The entrance of the St. Vincent De Paul Village Family Health Center at Father Joe’s Villages in San Diego on Jan. 31, 2025. The organization recently unveiled a new detox center at the location.
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Adriana Heldiz
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CalMatters
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Topline:
The bill by a San Francisco Democrat would have allowed some state-funded homeless housing projects to require sobriety.
The backstory: Lawmakers’ efforts to free up state money for sober homeless housing have been thwarted for a second year in a row, after Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that had sailed to his desk with few “no” votes.
About the bill: Assembly Bill 255 would have allowed cities and counties to spend up to 10% of their state funding on “recovery housing,” where people live in a sober environment and work on overcoming an addiction. The move would have tweaked California’s “housing first” strategy, which generally frowns on programs that put up barriers to housing — such as requiring people to stay clean or participate in treatment.
Read on... why it was vetoed and people's response to it.
Lawmakers’ efforts to free up state money for sober homeless housing have been thwarted for a second year in a row, after Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that had sailed to his desk with few “no” votes.
Assembly Bill 255 would have allowed cities and counties to spend up to 10% of their state funding on “recovery housing,” where people live in a sober environment and work on overcoming an addiction. The move would have tweaked California’s “housing first” strategy, which generally frowns on programs that put up barriers to housing — such as requiring people to stay clean or participate in treatment.
“It’s disappointing that the Governor vetoed AB 255,” the bill’s author, Assemblymember Matt Haney, a San Francisco Democrat, said in a statement. “This bill was about giving people in recovery a real choice to have safe, sober housing when they need it. Californians who are working hard to stay sober are often forced into housing where drug use is allowed, and that puts their recovery and their lives at risk.”
The governor said the bill was unnecessary and would have created a “duplicative and costly new statutory category” for recovery housing. “Recent guidance” already allows cities and counties to spend state homelessness funds on sober housing, Newsom said in his veto message.
That was news to Haney.
“Unfortunately that is not the understanding shared by housing providers themselves, the legislature, the cities, counties and their attorneys, or people seeking recovery housing,” he said in a text to CalMatters.
In response to CalMatters' request for more detail on the state’s policies for funding sober housing, the governor's office sent a link to a draft policy document dated January, 2025, but then followed up with a final version dated July, 2025. The document says state money can fund sober housing as long as the people in that housing are sober by choice.
Haney's office had not seen the document until it was sent by a CalMatters reporter, said spokesperson Nate Allbee.
In his veto message for AB 255, Newsom said any future changes to the state's recovery housing policy should be considered through the annual budget process.
“California remains committed to advancing recovery housing within Housing First,” he said. “I encourage the author and stakeholders to continue working with my Administration to strengthen these options in ways that complement, rather than complicate, the state’s approach.”
Haney's bill would have set up a new system for the state’s housing department to regulate recovery housing, which would have cost an estimated $4.12 million in the first year, according to the Senate Appropriations Committee’s analysis. Recovery programs would have paid a fee for state certification. But those fees, likely amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, would not entirely offset the state’s costs, according to the analysis.
“I was a little surprised,” Sharon Rapport, California state policy director for the Corporation for Supportive Housing, said of the governor’s veto. “But when I thought about it, I thought it probably did make sense, because part of the bill does require a certification program to be created, and there wasn’t funding for that.”
Flyers with information on the floor of the new detox center at the St. Vincent De Paul Village Family Health Center of Father Joe’s Villages in San Diego on Jan. 31, 2025.
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Adriana Heldiz
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CalMatters
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Rapport’s organization worked with Haney’s office on some amendments to the bill, including reducing the percentage of state funding that can go to sober housing from 25% down to 10%.
Newsom’s veto message referenced the original 25% version of the bill. His office did not respond to an email asking why he used the old number.
In an effort to adhere to housing first principles, Haney’s bill specified that recovery housing residents wouldn’t be evicted just for relapsing. If they no longer wanted to participate in recovery, they could have continued living onsite until the program operator found them a new place to live.
This was Haney’s second attempt to funnel state money into recovery housing. His first, Assembly Bill 2479, died last year amid worries that it would siphon too much money away from low-barrier housing, and that people might lose their placement if they relapsed.
