The Brief

Thousands of homes have been lost in the Los Angeles fires. More have been damaged or coated in soot and ash.

Many of those who lost homes — temporarily, or permanently — are renters. What comes next for those tenant households has generated a lot of confusion. Other L.A. renters outside the burn areas are also worried about new rent increases or pressure to move out.

“We were already in a shortage of units, and now that shortage has just gotten even greater,” said Matthew Calcanas, an attorney with the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles. “There's a lot of tenants who are concerned.”

LAist reporters spoke with housing rights experts to produce this guide for tenants and landlords about the legal protections, responsibilities and next steps involved in recovering from the fires.

We are not lawyers, and this guide will inevitably miss some of the specific problems you may be encountering. If you need further help, tenant rights experts recommend you reach out to StayHousedLA.org, a publicly funded coalition of local legal aid organizations.

Rent and deposits

If I paid January rent, will I get it back? 

This will depend on the extent of the damage to your unit.

If your home was destroyed, California law says your lease is canceled. Your landlord can keep the portion of rent you paid for the days you were able to live in your unit. But the landlord must give back the rest of this month’s payment. The same applies if your unit was damaged to the point of uninhabitability, and you choose to terminate your lease rather than wait for repairs.

However, if your home suffered minor damage, you still owe rent. The L.A. County Department of Consumer and Business Affairs says you should push your landlord to make necessary repairs. But as long as the unit is livable, your obligation to pay rent stands.

Will I get back my security deposit? 

If your rental unit was destroyed in the fires, the rental contract is no longer valid and your landlord must give back your deposit.

“ Within 21 days of a tenant moving out, the landlord has to get the security deposit back to you,” said Abid Aziz, a tenants' rights attorney with the Aziz Yellin law firm. A landlord cannot reduce your deposit if the unit was destroyed, he added.

Aziz said if the landlord refuses to give back your deposit, you can sue them in small claims court.

Damage and relocation costs

Can I get help with relocation costs? 

This depends on many factors, such as your insurance coverage, your eligibility for federal aid, and any potential obligations your landlord may have.

If you have renters insurance, check your policy for what’s covered under loss of use and additional living expenses. Then file a claim to get what you're owed.

If you don’t have renters insurance, you can apply for federal aid through FEMA.

If neither of those options work, it's possible that your landlord may be required to cover your relocation expenses, but only in certain circumstances.

If your unit was completely destroyed, your landlord does not need to pay relocation assistance, according to the county Department of Consumer and Business Affairs.

If your unit was damaged, but able to be occupied after necessary repairs, your landlord may be on the hook for your temporary relocation costs.

Part of this depends on where you live. The city of L.A.’s rent control program exempts landlords from the obligation to pay relocation assistance in the event of a natural disaster.

Alisa Randel, an attorney with Public Counsel who works on housing issues, said it’s possible that in other areas, such as Pasadena and Altadena, landlords of certain properties may be legally obligated to cover a tenant’s relocation expenses while repairs are carried out.

“It's complicated,” Randell said. “All of these jurisdictions have similar, but different wording in important ways.”

Whatever situation you fall into, tenant attorneys say you should be keeping receipts for any temporary lodging and other additional expenses you incur as a result of being displaced.

What about damage?

If my home was damaged, who is responsible for repairs?  

Your landlord owns the property and is responsible for fixing damage to that property.

If your possessions — like your furniture, clothing, artwork or other personal items — were damaged, you’ll have to deal with those losses yourself. But damage to the building, and any issues from the fires that affect the home’s habitability, are up to the landlord to fix.

“Landlords are required to maintain their rental properties in habitable conditions,” said Amy Tannenbaum, an attorney with Public Counsel. “One of the requirements of the law is that the building grounds have to be kept clean, sanitary, free from accumulations of debris, filth, etc. We read that to cover things like ash and soot.”

If your landlord is telling you they don’t want to file a claim with their insurance company to fix smoke damage in your unit or clean up common areas full of soot — maybe because they’re afraid of their policy getting dropped in the future — that does not absolve them of their responsibility to maintain a clean, livable home in exchange for your rent.

“Insurance or pay out of pocket, that's on them,” Randell said. “That's a you problem for the landlord.”

