flexible

“A big key is flexibility, and persistence,” Benton said.

Service options change, as well as financial assistance, so options that weren’t open to you and your parent last year, may be open to you the next, she added.

“It's not a one and done answer for anything,” Benton said.

Listen to the conversation

Californians could get instant rebates on electric vehicle purchases under Gov. Gavin Newsom's $200 million plan, which would require automakers to match state incentives dollar-for-dollar.

The plan, which the Legislature must still approve, lays out for the first time how the governor plans to steer a California-specific rebate program to bolster a slowing electric car market after the Trump administration cancelled federal incentives last year.

The California Air Resources Board would oversee the program, offering rebates at the point of sale to lower upfront costs for buyers instead of reimbursing them later. The draft does not specify rebate amounts, which the air board will determine during program design and discuss at a public workshop this spring, said Lindsay Buckley, a spokesperson for the agency.

The proposal exempts the program from the state’s usual rule-making requirements, allowing California to design and launch the rebates more quickly than typical for new programs.

Newsom first unveiled the incentive proposal as part of his January budget plan but released few initial details. State officials cast the subsidy as a response to President Donald Trump’s dismantling of incentives and blocking of California’s clean-vehicle mandate.

How the rebates would work

Outside experts and clean vehicle advocates said the details raise new questions about how the program would work in practice and who would benefit.

Ethan Elkind, a climate law expert at UC Berkeley, said structuring the incentives as grants allows the state to set the terms automakers must meet to access the money, giving California leverage over manufacturers.

But Mars Wu, a senior program manager with the Greenlining Institute, which advocates for investments in communities of color, said the draft plans fall short on equity, arguing the proposal does little to ensure the incentives reach the Californians who need them most.

“[The] proposal sets up a first-come, first-serve free-for-all scenario, which is not a prudent use of extremely limited public dollars in a deficit year,” she wrote in an email.

How far could the money go?

The proposal limits eligibility by vehicle price, not buyer income. New passenger cars qualify only if priced at or below $55,000, while vans, SUVs and pickup trucks are capped at $80,000. Used vehicles are limited to a sales price of $25,000. All vehicles must be registered to California residents.

The newly released details also add context about the size of the program. A CalMatters estimate of the governor’s initial proposal found that the $200 million would cover rebates for only about 20% of last year’s electric vehicle sales.

The proposed matching funds from auto manufacturers could allow the program to cover a larger share of buyers or provide larger point-of-sale rebates, depending on how the incentives are structured.

One clean car advocate said the details aren’t locked in yet — including how the rebates could be targeted. Wu said the state could move quickly without abandoning equity by deciding who qualifies in advance while still offering rebates at the dealership. “There is a way to balance equity and expediency,” Wu wrote.

On a clear January day about a week ago, California water resources engineer Jacob Kollen jammed a blue Mt. Rose sampler deep into the snow at Phillips Station, near Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada.

The second California Department of Water Resources survey of the season showed the snow was 23 inches deep, with a snow water equivalent (the amount of water contained) of eight inches. That’s just 46% of average, an alarming fall from the 89% of average seen at the beginning of the month.

These are crucial measurements to watch, as the snowpack is California’s most important reservoir. As snow melts throughout the year, it provides residents, agriculture and the state’s vast landscapes with much-needed moisture.

Our wet season began with quite a strong showing of rain, but a dry January coupled with warm weather has set California off in the wrong direction.

“ Statewide, we were better off last year than we are at this point,” said David Ricardo, the Department of Water Resources hydrology section manager, during a news conference about the snow survey results. “Something to be cognizant of, especially if we can make up more ground in the northern and central part of the Sierra Nevada.”

California's snowpack is at 56 percent of normal as of February 3, 2026.

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California Department of Water Resources

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As of Tuesday, the statewide snowpack is at just 56% of normal for this date, with the southern Sierra doing the heavy lifting at 74%. The central and northern portions are at 56% and 43% respectively.

For now, California reservoirs are well stocked, and drought conditions have been rained away, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. However, our snow water totals are just about in line with what we saw in 2012, the beginning of a catastrophic drought period.

Over in the Colorado River Basin, which supplies Southern California with about 20% of its water, snowpack is at about 64% of normal.

“ There's no way to sugarcoat it,” said Kathryn Sorensen,  director of research at the Kyl Center for Water Policy at Arizona State University. “ I've been doing Colorado River stuff for 25 years. This is the worst I've seen.”

In the upper basin, the snow water equivalent is lower than it was in 2002 — a period of time so alarmingly dry that seven states and Mexico came together to hash out how to manage Colorado River water. The agreement, which has been in place since 2007, is set to expire at the end of 2026.

Because California enjoys senior water rights, it’s unlikely that the state will see Colorado River cuts for the next couple of years, Sorensen said. Arizona, however, will.

The Climate Prediction Center is forecasting below average precipitation across much of California through the end of the state's rainy season.

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Climate Prediction Center

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National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

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Where will things go from here?

Experts are eyeing April 1, which is usually when the snowpack reaches its apex. If we manage to get a few sizable snowstorms by then, we should be sitting pretty heading into the dry months.

NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center is forecasting likely above average precipitation over the next few weeks for California. Over the next several months though, forecasts are for below-normal precipitation with elevated temperatures.

Longer term, higher temperatures as a result of climate change can cause more precipitation to fall as rain rather than as snow, and for snow on the ground to melt faster. Warming air temperatures dry out soils and vegetation more quickly, too, meaning even an average amount of precipitation may not be enough for some ecosystems. Overall, snowpack could decline by more than 50% by the end of the century, according to California's Fourth Climate Change Assessment.

