The Brief

The nationwide bird flu outbreak is killing more L.A. County cats.

There’s now been four confirmed cases, L.A. County public health officials told LAist Thursday, and they’re investigating three possible others in felines from a separate household.

Dr. Sharon Balter,  director of the Division of Communicable Disease Control and Prevention with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, said no L.A. County residents have gotten bird flu, and there’s no evidence of person-to-person spread, but there’s still a low risk.

“ We at the health department are definitely following this outbreak, which is primarily in birds and cattle right now, very, very closely,” she said. “We really want to encourage people not to handle sick or dead birds unless they're wearing a mask and gloves, and also to always consume pasteurized milk.”

How we got here

The four infected cats were from one household and drank raw milk linked to a recall.

Their symptoms included loss of appetite, fever, and neurologic signs. The cats later died after those symptoms got more severe.

Dr. Maria Pyrdek, Pasadena Humane’s chief veterinarian, told LAist the neurologic symptoms are the number one sign you see in birds, and are now being reported in cats.

“ It might be something really small, like small twitches, maybe an eye is twitching, a head is tremoring back and forth, and then those will progress to more and more severe signs,” she said. “Difficulty walking or balancing, sort of stumbling, that, like, looking drunk appearance, maybe not picking up their paws when they're walking.”

Public health officials announced Wednesday that they’re investigating more possible cases of bird flu in a trio of cats from another household.

They’re not believed to have been exposed to raw milk, as seen in the first few cases, but they’re looking into other possible sources, including raw meat.

Two of the cats died after coming down with respiratory symptoms. And one of the cats tested positive for Influenza A. The other two are believed to have been positive as well.

Officials noted this is a rare result. The Department of Public Health is waiting for test results to confirm the cases.

Other birds, cats, and wild animals continue to be tested for bird flu as well. And the humans who had direct contact with the cats are keeping an eye out for symptoms and have been offered antiviral medication.

What you should know

There’s been no human cases of bird flu connected to these cats, but the investigation is ongoing.

Human cases of bird flu are rare, and the risk to people remains low. However, Balter is strongly urging people to avoid raw milk and not to feed it to their pets, including frozen products.

“ The pasteurization process will kill the germs,” she said.

Raw milk can carry harmful germs like influenza, and anyone can get sick from it. Pregnant people, those 65 and older, young children, and people with weakened immune systems have the highest risk of severe illness.

Symptoms in humans can include eye redness, sore throat, vomiting, headaches, fatigue, and fever. If you’ve used the recalled raw milk products and start showing symptoms, immediately contact your doctor or local health department.

Infected cats may develop a fever and neurologic signs that could quickly lead to death. If you suspect your pets are sick, call your vet as soon as possible, and let them know if they’ve consumed raw milk or raw meat.

“ If you're worried about your cat having some sort of neurologic sign, you want to get them in to seek care as quickly as possible and let a veterinarian evaluate them and see what the level of concern is,” Pyrdek said.

You can find more information about bird flu here and here.

Want to spend the World Cup or Dodger games with other sports-loving Angelenos, without breaking the bank for a ticket?

Greyhound Bar and Grill in Highland Park is a well-regarded hub for watch parties, wings and creating a community feel. We spoke with the owner about how to have the ultimate experience at this pub.

About the owner

Matt Glassman helped open Greyhound in 2014. He moved to L.A. for school 20 years ago, picking up bartending jobs. Missing the communal feel of the bars in Cleveland — not to mention the wings — he decided to bring that to Northeast L.A.

Glassman sat down with Austin Cross, who hosts AirTalk every Friday, to explain what makes their wings stand out.

What sets their bar apart? 15 sauces

"I always thought [most wings you get here] were a little too big," Glassman said. "It felt like you were eating less sauce."

That's why he decided to prioritize a really crispy, smaller wing, with a good sauce. They have 15 sauce options — yes, 15.

The ultimate experience in the eyes of the owner

Sit at the bar top, order the wings of your choice with a Skyduster Italian pilsner, during an afternoon game.

"My favorite experience I've ever had at my bar was probably watching Tottenham win the Europa League last year," Glassman said. "We had an exceptional amount of people on a Thursday afternoon. ... I cried for a while ... spending time with people who care about the same things."

Restaurant details

Fans watching a game at Greyhound Bar and Grill

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Rolfe Jones

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• For this year's World Cup, they plan to open early and potentially serve breakfast.
• They host L.A. Spurs, the local support group for Tottenham Hotspur F.C.
• They offer 'Blue Hour' specials and deals during Dodger games.

Menu items we tried

• Great Lakes-style chicken wings with house buffalo sauce
• Greyhound's "Your very own cheese pizza" — California mozzarella, Stanislaus tomato sauce, fresh basil.
• BBQ Bleu Burger — a thick, charbroiled burger with bleu cheese, crispy onions and BBQ sauce, on brioche.