Evictions

Are eviction cases on hold because of the wildfires?

No. The L.A. City Council has delayed voting on a proposed eviction moratorium connected to the fires. That proposal now faces an uncertain future at City Hall.

For now, if a landlord files an eviction lawsuit against you, including for unpaid rent during the wildfires, and you fail to respond to the filing or show up for hearings, your landlord could win the eviction by default.

“If there is an eviction case that a tenant is currently part of, they still do need to go to court,” Kaimi Wenger, an attorney with the Inner City Law Center, said. “If a tenant has been subject to an evacuation order, they could petition the court for a continuance.”

Tenant advocates say an online resource called the Tenant Power Toolkit can help you draft a response to any eviction filed against you.

Can I be evicted if I let new people and pets into my home?

Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order Friday to temporarily prohibit L.A. County landlords from filing evictions against renters who take in new roommates who were displaced by the fires, even if their leases would normally ban those additional occupants. Newsom’s order will remain in effect until March 8, 2025. 

 The L.A. City Council also voted this week to draft a new ordinance that would enact new protections against eviction for renters who take in unauthorized roommates and pets who were displaced by the fires.

 Even with those protections, Wenger said, some landlords could try to serve you with a notice, which is why it’s critical to know your rights.

“ There are definitely unscrupulous landlords who have dollar signs in their eyes and who are thinking, 'If I can evict my existing tenant for any particular reason that I can find, then I can jack up the rent and rent to one of these new displaced people for a larger amount of money,'” Wenger said.

Can my landlord evict me to rent to someone willing to pay more? 

No, they cannot. Under various state and local tenant protections, landlords need “just cause” to evict you, Aziz said.

“ They can't just evict you just because somebody's willing to pay more,” he said. “That's not a just cause.”

Landlords can always begin eviction proceedings against you if you do not pay rent, violate your lease agreement or use the unit for illegal activity.

Can my landlord evict me to bring in someone displaced by the fires? 

This is one possibility that tenant rights attorneys are anticipating. Landlords generally have the ability to evict existing tenants when they intend to move into a unit themselves, or to move in a relative. If the landlord, or one of their family members, was displaced by the fires and now wants to occupy your unit, this does generally constitute a “just cause” for eviction.

However, your landlord most likely cannot demand that you leave immediately. Local tenant protection laws, and the state’s Tenant Protection Act, provide timelines for owner move-ins. Under the state law, tenants who have lived in their units for at least one year must be given at least 60 days’ notice of any owner move-in.

In this situation, your landlord will also likely owe you some amount of relocation assistance. Under the state law, you’re entitled to one month’s rent. Under local rent control laws, that amount can be much higher — as high as $25,700 in the city of L.A.

Be sure to get the name of the person your landlord plans to give your unit. If the landlord or their relative doesn’t move into your unit within 90 days of you leaving, and stay there for at least one year, the eviction is illegal under the state law and you are entitled to return at your previous rent.

Rental rates and rights

Can my landlord raise my rent because of the fires?

The short answer is no — your landlord cannot massively jack up your rent because of the fires. Under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s emergency declaration, any rent increase of more than 10% from pre-disaster levels constitutes illegal price gouging.

However, your landlord can still raise your rent by smaller amounts, as they normally would be allowed to do in any given year — at least for now (more on that below).

How much your landlord can raise your rent depends on whether you’re covered by local rent control, a state tenant protection law or other legal limits. Read LAist’s guide to local rent hikes to find out what rules apply in your home.

The L.A. City Council recently delayed voting on a proposal to freeze rent increases for the next year because of the impacts of the fires. It is possible, but by no means guaranteed, that in the near future, state or local lawmakers could pass further restrictions on rent increases.

What are my rights as I look for new housing? 

There’s no way to sugar coat this: Your search for new housing will likely be difficult.

Landlords are allowed to ask for market rate rents on vacant units under the state’s Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act. If you haven’t had to search for a new rental home in a long time, those market rates may appear shockingly high.

Then there’s the issue of rampant spikes in asking rents — well above typical market rates — despite the ban on price gouging that was triggered by Newsom’s declaration of a state of emergency around the Palisades Fire.

