The Brief

Topline:

Why it matters: King Taco helped establish the template for the modern L.A. taqueria — shifting the city's understanding of tacos from the hard-shell, Americanized version to soft tortillas filled with carne asada, carnitas and tacos al pastor. As the late food critic Jonathan Gold noted, King Taco "solidified what we all think of as the modern Los Angeles taco sensibility."

Why now: The nomination comes as part of the city's ongoing effort to recognize Latino cultural landmarks.

The backstory: Founder Raul Martinez launched King Taco from a converted ice cream truck in 1974, eventually opening the Cypress Park brick-and-mortar location that became the chain's flagship. The business grew to 24 locations across Southern California, becoming a model for immigrant entrepreneurship and establishing key Mexican dishes like tacos al pastor and carnitas as L.A. staples.

What's next: The Cultural Heritage Commission will determine whether King Taco's original location retains sufficient historic integrity and continues to convey its cultural significance. If approved, King Taco would become one of the few designated restaurant landmarks recognizing Latino culinary contributions.

Los Angeles Unified School District officials said environmental tests have concluded the Boyle Heights warehouse fire did not result in widespread contamination at nearby schools.

However, on Tuesday they reported lead levels in the soil at two elementary school campuses that exceeded California’s acceptable threshold. Officials announced the results one day before classes resume at dozens of schools within a three-mile radius of the Lineage warehouse.

The district promised to give families advance notice of testing results ahead of the start of school on Wednesday. Those results were posted in a 561-page document uploaded to a district website Tuesday morning.

The district’s Office of Environmental Health and Safety concluded that schools near the disaster “remain safe for occupancy and that the Lineage fire did not result in widespread residual contamination or conditions at LAUSD campuses posing a health hazard to students or staff.”

District officials said indoor and outdoor testing found the presence of ammonia, formaldehyde and manganese, but at low levels that did not raise concern about fire-related contamination that could harm the health of students or school staff.

While some parents have told LAist they feel safe sending their children to schools in the area, others have said they’re worried about potential health impacts from the fire, which covered the neighborhood in smoke for more than a week and left tons of food to rot in the sun.

Two campuses with elevated lead levels

Officials said they found elevated levels of lead in soil samples from two elementary schools. City Terrace Elementary School had 170 milligrams of lead per kilogram of soil, while Christopher Dena Elementary School had 120 milligrams. Both exceeded the 80 milligram threshold considered “acceptable” by the California Department of Toxic Substances Control.   

Carlos Torres, director of LAUSD’s Office of Environmental Health and Safety, told LAist the district doesn’t believe the lead is tied to the warehouse fire.

“Most likely this could be from things like lead-based paints from use in the past. It could be from agricultural use,” Torres said. “There isn't such a thing as clean soil anywhere.”

How the testing works

LAUSD tested 10 schools out of the more than 50 campuses located within a three-mile radius of the Lineage warehouse.

The report said the schools were selected based on their proximity to the warehouse and in relation to wind patterns that may have influenced where the fire smoke deposited contaminants. The district also tested one school farther from the fire, but similar to those near the warehouse because of its proximity to other industrial sites and a freeway.

The tests were conducted from July 28 to August 7.

The district collected:

• Dust wipe samples from indoor and outdoor spaces including desks, drinking fountains, tables, and playgrounds 
• Soil samples from unpaved areas and gardens 
• Air samples from indoor and outdoor areas including athletic fields, classrooms and gyms 

The district tested for substances that included metals identified as potential contaminants from the fire, including arsenic, lead, lithium and manganese, as well as ammonia, formaldehyde and hydrogen fluoride in the air.

The report said the district consulted with an industrial hygienist, a UCLA researcher, a geologist and a third-party environmental consulting firm to create the testing plan.

The samples were evaluated by a third-party lab and then compared against both state and federal screening levels.

How the district cleaned schools 

District officials have described their response to the warehouse fire in several virtual meetings, including:

• Inspecting and twice replacing air-conditioning filters with those rated MERV-13, an indicator of the filter’s ability to trap small particles
• Deep cleaning, including by washing walls and furniture, waxing floors and pressure-washing outdoor areas and playground equipment
• Placing air purifiers with carbon charcoal filters in all classrooms

What's next

Torres said the front lawn at City Terrace and the tree wells at Dena, where elevated levels of lead were detected, have been fenced off. He said district staff are reviewing the lab results and could decide to conduct more testing that could lead to the removal or remediation of the soil, for example, by laying down mulch.