What should we try next?

The Long Beach Pride festival scheduled for this weekend was abruptly canceled Friday afternoon, with organizers and the city of Long Beach trading blame.

Pride, a local nonprofit organization, has run the festival for decades. This year, however, organizers didn’t provide “sufficient information to safely permit the event,” the city said in a statement late Friday.

In her own statement, Pride president Tonya Martin emphasized that the organization is volunteer-run and said, “At a time when our community is being targeted and made vulnerable, Long Beach should be doing more to protect and uplift us, not taking away one of the most visible and meaningful expressions of inclusion our city has.”

Until Friday, the event seemed to be proceeding as scheduled, with two-day tickets selling for $75. But in the background, the city says, Pride hadn’t submitted critical paperwork needed for safety inspections of the stage, electrical systems and emergency exit plans.

In an email to Pride this week reviewed by the Long Beach Post, a city official said this information had been requested “multiple times over the past several months and again recently.” Plans that were submitted were inadequate, the email said.

Long Beach spokesperson Laath Martin said city staff made the final decision not to permit the event on Thursday but left open “the possibility of a shortened event this weekend” if Pride could submit the needed documents. It never did, he said.

The free Pride parade on Sunday is still scheduled to happen. The nonprofit used to also organize the parade, but the city took it over in recent years — contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep it running — after Pride asked for help. Pride also reportedly had trouble selling tickets to the festival this year, further contributing to financial problems.

The festival also struggled with vendors in addition to the permitting process, said City Council member Cindy Allen.

“I join our community members who feel deeply disappointed about this situation. I support the queer community and want to see this festival thrive,” she said.

Pride said it was “deeply disappointed by the city’s decision to cancel” the festival. Concerts and events were scheduled from noon to 10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, with the earliest events kicking off Friday evening, right around the same time the cancellation was announced.

Pride called on city officials, including Allena and Mayor Rex Richardson, to reverse course or intervene.

The cancellation, the organization said, “undermines decades of volunteer work and community trust. And it weakens the very values Long Beach claims to champion.”

The parade is scheduled to begin Sunday at 10 a.m. on Ocean Boulevard at Lindero Avenue. The city said it is also highlighting alternative events still happening throughout the weekend.

California has had a spate of abnormally large marine heatwaves in the past 12 years. Typically, they’ve started far offshore in the spring, reached our coast by the fall, then receded by late winter, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, or NOAA.

But the current heatwave has stuck around pretty much all year — since last May, particularly off the Central and Southern California coastline.

“The only time you ever see that would be during an El Niño, but we're not in El Niño yet,” said Andrew Leising,  an oceanographer with NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center.

El Niño is likely to hit our region in the coming months, though it remains to be seen how strong it could be. El Niño is a natural global climate pattern that occurs every three to seven years, when trade winds — the prevailing east-to-west winds that circle the Earth near the equator — weaken, and waters in the eastern and central equatorial Pacific warm up.

The key point, said Leising, is that El Niño isn’t here yet. So why is the ocean so warm?

'A new normal' 

It’s likely a sign of how human-caused climate change — driven by the pollution we’ve pumped into our atmosphere — is making natural cycles more extreme, experts say.

"Approximately 30% to 45% of the affected ocean area is experiencing conditions that are at least six times more likely due to human-caused warming," according to Climate Central.

A NOAA expert said the evidence of climate change's effects on ocean temperatures has been growing since 2014.

“ How much that is, whether there's feedback with the atmosphere, that's what's really difficult to quantify just because it's never one thing acting on its own," said Elliott Hazen, an NOAA ecologist.

The latest conditions of the ongoing marine heatwave off our coast.

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Courtesy NOAA

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Leising called the regularity of these marine heatwaves “a new normal.”

“It's very possible that the long-term change in the atmosphere is what's flipped the switch between fewer and now more heatwaves,” he said.

2014 was a major turning point. That’s when a massive marine heatwave dubbed “The Blob” started, persisting until mid-2016. It caused harmful algae blooms and mass dieoffs of marine life. It also coincided with El Niño.

So far this marine heatwave’s effects aren’t as widespread as The Blob’s. But the current pattern is echoing what led to that devastating event.

An uptick in dead and emaciated seabirds along our coast is one possible sign. Scientists are increasingly pointing to the deaths as related to the heatwave. Why? As birds’ typical food sources move into deeper, cooler waters where birds can’t reach, the birds starve.

The forecast

The warm waters are unlikely to let up anytime soon with El Niño on the horizon.

For us on land in Southern California, that could mean less June gloom, a hotter, humid summer and a dangerously wet winter.

For animals underwater, such as stingrays and juvenile white sharks, those warmer temperatures can be something of a boon — experts are predicting more stingray stings and shark sightings this summer at our local beaches.

