Brenda Lopez-Ardon holds a mattress to show a staffer from state Sen. Sasha Pérez’s office mold growing on it in a children’s bedroom during a tour of the property. March 26, 2026.
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Rachel Parsons
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The LA Local
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Topline:
Tenants of a close-knit Altadena complex say Regency Management ignored toxic contamination and basic repairs long before the Altadena fire.
More details: Although Regency Management replaced the windows, residents said they were forced to camp out in their apartments without electricity or hot water for months in the fire’s aftermath because most could not afford to move as the fire strained the area’s housing market.
Why now: Brenda Lopez-Ardon, a community organizer and tenant, spoke at a press conference last month in front of the building where she has lived her whole life and is raising her young daughter. Lopez-Ardon and several tenants ushered state Sen. Sasha Pérez through the property, pointing out damages from the fire and water, along with buckling floors and discolored tap water.
Read on... for more on the press conference from this Altadena apartment.
More than 15 months after the Eaton Fire, residents of an Altadena apartment complex say they are still fighting a “notorious” landlord to repair a fire-damaged building that remains unlivable and contaminated with toxic ash and soot.
Longtime tenants of 403 Figueroa Dr., who describe the complex as a close-knit village, say their property manager, Regency Management Inc., has ignored years of repair requests and pleas to clean up the property after the fire razed most of the block.
Although Regency Management replaced the windows, residents said they were forced to camp out in their apartments without electricity or hot water for months in the fire’s aftermath because most could not afford to move as the fire strained the area’s housing market.
“Homes in this community are being rebuilt up to code, but our building remains frozen in time since Jan. 7,” said Brenda Lopez-Ardon, a community organizer and tenant, at a press conference last month.
Brenda Lopez-Ardon (second from right) speaks at a community rally and press conference with members of tenants’ union Comité 403 in front of their building. March 26, 2026.
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Rachel Parsons
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She spoke in front of the building where she has lived her whole life and is raising her young daughter.
Later that evening, as kids raced on scooters through the courtyard of the rundown two-story building, Lopez-Ardon and several tenants ushered state Sen. Sasha Pérez through the property, pointing out damages from the fire and water, along with buckling floors and discolored tap water.
In one apartment, mold bloomed through paint on a wall in a children’s bedroom, and also grew on a mattress and plush toys. Residents complained of rat and cockroach infestations.
Brenda Lopez-Ardon (center) shows state Sen. Sasha Pérez (right) water damage from a leak inside an apartment at her Figueroa Drive building during a tour of the property. March 26, 2026.
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Rachel Parsons
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“We are not animals, to be living this way,” said Yoselin Ayala, one of the tenants sharing her experience with Pérez.
“I’m very upset and frustrated to see what’s happened here,” said Pérez, who represents California’s 25th Senate District.
“Things like broken bricks and falling walls and, you know, other fire damage, melted parts of the building, those are things that should have been taken care of a long time ago,” she told The LA Local.
Regency Management and its owner Swaranjit “Mike” Nijjar, have not responded to requests for comment.
Brenda Lopez-Ardon (second from right) speaks at a community rally and press conference with members of tenants’ union Comité 403 in front of their building. March 26, 2026.
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Rachel Parsons
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Going on offense
The Eaton Fire blew out nearly all of the building’s windows, destroyed large sections of the property’s perimeter wall, burned down carport shade structures in the parking lot and left the building without power or hot water for months.
The fire also left the units coated in toxic ash and soot containing dangerously elevated levels of lead, according to a report by the LA County Department of Public Health.
Lopez-Ardon said many of the apartments were cleaned by local volunteers, and when Regency Management finally sent cleaners, they were maintenance workers, not a professional remediation company with special equipment and training on dealing with disasters.
Children take part in a community rally in front of their apartment building in Altadena. Parents say they’re concerned about toxins left behind from the Eaton Fire affecting kids’ health. March 26, 2026.
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Rachel Parsons
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In response, the residents formed a tenants’ union to demand their rights as renters and move “from the defense to the offense,” Lopez-Ardon said.
Their efforts have met with limited success, and the group is now exploring options including forming a co-op to buy the property from Nijjar, a man California’s attorney general has called “notorious” for exploiting tenants.