To be clear, it is illegal for landlords to be demanding double-digit increases from the rents they were asking before the fires. Under the governor’s emergency declaration, any price increase of more than 10% compared to pre-disaster prices is illegal price gouging.

Tenant rights advocates have been collecting hundreds of examples of listings with massive post-fire jumps in asking rent.

The state attorney general says he is preparing cases against landlords who are allegedly breaking the law. If you see instances of suspected rent gouging in your search for a new home, read this LAist story to learn how to report it to prosecutors.

Housing vouchers and rent control

What if I’ve been using a housing voucher? 

Programs like the federal Housing Choice Voucher program (also known as Section 8) help low-income tenants cover the cost of housing they otherwise could not afford. If you’re a voucher holder and your rental home just burned down, the good news is that you should be able to use that voucher to pay for another unit elsewhere.

“They're what we call portable,” said Tannenbaum, the Public Counsel attorney. “You can take them to different landlords.”

However, finding a landlord who will take your voucher could be a drawn-out process. Because many landlords are hesitant to rent to voucher holders, tenants can search for months without success.

But you should know that discrimination against voucher holders is illegal in California. If landlords ever turn you away because of your voucher, or tell you they do not take Section 8, tenant rights advocates say you can file a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department.

What if my home was rent controlled? 

Under various local rent control ordinances, specific protections against evictions and large rent increases apply to the unit — not to the tenant.

“Unfortunately, yes, if that unit is lost then you're also losing those protections that you had in that particular residence,” said Calcanas, the attorney from Legal Aid Foundation of L.A..

Housing policy experts in L.A. say tenants who lived in their units for many years, paying below market rates, are likely to struggle paying for the going rents in other units today.

“They may be looking at a possibly over $1,000 difference in the amount they're paying in rent now versus the amount they'll need to pay in the future,” Calcanas said.

It's a summer of extreme heat around much of the world.

I know what that feels like. In Uttar Pradesh, India, where I grew up, temperatures easily soar upward of 120 degrees in May and June. But few people have access to an air conditioner. With a per capita income of around $1,000 a year, many people in this part of the country can't afford to buy an AC unit or pay the power bills that come with using one.

So how do people keep cool?

People in India and other countries across the Global South have long figured out ways to deal with horrible heat. I'd like to share a few tips I've learned from my elders back home in India. Some of the advice is just what you'd think — drinking lots of liquids and staying out of the sun. Other strategies might surprise you.

I know that each of these tips on its own may seem trivial. But as a heat wave researcher, I can tell you that done together, they can really help the body cool down. The key is to be mindful of the power of heat — and be prepared to prevent its adverse effects.

And remember, upon seeing any signs of heatstroke — like fever, headache, nausea, confusion or weakness — call an ambulance ASAP and get medical help. Use ice packs while waiting to be treated at the hospital. Seriously, folks, don't delay. Heatstroke can be fatal.

(Also: We want to hear from you! Scroll to the end of this story to find out how to share tips from your culture on how to cope with heat.)

Drink lots of liquids — it doesn't have to be water!

One of the childhood lessons seared into my head was to always be aware of your hydration status. And drink water, even in small sips, as soon as you do any physical activity. Carrying a water bottle when going out is not just common sense but is lifesaving.

Some of the drinks that are popular in India can help replenish the electrolytes lost in sweat, as well as keep your body hydrated.

We quench our thirst with fruity drinks like sugarcane juice, coconut water and a tangy and raw mango juice called aam ka pana. Made from boiled and blended tart raw mangoes, aam ka pana replenishes electrolytes lost in sweat. Premade mix is available from online vendors and in ethnic grocery stores. Just add chilled water and enjoy!

In India, we also like cooling, milk-based drinks like lassi, a yogurt beverage popular in the summertime, and buttermilk.

And eat something!

Another lesson was to never go out on an empty stomach — always eat something. A cucumber (which contains dissolved electrolytes) or a pineapple snack will do the trick. In India, we'll sprinkle black salt on a cuke, adding to its restorative powers.

Shower power

If you feel hot, take a cold shower or at least periodically splash water on your face and hands and douse your head in water — that'll bring down body temperature.

You can also play with water. When I was a kid in India, I'd have water balloon fights with neighborhood kids. Or we'd fill a tub with water and splash it on each other in the backyard.

