The Brief

New data is out that suggests the January fires in the L.A. region affected the local economy on a wider scale than just the burn zones.

The findings come from the  L.A. County Department of Economic Opportunity and the  L.A. County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC), a nonprofit organization that measures growth in the region.

Research initially focused on the loss of housing and jobs in the burn zones of the Palisades and Eaton fires. It’s now been expanded to include “secondary areas” — the periphery sections that were under mandatory evacuation but didn’t burn.

What happened to the local economy next to the burn zones?

While businesses in the burn zones were damaged or completely destroyed, those in the nearby areas were still significantly affected, said Dan Wei, an economist at LAEDC.

“ Even they did not experience any property damages, many of those businesses face cleanup, safety checks and challenges, such as staffing shortages and slower return of customer demand,” she said.

To see the financial effects, researchers modeled two scenarios for the evacuation zones where business was completely disrupted for two lengths of time. The first scenario was a shorter one where business was disrupted for about 20 days, while the second was a longer one that ended at around 45 days. Here’s what they found:

• Loss of sales for all goods and services: $625 million to $1.2 billion
• Employment losses: 3,250 to 6,140 job-years (this measures jobs for one calendar year)
• Labor income losses: $250 million to $473 million
• Loss of federal, state and local taxes: $119 million to $234 million

Factoring in the burn and evacuation zones, between $5 billion and $10 billion may have been lost in total economic output, and up to $1.6 billion in taxes.

The county has launched a campaign called "Shop Local. Dine Local. Recover Local." to help small businesses get back on their feet. Residents have also started restaurant crawls and dining clubs.

How was housing affected?

The flames destroyed or affected more than 18,000 structures, according to  CalFire damage inspection data, which doesn’t count smoke and ash damage.

“ While Eaton’s losses were concentrated in larger single family development, the Palisades experienced more diverse impacts across housing types, schools and community structures,” said Matthew Skyberg, a  senior GIS research analyst with LAEDC.

Single-family homes took the hardest hit between both fires, making up 68% of all destroyed structures.  

Rent and home sales

Fears of rent gouging were commonplace just after the fires. But when rental prices from last year were compared to current data from ZORI, Zillow’s rent index, the data only showed a slight short-term increase in the median rent for L.A. County after the fires started.

“ However, by six months from the end of the wildfire in June, the middle rent in the county had cooled below’s 2024 trend,” LAEDC’s Max Chomas said.

The increase was more pronounced in ZIP codes closer to the fires, but prices also dropped six months out.

The surge decreases the farther you get away from the fires.

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Courtesy LAEDC Institute for Applied Economics

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The median amount doesn’t include high and low  rents. As LAist has reported, some rents did spike above California’s 10% limit on price gouging after disasters.

Comparing the fires’ effects

The two fires had different effects on Altadena and Pacific Palisades communities.

In the burn zones, nearly 1,900 businesses and 10,000 workers were affected. Most of those were concentrated in the Palisades Fire.

For evacuation areas, that jumps to about 5,000 businesses and nearly 37,500 employees. The Eaton Fire takes the lion's share there.

Justin Adams, a senior economist with LAEDC, said  this is consistent with their overall findings.

“This suggests that while the Palisades experienced more concentrated direct damage, the Eaton fire potentially created wider reaching business disruptions,” he said.

“ While these businesses may recover more quickly, their temporary closure during the crisis did contribute significantly to economic losses and supply chains disruptions throughout the region,” Adams added.

Recovery metrics

Chomas said  there doesn’t appear to be evidence of a long-term flight of residents from the area. According to the data, house listings and sales in the burn areas have aligned with historical trends so far.

But there’s still much to be done to keep people in their communities. As of Sept. 9, officials have approved 798 permits, which represents 3% of destroyed residential buildings. Compared to other recent fires,  L.A. County is in the middle here on recovery.

Some rebuild permits for the L.A. fires have taken longer than expected to issue.

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Courtesy LAEDC Institute for Applied Economics

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“However, every wildfire seems to have its own recovery path,” Chomas said.

As of May 2025, 94% of filed insurance claims have been paid, which are mostly for residential properties. Nearly two thirds of those claims are for lots in the Palisades Fire.

Debris has also been cleared for nearly all parcels that signed up for federal removal.

The 78th Emmy Awards air Monday night, hosted by Law & Order: SVU star Mariska Hargitay.

The Television Academy already kicked things off earlier this month: what was once the Creative Arts Emmys was expanded and rebranded into a two-night ceremony highlighting casting, guest actors, game shows, documentaries, behind-the-scenes craftspeople and more. Rob Reiner was posthumously awarded his third Emmy for a guest appearance on The Bear. Hargitay, Monday night's host, won two awards for her documentary My Mom Jayne. 

Monday's ceremony will include 19 awards, including those for top comedy series, top drama series and best actor and actress in each.

Here's what to know to watch the ceremony.

When are the Emmy Awards this year?

The show will be live Monday night on NBC and Peacock starting at 8 p.m. ET, 5 p.m. PT. A pre-show and live coverage will air on E! starting at 5 p.m. ET, 2 p.m. PT.

Who is nominated this year?

Familiar titles like Hacks, Abbott Elementary and The Bear are all nominated for top comedy series alongside newcomers Widow's Bay and Margo's Got Money Troubles. On the drama side, last year's winner The Pitt is facing off against Pluribus, Slow Horses, The Diplomat and more.