California sues landlord
Attorney General Rob Bonta sued Nijjar, his companies and several of his relatives last summer. The suit alleges “inhumane living conditions” across properties owned by the real estate developer, his sister and children. It also alleges the company had several breaches of lease agreements and violations of the state’s Tenant Protection Act.
“The Nijjar Companies rent out unsafe and uninhabitable units, disregard tenants’ requests for repairs, and fail to eradicate pests, inflicting harm and anguish on tenants,” according to the complaint filed in June in Los Angeles Superior Court.
The family’s empire encompasses 22,000 rental units throughout California, owned through a byzantine collection of more than 150 limited partnerships and corporations and administered by 11 management companies, including Regency Management.
The lawsuit is ongoing.
Brenda Lopez-Ardon (left) stands with neighbors at a community rally and press conference with members of tenants’ union Comité 403 in front of their building. March 26, 2026.
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Rachel Parsons
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The LA Local
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For the tenants on Figueroa Drive, the fire damage was simply the last straw on top of longstanding neglect and repair requests they say Regency has ignored for years.
Lopez-Ardon, 26, said the pedestrian entrance gate has been broken off and wide open for at least 10 years. Lax security has also made some residents fearful of another major threat in the area: ICE.
Blanca, who only gave her first name because of privacy concerns, has lived in the building for more than 20 years. She said that immigration enforcement agents have entered the building twice in the last year looking for a specific person. They left empty-handed both times.
Spots of mold on a plush toy in a children’s bedroom where it also grows on a wall and a mattress in an apartment at 403 Figueroa Dr. in Altadena, owned by the Nijjar family. March 26, 2026.
Candidates Xavier Becerra, left, Katie Porter, Matt Mahan and Antonio Villaraigosa debate at Pomona College in Claremont last month.
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Jules Hotz
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CalMatters
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Topline:
Recent polling suggests it’s unlikely that two Republicans would lock Democrats out of the November gubernatorial election. But some liberal activists are still panicking about the possibility of a MAGA governor. Their solution could delay California’s already slow ballot-counting.
How we got here: To avoid a dreaded scenario in which Democrats are locked out of the November general election, many Democrats coalesced around former Rep. Eric Swalwell, who ultimately flamed out after multiple women accused him of sexual assault. That fear has morphed into wariness, leading some party activists and influencers to encourage people to hold off on voting early, watch the polls, then vote for the candidate with the most support just before Election Day.
Is this idea even legal? The push to vote late flies in the face of recent pleas from election officials and Gov. Gavin Newsom for voters to get their ballots in early in the hopes of speeding up California’s notoriously slow vote-counting process. Attorney General Rob Bonta, a fellow Democrat, told reporters last week that the social media posts urging late voting could be misinformation, disinformation and “potentially unlawful,” and Secretary of State Shirley Weber said her office would “look into” those social posts.
Read on ... for more about this idea.
Some California Democrats have a plan to avoid disaster in the governor's race: Wait until the last minute to vote.
With no one candidate emerging as a clear favorite and an open primary where the top two advance regardless of party affiliation, panic has set in for some who plan to vote Democratic.
That fear has morphed into wariness, leading some party activists and influencers to encourage people to hold off on voting early, watch the polls, then vote for the candidate with the most support just before Election Day.
In a “normal year,” Katie Evans-Reber of San Francisco said she would probably back former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter even though the Democrat is not likely to advance to November given her current polling. But this year the stakes are higher, she said, and as a lesbian woman, any of the Democrats would be more aligned with her core values than a Republican.
She fears supporters of President Donald Trump who have soured on him could back Republican Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, giving him enough of a boost to match the power of Trump’s endorsement for Steve Hilton, the former Fox News host who is leading all other candidates in the polls. That would send both Republicans to the runoff.
“The thing that flipped for me was going from, ‘I don't really know what to do,’ to, ‘I strategically am not making a decision,” Evans-Reber said.
In pole position is Xavier Becerra, the former Health and Human Services secretary who surged from single digits to the top of the polls after Swalwell’s downfall. As his popularity soared, so has the scrutiny of his record at HHS and as California’s attorney general.