Since 2016, California has required housing providers to adopt a “housing first” model, which emphasizes getting people into housing even if they are addicted to drugs or alcohol, or struggling with a mental illness. Instead of requiring people to participate in treatment programs as a condition of getting housing, providers offer voluntary services. The idea is to get people housed as quickly and easily as possible, because it’s much easier to tackle someone’s other problems – such as their drug addiction – once the person has a roof over their head.
While both Haney and the governor are attempting to work sober housing into California’s existing housing first strategy, the federal administration, meanwhile, is attempting to blow up the entire policy.
President Donald Trump this summer issued an executive order directing federal agencies to end support for ‘housing first’ policies that “deprioritize accountability and fail to promote treatment, recovery, and self-sufficiency.” It directs those agencies to require people participating in federally-funded housing programs to participate in addiction and mental health treatment.
Haney said he remains a firm believer in housing first.
“I don’t think it is at all intended to help us be more responsive and effective,” he said of the federal policy change. “It’s intended to undermine responses to homelessness and affordable housing.”
This story has been updated to include a response from Gov. Gavin Newsom's office.
People walk through a courtyard full of small publishers during LITLIT.
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Los Angeles Review of Books
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Topline:
The free book festival LITLIT celebrates small independent publishers on the West Coast from Seattle to Santa Monica. It’s returning to L.A. the weekend of June 6 and 7.
Why it matters: The “Big Five” major publishers dominate publishing in the country. The literary fair highlights works from small presses on the West Coast.
The backstory: The Los Angeles Review of Books started LITLIT in 2019, to introduce LARB publishing workshop students to the industry; it has since grown into a festival celebrating independent publishers and other local literary arts practices.
Read on... for details on the event.
Held by the Los Angeles Review of Books since 2019, LITLIT, or The Little Literary Fair, started out as a way to introduce students from workshops to the publishing industry.
It has since grown into a gathering of independent West Coast publishers from Seattle to Santa Monica. This year’s iteration on June 6 and 7 is the biggest yet, with more than 50 publishers participating in the event at Sci-Arc in Downtown L.A.
People look through a small library of used books from "A Good Used Book," a Los Angeles based book pop-up, during LITLIT 2024.
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Los Angeles Review of Books
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It’s ‘small’ lit
The fair aims to get the public in front of books that don’t originate from the so-called “Big Five” publishers — behemoths like Penguin Random House and HarperCollins.
The Little Literary Fair Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) 960 E. Third St., Los Angeles Preview day: Friday, June 5, 6 p.m. Full fair: Saturday, June 6, to Sunday, June 7, from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Free admission Info and RSVP
“They really get to control what people get to see, and so we hope LITLIT lets people see more of what is out there and what they can support directly,” said Emily VanKoughnett, public programs and engagement director for LARB.
One of VanKoughnett’s favorite independent publishers will be there. Two Lines Press, the publishing arm of San Francisco’s Center for the Art of Translation, deals specifically in translated works.
Two Lines Press, which specializes in translated works, show off their books to attendees of LITLIT.
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Los Angeles Review of Books
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They’ve published authors from across the world, translating books from more than 100 different languages into English.
“ We do our work in quiet rooms, so it's really nice to be able to meet readers and talk to them about what's interesting them. These festivals are really valuable to us in that way,” said CJ Evans, publisher and editor-in-chief of Two Lines.
Pressed locally
Local favorite Angel City Press, which operates under the auspices of L.A. Public Library, will also be there with one of their newly published titles, Los Angeles Central Library POPS, that celebrates 100 years of the Central Library.
People at LITLIT 2024 look through different small presses.
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Los Angeles Review of Books
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You’ll also find LA-based Errant Press, which specializes in books that break the traditional form — like a poem printed on measuring tape or a matchbox sized poetry collection.
“It’s really cool to see the kinds of risks that people are able to take, the kinds of communities they’re able to serve and really highlight here on the West Coast,” said Irene Yoon, executive director of LARB.
