Andrea López, a domestic worker in Los Angeles, worked with one of her employers to create a contract in order to ensure on-the-job safety.
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Samanta Helou Hernandez
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LAist
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Topline:
California has no official workplace safety rules for domestic workers. Two recent legislative attempts have met with vetoes. But this year the state did issue voluntary guidelines for best practices. Some domestic workers and their employers are coming up with their own safety agreements.
Why it matters: Domestic employees, many of them immigrants, are excluded from many labor laws, and there are no official workplace safety regulations for domestic work. Household domestic workers are excluded from protection under California’s Occupational Safety and Health Act.
Why now: In California there have been two recent legislative attempts to include domestic work in Cal/OSHA safety regulations. Last September, in his veto message for the most recent bill, Gov. Gavin Newsom said homes can’t be regulated like traditional businesses. He was also concerned about the bill creating cost burdens for lower-income domestic employers.
Voluntary guidelines: The state issued the nation's first new voluntary health and safety guidelines for domestic workers, as well as day laborers. While not enforceable, they act as a template for domestic employers and employees to understand best practices to address workplace health and safety concerns.
One recent morning, Andrea López León swept the hardwood floor of a three-bedroom house in Alhambra, part of her regular cleaning routine as she prepared to mop.
She pulled out a bottle of old-fashioned oil soap. “Since it’s wood, we use a special oil (soap) for wood,” she explained in Spanish.
The floor cleaner she uses is also a product that she considers safe. This is by design.
When López began working for this family a couple of years ago, she asked her employer for a contract, “a written contract in which we ensure my health and safety,” López told LAist, “mine as well as hers.”
The gist of the contract between López and her employer, Marba Reyes, is simple.
"I’m not going to use chemicals,” López said. “They’ll give me my lunch hour. If I work a long day, they can pay me extra hours. And I am not going to lift heavy objects, so as to not hurt my back.”
Domestic employees are excluded from many labor laws
Safety rules for domestic workers are not the norm. Domestic employees, many of them immigrants, are excluded from many labor laws, and there are no official workplace safety regulations for domestic work. Household domestic workers are excluded from protection under California’s Occupational Safety and Health Act.
Worker advocates have long argued that workplace safety regulations for domestic employees are needed, given the harsh cleaning chemicals used, heavy lifting at times, and the risk of slips and falls.
Andrea López, a domestic worker, cleans a home in Los Angeles.
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Samanta Helou Hernandez
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LAist
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In California there have been two recent legislative attempts to include domestic work in Cal/OSHA safety regulations, both vetoed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. Last September, in his veto message for the most recent bill, Newsom said homes can’t be regulated like traditional businesses. He was also concerned about the bill, which included potential fines, creating cost burdens for lower-income domestic employers “given that approximately 44% of the households that employ domestic workers are low-income themselves,” the veto message read.
Domestic worker advocates say they’ll try for legislation again.
“With the right guidance, and by making guidance more accessible to employers, employers will see it's actually not that onerous,” said Maegan Ortiz, executive director of the Instituto de Educación Popular del Sur de California, or IDEPSCA, a group that helps domestic workers organize.
The accessible guidance she refers to are new voluntary health and safety guidelines for domestic work, as well as day laborers, that were issued by California’s Department of Industrial Relations early this year. The most recent bill incorporated them. These voluntary guidelines, the nation’s first, are not enforceable, but they act as a template for domestic employers and employees to understand best practices when it comes to workplace health and safety concerns. Among other things, this includes identifying and controlling workplace hazards, and agreeing on tasks to be done.
“Not only does it protect the worker, it protects the employer as well…and the household of the employer,” Ortiz said. “These are commonplace things and common sense things that really we all should be doing in our homes anyway.”
Raise concerns, make suggestions about working conditions, and report an injury.
Minimum wage, breaks, overtime, and sick time.
Work in an environment free of sexual harassment or harassment based on race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation), national origin, disability, age (age 40 or older) or genetic information.
