The Brief

Pet insurance. Do you need it? Should you have it? For some, the answer is simple — yes. But as some pet owners, including a number who work at LAist, report skyrocketing premiums, more and more pet owners are asking whether it's worth it.

John Tegzes, dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine at Western University of Health Sciences, joined AirTalk, LAist 89.3's daily news program, to talk about the state of the pet insurance industry, how it works and a few things to weigh when making a decision.

Here are some things to keep in mind.

Know your breed

Before you adopt an animal, it's worth researching the common issues they face. Rottweilers, French bulldogs, Boxers, Golden Retrievers and German Shepherds tend to have more complications, Tegzes said.

"For those breeds that have high prevalence of hereditary diseases, they could double your premiums or cut you off," he said.

A listener in Glendale, Rachel, warned people with pugs, Frenchies, or other flat-faced dogs that pet insurance isn't always your friend.

"The insurers know [these dogs] are high risk, she said. "After a certain age, you can't even get coverage."

TIP: If you have a breed predisposed to certain injuries, insure them before they develop an injury/illness.

A veterinarian cuts a cat's nails.

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via iStock

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Read the fine print

Depending on the insurance policy, it could cover illness, injury and everything in between. But then there are policies limited to things like X-rays and bloodwork. Some plans don't even cover physical exams.

California recently passed some regulations that require a pet insurance company to list upfront in your policy what they won’t pay for throughout your pet's life, which is helpful, Tegzes said.

TIP: Tegzes recommends some at-home calculations. What’s the risk-benefit analysis for your household?

Is it worth it?

The unsatisfying answer is: it depends. For some AirTalk listeners, pet insurance has been a lifesaver, and for others, the cost and bureaucracy hasn't been worth it.

At the end of the day, "You’ll always have to spend money for your veterinary bills," Tegzes said. "It will never cover 100%."

Listen

Oil prices plunged and stocks surged as global investors breathed a sigh of relief after the U.S. and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire and President Donald Trump backed off his threat to wipe out Iran's "whole civilization."

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged more than 1,000 points in early morning trade, while the S&P and Nasdaq also rallied, following strong gains in Asian and European stocks overnight.

Meanwhile, both U.S. crude futures, as well as Brent, the global benchmark, plunged amid hopes that ships could soon transit through the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway through which about 20% of global oil flows. The strait had been virtually shut down by the war, sparking a global energy crisis.

The strong market reaction comes after Trump announced the ceasefire on social media Tuesday evening, less than two hours before a deadline he had imposed for Iran to meet his demands or face wide-scale destruction.

Wild swings in the markets

Trump's threat — and its reversal — marked the latest rhetoric to roil Wall Street and global investors since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran more than a month ago.

Investors have swung from hope that Trump and Iran will de-escalate the war, to panic when it appears that the conflict is heating up, and back again.

Trump said his agreement to a ceasefire is contingent on Iran reopening the Strait of Hormuz immediately. It could take some time for global energy markets to recover, since some damage has already been done to oil refineries and other infrastructure in the Middle East.

The energy crisis sparked by the war with Iran has hurt consumers all over the world, including in the U.S., where national gasoline prices have risen above $4 per gallon.
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It's going to be a warm Wednesday here in Southern California.

Overcast skies will be more present along the coast this morning, followed by a mostly sunny afternoon. Temperatures along the beaches will reach the upper 60s to mid 70s for the inland coast.

Meanwhile, over in the valleys, temperatures will rise up to the mid 70s and low 80s, up to 85 degrees in the Inland Empire. Coachella Valley will be sunny with temperatures ranging from 92 to 97 degrees.

The Olympics ticket pre-sale for locals wraps up Wednesday, but some in Southern California left the first ticket drop empty-handed after seeing the high prices.

Fans — or potential ones — reported sticker shock, big purchases and broken hearts after logging on to secure a spot at the 2028 Games and finding prices as high as $5,500, and a 24% service fee. Tickets for $28 for many events sold out fast, as did many many for under $100.

Sarah Maizes of Miracle Mile got a slot to buy tickets and wanted to get seats at artistic gymnastics for her daughter, who's a huge fan. But after she saw the limited options and the high prices, she didn't end up buying any.