The district plans to hold another virtual meeting for East L.A. parents on Monday, Aug. 17 at 6 p.m.

LAist reporter David Wagner contributed to this story.

Alexandra Lozano Kennedy — a former immigration attorney who made wide use of social media and Latino religious iconography to attract clientele — had offices across the U.S., including one in the city of Commerce in Southeast L.A.

Lozano Kennedy was licensed by the Washington State Bar Association, which enabled her to represent clients nationwide. In May, she resigned in lieu of discipline for misconduct and is permanently barred from practicing law in that state. As of June 2026, she is also suspended from practicing before the Department of Homeland Security, including U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services; immigration courts; and the Board of Immigration Appeals.

Lozano Kennedy, who had tens of thousands of clients, is accused of falsifying stories of trafficking and abuse without her clients’ knowledge, according to lawsuits and immigrant advocates.

At her office in Los Angeles County, clients were met with a large image of the Virgin of Guadalupe in the reception area, flanked by flowers and votive candles, much like a scene inside a local Catholic church. This holy image was also on business cards distributed at the locale. Lozano Kennedy’s use of this iconography as a business strategy harmed community members, said M. Lucero Ortiz, supervising attorney at Loyola Law School’s Immigrant Justice Clinic.

“A lot of them are questioning their own faith," Ortiz said.

“Her fraud really only had a shelf life of about five to six years, because that's how long these cases take to be processed,” Ortiz added.

The clinic she supervises is using social media to help Lozano Kennedy’s former clients navigate the fallout amid the Trump administration’s ongoing mass deportation campaign.

Lozano Kennedy billed herself as a miracle worker, Ortiz said. The work permits clients received as their applications made their way through the immigration process bolstered this belief.

"Clients would think: ‘Oh, my gosh! Everybody else told me that my case was too complex, but this woman got me a work permit in six to nine months,’" Ortiz said. “But what they didn't know is that, five years later, that case would be denied. And they would be in removal proceedings.”

What is Lozano Kennedy accused of?  

According to the Washington State Bar Association, Lozano Kennedy's alleged misconduct includes:

• directing staff to use a script that contained false and/or misleading information when communicating with prospective clients
• filing applications for immigration benefits with USCIS when she knew the clients were ineligible for those benefits
• using nonlawyers to perform legal functions on behalf of clients, and/or delegating legal functions to non-lawyer staff, such as performing client consultations and providing legal advice 

Find a full list of her alleged misconduct here. Lozano Kennedy has denied any wrongdoing.

What do advocates recommend?   

If you were represented by Lozano Kennedy and have petitions or applications pending before USCIS, the Immigrant Legal Resource Center and Loyola Law School’s Immigrant Justice Clinic have provided guidance for former clients. The latter recommends former clients take the following steps:

• Open an account online at my.uscis.gov. This allows people with pending immigration cases to manage and track their status in real time, including filing applications, receiving digital notices, uploading evidence and communicating securely with USCIS officers.
  
• Submit a change of address (USCIS Form AR-11) request. Be sure to file online and mail the request.
  
  • Cases with a receipt number starting with EAC should mail the request to the Vermont Service Center, USCIS Service Center Operations, Attn: Humanitarian Division, 38 River Rd., Essex Junction, VT 05479-0001.
  • Cases with a receipt number starting with LIN, should mail the request forms to the Nebraska Service Center, USCIS Service Center Operations, P.O. Box 87918, Lincoln, NE 68501-7918.
• Send USCIS a revocation of legal representation letter expressing that you no longer want the attorney of record to represent you and that you will be representing yourself (pro se) while you hire another attorney.
  
• Request a copy of your case file online at USCIS FOIA and through email from Luz Legal.
  
• Check your case status at USCIS and immigration court.
  
• Submit a request to the victims’ compensation fund with the Washington State Bar Association (WSBA).
  
• After you receive a copy of your case file, consult a licensed and experienced attorney about the strategy in your case.

Ortiz, the supervising attorney at the clinic, stressed that these are all steps community members can take for themselves, without the help of an attorney. You can find details for each step here.

The Immigrant Justice Clinic also addressed these frequently asked questions:

• Should all of Lozano Kennedy’s former clients withdraw their pending USCIS application?
  
  • No, if a pending case is withdrawn, it can lead to a notice to appear (NTA)/deportation process. Consult with a licensed and experienced attorney before making any decision regarding your case.
• Are all former clients eligible to join the two pending civil lawsuits against Lozano Kennedy?
  