Panels, printing presses, and workshops
The two-day fair also hosts various panels and workshops, including one on the art of comedic writing and another on how to tell the stories of Los Angeles through archival materials.
“This is, I think, the most panels we've ever done,” VanKoughnett said.
People sit down for a panel discussion at LITLIT 2024.
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Los Angeles Review of Books
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Workshops on how to navigate the literary world with a completed manuscript and making your own comics and zines are also on the itinerary.
“It's not until we're all in the same room with all our best books literally out on the table that you get to see kind of what a phenomenal publishing culture Los Angeles truly has,” said Terri Accomazzo, editorial director of Angel City Press.
Josie Huang
is a reporter and Weekend Edition host who spotlights the people and places at the heart of our region.
Published May 31, 2026 5:00 AM
Stephanie Trujillo and her mother Linda Alashti have co-owned Wet Paws since 2023.
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Josie Huang
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LAist
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Topline:
After the Eaton Fire displaced most of its customers, Altadena pet groomer Wet Paws faced a June 1 deadline to decide whether to renew its lease. A social media plea sparked an outpouring of community support.
The backstory: Wet Paws estimates its lost up to 90% of its customer base after the fire, leaving it struggling to stay afloat.
What's next: The business has decided to renew its lease banking on Altadena's recovery and more customers returning to the area.
Running a small business is tough under normal circumstances. Running one in a wildfire burn scar can feel nearly impossible.
That's the reality many Altadena business owners are still navigating nearly a year and a half after the Eaton Fire destroyed the community and the local economy. Businesses are grappling with how do you stay open when so many of your customers are gone?
At Wet Paws, a pet grooming business along Lake Avenue, that question recently came to a head.
The shop reopened in January but business remained slow. Wet Paws co-owner Stephanie Trujillo estimates the fire had displaced up to 90% of their customers.
Marley, a Cane Corso from Pasadena, went for her first grooming session at Wet Paws in more than a year.
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Josie Huang
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Then came a conversation with their landlord several months ago that forced a decision.
"He reached out and said, 'Are you going to re-sign your lease?'" Trujillo recalled.
The answer wasn't obvious.
Marketing Lab+ Los Angeles County has launched a program offering free marketing assistance and storefront improvements to eligible Altadena businesses. The deadline to apply is June 8.
"I said, unfortunately, we're not even making it. We're paying out of our own pocket," she said. "So he said, 'I'll give you until June 1.'"
The deadline meant Trujillo and her mother, Linda Alashti, who have owned the business together since 2023, had only a few months to figure out whether Wet Paws had a future in Altadena.
Wet Paws is hardly alone. As businesses struggle, Los Angeles County recently launched a programoffering free marketing assistance and storefront improvements to fire-affected businesses. The deadline to apply is June 8.
A flag banner and sandwich board on the sidewalk outside Wet Paws advertises its services.
But relief has not arrived quickly enough for many businesses.
One particularly slow April Sunday at Wet Paws drove home how dire the situation had become, when they had only one customer.
As she drove home to Fontana, Trujillo began composing a social media post.
"So this isn't easy for us to share," the post began, "but I wanted to reach out with an open heart and hope."
In the message, Trujillo asked the community to book appointments and spread the word to help their business survive.
Before posting it, Trujillo showed it to her mother.
Wet Paws groomer Elizabeth Ranes takes care of a basset hound client.
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Josie Huang
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LAist
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"We're very prideful, and it's very hard to ask people for help," she said. "I felt embarrassed that we had to ask the community for help."
Her mother's advice was simple. "Just post it," she told her. "The worst that's going to happen is nobody sees it or nobody cares."
Instead, the opposite happened. By the next day, the post had been viewed and shared hundreds of times across Instagram and Facebook.
The phone started ringing, said Wet Paws groomer Elizabeth Ranes.
"I got well over 50 calls," Ranes said. "We booked out for the last three weeks of the month when we made that post.”
Customers told Alashti that they “didn't know you were back, because they don't come this way anymore.”
Decor inside Wet Paws embraces a playful canine motif.
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Josie Huang
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LAist
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Among those who returned was Penny Dahlstrom, a Pasadena resident whose 113-pound Cane Corso Marley had been a Wet Paws regular before the fire.