Find a cool spot to chill out

Seek out the coolest parts of the building where you live and make that the place where you sleep or hang out. Because heat rises, lower floors in a multistory house are cooler. Verandas are shady and airy. During the day, block out the sunlight with heavy curtains. Turn on any fans you have. And don't be afraid to move furniture around in your quest for coolness. Back in Uttar Pradesh, we used to scoot our beds closer to the windows so we could catch a breeze while we slept.

If it becomes impossibly stuffy indoors, move outdoors and lie in a hammock. Air created from swinging helps cool the body down. As a kid, I remember that mango orchards were the best for hanging out. The dense foliage provided maximum shade coverage. The shade is your friend!

Take inspiration from architecture

Among many architectural innovations is a building design called jaali (meaning simply a net in Hindi and Urdu). Think of the Taj Mahal. It's basically a way of turning a stone wall into a latticed screen by carving geometric patterns with a series of small openings rather than a solid wall. This stone screen blocks direct sunlight and also causes air to speed up as it passes through the holes.

Now, it's true there's no way you can rebuild your house in the style of the Taj Mahal.

But you can take inspiration from another architectural ploy. Some buildings have a small body of water outside — like the Hawa Mahal (the Wind Palace) in Jaipur. Wind enters the palace through the jaali holes in the thousand windows and picks up moisture from the courtyard water body. The humid wind then moves toward the palace's thousand windows and cools down the inside air.

A nifty trick to bring in cool, humid air is to hang a curtain woven from grass on the door. Sprayed with water, it converts the hot air into a cool breeze. A special fragrant grass called khus is used for this purpose in India. I've also seen curtains made of fine bamboo — offering protection from direct sunlight — with a fine wet cloth added on the inside for cooling. Or a heavy, dampened cloth curtain will do the job.

The swamp cooler effect

The ubiquitous swamp cooler works best in low-humidity settings. Also known as an evaporative cooler, this electrical device passes a room's air over water-saturated pads, which cools down the air, then blows that air back into the room. These devices are cheaper than air conditioners and use less energy. You can even make one yourself.

Wear airy and light-colored clothing

Rabari people (a nomadic tribe in western India) and many other tribal communities use small mirrors on their clothes to reflect sunlight.

Besides the use of cotton and linen fabrics for their clothing — both materials are cooling because they have big pores in their woven threads that allow for air circulation — their choice of color in their clothes is ingenious. They cleverly make use of the fact that black not only takes in heat faster than white but that it also gives off heat much faster than white. Due to the nature of their work, women frequently go in and out of their tents while men grazing livestock stay out for longer durations. Therefore, to stay cool, it makes sense for women to wear darker colors (these hues cool down fast as soon as women go indoors) and men to wear lighter colors (which heat up more slowly than darker colors during prolonged outdoor stays).

Cover your head or neck

In the summers, covering one's head is an age-old practice. Whether it was the nobles wearing a pagdee (a turban) or the commonfolk using a wet rectangular piece of traditional cotton cloth called gamcha for men and dupatta for women. A variation of a white wet towel, it is almost universal in the countryside and even seen in cities.

Or take a light towel, called a gamchha in Hindi, dampen it and wear it around your neck or on your head like a scarf. This wet garb is omnipresent among men in the hinterlands and small towns.

Even our erstwhile British colonial masters fended off the sun with pith helmets — made of an extremely lightweight, dried, milky-white, spongy plant material that could be pressed into various shapes.

Avoid the noonday sun

During the hottest parts of the day, try not to burn energy or exhaust yourself by going out, exercising or standing outside, because the scorching sunlight and hot air will make you hotter. Instead, do what I did in Uttar Pradesh: chill at home or take an afternoon siesta. If you have to work and have a flexible schedule, try to perform your duties in the cooler hours of the day. Farmers in my state, for example, toil in the early mornings and late evenings. And markets close in the hot afternoons but remain open until late in the night.

Embrace the shade

Whether you are working outdoors or walking down the street, stay in the shade provided by trees. The actual air temperature is the same as in the sun, but your skin won't absorb the sun's rays and cause your body to heat up. Thanks to our forefathers for planting trees for us! And we return the favor by planting trees now, even when we know we aren't going to enjoy that shade in our lifetime. Our kids will. And that's what makes us a civilization.