"I understand tickets to events are expensive. I have paid for Taylor Swift tickets," Maizes said. "Here's the problem. The campaign made you feel like you had a shot at an insider deal because we are hosting the Olympics and this is our town…and I'm looking at tickets online for $400 a person, $600 a person, $2,100."

The high prices reflect a stark uptick in sports tickets across the board in recent years, amid hyper-focus on wealthier fans, an ever-increasing demand for live entertainment, and dynamic pricing — where sellers can adjust prices based on that demand.

In the case of the Olympics, the local organizing committee LA28 is counting on ticket and hospitality sales to bring in a whopping $2.5 billion to cover the costs of putting on the Games. If they don't hit that mark, public funds could be on the line.

Still, Olympics super-fan Denny Nivens in Hermosa Beach, who said he's attended eight summer Games, said the prices were the highest he'd ever seen, by a long shot.

"It's completely unprecedented," Nivens said. "I think they're pricing a whole lot of people out completely."

How many $28 tickets are left?

LA28 has not laid out how many tickets it released in its drop for locals, or put out official prices. Instead, it laid out that 1 million tickets would be $28, more than half would be over $200, and 5% would be more than $1,000.

But Angelenos who participated in the ticket drop told LAist they felt drawn in by the promise of $28 tickets, only to see astronomical prices on their screens.

Many reported that the cheapest tickets were almost entirely unavailable. By Monday, one buyer reported only seeing $28 tickets left for women's golf prelims and women's soccer matches outside of Los Angeles.

LA28 spokesperson Gigi Gutierrez told LAist via email that hundreds of thousands of $28 tickets had been sold — and tens of thousands remained available as of Monday.

"That's hundreds of thousands of Angelenos that were able to get incredibly affordable tickets," Gutierrez said.

She said that the future availability of $28 tickets would depend on how many were sold in Drop One, indicating that cheap tickets could only become harder to come by.

Why are tickets getting more expensive?

Olympics prices aren't the only ones on the rise. FIFA has also come under fire for the cost of attending this year's World Cup, which have been listed for thousands of dollars. It's a trend that fans are seeing not just in mega-events but in average sports seasons, too.

One reason that tickets are rising, sports economist Victor Matheson told LAist, is simple: there are more people than ever who want access to sporting and music events and can afford to pay for them. But capacity remains basically the same.

"The Coliseum in Rome at 2,000 years old is about the same size as the Coliseum in L.A.," Matheson said. " You have more and more people, and more and more money, fighting for basically the same number of seats and the same amount of entertainment."

But he also pointed to the ever-smarter technology sports teams and events organizers have at their fingertips that allow them to jack up prices. These techniques and the many fees associated with ticket purchases have come under increasing scrutiny, as consumer experiences increasingly cater to the very wealthy and fans wonder who profits when ticket prices jump.

Ticket revenue is a major part of LA28's budget

The success of ticket sales in Los Angeles will be critical to the success of the Olympic Games. Organizers currently have a $7.1 billion budget to put on the Olympics — and much of the expected revenue will come from ticket sales.

LA28 hasn't said specifically how many Olympics tickets are for sale, only that together with the Paralympics, there are 14 million tickets in total.

But Rich Perelman, who worked for the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, recently estimated that if 12 million of those tickets are for the Olympic Games in particular, the average ticket price would need to be $208.33 to hit the $2.5 billion in expected revenue.

"That’s why they are so expensive," Perelman wrote on his website The Sports Examiner.

Matheson, the sports economist, said high ticket sales could help LA28 stay out of the red.

" [It's] actually pretty good for taxpayers," Matheson said of Olympics tickets being high. "In that the more money that's raised from ticket prices, the less likely any taxpayers will be on the hook for cost overruns at the Olympics."

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is using spyware tools that can intercept encrypted messages as part of the agency's efforts to disrupt fentanyl traffickers, according to a letter sent last week by the agency's acting director, Todd Lyons.

Lyons' letter, which was reviewed by NPR, said ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) is using various tools as part of its mission to disrupt and dismantle foreign terrorist organizations "particularly those involved in the trafficking of fentanyl."

Lyons wrote "in response to the unprecedented lethality of fentanyl and the exploitation of digital platforms by transnational criminal organizations" he approved HSI's "use of cutting-edge technological tools that address the specific challenges posed by the Foreign Terrorist Organizations' thriving exploitation of encrypted communication platforms."