Dahlstrom had tried taking Marley to a large pet store chain while Wet Paws was closed.
"My husband went in to pick her up, and he hears crying, and it was her," Dahlstrom said. "That's not just her nature."
The social media appeal didn't just bring back former customers. It also introduced the business to new ones, Trujillo said.
But recovery remains uneven.
Some days are still slow. And the shop continues to deal with lingering fire-related electrical damage in the back of the building.
Wet Paws is operating on a temporary electrical system, limiting how much power it can use at any given time.
"If we run our AC, and the neighbors run their AC, we lose power," Trujillo said.
As the June 1 lease deadline approached, Trujillo and her mother weighed their options. They could walk away and cut their losses. Or they could commit to rebuilding alongside a community they had come to love.
Ultimately, they thought about the response to their post and the customers who had shown up when the business needed them most. And they had faith that Altadena would rebuild to its full strength.
They chose to renew the lease for another three years.
"I can't imagine what the community is going through, losing their homes and losing everything that they had," Trujillo said. "Yet they're still coming back."
And as long as they do, she said Wet Paws will be there for them and their fur babies.
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Fiona Ng
is LAist's deputy managing editor and leads a team of reporters who explore food, culture, history, events and more.
Published May 31, 2026 5:00 AM
Mural by Geoff McFetridge.
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Operation Creative Freedom
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Operation Creative Freedom
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Topline:
A collective of artists has painted more than 70 murals across seven elementary schools in and around Los Angeles to bring art to students in under-resourced communities.
Why now: The collective just wrapped up their latest murals at Breed Street Elementary in Boyle Heights.
The backstory: The idea to paint murals at schools came from Erik Caruso, a fifth-grade teacher in Paramount, after he found out that many of his students had never been to an art museum.
On a recent Monday, students at Breed Street Elementary in Boyle Heights started their day like no other — with a tour of the murals hand-painted over the weekend across the playground.
It’s the latest of seven elementary schools in and around L.A. to get the treatment. Over 70 murals in the last 13 years, brought by a collective of artists to students in under-resourced neighborhoods with little access to art education.
“The kids were so excited,” said Stefanie Barbee, a math teacher at Breed. “Just pure joy.”
The students snaked through the paintings on handball courts and school walls: cartoon animals, bright orange flowers, a circle of meticulously painted lines. The works span genres and sensibilities.
Mural by artist hi-dutch.
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Operation Creative Freedom
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Operation Creative Freedom
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“It's grassroots. We're not getting money from anyone,” said Erik Caruso, the fifth-grade teacher in Paramount who's the group glue. To them, they are just an assembly of like-minded friends — and friends of friends — who spend one weekend out of the year hanging out and painting murals for school kids.
But the collective is anything but typical. It includes artists like the late Rich Jacobs, who died from leukemia this year; Tim Kerr; pro skater Ray Barbee; and Japanese artists Yusuke Hanai and hi-dutch. The vibe's always low-key, and somehow they've managed to stay under the radar.
Mural by artist Yusuke Hanai.
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Operation Creative Freedom
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Operation Creative Freedom
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Mural by artist Yusuke Hanai.
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Sandy Yang / James Hamblin
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“The kids have no idea that they show in huge galleries or have pieces hanging in museums,” said writer Martin Wong, co-founder of the pioneering Asian pop culture magazine Giant Robot. "Or they're famous in the skateboarding scene or surf or music."
Their reward is the Monday morning after, seeing the happiness on the kids’ faces.
“The artists are waiting all weekend — it’s that moment,” Caruso said.
Mural by artists Sandy Yang and James Hamblin.
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Operation Creative Freedom
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Operation Creative Freedom
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James Hamblin was at Breed for the meet-and-greet earlier this month. He painted a mural designed by his partner Sandy Yang on one of the handball walls.
“Sandy's design is pretty abstract, so it was interesting because the kids were [asking], you know, ‘ What is it?’” Hamblin said. “It was great because I could tell them I had no idea and like, ‘What do you guys think it is?’"
Bring the art museum to the school
Erik Caruso.