Your turn: Share tips on how to cope with the heat

Did you grow up without an air conditioner in a hot place? How did you deal with the heat? Email us at globalhealth@npr.org with the subject line "Heat hacks," and we may feature your story on NPR.org. Please include your name and location. Submissions close on Monday, July 20. 

Dr. Gulrez Shah Azhar is a Seattle-based Aspen New Voices fellow who researches the health impacts of heat. Previously, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Washington, a policy researcher at the RAND Corp. and an assistant professor at the Indian Institute of Public Health.
Copyright 2026 NPR

A contentious bill lawmakers are debating this year has them asking the question: Should Californians have the right to sue if a company is using unfair tactics to strangle its competition?

Assembly Bill 1776 would expand California’s antitrust law to allow people and businesses that claim they’re harmed by a company’s attempts to stifle competition to sue in state court.

Under longstanding California law, such cases typically can only be brought when two or more parties are suspected of working together to smother competitors. Federal law allows for single-party enforcement, but proponents of California’s COMPETE Act say federal courts have watered down antitrust law to the point the state needs to chart its own course.

The fight is pitting some of the state’s biggest political spenders — labor unions and trial lawyers — against the lobbying might of California’s business and tech industries. Combined, the groups fighting over the bill have given at least $106 million to lawmakers’ campaigns since 2000, according to the CalMatters’ Digital Democracy database.

Proponents say the measure would give consumers a way to fight to keep independent grocery stores and pharmacies open, prevent supply chains for farms and restaurants from being controlled by single firms and give patients more options for their medical care.

The measure’s author, Democratic Assembly Majority Leader Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, told the Senate Judiciary Committee late last month that more than 75% of U.S. industries have experienced consolidation since the late 1990s.

“When companies gain that much power and abuse it, that means higher prices, less choice, fewer opportunities for job creators to start small businesses and suppressed wages for working families,” said Aguiar-Curry, who represents the Davis area.

Business groups say if the measure were signed into law it would open up a new way for predatory law firms to shake down companies. Business owners have complained for years about California laws allowing activists and a cottage industry of lawyers to bombard them with cash demands and lawsuits over disability access, product warning labels, labor complaints and consumer privacy.

The California Chamber of Commerce was so alarmed by this latest attempt to increase companies’ legal risks, its lobbyists placed billboards near the Capitol earlier this year. They targeted Aguiar-Curry by name.

“Cecilia, prices are high enough already,” one billboard read. “Don’t make life more expensive for California consumers.” Chamber spokesperson John Myers declined to discuss the billboards.

Moderate Democrats remain leery

If the group’s goal was to pressure lawmakers to drop the measure, it may have backfired.

The rare public attack on a popular, high-ranking Democrat appears to have galvanized support for the bill, despite concerns from several moderate Democrats that the legislation could make it harder to do business in California.

At least one antitrust expert says those concerns are valid.

Babette Boliek, a law professor at Pepperdine University and a former chief economist for the Federal Communications Commission, argues the bill is so vague it would “invite judges to pick winners and losers based on subjective sympathies rather than measurable harm.”

She likened it to having “a speed limit that no one knows exists.”

Aguiar-Curry’s team has been receptive to some concerns. After pushback, she added an exemption intended to protect small, independently owned California businesses, provided they have no more than 100 employees and averaged $10 million or more in gross annual receipts over the previous three years.

Ben Golombek, an executive vice president at Cal Chamber, said thousands of California businesses would still be vulnerable to costly litigation, including from their competitors.

“This unprecedented and massive legal liability for businesses of every size — small, medium, and large — that this bill creates is why we’re so opposed to it,” he said.

Mark Ramos, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Western States Council, said the legislation would ensure consolidation doesn’t drive down wages while raising the price of goods for workers. As grocery chains merge, it’s also been harder for his members to bargain for living wages that once allowed workers like him to afford their own homes, he said.

“With that consolidation has come the larger challenge of not … being able to negotiate a contract that allows our members to kind of thrive in their local economy because these grocers no longer have to compete against each other,” he said.

Some Democrats, notably Sen. Tom Umberg, the Democratic chairperson of the judiciary committee, are leery.