Behind Becerra are progressive Democratic challengers Tom Steyer, a former businessman turned billionaire activist, and Porter. San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan has also positioned himself as a tech-friendly moderate and ally of Silicon Valley.
Evans-Reber and other impassioned Democrats have been urging others to follow the wait-and-see strategy by sharing videos and posts on social media.
One post even falsely attributed the strategy to Heather Cox Richardson, a political historian and popular Democratic influencer who writes the Substack newsletter Letters from an American. That erroneous post was the first one Evans-Reber saw and forwarded. She later had to follow up with a disclaimer that Cox Richardson was not the author.
“It's not like, bad advice, but it's 100% not coming from me,” Cox Richardson told CalMatters in an interview.
Democratic political consultant Paul Mitchell disagrees.
“It's just a bad message,” he said. “I think they should always have a message of, ‘As soon as you get your ballot, fill it out, turn it in, mail it in and get it done.”
Mitchell said although activists might talk about and push for a strategic voting plan, trying to organize a movement like that at scale would likely not produce significant results.
“I think people vote for whoever they were going to vote for anyway,” said Mitchell, whose company tracks how many ballots are turned in each day statewide.
An empty stage after the gubernatorial debate on the campus of Pomona College in Claremont on April 28, 2026.
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Jules Hotz
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CalMatters
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The push to vote late flies in the face of recent pleas from election officials and Gov. Gavin Newsom for voters to get their ballots in early in the hopes of speeding up California’s notoriously slow vote-counting process. Attorney General Rob Bonta, a fellow Democrat, told reporters last week that the social media posts urging late voting could be misinformation, disinformation and “potentially unlawful,” and Secretary of State Shirley Weber said her office would “look into” those social posts.
“Time is of the essence in preventing election lies from taking hold,” Newsom wrote in a recent letter addressed to all 58 county registrars urging them to “tabulate and release results quickly and accurately.”
Turning in a mail-in ballot on Election Day, as some activists propose, is the worst possible scenario for election administration officials.
It creates what Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation, calls the “pig in the python effect.” County election offices are inundated with in-person ballots on Election Day, as well as mail-in ballots that require a meticulous process of signature matching, envelope opening and extracting the ballot before it can be counted.
Mark DiCamillo, who runs polling for the Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, said pollsters are doing their best to produce accurate results, but in an election with so many variables, even the best surveys could be off-base.
The past trend of low voter turnout in gubernatorial primaries, plus a potentially confusing array of 61 candidates for governor alone, make it difficult to determine who the likely voters will be and account for that in their surveys.
“This election's got all the elements you have to deal with,” DiCamillo said. “It’s a challenge for the polling profession.”
Despite the concerns about a slow vote count and imprecise polling, Evans-Reber says she still plans to stick to her last-minute voting strategy. She doesn’t trust that mailing her ballot will reach the county elections office in time. She plans to bring her completed ballot to the office or one of the county’s vote centers and hand it directly to an election official.
“I am going to cast the ballot at the very last possible moment,” Evans-Reber said. “I’m going to wait until polling day.”
Destiny Torres
is LAist's general assignment reporter and brings you the top news you need for the day.
Published May 12, 2026 11:24 AM
A newly formed committee will ensure the health department implements its civil law enforcement policy, which instructs public health workers on how to protect patients brought in by law enforcement, including immigration agents.
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J.W. Hendricks
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Getty Images
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Topline:
The L.A. Board of Supervisors today approved creating a committee to ensure the health department implements its civil law enforcement policy, which instructs public health workers on how to protect patients brought in by law enforcement, including immigration agents.
Supervisor Kathryn Barger abstained from the item.
What we know:The committee — made up of hospital officials, county counsel and the office of immigration affairs — will require training for health workers on the civil law enforcement interaction policy. The group will also collect feedback from staff on how to improve the policy and report back to the board in a month.
Background: The L.A. County policy, which went into effect in March, reiterates that all patients have the right to communicate with loved ones and connect to legal support. Health workers and advocates have shared concerns that not enough people know about the policy.