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Operation Creative Freedom
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Operation Creative Freedom
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The idea came to Caruso in 2011, after he took about two dozen students from his Paramount school to MOCA and discovered that only four had ever been to an art museum.
“I wonder if there's a way we can bring the art museum to the school,” he said.
Caruso, a 24-year veteran, was no stranger to bringing art — and artists — directly to his students. In 2009, he launched a monthly art project for fifth-graders that culminated in a year-end show where they met and shared work with living contemporary artists.
Caruso's 5th grade art project, featuring works by artist Tim Kerr.
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Operation Creative Freedom
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Operation Creative Freedom
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The murals were next.
They painted their first ones at his school in 2012. Soon, the project expanded to the rest of Los Angeles.
Crew at work
Mural by artist Chris Johanson.
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Operation Creative Freedom
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Operation Creative Freedom
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Mural by artist Chris Johanson.
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Operation Creative Freedom
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Operation Creative Freedom
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The painting takes place between Friday and Sunday, but planning takes months.
At Breed, the connection was made through math teacher Barbee — wife of Ray — who is on a two-year stint at the Boyle Heights school to help students catch up on the subject.
“I had sort of planted that seed that at some point I would love for a school I was working at to be the recipient of the beautiful work,” she said.
Breed Street Elementary in Boyle Heights.
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Sandy Yang / James Hamblin
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She brought Caruso out for a site visit last September.
“He has a really amazing kind of vision about where to place the artists … based on just their artwork and where it is in relation to the street view,” Barbee said.
Next came an introduction to the principal and the approval process.
“One of the biggest challenges with what we are doing is, you know, they want flipping dolphins and stuff like that,” Caruso said. “But we want to cross over into fine art pieces.”
Mural by artists Lookout & Wonderland
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Operation Creative Freedom
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Operation Creative Freedom
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Mural by artists Lookout & Wonderland
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Operation Creative Freedom
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Operation Creative Freedom
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Paying it forward
Caruso estimated that as many as 40 artists and musicians have joined the effort.
The core group now, he said, is about 11 people, and friends and families often tag along to help out, given they have just 16 hours over three days to finish the job.
Mural by artist Oitama.
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Sandy Yang / James Hamblin
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Mural by artist Lori Damiano.
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Operation Creative Freedom
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Operation Creative Freedom
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Among the regulars: Wong and his wife, Wendy Lau, who once organized DIY punk shows to fund music education at their daughter's Chinatown school. In Caruso, they saw a kindred spirit.
Caruso later brought the collective to paint at that school and eventually invited their daughter, Linda Lindas bassist Eloise Wong, to join his fifth-grade art and music project.
“All of these kids on the blacktop were all just screaming their hearts out,” Eloise said. “It's cool how Erik — Mr. Caruso to them — shows them, like, raw ways to express themselves through cool art.”
Josie Huang
is a reporter and Weekend Edition host who spotlights the people and places at the heart of our region.
Published May 30, 2026 5:00 AM
Ziggy Marley breaks emotional and creative ground in his new album Brightside
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Leon Bennett
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Getty Images
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Topline:
Ziggy Marley is back with a new solo album that includes the first song he's written about his father, Bob Marley. Brightside also marks Marley's experimentation with recording at a different frequency.
What's the frequency: Marley said he recorded Brightside at 432 hertz — a departure from mainstream music recorded at 440 hertz — to change the emotional listening experience.
His own space: Marley recorded at Rebel Lion Studio, his newly-built facility in North Hollywood. After more than two decades in L.A., Marley said the city's concentration of creatives has played a major role in his own growth as an artist.
What's next: Marley says he's already working on his next album, a children's book and a return to film production of some kind, saying he wants to explore his creativity next in a visual medium.
Reggae star Ziggy Marley has spent decades carrying one of music’s most celebrated legacies. But until now, he had never written a song directly about his father, Bob Marley.
That’s changed with “Many Mourn for Bob,” a track on Marley’s ninth solo album Brightside, his first release recorded in his new studio in North Hollywood.