A major sticking point for Umberg is whether private citizens and businesses could sue in what’s known as a “private right of action.” Umberg told the committee that he wants only local prosecutors and the California attorney general to have that authority for now.

“We want to make sure that we are not stifling competition by virtue of the threat of lawsuits,” Umberg told the committee.

Aguiar-Curry said she would make most of Umberg’s requested changes, but she wouldn’t commit to limiting enforcement to just prosecutors. She said she’d continue work on making “it harder to bring a meritless suit” in the next version of the bill.

Will measure act as a deterrent?

The bill passed the committee with only Republicans voting against it, but Umberg did not vote when it was his turn, which counts the same as voting “no.”

Not voting is a common tactic California lawmakers use to express discomfort with a bill while avoiding a firm “no” that could anger powerful interest groups or legislative colleagues. Umberg was joined by 15 other Democrats who did not vote when it narrowly passed the Assembly.

The COMPETE Act will next be heard by the Senate Appropriations Committee when lawmakers return from their summer recess in early August.

Supporters hope the final version doesn’t end up preventing Californians from suing a company over anticompetitive behavior.

Lee Hepner, senior legal counsel at the American Economic Liberties Project, an anti-monopolization activist group, said it’s imperative that ordinary Californians have the right to pursue legal action.

Otherwise, he said, wealthy corporations will use their lobbying cash and political clout to pressure politicians and regulators into giving them a free pass.

“The private right of action is a critical backstop to the politicization of antitrust enforcement, which threatens the entire project of policing markets for fairness,” he said.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump will deliver a primetime address this week that he says will include a focus on elections, suggesting he could revisit long-debunked conspiracy theories about his 2020 defeat to Democrat Joe Biden. The speech comes as he's escalated calls for Republicans to pass tighter federal voting rules for November's midterm elections.

The Republican president has been guarded about what he plans to say in the 9 p.m. Thursday speech, scheduled as he confronts a collapsing deal to end the war with Iran. He also faces numerous domestic issues, including recent deadly shootings by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. Asked for a preview of the speech on Tuesday, Trump offered scant detail but said he has "really big news."

"It doesn't get bigger, because without free and fair elections, you don't have a country," Trump said in the Oval Office. He refused to go further, saying he wanted to "save it" for the moment, though he also hinted he would be talking about a hodgepodge of issues.

"We'll be discussing other things, too," Trump said, without elaborating. "It's going to be a very big announcement."

Trump has used the power of the primetime presidential address — typically reserved for milestones — to deliver politically charged speeches before, including one in December when he sought to blame the challenging economic climate on Democrats. But Thursday's address seems poised to go even further, using the moment to amplify election lies before an audience of millions in an effort to boost Republican prospects before midterms that threaten to hobble Trump for the remainder of his term.

On Monday, when asked about the speech, Trump repeated baseless claims of voter fraud in the Los Angeles primary race for mayor. During the interview with conservative outlet Newsmax, Trump said Republican Spencer Pratt lost his primary bid because of fraud, citing in part California's slow vote count.

Federal prosecutors said they were opening fraud investigations in the state last month after Trump drew attention to the claim.

The president's preoccupation with voting fraud and election security dates back at least to 2016, when he refused to say whether he would accept defeat to Democrat Hillary Clinton. After he won, he convened a voting integrity commission to support his claims that widespread voter fraud cost him the popular vote, though the commission disbanded without uncovering any such evidence.

Four years later, after he lost the 2020 election to Biden, Trump again claimed cheating and zeroed in on the Democrat's narrow win in Georgia. Trump called the state's secretary of state and pressured him to "find 11,780 votes," just enough votes to overturn Biden's victory in the state. He, along with than a dozen allies, was indicted in the state though the charges were later dropped.

Repeated audits and reviews -- many run by Republicans, including Trump's own then-attorney general -- have found no significant fraud occurred in 2020.

Before winning in 2024, Trump was again laying the groundwork to claim cheating if he lost. After returning to office, he stocked his administration with officials who back his false claims of 2020 election fraud.

Trump made voting regulation central in this term

Frequently declaring that he won the White House "three times," Trump has made voting regulation a core issue during his second term, demanding legislation that would require voter ID and sharply limit mail-in voting. Facing midterm races that will decide control of Capitol Hill, Trump has stirred new claims to cast doubt on election results that could challenge his power in Washington.

