The Brief

Interest in air filters and purifiers is spiking in Southern California, including questions about how to build a homemade air purifier. Getting clean air is the latest challenge for residents who evacuated to safe areas, only to be forced to endure unhealthy smoky air.

On Friday, a large area in and around Los Angeles was listed as having unhealthy air due to particulate matter from large wildfires that devastated communities this week, according to the federal AirNow air quality monitor.
On AirNow' map, a "red zone" (signaling air quality index values from 151 to 200) stretched from Inglewood in the northwest to Long Beach and Sunset Beach in the southeast.
In the "unhealthy" range of 151 to 200, some people may experience health effects and members of sensitive groups — children and older adults or those with heart or lung disease — "may experience more serious health effects," the Environmental Protection Agency says.

A big worry, experts say, is fine inhalable particulate matter known as PM 2.5 (for 2.5 microns) that can lodge deep into our lungs.

And as researchers at the University of Washington note, "Smaller ultrafine particles (PM 0.1) can pass into the bloodstream and organs, including the brain."

Here's a quick guide to getting cleaner air:

Search filters by their MERV rating

Filters are key, whether you're using them to upgrade your home's HVAC system or put them in an air purifier or a DIY air cleaner. A filter's ability to pull particulates and other matter out of the air are rated by Minimum Efficiency Reporting Values, or MERV. Filters with higher values can catch smaller contaminants like smoke, bacteria and viruses.

A MERV rating of 13 means the filter is efficient at catching items from 0.3 to 1 micron in size: "Bacteria, droplet nuclei (sneeze), most tobacco smoke, insecticide dust," according to the California Air Resources Board, or CARB.

"Upgrading to a filter rated MERV 13 or higher can be especially important during smoky periods to effectively remove fine particle pollution from smoke in the indoor air," the EPA says. It adds that most HVAC systems work fine using MERV 13 filters, as long as the filter is replaced frequently — but if you're in doubt, ask an HVAC technician to be sure.

One thing to remember: If you're using your HVAC system to clean your home's air, it only does so when the unit is running. You can learn more about filter rating systems from LAist here.

An air quality map shows a large part of the Los Angeles metro area with "unhealthy" air, due to large wildfires fueled by strong winds.

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Air Now/ Screenshot by NPR

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Build an air cleaner at home

All you need is a box fan, good air filters and some duct tape, and you're in business.

NPR has previously posted a design and guide to building an air purifying cube known as a Corsi-Rosenthal Box, using four 20-inch MERV 13 filters, a 20-inch box fan and two 20-inch panels of cardboard.

A smaller and more affordable approach is to attach one MERV filter to the back of a box fan, an idea laid out in a website from the Montana group Climate Smart Missoula. The group notes that people using that option should use newer box fans, and be sure the motor is clean to reduce the risk of overheating.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says these DIY purifiers can be effective for a temporary solution, especially if you don't have any other alternatives.

Use HEPA air purifiers and other methods

HEPA (for high-efficiency particulate air) filters are used in many air purifier machines. HEPA is roughly equivalent to a MERV 17 filter, the California Air Resources Board says.

"A well-sealed HEPA filter is more than 99.9% efficient for all sizes of particles," according to the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers, or ASHRAE.

If you plan to buy a portable air cleaner or purifier, the EPA says you should make sure it has a HEPA filter. To help your search, California has a table of state-certified air cleaners that lists more than 1,000 products by brand, model number, and type. The EPA also has a guide on matching your room size with the appropriate unit.

Whichever strategy you choose, experts say you should also make sure doors, windows and air ducts are well sealed, to keep out smoke and pollution. You should also drink plenty of water to help ease irritation — and wear a mask if you go outside, as NPR has reported.

More tips on staying healthy

Laist has a guide on how to navigate the unhealthy air here.

Copyright 2025 NPR

Next Monday December 15, Los Angeles travels back in time. Well, sort of.

The Varnish, the famed speakeasy hidden behind a secret door at the back of Cole’s French Dip, will be reconstituted for one night only as part of a special pop-up at Firstborn in Chinatown.

(Meanwhile, Cole's itself will be open through the holiday season, with its last night of regular service planned for December 31.)

The iconic bar, which shuttered in 2024 after a 15-year run, holds a special place for many Angelenos, who believe it's where L.A.’s modern cocktail revival truly began. The event reunites three bartenders who all came up through The Varnish’s famously exacting school of cocktail-making. Kenzo Han (recently named Esquire’s Bartender of the Year) cut his teeth there before moving into roles that established him as one of L.A.’s most respected classic-cocktail technicians. Wolf Alexander and Miles Caballes emerged from the same pipeline.

One night only

Kenzo Han, bar director at Firstborn and former Varnish bartender, is hosting two fellow Varnish alumni for the Dec. 15 pop-up.

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Ron De Angelis

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Han is now Firstborn’s bar director, where he leads a tight, classics-leaning bar program. The restaurant sits inside Mandarin Plaza, where chef Anthony Wang turns out playful comfort dishes with Chinese and American influences. It’s a lively, unfussy neighborhood hangout just off Broadway, surrounded by neon, noodle shops, and family-style restaurants.

The Varnish connection

All three bartenders trace their lineage back to Sasha Petraske, who, in 2009, co-founded The Varnish with Eric Alperin and Cedd Moses, the owner of Cole’s French Dip.

Petraske traded '90s flash for pre-Prohibition craft: fresh citrus over sour mix, precise technique over bottle tricks, elevating cocktails from party fuel to art form.

Miles Caballes brings his Varnish training back to the bar for one night.