Workers’ compensation benefits (including medical care) if injured on the job.
Employers and workers are advised to:
Agree on tasks and hours
Review information on workers’ rights
Identify, evaluate, and control hazards
Ensure workers are trained and receive information in language they understand
Encourage workers to report hazards, unsafe conditions, and any injuries or illnesses. Confirm how you will communicate with each other.
Plan for emergency preparedness and first aid
Create access to bathrooms and washing facilities
Establish orderly work areas
In the meantime, some domestic workers have drawn advice from worker advocates and are taking it upon themselves to negotiate safety agreements where they work.
Heavy lifting and a miscarriage
Andrea López said she learned about workplace safety the hard way. In 2015, she’d only been in the United States for two years after arriving from Veracruz, Mexico. López was working for another employer then, a restaurant owner; she said she worked both in the restaurant and cleaning her supervisor’s home.
That year, López learned that she was pregnant. One day while cleaning the house, her employer asked her to carry a heavy plastic container full of water.
“I had told her I was pregnant, that I couldn’t,” López said, but her employer insisted. López, fearing for her restaurant job, complied.
“And then, I felt like something was tearing in my belly,” López said. “That was a Saturday at 5 p.m. The next morning, Sunday at 10 a.m., I was already bleeding.”
López suffered a miscarriage. The loss was devastating, she said, but it steeled her resolve to learn now to push back. Eventually López joined a domestic worker rights group and learned to advocate for herself with employers.
“Now, every time I go with an employer, I talk with them about that,” she said.
Andrea López worked with the Reyes family, one of her clients, to create a contract to ensure her safety on the job.
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Samanta Helou Hernandez
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LAist
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When she interviewed with the Alhambra family a couple of years ago, López asked if they’d be up for a contract with basic safety rules. Her new employer, Marba Reyes, was on board.
“I agree with her,” said Reyes, who works as a massage therapist. “Of course I’ll be taking care of her, I know that cleaning houses is not an easy job, you know.”
Reyes, who lives with her elderly parents, already used simple cleaning products, “just like water and vinegar…only like healthy stuff.”
A sympathetic employer
The family’s personal experience plays a role, too. Both of Reyes’s parents are immigrants themselves.
“I’m also from Mexico,” said Marta Rolón, Reyes’s mother. “And I arrived here doing the same thing.”
Rolón said she took cleaning work in San Marino as a new arrival, before she married her husband, who is from Puerto Rico. Rólon said she understands what it’s like.
“I also had to do it, so we’re going to treat her well, and help her as much as we can,” she said.
Andrea López with her daughter Samara.
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Samanta Helou Hernandez
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LAist
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López says things have gone well since. These days, she’s only cleaning for this family because she’s working part-time. That’s because López and her husband, who works in a restaurant, recently welcomed a new baby girl.
She said this time during her pregnancy, “I tried to take care of myself, and they took care of me.”
Her employers have gifted her baby clothes. There’s also a perk to working for a massage therapist: After cleaning, López gets to unwind her back on one of the automatic massage beds that Reyes uses for clients.
López also hopes there can be official safety rules one day for the work she does. But even if it’s just using the voluntary guidelines, she hopes to see more domestic employees and their employers agreeing on best practices.
“It would prevent miscarriages, it would prevent injuries,” she said. “We are human beings.”
First artifacts installed in LA museum's expansion
Makenna Sievertson
has been covering space shuttle Endeavour's journey at the California Science Center since December 2023.
Published November 18, 2025 4:08 PM
The first of many artifacts have been installed in the Kent Kresa Space Gallery, including a space shuttle main engine (right) and a solid rocket booster segment.
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Makenna Sievertson
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LAist
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Topline:
The California Science Center unveiled Tuesday the first of many launch vehicles, engines and other artifacts set to be installed in the museum’s 200,000-square-foot expansion coming to Exposition Park.
Why it matters: Jeff Rudolph, president and CEO of the California Science Center, said the $450 million expansion is California’s biggest “endeavor” yet that will inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers and explorers.
