The Brief

Take a wrong exit off the 5 or 99 freeways? A few more wrong turns and you may come across them: Cool, Peanut, and while possible, though unlikely, you could encounter a small town by the name of Likely.

These small California towns are a bit off the beaten path, but there's something about ending up at a place called Butt Lake that reminds you to take life a little seriously. Beyond their fun names and tiny size, these towns can offer something that can be difficult to find in the sprawl of big cities — authenticity. And once you taste something real, it's hard to go back.

Let's take look at five California small towns.

Samoa, California

The Samoa Cookhouse, opened in 1890 in the small town of Samoa in Humboldt County, California

(

Hailey Branson-Potts

)

If you were hoping to visit a town on a sandy peninsula, blanketed by fog and wind-blown sand dunes, then you're in luck.

Samoa is a spit of land just outside the town of Eureka in Humboldt County. The small town is famous for its colorful matching homes, natural landscape and cookhouse. The Samoa Cookhouse opened in 1890 to serve employees of a lumber company, according to L.A. Times reporter Hailey Branson-Potts, who's been visiting and writing about small California towns. During a conversation on LAist 89.3's daily news show, AirTalk with Larry Mantle, she said the restaurant transitioned to family style meals with a single menu in the 60s. The Samoa Cookhouse is temporarily closed, but fret not. Its renovations are sure to attract more wandering tourists and hungry travelers.

Rough and Ready, California

Named after President Zachary Taylor whose nickname "Old Rough and Ready," this town in the Sierra Foothills is not just known for its unusual name. Back in the 1850s, locals "decided to succeed to avoid paying taxes," said Branson-Potts. The succession lasted three months, ending when some locals went to a nearby town to buy liquor only to be turned away by the store owner because they were "foreigners."

A fire truck from the small town Rough and Ready, California in Nevada County

(

Hailey Branson-Potts

)

Peanut, California

Branson-Potts was reporting on a story in the town of Weaverville when she made a detour through some precarious mountain roads and found the nearly non-existent town of Peanut. Off Highway 3 in Trinity County, Peanut is the story of a community that once was.

"There's essentially nothing left," Branson-Potts told Mantle. "There's a plaque where the school used to be." And that's basically it. There are few people in the area, but if you ask them, they might tell you the legend of how Peanut got its name.

A sign for the former Salt Creek School in the town that is now called Peanut.

(

Hailey Branson-Potts

)

The town was trying to open a post office back in the late 1800s, early 1900s, which Branson-Potts said is how you officially "got on the map."

"The post office rejected the name they wanted, Salt Creek, because they didn't want towns with two names," she said. "The locals were bemoaning this to the post master who was said to be snacking on a bag of peanuts."

Legend has it, the post master said, "Why don't we call it Peanut?"

Yreka, California

Not to be confused with Eureka, Yreka (pronounced 'why-ree-kuh') is off the 5 Freeway, not far from the Oregon border. In fact, back in the 1940s, if you were driving through the area you might be greeted by a local with a pamphlet advertising the town as the the capital of the "State of Jefferson," Branson-Potts said. The movement, which was a rebellion against California and Oregon, stopped after the attacks on Pearl Harbor.

Volcano, California

A sign for the town of Volcano in Amador County, California

(

Hailey Branson-Potts

)

Volcano is a little-bitty Sierra Foothills town with an unlikely reputation — it's known for its thriving community theater program.

Branson-Potts said the outdoor amphitheater has been around for decades. Production took a hit during the pandemic, followed by two major fires, but residents were committed to getting the town's arts scene up and running again. If you visit Volcano, you can see a play at the Volcano Theatre Company.

Bolinas, Weed, Butt Lake, and Fort Dick.....

There are so many other small towns that deserve a mention. Some only have a plaque left, others are still vibrant. Wherever they stand, all have a story to call their own. You can follow Branson-Pott's reporting and the towns she's visiting here.

Fort Dick is an unincorporated town in Del Norte, County 15 miles south of the Oregon border.