His letter, dated April 1, was a belated response to an October inquiry from three Democratic members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform expressing concern about the agency's potential use of the spyware Graphite, which was created by an Israeli company, Paragon Solutions.

The letter is the first time ICE has indicated it is using Graphite. The agency initially signed a $2 million contract with Paragon Solutions for an unspecified software product at the end of the Biden administration. But the contract was swiftly paused until it was revived by the Trump administration last fall.

Graphite uses what is known as "zero click" technology so that it can gain access to encrypted messages on a targeted device even if the user never clicks on a link.

The encrypted messaging app WhatsApp disclosed last year that it discovered some 90 journalists and members of civil society in various countries were targeted with Graphite. Researchers at The Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy later identified specific journalists and humanitarian aid providers in Italy whose devices were infected with Graphite through WhatsApp messages. Paragon ended its contract with Italian government agencies in 2025.

Lyons' confirmation that the agency is using spyware comes as ICE has ramped up its use of surveillance technologies to find people in the U.S. without authorization as part of the Trump administration's mass deportation campaign. Those tools have also been used extensively on American citizens who have protested ICE's activities. The revelation also comes shortly before Congress is set to debate whether to reauthorize a surveillance law, and whether to close a legal loophole that allows the federal government to buy data about millions of Americans in bulk from commercial data brokers.

Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pa., one of the authors of the October letter asking for answers about ICE's use of spyware, told NPR in a statement, "The response I received from ICE makes one thing clear. They are moving forward with invasive spyware technology inside the United States."

Lee expressed disappointment that Lyons did not provide substantive answers to her questions, including who could be targeted with the technology and the legal basis for using it within the United States.

"The people most at risk, including immigrants, Black and brown communities, journalists, organizers, and anyone speaking out against government abuse, deserve more than secrecy and deflection from an agency with a long record of overreach and abuse," Lee's statement said.

Lyons' letter said any use of the tool "will comply with constitutional requirements" and will be coordinated with the ICE Office of the Principal Legal Advisor.

The Paragon Solutions' contract was initially put on hold in 2024 to review its compliance with an executive order then-President Joe Biden signed in 2023 that bars the use of commercial spyware that poses a national security risk to the United States or poses a risk to be misused by foreign governments.

Lyons wrote in his letter that in accordance with the 2023 executive order, he had "certified that HSI's operational use of the specific tool does not pose significant security or counterintelligence risks, or significant risks of improper use by a foreign government or foreign person."

Paragon Solutions was purchased by an American private investment firm AE Industrial Partners in late 2024, which merged with the cybersecurity company REDLattice. Neither AE Partners or REDLattice returned NPR's request for comment.

Lyons' response alarmed civil liberties advocates who worry about the potential for ICE to abuse the tool and use it against targets beyond drug traffickers and terrorists.

"The biggest concern now is that Lyons' response doesn't rule out ICE using an administrative subpoena to deploy this malware against people living in the United States as part of their ideological battle against constitutionally protected protest," said Cooper Quintin, senior staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which advocates for digital privacy.

"An extremely invasive surveillance capability such as this should require the strongest judicial oversight and confirmation that such intrusion is necessary and [a] proportionate response to the crime being investigated," Quintin said.

Maria Villegas Bravo, a lawyer with the nonprofit Electronic Privacy Information Center, said the U.S. does not have sufficient regulations in place "to stop the U.S. government from abusing Constitutional and human rights in the process of using this technology."

In response to an NPR inquiry to the Department of Homeland Security about its use of Graphite and the concerns raised, a DHS official who did not identify themselves wrote, "DHS is a law enforcement agency. ICE is no different. Employing various forms of technology in support of investigations and law enforcement activities aids in the arrest of criminal gang members, child sex offenders, murderers, drug dealers, identity thieves and more, all while respecting civil liberties and privacy interests."

Villegas Bravo said that by paying for Graphite, the U.S. is helping to bolster the market for technologies that are being exploited by foreign governments to undermine the privacy of messaging applications and carry out invasive surveillance of phones.

"This is a grave national security risk because it weakens American critical infrastructure, including our telecommunications networks," Villegas Bravo said.
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