Why now: The first artifacts in the expanded museum were placed in the Kenta Kresa Space Gallery, including a three-story-tall Electron launch vehicle from Rocket Lab in Long Beach.
The backstory: It’ll be the only place in the world where visitors can see an authentic space shuttle in its “Go for Stack” position, which is what museum officials called the process of moving each of the space shuttle components into place.
What's next: Officials expect to announce next year an opening date for the expansion.
Read on ... for a peak inside the expansion coming to Exposition Park.
The California Science Center unveiled Tuesday the first of many launch vehicles, engines and other artifacts set to be installed in the museum’s 200,000-square-foot expansion coming to Exposition Park.
Once complete, the new Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center will include multi-level galleries built around a towering centerpiece — the space shuttle Endeavour — displayed in its 20-story vertical launch position.
It’ll be the only place in the world where visitors can see an authentic space shuttle in its “Go for Stack” position, which is what museum officials called the process of moving each of the space shuttle components into place.
Museum admission will be free.
Jeff Rudolph, president and CEO of the California Science Center, said the $450 million expansion is California’s biggest “endeavor” yet to inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers and explorers.
“The enthusiasm that people have when they come in and see this stuff and get excited about it will hopefully lead to many more people, young and old, but particularly young people wanting to pursue more education in science,” Rudolph told LAist.
Museum officials expect to announce next year an opening date, according to Rudolph.
A look inside the center
The Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center will feature three main galleries: the Samuel Oschin Shuttle Gallery, the Korean Air Aviation Gallery and the Kent Kresa Space Gallery.
Guests will be guided through hundreds of exhibits and authentic artifacts focused on the exploration of the universe — including rocket ships that carried humans into space and telescopes used to view stars and galaxies beyond our reach.
A real Electron launch vehicle from Rocket Lab in Long Beach spans several stories tall in the Kent Kresa Space Gallery.
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Makenna Sievertson
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LAist
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The first artifacts in the expanded museum were placed in the Kenta Kresa Space Gallery, including a three-story-tall Electron launch vehicle from Rocket Lab in Long Beach.
Adam Spice, chief financial officer of Rocket Lab, told LAist the Electron helped lower the cost of getting to space by sending satellites in smaller, cheaper rockets. The new center is an opportunity to get up close and personal with an Electron for the first time outside of a factory.
Spice said he hopes it’ll show visitors their dreams can become a reality.
“They can be part of something much bigger than probably they ever thought they could,” he said.
The first artifacts installed in the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center include a solid rocket booster segment. Kenneth Phillips, aerospace curator, shows the scale of the piece, which has flown into space several times.
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Makenna Sievertson
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LAist
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The solid rocket booster segment will become a walk-through interactive experience in the Kent Kresa Space Gallery.
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Makenna Sievertson
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LAist
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A segment of a solid rocket booster that flew into space several times is laid on its side on the second floor of the gallery.
Kenneth Phillips, the California Science Center’s aerospace curator, told LAist it’ll be turned into an interactive exhibit with audio, video and educational graphics.
“It's 12 feet in diameter, so people can actually walk through it and learn about the function of it from the inside out literally,” Phillips said.
Visitors will be able to get up close and personal with a space shuttle main engine.
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Makenna Sievertson
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LAist
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A detailed model of a space shuttle main engine is set up next to the solid rocket booster. Three of those main engines helped boost space shuttles into orbit by providing about 20% of their power, Phillips said.
What's next
Construction of the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center started more than three years ago and is on track to be completed in the coming weeks, according to museum officials.
With construction of the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center weeks away from completion, crews have started to put in landscaping around the outside of the expansion.
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Makenna Sievertson
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LAist
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The exterior of the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center as of Tuesday.
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Makenna Sievertson
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LAist
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The remaining exhibits and artifacts will then be installed over "many months," Rudolph said. Officials expect to announce next year an opening date for the expansion.
The California Science Center also is looking to raise about $70 million more for the $450 million project before it opens. You can learn more about its “EndeavourLA” fundraising campaign here.