This story was originally published by The LA Local on Feb. 3, 2026.

An old couch, the remains of a black massage chair and a refrigerator with its door open clutter 4th Street and New Hampshire Avenue on the grassy strip between the sidewalk and the street.

On Berendo Street, two refrigerators, both full-sized, lay splayed out on the lawn on a sunny day in late January. Both were tagged with graffiti.

The items are unremarkable, but they speak to the volume of trash that falls into Koreatown — one of the hardest-hit neighborhoods for illegal dumping, according to the latest available data from the city.

“Every single person in my building — that’s their top concern,” said Tania Ramos, who was born and raised in Koreatown and serves on the Wilshire Center-Koreatown Neighborhood Council. “It’s so horrible.”

From April 1 to Dec. 31, 2025, the city received a total of 206 illegal dumping reports at 4th Street and New Hampshire in Koreatown, according to an analysis of public data by Crosstown. The next highest count in that time frame was the 117 calls on the 7300 block of Lennox Avenue in Van Nuys, which leads overall for calls for service across the city.

Los Angeles overhauled its data last March, making it difficult to compare data from previous years.

Residents say the reporting system itself can feel ineffective.

“All the city tells us is to contact 311,” Ramos said. “They redirect you, but you have to wait and wait, and we end up being the ones that have to do neighborhood cleanups.”

The most impacted neighborhood from the 9-month period of April–December 2025 was Van Nuys, with 15,671 calls for service. Koreatown received 12,640 calls. Westlake ranked sixth, and Boyle Heights stood eighth, according to the data.

A spokesperson for Councilmember Heather Hutt, who represents part of Koreatown, did not respond to requests for comment about the long wait times and the high volume of illegal dumping.

Koreatown residents say they often report illegal dumping in their neighborhood, but often face long wait times for any type of cleanup.

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Jon Regardie

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The LA Local

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Illegal dumping is a long-festering problem in Los Angeles. While in some instances it involves an individual tossing a few trash bags on a corner, it often means discarded furniture, mounds of unsold fruit or construction detritus dumped in a vacant lot or an alley at night by someone who does not want to pay a disposal fee.

Ramos said delays can stretch into weeks.

“Recently, there was a toilet in front of my building, and it took four to five weeks for it to get cleaned up,” she said.

Pablo Cardoso, director of environmental services at the Koreatown Youth and Community Center, said illegal dumping has “always been an issue.”

“For our crews, yes, there have been more requests to go and pick up bulky items,” he said.

Cardoso believes convenience and limited infrastructure both play a role.

“My personal opinion about it is that people are just lazy and the easy way to get rid of their unwanted furniture is to just dump it in front of their building,” he said. “I also don’t think that these condos or apartments where they live don’t have the dumping or trash bins for big furniture.”

Sometimes there are hazardous materials. At a Jan. 14 meeting of the City Council’s Public Works Committee, Nicholas Fuentes, with the city sanitation bureau’s Livability Services Division, said asbestos in abandoned commercial and construction material is a problem.

Los Angeles City Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez chairs the committee and said during the meeting that some residents don’t use or know about the free hazardous waste drop-offs the city offers and instead resort to dumping.

“I come across buckets full of oil in my district, like on the side of the road,” Hernandez said. “That means someone got the oil, put it in the buckets, put it in their mode of transportation, drove to this place and dropped it off.”

The city offers free bulky item pick-up for residents getting rid of that old desk or mattress (it involves lugging the item to the curb on trash day). But illegal dumping is a criminal offense, and perpetrators can be fined up to $1,000.

“Do they call 311? I hope they do,” Cardoso said. “Is 311 the best system? It’s there, but I don’t know. What I know is that they’re overwhelmed with requests.”

Awareness of the service remains low, organizers say.

“When I would promote 311, which is a free service, a majority of people do not know about it,” said Pia Cadanela of No Harm KTLA, a volunteer group that does trash pickups in the neighborhood twice a month. “Even people who volunteer with us would be surprised. They did not know that there’s a free pick-up service by the city.”

The issue is not new. In 2021, then-City Controller Ron Galperin authored a report titled “Piling Up: Addressing L.A.’s Illegal Dumping Problem.” Yet the document’s suggestions on how to combat the practice have produced few tangible results.

Fourth and New Hampshire may be a dumping destination because of one corner: While apartment buildings and the Joohyang Presbyterian Church occupy three parts of the intersection, the southeast corner holds a vacant lot, with a series of tents by a retaining wall.

It’s likely already being monitored by the city. Fuentes said his team works on problem points in each of the 15 council districts.

“We have identified with the directors of each council district those chronic locations, and we know that they need to be serviced on a regular basis,” he said at the committee meeting.

Although Fourth and New Hampshire suffered more than anywhere else in the city last year, it was not the only destination for frequent dumpers in Koreatown. There were 57 MyLA311 reports at 3525 W. Third St., a strip mall. That ranked ninth in the city.

Cardoso said dumping tends to snowball after the first items are left behind.

“I drive by the streets, and there might be one or a couple of chairs,” he said. “And then later I drive by again, and it’s like, ‘Oh, now there’s a sofa. Now there’s a fridge.’”

“People see that little pile, and they’re like, ‘Oh, let’s add to that pile,’” he continued.

Ramos said residents are left frustrated by what she sees as a lack of outreach.

“I’ve never seen a city representative go door to door with resources and inform community members,” Ramos said.

She added, “It’s a combination of a lot of things — a lack of community education, lack of city outreach, lack of getting to the complaints, long response times — which can discourage people from contacting 311 because they have to wait too long.”