Why now? Supervisor Hilda Solis, who introduced Tuesday’s motion, said since ICE raids ramped up last summer, public health workers have had more interactions with federal agents. And in trying to protect patients, Solis added, some workers risk being accused of obstructing justice.
“Despite the county’s sensitive location policy … immigration enforcement officials have pushed boundaries or blatantly ignored laws,” Solis said. “This has put many of our county employees in a difficult position of trying to enforce the law and protect patients’ rights.”
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The U.S. war with Iran has pushed inflation to its highest level in almost three years.
Why it matters: Consumer prices in April were up 3.8% from a year ago, according to a report Tuesday from the Labor Department. That was the biggest annual increase since May 2023.
Gas prices are a big driver: Gasoline prices have jumped sharply since the war began, snarling tanker traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital corridor for energy shipments. The average price of regular gas is $4.50 a gallon, according to AAA.
Read on ... for a helpful chart and three areas that exemplify the rising cost of living.
The U.S. war with Iran has pushed inflation to its highest level in almost three years.
Consumer prices in April were up 3.8% from a year ago, according to a report Tuesday from the Labor Department. That was the biggest annual increase since May 2023.
Prices rose 0.6% between March and April.
From gas prices to housing, here are three things to know about the rising cost of living.
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Gas prices are a big driver
Gasoline prices have jumped sharply since the war began, snarling tanker traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital corridor for energy shipments. The average price of regular gas is $4.50 a gallon, according to AAA. That's up 38 cents from a month ago. The jump in energy prices accounted for 40% of the monthly increase in the consumer price index in April.
Rising fuel costs are affecting other prices as well
When energy costs jump sharply, it can have spillover effects. Air fares, for example, jumped 2.8% last month and are more than 20% higher than they were a year ago, as airlines struggle with a spike in jet fuel prices.
The cost of diesel fuel has risen by $1.88 a gallon since the war began. If that lasts, it could put upward pressure on the price of everything that's delivered by truck or train.
Excluding volatile food and energy costs, "core" inflation was 2.8% in April.
Housing prices also contributed to higher inflation in April
Housing costs were also a driver of inflation, jumping 0.6% between March and April, but some of that is a statistical fluke resulting from the six-week government shutdown last fall. Government number-crunchers were temporarily idled in October, so were unable to collect housing prices that month. That's had the effect of artificially lowering the measure of housing inflation. Tuesday's report provides a kind of catch-up.
Adelanto and similar ICE detention centers are holding more people in solitary confinement than under previous administrations
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Patrick T. Fallon
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AFP via Getty Images
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Topline:
Immigrant detention centers across the U.S. are holding more people in solitary confinement than under previous administrations — and for longer periods of time. In this story, LAist zooms in on the use of what’s been dubbed “segregation” at the Adelanto ICE processing center, learning from experts who’ve conducted site visits and detainees with lived experience.
Why it matters: Medical experts say this type of isolation can worsen medical issues and mental health conditions. Experts who monitor immigrant detention centers also say solitary confinement is being used to punish civil detainees, sometimes for minor infractions or for requesting things they need.
What ICE data shows: Some 2,000 immigrants are currently being held at the Adelanto detention center. An LAist analysis of the most recent ICE data found that, ranked by percentage of the detainee population in “segregation,” Adelanto is among the U.S.’s top 10 facilities.
What's next: Immigrants rights groups have filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Adelanto detainees, seeking to improve conditions for all people being held there. The next court hearing is scheduled for May 22.
In 2019, Xiaoman Ding was diagnosed with a pituitary tumor in her brain that caused her debilitating headaches. At times, she couldn’t open her eyes or walk.
So while she was detained at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center after being arrested at an immigration courthouse in Santa Ana last June, she made repeated requests for medical treatment. Instead of getting the normal medications she took to manage her symptoms, she said she received Tylenol and ibuprofen.
By July, her pain became so “unbearable” she told a nurse at the detention center she wanted to take her own life. The facility placed her in solitary confinement for three days for monitoring.
“I never told anyone that I experienced suicidal thoughts again,” she said in court documents that form part of a federal lawsuit filed in January by a private law firm and immigrant right' group seeking to improve conditions at the facility. “I was afraid that I would be put into solitary confinement.”
