The Brief

While some Altadena residents are returning to professionally cleaned homes free of toxic ash, others remain locked in tense disputes with their landlords over rent increases, smoke remediation and terminated leases.

The aftermath of the Eaton Fire is now prompting some tenants to join forces and make collective demands of landlords and lawmakers.

One example is the nascent Altadena Tenants Union, a group that has become a magnet for renters facing displacement and uncertainty. Katie Clark, one of the group’s lead organizers whose apartment burned down, said a main goal is “to put tenants in Altadena on the radar for L.A. County.”

Other members said their motivation for getting involved came from confusing experiences around ash clean-up, rent increases and lease terminations in the weeks after they were displaced by the Eaton Fire.

“So much of the communication effort so far has been really focused on homeowners,” Clark said. “Certainly we can understand the difficult plight homeowners are in. But renters are members of the community too.”

Altadena's burgeoning tenant rights movement

Unlike the cities of Los Angeles or nearby Pasadena — which saw a local tenants union successfully push for a city rent control ordinance in the 2022 midterm election — Altadena has not been known as a hotbed for political organizing among renters.

But that quickly changed after the Eaton Fire left Clark's apartment and many others covered in ash or destroyed. She has been a renter in the community for more than 15 years.

Until recently, Clark said, there wasn’t much pushing her to fight for tenant rights. She used to have an “incredible landlord” and was living comfortably in a one-bedroom apartment with her husband and dog.

“To be able to stay in a rent-controlled unit in such a fantastic location, part of Altadena, which we both love, was really a huge gift,” Clark said.

But even if she had faced issues with her landlord, Clark would not have been able to show up at a local city council meeting to push for change. That's because Altadena is not a city and has no city council. Its status as an unincorporated area of L.A. County means the community is represented by Kathryn Barger, one of five supervisors for a county of nearly 10 million people.

“There was no immediate forum for presenting concerns that tenants had,” Clark said. “There was nothing significantly galvanizing that would get everybody to organize themselves. Until this fire.”

Group focuses on clean-up, evictions and permanent housing

Although Clark’s apartment was destroyed, other units in her complex survived. She said tenants are still waiting on plans to remove potentially toxic ash on the property.

Clark said it quickly became clear to her that fire recovery was going to be a confusing process for tenants — and she felt they would get the best results by organizing collectively. She said dozens of renters have contacted the Altadena Tenants Union to share their stories and get involved in organizing efforts.

The group has sent a letter to Barger and other L.A. County officials demanding post-fire habitability standards that would require landlords to cover ash removal, something officials in Pasadena have not done.

In the letter, the group also demanded a local eviction moratorium (an idea the Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to pursue) and a freeze on rent increases (an idea that has not been approved).

Another issue the group is focused on is finding new permanent housing for the displaced Atladena tenants who were recently transferred from a Red Cross shelter at the Pasadena Convention Center to a new shelter in a public park 10 miles away in Duarte.

“What is the plan for housing people?” Clark said. “Are we just going to throw up our hands and say, ‘Well, I guess now you're part of L.A.'s growing homeless population?’ That seems like an absolute abdication.”

They faced fires, then rent hikes and lease terminations

Barger has not responded to the group’s demands or agreed to meet with them, Clark said. Barger's office did not respond to LAist's request for comment.

Robin Whitney and Brian Norton said they’ve lived in their Altadena apartment since 2019. Their building survived the fire, but other homes on their block burned down. They evacuated and have not yet been able to return.

The couple’s landlord, Greatfull LLC, emailed them about 10 days after the Eaton Fire broke out with an invoice saying they had not fully paid their January rent. The couple was told their rent had increased by about 6%. They said they had not received a legally required 30-day rent increase notice. In a December email about an unrelated issue, their landlord had told them, “we did not serve you a rent increase.”

Whitney said the timing of the rent hike spurred tenants in the building to organize.

“We were all emotionally affected by the fire and just really shocked that instead of getting any sort of sympathy or instruction about what to expect from the remediation, we were just kind of having to navigate the legal protections,” she said. “The system wasn't really working.”