(

Hailey Branson-Potts

)

Listen to the full AirTalk conversation with L.A. Times metro reporter Hailey Branson-Potts here:

A Trump administration official on Friday signaled a potential rollback of the racial and ethnic categories approved for the 2030 census and other future federal government forms.

Supporters of those categories fear that any last-minute modifications to the U.S. government's standards for data about race and ethnicity could hurt the accuracy of census data and other future statistics used for redrawing voting districts, enforcing civil rights protections and guiding policymaking.

Those standards were last revised in 2024 during the Biden administration, after Census Bureau research and public discussion.

A White House agency at the time approved, among other changes, new checkboxes for "Middle Eastern or North African" and "Hispanic or Latino" under a reformatted question that asks survey participants: "What is your race and/or ethnicity?" The revisions also require the federal government to stop automatically categorizing people who identify with Middle Eastern or North African groups as white.

But at a Friday meeting of the Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics in Washington, D.C., the chief statistician within the White House's Office of Management and Budget revealed that the Trump administration has started a new review of those standards and how the 2024 revisions were approved.

"We're still at the very beginning of a review. And this, again, is not prejudging any particular outcome. I think we just wanted to be able to take a look at the process and decide where we wanted to end up on a number of these questions," said Mark Calabria. "I've certainly heard a wide range of views within the administration. So it's just premature to say where we'll end up."

OMB's press office did not immediately respond to NPR's request for comment.

Calabria's comments mark the first public confirmation that Trump officials are considering the possibility of not using the latest racial and ethnic category changes and other revisions. They come amid the administration's attack on diversity, equity and inclusion programs, a push to stop producing data that could protect the rights of transgender people and threats to the reliability of federal statistics.

In September, OMB said those Biden-era revisions "continue to be in effect" when it announced a six-month extension to the 2029 deadline for federal agencies to follow the new standards when collecting data on race and ethnicity.

Calabria said the delay gave agencies more time to implement the changes "while we review."

The first Trump administration stalled the process for revising the racial and ethnic data standards in time for the 2020 census.

The "Project 2025" policy agenda released by The Heritage Foundation, the conservative, D.C.-based think tank, called for a Republican administration to "thoroughly review any changes" to census race and ethnicity questions because of "concerns among conservatives that the data under Biden Administration proposals could be skewed to bolster progressive political agendas."

Advocates of the changes, however, see the new categories and other revisions as long-needed updates to better reflect people's identities.

"At stake is a more accurate and deeper understanding of the communities that comprise our country," says Meeta Anand, senior director of census and data equity at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. "I am not concerned if it's reviewed in an honest attempt to understand what the process was. I am concerned if it's for a predetermined outcome that would be to ignore the entire process that was done in a very transparent manner."

Edited by Benjamin Swasey
Copyright 2025 NPR

A large black bear that was relocated earlier this year after being found under a house in Altadena is up to his old tricks again.

The bear, nicknamed Barry by the neighbors, was found last week under a different Altadena home, and wildlife officials are using a caramel- and cherry-scented lure to entice the roughly 550-pound male bear out of his hiding spot.

So far, they’ve been unsuccessful.

Cort Klopping, information specialist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, told LAist the bear seems to be spooked by increased activity around the home, including media crews outside and helicopters overhead.

“It seems as though in this case, this bear has found this poor guy's crawlspace as a comfortable, safe-seeming, warm enclosure for denning purposes,” he said.

He said the space is “somewhere for this bear to kind of hang its hat when it's relaxing.”

How the bear returned

Wildlife officials can tell it’s the same bear who was lured out from under an Altadena house after the Eaton Fire because of the tag number on his ear.

The bear was trapped and relocated about 10 miles away to the Angeles National Forest in January, but Klopping said he’s been back in the Altadena area for around five months.

The male bear after it was removed from under an Altadena home earlier this year.

(

California Department of Fish and Wildlife

/

X

)

The bear spooked a SoCal Gas crew who stopped by for repairs after the Eaton Fire in January.

(

California Department of Fish and Wildlife

/

X

)

The Department of Fish and Wildlife fitted the bear with a temporary GPS collar so officials could keep track of it. The collar came off a couple months later while the animal still was living in the forest.