Marley was just 12 when his father died of cancer in 1981. Now 57, Marley says the song instinctually emerged after years of life experience and producing the biopic One Love, which revisited his father’s struggles like an assassination attempt amid political violence in Jamaica.
“He went through some things that was really tough on a human being – and just understanding him in that light is to have a little bit more emotional, deeper connection to his experience,” Marley said in an interview at his studio.
Searching for the bright side
The deeply personal track is part of a splashy return for Marley, who's touring behind Brightside and will perform at the Hollywood Bowl on June 21.
Reggae Night XXIV featuring Ziggy Marley and Burning Spear, with a DJ set by Zuri Marley
When: Sunday, June 21, 7 p.m.
Where: Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N. Highland Ave., Los Angeles
The new album blends political themes, optimism and musical experimentation.
Its lead single, “Racism Is a Killa,” featuring Big Boi, pairs the heavy topic with an upbeat groove that he hopes will make the song more accessible to young people.
“We just wanna come out straightforward, like I never want to come out tiptoeing,” Marley said. “I want to say something that can catch your ears or catch your thoughts.”
That tension between darkness and hope runs throughout Brightside. Marley described the album as a reflection on enduring difficult periods – from the pandemic to the Los Angeles wildfires – without losing sight of optimism.
“Sometimes we get lost in that so much that we don't realize that there is always a bright side,” Marley said.
The album also experiments sonically: Marley recorded Brightside using 432 hertz tuning instead of the standard 440 hertz in most mainstream music. Advocates of 432 hertz believe it produces a warmer, more meditative sound better synced to the natural world. (You can hear the difference for yourself here.)
“It's a lower musical frequency, but it's a higher frequency in a next sense of your spirituality and emotion,” he said. “So even though the numbers go down, the frequency actually go up.”
Marley sees the move as part of a larger search for new creative approaches.
“I'm very open-minded and always trying to evolve and just experiment with life and music,” Marley said.
The Grammy winner, who joins James Blake and Ed O’Brien of Radiohead as the most high-profile artists to record at the lower frequency, floated the idea of a larger movement among artists.
“Let's just have a revolution in the music industry,” he said. “Let's change the frequency.”
Building a dream
Marley works out of his Rebel Lion Studio in North Hollywood, its name a nod to his 2018 album Rebellion Rises while also a play on the word “rebellion.”
He described the studio as an extension of the independent spirit his father built with Tuff Gong Studio in Jamaica.
Musicians set up for rehearsal ahead of the next leg of Ziggy Marley's tour.
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Josie Huang
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LAist
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“My father had a dream, and I had a dream too,” Marley said.
Like with Tuff Gong, Marley also plans to expand the studio operation to include vinyl pressing as records continue their resurgence in the streaming era.
“There’s always gonna be a vinyl present going on,” Marley said. “A thousand years from now, people that we're still gonna need vinyl records to listen to music.”
Ziggy Marley in the hallway of his new studio in North Hollywood.
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Josie Huang
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LAist
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For years, Marley said, he worked out of smaller home setups and rented facilities before deciding to build a larger permanent space in L.A.
Marley said the city has become central to his own creative evolution over the last two decades of living and working here.
Drawn initially by music, friends and the city's small but tight-knit Jamaican community, he says being surrounded by creatives from different backgrounds helped push his artistry in new directions.
“I left my safety and my community, my tribe, and come out by myself to L.A.,” he said. “But it's a great experience. It really helped my growth as a human being being here.”
What’s next
Fresh off the release of Brightside, Marley says he’s already working on another album – a notably quicker turnaround since his last album, the family-music release More Family Time in 2020,
“We're doing back to back,” he said.
Ziggy Marley will be performing at the Hollywood Bowl on June 21 as part of a tour supporting his new album Brightside.
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Astrida Valigorsky
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Getty Images
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He’s also busy writing a children’s book based on his feel-good hit anthem “True to Myself” and eyeing opportunities in front – or behind the camera – inspired by his time working on One Love and making the video for “Racism Is A Killa.”
“Same philosophy, same message, but within visuals, you know?” Marley said excitedly. “I want to create some stories and try out. I feel it coming. I can feel it.”