  • No, not all former clients will be able to join the pending lawsuits.
  • To learn more, former clients can share their contact information and a summary of their case online at https://lozanocivilaction.com/#register
  • In California, the statute of limitations for civil fraud claims is three years.
  • A civil lawsuit will not address or fix an individual’s pending immigration case.
    

As another Los Angeles Unified school year starts Wednesday, district leaders say they hope to maintain recent academic progress while they also contend with a series of budget cuts needed to make ends meet.

"The decisions will be hard, but we cannot lose sight of what defines us," said Andrés Chait, the district’s new superintendent, in a July speech kicking off the start of the new academic year. "We are the system that lifts students to opportunity, turns potential into achievement, creates spaces of belonging, healing [and] growth."

The country’s second-largest school district resumes classes as federal immigration raids continue along with the detention of area parents and children.

What we are hearing

For the most part, LAUSD students told LAist they’re experiencing the usual mix of nerves and excitement associated with the first day of school.

They’re also aware that local and national politics are reshaping their education, including who is in the classroom.

Andrea, a sophomore at Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet High School in Lincoln Heights, said there were days last year when so many students were absent that teachers would pause their lessons.

“What's the point of teaching it if half the class is gone?” Andrea said. “That really makes everybody behind.”

Educators have patrolled the neighborhood near Andrea’s school to notify families of any ICE activity nearby.

“That definitely made us feel more safe and more respected in the school,” she said. Throughout the year, she noticed more of her peers return to class.

A looming shortfall

LAUSD’s spending is budgeted to exceed revenue by $2 billion this school year. For the third consecutive year, the district plans to pay the difference with reserves that were largely built up by one-time federal pandemic relief dollars.

The district’s financial projections show LAUSD will be short $231 million by November 2027.

The L.A. County Office of Education, which oversees the finances of local districts, intervened in July after the board approved new labor contracts for LAUSD’s largest unions.

“The financial reality before the District raises serious concerns regarding its ability to meet its financial obligations,” wrote Debra Duardo, L.A. County Superintendent of Schools, in a July 2 letter.

If district officials decide to request an emergency loan from the state, it would trigger a rare takeover that would strip LAUSD’s board of decision-making power and likely take years to undo.

The county appointed a fiscal advisor to the district, but did not grant that person the authority to override the board or superintendent’s decisions.

The county directed LAUSD to provide more details about the district’s plan to stabilize the budget through $3.6 billion in cuts spread out over three years. District officials said their plan envisions furloughs for all employees in the 2027-28 school year — a move that requires negotiating with the unions that represent those employees.

“I think what they expect to see from us… is frankly a prove-up around the fiscal stabilization plan,” Chait said. “They want to see that we can actually implement what we put into that plan.”

District staff have previously said that plans to stabilize the budget could lead to more than 6,000 layoffs, amounting to more than 10% of LAUSD’s current workforce.

One unknown is how future state funding will change the district’s budget projections. While California education funding has risen in recent years, the state plans to hold back $3.9 billion for schools and community colleges in the most recent budget.

“No one is asking the state for anything more or less than what we are due,” Chait said. “We are not asking for a handout.”

New, but familiar leadership

Though Chait is new to the district’s top job, he is familiar to many from his nearly three-decade tenure as a district educator and administrator.

District principals greeted Chait with a standing ovation at his first opening-of-schools address in July.

“As I was preparing for this talk, I was thinking about how to introduce myself,” Chait told a crowd of several hundred administrators at James A. Garfield High School. “But then I realized you don't introduce yourself to family.”

Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Andrés Chait speaks with educators and support staff at Pacoima Middle School on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026.

(

Allen J. Schaben

/

Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

)

Chait highlighted preliminary results from the state’s standardized reading and math tests that show a third consecutive year of improvements.

However, even with that progress, the majority of students do not meet the benchmark for either subject. It’s unclear how LAUSD’s performance compares to the state because those results have yet to be released.

Chait is the first LAUSD insider to serve as superintendent in a decade. His hire came after two high-profile external hires — Alberto Carvalho, a former Miami schools leader, and Austin Beutner, an investment banker and former publisher of the L.A. Times.

LAUSD’s elected seven-member board, which has the final say on the district’s financial decisions, is unchanged. Voters re-elected incumbents to this year’s three board races from a sparse field of candidates in June’s primary contest.