Later, the couple was sent a new notice saying their rent increase would take effect March 1.

After the tenants pushed for detailed plans about efforts to clean their units, the landlord responded by saying the units were uninhabitable, insurance company representatives had estimated cleanup would take four to six months, and their leases were now terminated.

Norton said tenants plan to continue fighting to return to their units.

“There are laws in place to protect us, but they're only as good as their enforcement,” he said. “Frankly, there's just not enough pressure on landlords to comply.”

Without doors to knock, organizing goes digital

LAist reached out to Greatfull LLC for comment on the rent increases, remediation plans and lease terminations. We received an email in response, but a representative for the company told us in a phone call the landlord did not send the email and she would have no response for the story.

Many renters in Pasadena are facing issues similar to those playing out in Altadena. Their landlords have either refused to carry out smoke remediation or have provided scant details on when cleaning will happen.

Ash that could contain lead and asbestos, according to Pasadena health officials, does not violate local building codes according to the city’s housing officials. Meanwhile, some landlords are feeling pressured by tenants to complete repairs in timeframes they say are unrealistic.

Clark, one of the lead organizers behind the Altadena Tenants Union, said outreach isn’t as easy as it would have been before the fires. Renters have either lost their homes or remain evacuated. With few affordable rentals available nearby, some have relocated out of state.

“Normally in tenant organizing, the standard thing that everybody starts with is to go knock on the doors of your neighbors,” Clark said. “Trying to get people together in person is virtually impossible. So right now, it's kind of a daisy chain. It's group texts, it's phone calls, it's Zoom calls.”

She said their main goal right now is to get L.A. County officials to clarify tenant rights and landlord responsibilities in the fire recovery process.

“We know that there's no way individual tenants are going to be able to get help if we don't do it all together,” Clark said.

A bipartisan majority in the Republican-led House voted on Wednesday to end the war with Iran, the clearest rebuke yet of President Donald Trump's handling of the conflict and the subsequent economic fallout.

The war powers resolution passed by a vote of 215 to 208, with four Republicans joining Democrats in support.

The resolution had originally been set for a vote two weeks ago, but Republican leaders sent House members home early for a May recess when it appeared the largely Democratic-backed measure had enough Republican votes for passage. However, the extended break didn't shift GOP support to kill the measure.

Ahead of the vote, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., defended Trump's decision to attack Iran.

"Remember … Iran declared war on us 47 years ago. They chant 'death to America.' The president is trying to keep the people safe," Johnson told reporters.

The vote is mostly symbolic. Democrats, despite multiple attempts, have been unable to pass a war powers resolution through the Republican-led Senate. Even if the measure passed in Congress, it would almost certainly be vetoed by President Trump, whose administration has questioned the constitutionality of the War Powers Act.

Still, Senate Democrats have been inching closer. Last month, they won support on a procedural measure to set up a war powers vote after a handful of Republicans broke ranks to join them. A final vote has yet to be scheduled.

The administration has furiously pushed against the effort in both the House and Senate. Wednesday's vote signals his support for the war may be slipping even among some members of his own party.

Now more than 90 days into the conflict, some Republicans have expressed frustration that the war does not appear to have a clear end in sight. Talks to end the war have yet to gain clear traction, casting doubt on a fragile ceasefire. Just hours before the vote, Iran and the U.S. traded strikes in the Persian Gulf.

The conflict began on Feb 28 with strikes by U.S. and Israeli forces on Iran. Under the 1973 War Powers Act, the president has 60 days to end hostilities if there has been no congressional authorization – though he is able to seek a 30-day extension. The same law also gives Congress the ability to end hostilities by voting on a resolution to end military action, subject to presidential veto.

The top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., warned ahead of the May recess when the vote was delayed that the plan was sure to pass.