The bear is believed to have been spotted around the home last Tuesday, Klopping said, and the owner reached out to wildlife officials a few days later for help.

“I’ve seen pictures of this bear, and I’m shocked to be under that house,” homeowner Ken Johnson told LAist media partner CBS LA.

Officials said they were hopeful the bear would move along on its own. They encouraged the homeowner to set up a camera on the crawlspace and line the area with ammonia soaked-rags or a motion-activated wildlife sprinkler system to deter the bear from returning, Klopping said.

“These are all actions that would not harm the bear, not harm people, but they would make it less comfortable for the bear to be there,” he said.

But the bear stayed put.

“Right now, it seems like it's stressed,” Klopping said. “It seems like it's scared, and therefore, it's not really wanting to leave the security of where it is at the moment.”

The hope ahead

A pair of wildlife officials stopped by the home Thursday to set up the sweet-smelling lure and camera so the department can keep an eye on the bear’s activity remotely.

Barry didn’t take the bait immediately, Klopping said, but officials are hopeful the animal will feel more comfortable leaving the crawlspace once activity around the home dies down a bit.

Klopping also is warning people in the area to secure access points on their property so the bear just doesn’t move in there next.

“If I were in that neighborhood, I would be doing everything in my power to make sure that my crawlspaces would not be accessible,” he said, including covering it with something stronger than the wire mesh the bear got through before.

Bears also are extremely food motivated, and Klopping said they can smell your leftover chicken in trash cans on the curb from 5 miles away.

He encouraged residents to be mindful of trash that could be an easy meal for wildlife, as well as pet food and hummingbird feeders, which Klopping said biologists have seen bears drink “like a soda.”

You can find tips on how to handle a bear in your backyard here and resources from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife here.

There’s a new way you can track pollution in your neighborhood.

The SoCal Clean Manufacturing Coalition, a climate advocacy group, has released a map with the locations of more than 1,800 fossil fuel-burning industrial boilers across Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties. Many are at universities and hospitals, as well as some apartment complexes like the Park La Brea apartments in the Miracle Mile.

The map is part of an effort to push the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which regulates our air quality, to pass rules to require these large boilers to be phased out.

Why do these boilers matter?

Industrial boilers aren’t exactly the poster child of pollution, but they do play a role in Southern California. Boilers come in different sizes, and although there are electric types, many still burn fossil fuels to generate hot water, steam and, as a byproduct, nitrogen oxide.

South Coast AQMD says that makes it a source of pollutants. Nitrogen oxide contributors are not only a problem for smog and respiratory issues but also for the agency’s effort to meet federal air quality standards.

That’s why last year the agency approved new requirements for certain buildings to use zero-emission water heaters and boilers when they need replacement.

Teresa Cheng,  California director for Industrious Labs, a coalition member focused on creating cleaner industries, says these rules were for smaller “baby boilers” and that the coalition wants to see that applied to larger ones, which are covered under the agency’s 1146 and 1146.1 rule.

The push has caused concern in the gas industry. The California Fuels and Convenience Alliance, which represents small fuel retailers and industry suppliers, says boilers are essential in a wide range of manufacturing facilities that need high heat, like food processing, fuel production and more.

“CFCA is deeply concerned that requiring industrial facilities to abandon gas-fired boilers at the end of their useful life before the market is technologically or economically ready will still have severe consequences for manufacturers, workers and consumers,” the alliance said in a statement.

The organization says many facilities already have invested in “ultra-low” nitrogen oxide technology and that requiring a switch to zero-emissions equipment could destabilize the industry because of costs.

See the map

The map includes the number of boilers in each place, including how many aging units, and their permitted heating capacity. (That metric essentially correlates with how much pollution it can release.)

Cheng says the map is being shared to make the “invisible visible” so residents can know what’s around them. Most boilers are in communities that already deal with environmental pollution problems.

Boilers are even close to K-12 schools, like Glendale’s Herbert Hoover High School, which has its own.

“ These boilers have a very long lifeline,” she said. “If the air district doesn't pass zero-emissions rules for these boilers, we actually risk locking in decades more of pollution.”