Ongoing enrollment challenges

LAUSD is projected to enroll 378,000 students in transitional kindergarten through 12th grade this school year.

As birth rates decline, fewer students are enrolling at schools throughout the state. The drop in enrollment is steeper in areas with high costs of living, such as L.A.

California funds schools based on an average of how many students show up to class each day, with additional money for every student in the district who is low-income, an English-language learner, unhoused or a foster youth. Over time, fewer students could lead to less funding.

District leaders attributed last school year’s larger-than-expected drop in students to the “fear and instability” associated with federal immigration raids.

Even students who continued to attend school reported changing their behavior in response to the raids.

Alvira, a junior at Lake Balboa College Preparatory Magnet K-12, is an immigrant from Bangladesh. She started carrying a photocopy of her passport until she could get a REAL ID.

“Just in case anything happens, I can prove that I'm a citizen,” Alvira said.

Dîner en Blanc — the DIY, fine, alfresco meal held in secret locations — has returned to L.A.

The event had been on hiatus here for seven years, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and struggles to find a new volunteer host.

But on Aug. 1, around 1,500 people dined and danced right on the street in front of the Beverly Hills City Hall. Past locations include the Santa Monica Pier and the plaza at the Music Center in downtown L.A. The mostly volunteer organization says it's looking to come back in March 2027 with double the attendance.

I heard about Dîner en Blanc about 10 years ago and always wondered if it was worth the hype, a question I’m asking myself more frequently as many pop-ups are more geared towards cool photo-ops as opposed to a good experience.

The event is held in cities around the world, but started in France and is rooted in both celebrating French culture and the tradition of gathering to break bread together —- a concept I can get behind.

Attending requires some planning and legwork, including online registration, a membership fee, a nice picnic, carrying a table and chairs, not knowing where you are going because the location is kept secret until the last minute, and working with a group of strangers to find the spot and set up everything.

Everything you wear and put on your table has to be white. Not eggshell. Not cream. Not even off-white. Paper and plastic are discouraged.

Guests are encouraged to get extra fancy with their table decor and outfits, and awards are given out for both. Those who go all out wear full costumes with wigs, masks and hats, and some tables are decorated with shining glass and twinkling lights.

Then there’s the cost

Creative table settings are encouraged, and judges choose one for a prize.

(

Julia Paskin

/

LAist

)

Entry is $65 per ticket, plus a $14 membership fee. Tickets are sold in pairs. 

It's $15 for table and chairs rental (optional instead of bring your own). This is worth it if you don’t already own white folding chairs. Plus you don’t have to transport anything.

A multi-course meal for two is prepared by Todd English, a celebrity chef. That costs up to $125 — or you can bring your own. The prepared meal is a good option with enough food for two people (if that’s in your price range), but I enjoy putting a picnic together, so I would personally opt to do that part myself in the future.

For beverages:

• Water: 18.5 ounces, optional instead of BYO, $4, or $32 for a box of 12.
• Wine: There's no BYOB. Packages including Chambord and chocolates, from $25 to $68.

And none of that includes parking, gas or rideshare costs.

So was it worth it?

To quote first-time attendee Lilli Burrows: “I don’t need more stuff, I need experiences. I need to have fun things to do and create wonderful memories.”

Guests await the ceremonial napkin wave to start the meal after setting up Dîner en Blanc in Beverly Hills recently.

(

Julia Paskin

/

LAist

)

Hector Gama also attended for the first time and was already planning for next year.

“We kind of downplayed it this time, but I’m sure next time there’s going to be a lot more stuff,” he said.

Alexa Kushner, 26, was invited by friends. “It feels like a really socially unique experience, and it's bonding the community of Los Angeles in a really fun way,” he told me.

Pro tips from guests

• Don’t worry about getting your outfit, meal or table set up perfectly. Be as extravagant as you want, but there are no fashion police or even any judgey vibes. 
• Wear comfortable shoes since you have to carry your items or at least walk to your table.
• Bring a stain remover. Sharing a Tide Pen will make you very popular.

As for me?

• I would pay the extra 15 bucks to not have to bring my own table and chairs.
• I would not pay more than $100 on the pre-made meal when I can bring a cheaper picnic that's more to my taste.
• Would I recommend it? Its a festive event with food, music and sparklers which could make for a fun holiday-like tradition with a group of friends, or if you just want to meet new people in a friendly atmosphere. If that's not your cup of tea, there's plenty of great picnic spots in L.A. that are free.

Get notifications for next year’s Dîner en Blanc here.