"Let's be clear: Republicans pulled this vote because they knew they were going to lose it," Meeks said. "They know this war is a political and strategic disaster."
Copyright 2026 NPR

Electric vehicles offer many opportunities to save money: on gas, on oil changes, on engine maintenance. But, it turns out, insurance isn’t one of them. In fact, the latest data shows that EVs typically cost $3,159 per year to insure — nearly $1,000 more than gas-powered cars. It’s an added burden that could make the payback period on EVs significantly longer.

On average, the insurance gap between electric and internal combustion engine, or ICE, vehicles was 42%, according to a report released by the insurance-comparison marketplace Insurify. But it varies drastically by state and model. The most expensive locale was Washington, D.C., where coverage cost $6,394 versus $4,124 for ICE cars. Maine was the cheapest at $1,476, just $184 more than a conventional car. The difference was most pronounced in Rhode Island, which has a 73% spread.

Generally speaking, luxury brands like Tesla, Mercedes-Benz, and Audi are particularly expensive to insure, with premiums on many models topping $4,000. Volvo, Chevrolet, Ford, and Hyundai offer cars at the lower end of the spectrum. Insurify wouldn’t disclose which insurers had the most expensive rates, but did say Lemonade, Root, and GEICO offered the most affordable EV coverage.

“Insurers were charging those higher premiums to balance their risks,” said Julia Taliesin, an economic analyst and insurance agent at Insurify, who wrote the report. It is based on more than 235 million quotes in Insurify’s proprietary database. Seven states — Alaska, Hawai‘i, North Dakota, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming — are excluded due to lower quoting volume. But high insurance expenses means it can take more driving before an EV pays for itself through lower fuel and operating costs. Even if electricity were free and gas stays at $4 per gallon it translates to at least 5,800 more miles a year compared to a car that gets 25 mpg.

A primary reason for the disparity is that EVs cost more to fix.

“We do see that there is a delta in the cost of repair for electric vehicles compared to ICE,” said Ryan Mandell, a vice president of strategy and market intelligence at Mitchell, a company which provides data and software related to car repairs. He pegs the difference at about 15%, noting that batteries are relatively expensive to fix and for mechanics to work around and that EVs have complicated electronics. But there are more fundamental factors as well, like the lack of an engine.

Mandell gave the Ford F-150 as an example. From 2022 to 2025 an electric version of the pickup truck, called the Lightning, was available alongside gas-only and hybrid versions. When Mitchell subjected the gasoline and EV models to a front-end crash test the engine in the traditional model actually absorbed quite a bit of the impact. Because it doesn’t have that additional structure, Ford designed the Lightning with additional reinforcement that cost around 30% more to fix.

“The Lightning had more crash parts on the front of the vehicle,” said Mandell. He also noted that Ford requires removing the battery before doing any work, which increases labor costs. “It adds up.”

Repair costs, however, are not the only factor insurers consider. Insurify’s data showed insurance rates for the two trucks are roughly the same, which Taliesin said suggests driver demographics and behavior play a role, too. “One of the most significant is personal driving history and credit history,” she said. Given the Lightning’s much higher cost, the credit scores of owners could potentially be higher. And Insurify’s data shows that the ticket and accident rates for Lightning drivers are about half that of traditional F-150s.

“Factors like climate risk, vehicle theft rates, population density, insurance regulation, repair infrastructure, and EV adoption levels contribute to regional cost differences,” the Insurify report stated. In several states it cited climate-driven extreme weather, such as hurricanes and flooding, as drivers of high costs.

This EV insurance story isn’t unique to the United States. In 2024, BloombergNEF found about the same spread in the United Kingdom and Germany. France saw double the disparity. Overall, though, American EV owners still paid 87% more for insurance than Europeans.

“Several model-specific factors have driven the wider cost gaps in the large and SUV segments,” said Aleksandra O’Donovan, head of electrified transport at BloombergNEF, pointing to the Tesla Model Y as a particularly extreme example. “[The U.S. price] is nearly triple the insurance rate for the same vehicle in Germany.”