A round stingray, the most common type of stingray living along our shore and the most likely to sting you.

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Courtesy CSULB Shark Lab

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But for other creatures, such as nesting birds or sea lions, as well as kelp forests that support that life, such heating can be devastating. Just like humans, living in high temperatures for a prolonged period can be deadly for marine plants and animals.

“We might just roll from one thing into the next, and that's really where some of the biggest impacts lie, is that cumulative stress on the animals,” Leising said.

Warmer waters also mean less upwelling — when deep, cold ocean water rises to the surface.

That means “less nutrients, and just less total productivity,” Leising said. “So there's just not as much stuff at the bottom of the food web to feed everything else.”

There’s still a lot unknown about these escalating marine heatwaves, but cuts to NOAA under the Trump administration could jeopardize ongoing research.

“That kind of work is critical to understand how to respond,” Hazen said, “because the longer we take to respond, the more species end up dying, and the more economic consequences too.”

Ontario boosters are tired of being defined by how far the city is from downtown Los Angeles.

“The Greater Ontario region is truly the ultimate point A,” said Kelsie Woodward, director of marketing and communications for the Greater Ontario Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The Inland Empire city, 40 miles east of DTLA, has got a new, shiny $100 million minor league baseball stadium, and its own team, the Ontario Tower Buzzers.

“The stadium is gorgeous… it's probably one of the nicest minor league stadiums that I've been in,” said Jonathan Campos, President of the Ontario Mountainview Little League, who has visited half a dozen minor league stadiums.

But even there it's hard to get out of L.A.'s shadow. The Ontario Tower Buzzers are the Single-A affiliate of the most talked about team in Major League Baseball — the L.A. Dodgers.

And players on the team high-five each other after a victory while Randy Newman’s “I love L.A.” plays in the background.

Do I need to repeat that? Ontario’s not even in L.A. County.

Ontario Mayor Paul Leon says ONT Field will attract more than baseball fans to the city.

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Screenshot: Ontario Economic Development Agency

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“Who said we want to be L.A. anyway,” said a teen girl on a soccer field in a video promoting this year’s Ontario state of the city.

I won’t even venture into whether Ontario’s got some kill your father, marry your mother issues it’s resolving outside the therapist’s couch.

Ontario officials hope the new stadium brings more visitors to the city, and are on a mission to prove its value as a destination. They point to a whole slew of things to do, both new attractions and beloved long-time offerings.

So in that spirit, here’s LAist’s guide for things to do in Ontario.

1. ONT Field

ONT Field. The home of the Ontario Tower Buzzers, the Dodgers’ single-A affiliate. The team’s roster includes recent high school and college graduates, playing in a stadium with a family friendly wiffle ball park, grassy outfield berm, and playground. The season ends September 6. The stadium will also host concerts and community events.

Ontario Sports Empire is a 190-acre sports fields and facilities complex.

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Screenshot: Ontario Economic Development Agency

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The new, 190-acre Ontario Sports Empire is set to attract baseball, soccer, and flag football youth tournaments from around Southern California.

2. Toyota Arena

Toyota Arena opened in 2008 and hosts events from Los Tucanes de Tijuana to Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live. As well as professional sports such as the Ontario Reign hockey team, the Ontario Fury soccer team, and the Agua Caliente Clippers of the Ontario basketball D-League.

3. Ontario Mills

Ontario Mills. California’s largest outlet mall, it’s been Ontario’s big shopping attraction for three decades. Take your pick from more than 200 stores that sell brand name apparel jewelry, sporting goods, and more.

4. Logan's Candies

Logan's Candies in Ontario makes Dodger Canes, a top seller.

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Screenshot: Logan's Candies

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Logan's Candies opened in 1933, before all the above were even a thing. The shop sells over 200 varieties of candies made on the premises. The candy-making process has gone so viral on TikTok that you need a ticket to watch it in person.

5. Topgolf

Take care of your indoor sports fix with Topgolf. It’s a driving range and more, with mountain-range backdrops as you tee off with a meal and drink.

6. K1 Speed

K1 Speed is an indoor kart racing track for the thrill-seeker and race junkie with the need for speed.

7. iFly Indoor Skydiving

iFly Indoor Skydiving gives people the thrill of free-fall in a vertical wind tunnel without having to jump out of an actual plane.

8. Ontario Museum of History & Art

The Ontario Museum of History & Art mounts art exhibits as well as educational programs for people of all ages.

9. Cooper Regional History Museum

The Cooper Regional History Museum is just outside Ontario city limits and features Indigenous history of the area and other aspects of local history.

10. Cultural events

Cultural events such as the Ontario Art Walk are scheduled for May 16, Aug. 15, Nov. 21 as well as an Arts Festival on Oct. 17. The city has also organized book fairs and film festivals.