Matt Dangelantonio
directs production of LAist's daily newscasts, shaping the radio stories that connect you to SoCal.
Published November 18, 2025 3:58 PM
The Westwood Village Theater will be operated and programmed by American Cinematheque when it opens
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George Rose
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Getty Images
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Topline:
The group of directors restoring the Village Theater in Westwood are tapping film nonprofit American Cinematheque to program and run the venue when it opens.
Why it matters: American Cinematheque also programs the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica, the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood and the Los Feliz Theater, making it a visible and active film arts nonprofit in the industry.
The backstory: The nearly century-old movie palace went up for sale in 2024 before Village Directors Circle bought it in February. The group is comprised of more than 30 notable filmmakers. They're led by director Jason Reitman (Thank You For Smoking, Juno) and their ranks include Guillermo del Toro, Alfonso Cuarón, Lulu Wang, Chloé Zhao, Christopher Nolan and Ryan Coogler.
What's next: VDC says it's eyeing a 2027 opening for the Village Theater, and is currently in the quiet phase of a capital campaign to raise $25 million to restore and remodel the Village Theater into a more than 1,000-seat venue.
For January fire survivors looking for fresh start
Gillian Morán Pérez
is an associate producer for LAist’s early All Things Considered show.
Published November 18, 2025 3:46 PM
Residents embrace in front of a fire-ravaged property after the Palisades Fire swept through in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles on Jan. 8.
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Etienne Laurent
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AP
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Topline:
The city of Long Beach has launched a new jobs program to help people affected by January’s fires.
Who is it for? The initiative will provide paid career opportunities and financial assistance to people looking for a fresh start in Long Beach.
To start, 10 people will get up to 300 hours of paid work experience with local employers. Another five people also will get training scholarships of up to $7,500 in high-demand fields like health care and information technology.
Who's paying for it? The initiative is funded by a $130,000 federal act called the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act.
How to apply: Anyone interested in applying can contact Nakawa Shepherd, Career Center manager, Economic Development and Opportunity, at Nakawa.Shepherd@longbeach.gov or visit the LBWIN Adult Career Services Center.
How to participate: Long Beach’s Economic Development and Opportunity office also is looking for local employers to provide on-the-job training for applicants.
Jacob Margolis
covers science, with a focus on environmental stories and disasters.
Published November 18, 2025 2:51 PM
This undated photo provided by the U.S. Attorney's Office shows Jonathan Rinderknecht, who has been accused of setting a fire that led to the Palisades Fire.
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U.S. Attorney's Office
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The man accused of igniting a fire that led to the deadly and destructive Palisades Fire in January will remain in custody without bond, U.S. Judge Rozella Oliver decided Tuesday in Los Angeles. Jonathan Rinderknecht has been in custody since his arrest in Florida on Oct. 7.
Where things stand: Rinderknecht was indicted by a federal grand jury in October and is charged with one count of arson, one count of timber set afire and one count of destruction of property by means of fire. Rinderknecht pleaded not guilty in mid-October and faces anywhere from five to 45 years in federal prison if convicted. His trial is set to begin April 21, 2026. His lawyers recently asked the court to allow him out of custody as he awaits trial.
Argument against release: In a filing on Monday, prosecutors said Rinderknecht is a flight risk because of his familial ties to France, as well as a danger to the community. The filing states that Rinderknecht threatened to burn down his sister’s home and that he purchased a gun and threatened to kill his brother-in-law. Prosecutors also raised the fact that a judge determined in October that the suspect’s mental health had declined.
The allegations: Authorities allege Rinderknecht set fire to brush near the Skull Rock Trailhead in the Santa Monica Mountains at around midnight Jan. 1, starting the Lachman Fire. Though the fire was held to just 8 acres and was believed to have been extinguished, authorities say it flared up once again amid strong, dry winds a week later. That fire grew into the Palisades Fire, which killed 12 people and destroyed more than 6,800 structures.