From 2023 to 2025, the EV insurance gap in the U.S. grew from 29% to 49%. But this year, it came down slightly, which Taliesin said is among a few good signs for EV drivers. Another is that the disparity among cars made in the last two years was only 18 percent — compared 42% across all years.

That drop is partly because auto insurance prices fell across the board in the last year. But Taliesin also said that ICE cars are catching up to EVs in terms of how complicated and expensive they are to fix. The cost of EV batteries is also trending downward, too. As EV sales have grown, there is more data for companies to base their prices on and more incentive for them to court EV owners.

”We’ve been seeing a ton of insurance-shopping behavior as insurers have been dropping their rates to compete for business,” said Taliesin, who is bullish for consumers. “That’s definitely a welcome reprieve.”

This article originally appeared in Grist at https://grist.org/transportation/the-hidden-cost-of-owning-an-ev-expensive-insurance/.

Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org

You just got off work, and while you have every good intention to cook for the evening, that quietly died a slow death somewhere along the 405 during your commute home.

Tonight, dinner’s at the deli.

Every market has at least a few quick-serve options. Out here in the San Fernando Valley, the deli counter deserves more credit than it gets.

Sabzee Mediterranean Market (Encino)

The Sabzee in Encino feels like an Iranian-American Whole Foods. The produce section is full of fresh herbs, fruits, and some of the most well-curated Persian cucumbers around. There’s a full-service butcher offering grass-fed beef and cuts of halal lamb in traditional marinades. All great for meal prep — but tonight, we’re hitting the hot food line.

Their steam tables are full of khoreshs (stews) like bademjoon (with tomatoes and eggplant), fesenjoon (with walnut & pomegranates), and their signature ghormeh sabzi (with herbs & kidney beans). On the far side, there's rice dishes like sabzi polo (with herbs), sweet shirin polo (with dried fruits and nuts), adas polo (with lentils), and squares of the famously crunchy tahdig (caramelized rice).

You can also order from their succulent kabob grill, which serves skewers of chicken, salmon, beef barg and koobideh. Many people are buying for families, but don't overlook the single skewer — it comes with rice, bread, a roasted tomato and a roasted poblano pepper.

Make sure to hit up their bakery and take home the 3-foot-long scrolls of sangak, the more circular tuftoon, or the seeded barbari flatbread.

Vallarta Supermarkets (various locations)

Vallarta has 60 locations in California.

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There are so many options at Vallarta Supermarket. Founded in Van Nuys, this Mexican-American grocery store now has 60 locations in California, and they just opened their first out-of-state store in Arizona. The Valley has a number of locations, but my favorites are the recently remodeled stores in Van Nuys on Sherman Way and Woodley and Canoga Park on Roscoe and Topanga.

For dinner, go first to the in-house tortilleria, where they make several sizes and varieties, from blue corn to Sonoran-style flour tortillas. They also make tortilla chips and those tasty chicharrones de harina — puffy, deep-fried flour puffs that evoke pork rinds but are fully vegetarian.

Since you've got chips in your cart, head to the fresh guacamole bar up front. Pull a premade container or have one made to order (pica o no pica — spicy or not). Grab some salsa while you're at it; the salsa verde and pico de gallo are worth it. This could be a snack on its own or an appetizer for what's coming.

Head to La Cocina and add a torta or burrito to the mix. The steam tables have caldos, costillas, and chile rellenos. Feeding the whole family? The family meal deals — like the Pachanga or Fiesta Vallarta — come with beef birria or carnitas, respectively, plus rice, beans, salsas, and tortillas.

For something lighter, there are ceviches, sushi, and fresh juices. At the aguas frescas stand, they'll blend Erewhon-style smoothies (at non-Erewon prices) with add-on supplements like pea protein and collagen peptides for just 75¢ more.

Greenland Market (Van Nuys)

Greenland Market's Korean food offerings.

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Greenland Market is a Korean grocery store at Sherman Way and White Oak. It’s a place where I regularly buy my rice, ramen, seaweed, kimchi, and honey butter potato chips. Comfort food for our family. My mother-in-law has been shopping here for decades, often bringing her grandchildren boxes of Choco Pies and Butter Coconut Biscuits — she's always uncovering something new.