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Courtesy Firstborn

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Wolf Alexander, another Varnish alum, demonstrates the precise technique that defined the speakeasy's approach.

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Courtesy Firstborn

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The Varnish became the city’s clearest expression of Petraske’s cocktail philosophy, where his playbook of precision, restraint, and quiet hospitality took root on the West Coast. (Petraske passed in 2015).

Han, Alexander, and Caballes all trained in that environment, absorbing the Petraske rules of clean builds, tight technique, and no-nonsense cocktails.

What to expect

For one night only, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., the trio will channel that tradition through a Varnish-style menu: curated classics only, no custom builds, with all cocktails priced at $20. Two featured drinks nod directly to the bar's lineage. The Spring Blossom — created at The Varnish — combines mezcal, French aperitifs including Suze and Lillet Blanc, mole bitters and a grapefruit twist. Death & Taxes features scotch, gin, sweet vermouth, Benedictine (a herbal liqueur), Angostura and orange bitters, finished with a lemon twist.

On the food side, chef Anthony Wang is reviving his cult-favorite Blood Orange Chicken Sando ($20), served with radicchio, alongside a limited run of his Shanghainese-style McRib ($24) — a playful, sweet-and-sour riff built around tender ribs and “all the stuff” that made the original such a guilty pleasure.

The blood orange chicken sandwich at Firstborn from Chef Anthony Wang.

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Ron De Angelis

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Expect a casual, walk-in-only atmosphere where guests can grab a seat at the bar and let the cocktail nostalgia wash over them.

Whether you were a Varnish regular or only heard the stories, this pop-up is a rare chance to see that style alive again — familiar faces, bespoke cocktails, and the kind of muscle-memory bartending that defined an era of L.A. drinking culture. For newer drinkers, it’s a glimpse of the cocktail philosophy that shaped the city as we know it.

It’ll likely get busy early, and the food specials may run out fast — but that’s part of the charm. The Varnish’s legacy has always been about small rooms, sharp precision, and moments you catch only if you’re paying attention.

In the city of Los Angeles, neighbors or homeowner groups who choose to fight approvals of new housing are required to pay a fee when filing an appeal.

Right now, that fee is $178 — about 1% of the amount the city says it costs to process the appeal. But that fee soon will go up.

On Wednesday, the L.A. City Council voted to increase the fee to $229 but rejected a proposal by the city administrative officer that would have raised the cost for appellants to more than $22,800, or 100% of the cost.

Some advocates for making housing easier to build argued the city should have adopted the higher fee.

“Appeals of approved projects create delays that make it harder to build housing and disincentivize future housing from being proposed,” said Jacob Pierce, a policy associate with the group Abundant Housing L.A.

At a time when L.A.’s budget is strained, Pierce said, if someone thinks a project was wrongly approved, “They should put their money where their mouth is and pay the full fee."

The City Council unanimously approved another new fee structure put forward by the city’s Planning Department.

While fees will remain relatively low for housing project opponents, developers will have to pay $22,453 to appeal projects that previously had been denied.

A November report from the city administrative officer said setting fees higher to recover the full cost of processing would have aligned with the city’s financial policies. Generally, fees are set higher when applicants are asking for a service that benefits them alone.

“When a service or activity benefits the public at large, there is generally little to no recommended fee amount,” the report said.

Pierce said he hoped a City Council committee would reconsider the higher fee proposal next year. With the city falling far short of its goal to create nearly a half-million new homes by 2029, he said the city needs to discourage obstruction of new housing.

“Slowing down the construction of housing is expensive for all of us,” Pierce said.

Los Angeles could become the first city in the U.S. to ban ink cartridges that can be used only once.

The L.A. City Council unanimously voted Wednesday to approve the creation of an ordinance that prohibits their sale. The move comes after more than a year of debate over the terms.

Why the potential ban

This builds upon the city’s effort to reach zero waste, including phasing out single-use plastics. You’re likely familiar with some of those efforts — such as only getting plastic foodware by request and banning single-use carryout bags at stores. Multiple plastic bans have been suggested, like for single-use vapes and bag clips, but now it’s ink’s turn.

The cartridges are tough to dispose of because of the plastic, metal and chemicals inside, according to the city. They’re also classified as regulated waste in the state because they can leach toxic substances into the environment, such as volatile organic compounds and heavy metals.

That poses a problem. L.A.’s curbside recycling program can’t recycle the cartridges, and while its hazardous waste program can take them, a significant portion end up in landfills.

Major printer manufacturers and some ink retailers have take-back programs for used cartridges so they can get refilled. However, L.A. Sanitation says there are certain single-use cartridges that don’t have recovery programs. These are usually cartridges that work with a printer but aren’t name brand.

How outlawing them could work

LASAN has spent months figuring out what a ban would cover — and it hasn’t been without pushback. The city’s energy and environment committee pressed the department back in September on how effective a ban would be.

Ultimately, the committee moved it forward with a promise that LASAN would come back with more details, including environmental groups’ stance, concrete data to back up the need and a public education plan.

The department’s current recommendation is that the ordinance should prohibit retail and online establishments from selling any single-use ink cartridge, whether sold separately or with a printer, to people in the city. Retailers that don’t follow the rules would get fined.

So what does single-use mean here? The ban would affect a printer cartridge that:

• is not collected or recovered through a take-back program
• cannot be remanufactured, refilled or reused
• infringes upon intellectual property rights or violates any applicable local, state or federal law

Any cartridges that meet one of these points would fall under the ban, though you still could get them outside L.A.

The proposed ordinance will go to the committee first while LASAN works on a public education plan.

If it ends up getting approved by the full council, the ban likely would go into full effect 12 months later.