The case continues to make its way through the court system. The next hearing is scheduled for late May.
In declarations accompanying the lawsuit, detainees shared their experiences in isolation. Many of them said they were placed in solitary confinement after asking for things that are essential for their dignity — or to fight their case in court. Others said the confinement made them reluctant to ask for help in the future.
To prevent a future crisis, here's how to help someone make a safety plan.
How detention centers isolate detainees
About 2,000 immigrants are currently being held at the ICE detention center in Adelanto. The site is run by The GEO Group, a private prison operator.
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AP
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Across the country, immigrant detention centers like Adelanto are holding more people in solitary confinement than under previous administrations — including President Donald Trump’s first term. Immigration and Customs Enforcement data also shows that detainees are being isolated for longer periods of time, and experts say solitary confinement can worsen the conditions of people who need support.
People in custody can be placed in “segregation,” as it is dubbed at these centers, for numerous reasons. These can include disciplinary issues, as well as claims by facility officials that the move is needed to protect detainees who could be harmed if left among the general population. People in detention can also be put in segregation if they are on suicide watch, if they’re experiencing a “serious mental or medical illness” or for staging a hunger strike.
Detainee advocates say isolation is also being used to punish immigrants in civil detention.
The “threshold to use solitary is often quite low and arbitrary,” said Katherine Peeler, an assistant pediatrics professor at Harvard Medical School and medical advisor with Physicians for Human Rights. The nonprofit publishes reports on solitary confinement at immigrant detention centers, rooted in public records, ICE data and testimony from detainees.
Some 2,000 immigrants are currently held at the Adelanto detention center, about 90 miles northeast of downtown L.A. in San Bernardino County. An LAist analysis of the most recent ICE data found that, ranked by percentage of the detainee population in segregation, this site is among the top 10 facilities in the United States.
How segregation can make medical issues worse
To get a sense of what immigrant detainees experience in segregation, Peeler asks the public to envision confinement.
“You are contained in a small cell, usually the size of a parking space,” she said. “Imagine being in a parking space and enclosing it all the way . . . You can't get out. You can't change the temperature.”
“The inability to control your environment, as well as the lack of contact with other humans, is known in medical literature to lead to great deals of anxiety, depression [and] extreme loneliness,” Peeler added. “People have been known to have hallucinations and agitation, [as well as] reduced cognitive functioning.”
The most recent Physicians for Human Rights report found that, between April 2024 and May 2025, ICE detention centers placed over 10,500 people in solitary confinement — often for more than 15 days. UN human rights experts consider solitary confinement placements that last that much or more to be torture, though the Supreme Court has held that isolation doesn’t violate the Constitution. ICE’s own policies call for “additional steps to ensure appropriate review and oversight of decisions to retain detainees in segregated housing for over 14 days.”
At least four people have died after being held in custody at an ICE detention facility in Adelanto, California. A recent lawsuit alleges that living conditions there are inhumane, and some compare the facility to "concentration camps."
Rotten food, disease, isolation. What we know about conditions at the Adelanto ICE detention center
At least four people have died after being held in custody at an ICE detention facility in Adelanto, California. A recent lawsuit alleges that living conditions there are inhumane, and some compare the facility to "concentration camps."
Disability Rights California, a federally mandated nonprofit that advocates for people with disabilities in the state, monitors conditions at immigrant detention centers.
Richard Diaz, a senior attorney at the nonprofit, was part of a team that conducted a site visit at Adelanto last summer. The team found a general lack of accommodations for people with disabilities. Diaz also spoke with a detainee who’d been placed in solitary confinement for over a month. “On top of that,” he told LAist, the detainee “had medical concerns and accommodation needs that weren't being met.”
Peeler noted that solitary confinement is also associated with sleep disruption, which “can lead to further mental health issues.”
Sleep disruption “is also really bad for one's stress response system,” she added. “You can have heightened levels of the stress hormone cortisol. This can lead to problems with hypertension or high blood pressure, and general underlying medical conditions being worsened.”