My trick for dinner: make a pot of rice at home, then let Greenland handle the rest. My kids love the Saengseonjeon (pan-fried fish fillets coated in egg and flour) and kimbap (seaweed wrapped around rice, vegetables, and fishcake.) They’ve also got grab-and-go options including prepared kimchi pancakes, fried dumplings, pork cutlets, grilled fish, japchae glass noodles, and hearty soups like kimchi-jjigae and doenjang-jjigae (fermented soybean stew.) There’s also a refrigerator full of banchan side dishes like seasoned soybean sprouts, spicy cucumbers, stir-fried squash, and potato salad.

For dessert, we’ll always bring home some red-bean paste-filled sesame balls, or some Dokil German Bakery pastries. Of course there’s also all those boxes of Choco Pies and Butter Coconut Biscuits in the cabinet, which we’re still eating our way through.

Gourmanoff International Food Market (Encino)

Gourmanoff's Russian offerings.

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When our kids are with their grandparents my wife and I get a date night out. Sometimes for us that just means checking out new grocery stores together without our children. It’s romantic, I assure you. One night recently we ended up at Gourmanoff, a gourmet Russian market in Encino. We checked out their collection of cookies, and teas. We perused their frozen pelmeni dumplings, smoked salmon case, imported Czech cakes, Italian patnettones, French butters, fancy mustards, and jars of caviar. That night we had just eaten, though, so we ended up just leaving with just a Dubai chocolate bar.

If you happen to feel a bit hungrier you can get a full plate of Eastern European dishes. Stuffed cabbages, chicken kotleti, pilafs, buckwheat kasha, duck legs, and grilled fish. You can take home containers of chicken noodle soup or borscht. If you need a quick bite you can pick up a Georgian khinkhali dumpling, creamy cheese blintzes, a beef samsa hand pie, or a fried potato pirozkh bun. They’ve also got an impressive lineup of signature sandwiches like the Maestro (hot pastrami, munster cheese, sauerkraut) or the South Beach (chicken schnitzel, grilled eggplant spread, havarti cheese) both served on Dutch Crunch bread. I’m pretty sure we’re going to get both, next time my wife and I have a night out on the town.

Gelson’s (various locations)

 My family has been shopping at the Gelson’s since I was a kid. I loved going with my mom because I got to have a say in what we would eat at home. If I was lucky, after the staples she'd let us hit the salad bar — and maybe, just maybe, the macaroni & cheese from the service deli

Over the years, Gelson’s has “home-cooked” our family passover dinners, birthdays, and Saint Patrick’s day. (They put together a nice corned beef and cabbage spread.)

Sometimes it's just an easy family meal — bring the kids to the counter and let them build a hodgepodge of chicken tenders, potato wedges, and slices of Wolfgang Puck pizza. My wife will always get the tuna salad, which she swears is the best in L.A. Me, I go straight for the pre-boxed Spago-inspired Chinois Chicken Salad and a demi baguette. Their chicken noodle soup and vegetarian chili are worth a mention too.

Every birthday cake in my wife’s family is catered by the in-house bakery, Mamolo’s Fine Pastries. We’ve eaten every cake they make, but are still working our way through the pastry case. Our family favorites are probably the fruit tart and Princess cake. If you’re not in the mood to bring home an entire cake, the rugelach and alligator pastry are always a winner.

99 Ranch Market (Van Nuys)

99 Ranch Market. It’s totally okay to eat that shrimp shumai in the parking lot.

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I’m often in this parking lot at the corner of Sepulveda and Victory slurping down lunch at Pho So 1, getting a boba (sweetened 25%) at Ding Tea or trying to figure out how many friends I’d need to eat that whole barbecued duck at Sam Woo Village.

This plaza is also home to 99 Ranch Market, the largest Chinese supermarket chain in the United States. The San Fernando Valley is not the San Gabriel Valley — this Van Nuys branch may be your only option for Chinese groceries in the region.