Earlier this year, FBI agents raided elections offices in Fulton County, Georgia, seizing materials from the 2020 election. Tulsi Gabbard, then Trump's director of national intelligence, traveled to Atlanta to oversee the execution of the search warrant.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, campaigning in Georgia for Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff and governor's candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms, smiled Tuesday when asked about Trump potentially rehashing the 2020 election in his national address.

He called it a strategy "for losers."

"I think people are exhausted by having conversations about elections that happened six years ago, that we have the answer to," Moore said. "He continues to bring this up because he cannot get out of his mind that he actually could have lost."

Beyond Georgia, Trump has widely taken aim at states that allow voters to submit ballots by mail. Trump said he called a U.S. attorney in California and demanded scrutiny of the governor's primary last month as votes were being counted.

Last week, Trump ousted the remaining members of the federal Election Assistance Commission, a bipartisan panel that resisted his efforts to require would-be voters to document their U.S. citizenship before registering.
Copyright 2026 NPR

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

When the smoke from the Lineage warehouse fire in Boyle Heights cleared, Guido Borjas, 71, and his family began noticing the smell of rotting food and the sound of flies buzzing around.

“I live five houses down from the damaged area and the flies bother us,” Borjas said. “I haven’t seen any rats but it won’t be long before they come out.”

Now, nearly a month after the start of the fire, residents fear this week’s extreme heat will worsen the odors and attract more pests. 

The National Weather Service (NWS) issued an Extreme Heat Warning starting on Tuesday morning through Thursday evening for much of Los Angeles County, with temperatures expected to climb above 90 degrees. The agency warned of a high risk of heat-related illness, especially for children, older adults, and people without air conditioning.

Borjas said his family has stayed home with doors closed because of the smell. With no air conditioning at home, the coming days will be especially difficult. 

On Monday, he walked home with an air purifier and water bottles from a pop-up resource center organized by the offices of Mayor Karen Bass and Councilmember Ysabel Jurado, just blocks from his home. 

A resident picks up air purifiers from a pop-up resource center in Boyle Heights on July 13, 2026.

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Isaac Ceja

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Boyle Heights Beat

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Bass said the city has opened cooling centers for residents, including those impacted by the Lineage fire, and encouraged people to call 3-1-1 if they need more information.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis, who serves unincorporated East L.A., said she directed the Los Angeles County Office of Emergency Management to activate cooling centers serving impacted residents. (Scroll down to find a cooling center near you).

The Mayor’s office also said crews have installed misters inside and around  the building to reduce odors from food waste until it is moved off-site. In addition, 250 bait stations have been installed around the warehouse perimeter and in the immediate neighborhood to monitor pest activity. 

Oscar Ordoñez, 40, owner of the taco pop-up Taquiza Nice, said he can no longer set up at his usual spot across from the Lineage warehouse on Los Palos Street and Union Pacific Ave and has lost customers.

The East Los Angeles resident lives with his family on Alma Street just blocks away from the warehouse and said that the smell is stronger in that direction.

“You turn on the air and all the smell from outside is entering your house and you leave for a long time and when you open the door, the house smells like something that’s gone bad,” Ordoñez said.

Although he usually doesn’t like asking for help, Ordoñez said financial assistance would help pay his bills as he struggles to find work. 

Maria Zavala, 42, said she wants the spoiled food cleaned up as soon as possible before the heat makes conditions worse. 

“I wish the owner would come and sit in the house one day to see what we’re going through,” Zavala said. “You can’t even eat. Why? Because you can imagine that awful smell right there at the table.”

She also questioned why misters have not been installed closer to Ditman Avenue where she lives. 

“No one has come through the streets where we live; no one has stopped by to ask, ‘Do you need any help? Do you need food? Do you need anything?’ Absolutely no one has come by,” Zavala said.

Cooling Centers in East Los Angeles

Centro Maravilla Service Center

East Los Angeles Library

East Los Angeles Service Center

City Terrace Park

Salazar Park

Cooling Centers in Boyle Heights

Robert Louis Stevenson Branch Library

Malabar Branch Library