The federal government denies claims of substandard conditions at immigrant detention centers and declined LAist’s requests for interviews and comments. In statements issued after the recent deaths of detainees, ICE said it is “committed to ensuring that all those in custody reside in safe, secure and humane environments."
In a statement, a spokesperson for the GEO Group, a private prison operator that runs the Adelanto detention center, said: “[O]ur support services are monitored by ICE, including by on-site agency personnel, and other organizations within the Department of Homeland Security to ensure compliance with ICE’s detention standards and contract requirements regarding the treatment and services ICE detainees receive. In the event issues are identified, we quickly resolve all of ICE’s concerns.”
“The support services GEO provides include around-the-clock access to medical care, in-person and virtual legal and family visitation, general and legal library access, translation services, dietician-approved meals, religious and specialty diets, recreational amenities, and opportunities to practice their religious beliefs,” the spokesperson added.
What detainees have to say
People held at Adelanto paint a different picture.
LAist reviewed the detainee declarations filed as part of the January federal lawsuit seeking to improve conditions at the facility. Aside from people experiencing mental health crises and medical issues, multiple detainees at Adelanto described being placed in segregation as a form of punishment.
Andrei Karamychev is a Russian immigrant who came to the U.S. in 1999. In his testimony, Karamychev said that, after arriving at Adelanto last summer, he did not hear anything about his case for two months, “despite asking repeatedly to get information.”
“Many other people in my unit were also upset about not being told the reason for their detention,” he said. “We worked together to get attention to this issue by all yelling together, demanding to see our ICE officers.”
Eventually, Karamychev said, “a bunch of guards showed up and began to take out the people that spoke up, one by one.”
Six of the detainees involved were put in solitary confinement. After a few days in isolation, Karamychev said, “a lieutenant came in to meet with me and told me that I was going to spend two months in solitary because I had fought the officers.”
“This was a lie. I told him that I did not fight the officers, [that] I had just demanded nonviolently to see an ICE officer about my case,” Karamychev said. In response, the lieutenant told him: "We choose our truth."
Karamychev further detailed his confinement: “In solitary, I was under lockdown for about 23.5 hours a day. We had 30 minutes each day outside of our cells. During those thirty minutes, we could go outside for yard time in a cage that is about 10 feet by 10 feet, walk to the microwave to reheat meals, or look at a book.”
“When you are brought out to the mini yard, you are locked out there until the guards decide to let you back in,” he added. “The yard smells like urine because people had to pee out there, and it was not cleaned up. It is difficult because you want to have fresh air, but it smells like urine.”
Julius Omene Fredrick, an immigrant from Nigeria, was taken to Adelanto in January 2025. He has an ongoing application for a U visa, which is intended to give temporary immigration status to crime victims who have cooperated with law enforcement.
According to Fredrick, his unit had six showers for 80 people.
“There are three showers on each side of the room, with a walkway in the middle,” he said. “There are no privacy screens or curtains.”
Fredrick said he asked Adelanto guards for curtains “to give us some privacy.” Instead, he was placed in solitary confinement for seven days.
On another occasion, Fredrick said he was put in isolation for six days after complaining about the lack of access to the law library. Adelanto only allows four people from each 80-person unit to attend the library per day, he said. By Fredrick’s estimation, the library can fit “20 to 15 people.”
“We need access to the library so we can work on our immigration cases,” he explained. “Many of us do not have lawyers, so it is a real problem.”
Saddam Samaan Daoud Samaan, an immigrant from Jordan who had been living in Minnesota for nearly two decades before he was detained, said he was also put in solitary confinement after advocating for more access to the law library.
Throughout the detention center, Adelanto staff have put up posters about “voluntary departure,” Samaan added.
“The posters say that some people will be eligible for over $2,000 and a free flight if they choose to self-deport,” he said. “They even have sign-up sheets where you can write your name down to tell ICE you want to ‘voluntarily depart.’ I've seen them in the dayroom, the chow hall, and the solitary confinement unit. And it works. Being here breaks people.”
When detainees first arrive at Adelanto, they usually tell Samaan “they have support from their family and [and] plan to stick it out here as long as it takes.”
“Then, a month later,” he added, “they decide to sign away their case and leave the U.S. rather than stay at Adelanto any longer.”