The shelves are stocked with fish sauces, mulberry vinegar, Indonesian curry packets, agar agar powder, braised abalone with shiitake mushrooms, and at least seven brands of canned quail eggs. The seafood counter has live fish and crab aquariums; the freezer section stocks hot pot staples like fishcakes and lobster balls.

Hungry now? Head to the back for hot food — Chinese American combo plates with orange chicken and chow mein, dim sum-style shrimp shumai, chicken rolls, and char siu buns, plus braised pork belly bowls served with pickled mustard greens and hard-boiled eggs. Up front, an 85 Degrees-style bakery turns out croissants, red bean buns, and roll cakes.

It’s totally OK to eat that shrimp shumai in the parking lot, but don’t go too far, because you might want to get another one.

Jon’s International Marketplace (various locations)

Get a range of international foods at Jons.

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I’m a fan of Jon’s, the grocery chain that originally opened in 1977 out of an old Von’s and has grown to 13 Southern California locations, half of them in the San Fernando Valley. It's a full-service supermarket with national chain staples and international products. The kind of place where you can buy Armenian basturma, Ukrainian banana-flavored Minions-branded chocolate, boxes of Guatemalan chao mein, Colombian soft drinks, and Salvadoran sour creams. It’s also a goldmine for after shopping bites.

At every location, you can buy their deli-packed dolmas, hummus, babaganoush, gigante beans, purple sauerkraut, and some farmer’s cheese or Bulgarian feta. All of these side dishes pair perfectly with matnakash, Armenian fingerbread, which you can easily eat a whole loaf of in the parking lot. Jon also sells warm Mexican-style tamales chicken, beef, and sweet corn tamales that are pretty tasty.

The Reseda and Van Nuys Sepulveda locations also have the micro-chain of Sasoun Bakery in the store. There you order Armenian pastries like beorek triangles, meaty lahmajune, za’atar-laced maneishe, and tahini bread. The Jon’s on Sepulveda also has a Market Grill, a hot food line serving Iranian stews and kabobs alongside enchiladas and Hawaiian chicken. I recently had a hearty bowl of lentil soup with a piece of sangak flatbread straight out of the oven.

For dessert, there’s bread pudding and sugar cookies from pan dulce cases or some of the sweet cakes and baklavas made by Lilit bakery. Or since it’s a grocery store, you also have the option to hit the freezer section for your favorite brand of ice cream.

Island Pacific Seafood Market (Granada Hills, Canoga Park)

This plaza in Granada Hills is stacked with dining options, like the Lebanese flatbread shop, the Italian delicatessen, and Island Pacific, a Filipino-American grocery chain. There are currently two locations in the San Fernando Valley in Granada Hills and Canoga Park. The mid-sized grocery store has a large meat and seafood counter in the back, with whole fish on ice. There are so many types of Filipino chips, condiments like banana ketchup, and several flavors of SPAM I’ve never seen before, plus they have that viral mango ice cream.

For an easy dinner, head to the food court at the front of the store. Of course, there’s a branch of Max’s Restaurant, the fried chicken chain founded in 1945 in Quezon City, and a San Honore Panaderia, which features various Pinoy pastries like ensaymadas, hopia, bibingka, ube cheese rolls, and steamed buns. But the main hot food line is called PhilHouse.

It’s stacked with items like barbecued skewers, deep-fried crispy pork pata and lechon kawaii, grilled pompano and tilapia, and chicken inasal, a cooked wing and breast that’ve been marinated in vinegar, calamansi and annatto. You can eat this a la carte or, as a combo meal served with rice or pancit, or as a family package. For a quick bite you can get the viral Ilocos empanada, a bright orange deep-fried hand pie filled with ground beef (though it is often made with logganisa), shredded papaya, mung beans, and a fried egg, to be dipped in a vinegar sauce. You’ll probably also need something sweet, so don’t sleep on theturon crispy fried caramelized banana lumpia. Simply delicious.