A whole swath of actors on The Pitt got their first nominations this year, as did Dale Dickey and Kate O'Flynn for Widow's Bay. You can find the nominees here, along with hopes from NPR critics here.

What else can I expect? 

The Television Academy has announced that Noah Kahan will perform "Bridge Over Troubled Water" as part of the In Memoriam segment. Presenters will include Alan Cumming, Sally Field, Jon Hamm, Marcello Hernández, Niecy Nash-Betts, Keke Palmer, Amy Poehler, Florence Pugh, Rachel Sennott and Zendaya.
Copyright 2026 NPR

In less than two years, the Olympics and Paralympics will take over Los Angeles for the summer of 2028, temporarily transforming the city and the region around it.

Hosting the world’s largest sporting event will mean commandeering a fleet of nearly 2,000 public buses, reserving stretches of freeway lanes just for Olympics traffic flow, deploying thousands of law enforcement officers across venues, taking over UCLA and USC to make way for athletes and journalists, and flooding Southern California with millions of fans.

What will everyday Angelenos get out of all this? That depends. And it’s the question LAist is dedicated to answering every Monday as we spotlight our ongoing reporting on the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Los Angeles residents have more at stake than just inconvenience, ticket prices and traffic. The city of L.A. is the financial backstop for the Olympics, meaning taxpayers will pick up the tab if LA28, the private organization planning the Games, runs a deficit.

That makes every plan for the execution of the 2028 Games hugely important for the city — from how L.A. pens agreements with LA28 on reimbursement for city services to whether or not the federal government will pay for the enormous cost of policing the mega-event.

L.A. has hosted the Olympics before — first in 1932 and again in 1984. Both times the Games turned a profit — a rarity for a global event that has gained a reputation over the decades for leaving cities with debt and empty stadiums.

Local officials say they’re confident L.A. can pull off a third Olympic Games (and its first-ever Paralympics), pointing out that hosting will not require building any new sports venues.

Still, there’s plenty to watch, including how temporary construction will turn existing venues into Olympic competition sites, where billions in contracts for things like cleaning and construction will go and whether that money will stay local, and how the expansion of the L.A. Convention Center could affect its role as an Olympic venue.

And there are the ways the Olympics and Paralympics could influence the lives of L.A.’s most vulnerable. Researchers estimate that close to 6,000 unhoused people live within a mile of Olympic venues in L.A. County, and could be removed due to security requirements tied to the Games. Others worry about the enhanced police presence that is guaranteed to accompany Olympic and Paralympic competitions, and what the Trump administration’s involvement in planning could mean for the city.

We’ll be following all this and more. Every Monday, you can listen to the latest on how Los Angeles is preparing for the 2028 Olympics on The L.A. Report and on our homepage.

The Department of Homeland Security says they have put some colleges and universities “on notice” that they could be in violation of federal rules that dictate work opportunities for international students.

The directive has left some of those students feeling worried, as their schools pause opportunities to work in the United States.

And experts warn that it could have adverse effects on U.S. industry and global growth.

What does DHS say?

In late August, the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, part of the Department of Homeland Security, issued a statement stating that they have “observed a rise" in violations related to Curricular Practical Training.

CPT is paid or unpaid work that students do as part of their degree program, like an internship. The administration says regulatory requirements permit CPT only where the training is “an integral part of an established curriculum.”

In a written statement, an unnamed DHS spokesperson told LAist, “Nothing about these regulations has changed. However, schools and employers should consider themselves on notice: under President Trump, abuse of this generous system will no longer be tolerated.”

LAist reached out to DHS for the percentage increase in CPT violations and specifically asked for data related to Southern California schools. We have not received an answer.

How have local universities responded?

Following the memo from the department, several universities including the University of Southern California, UCLA and UC Berkeley have paused or required additional information to determine if work experience is a requirement for a particular degree program.

In a written statement to LAist, a spokesperson for the UCLA Dashew Center said, “UCLA has paused certain Curricular Practical Training authorizations while the university reviews recent federal guidance and determines next steps. UCLA is communicating directly with students who have affected CPT applications and remains committed to supporting our international students as we navigate these changes.”

Why it matters

For students, this is causing uncertainty.

“It came as a surprise to all the international students. We were not aware of it and there is a lot of tension among the international students,” said Nitesh, a student from India at USC. He asked that we only use his first name for fear of repercussions from speaking to the media.

Those who applied for CPT authorizations after Aug. 23 at USC now are in limbo waiting to see if their applications will be approved.

 ”It is a real industry exposure to us when it comes to learning,” Nithesh said about the CPT component. “We definitely get lots of learnings and value from classes and by doing projects, but CPT is a way for us to understand what happens in the industry and keep us up to date.”

Nitesh, who took out an $85,000 loan to come to the U.S. for his degree program, said he would have reconsidered coming here had he known about these regulations ahead of time.

 ”Because there is a lot happening and nobody has clarity, so there is a lot of ambiguity, and we are just waiting for the right information to come in,” he said.

International enrollment impact

The memo is the latest in a string of directives targeting international students. Earlier this year, the Trump administration announced new rules limiting how long international students can remain in the country, as opposed to remaining in the U.S. for as long as it takes to complete their degree program.

Santa Monica College has seen a drastic drop in international student enrollments: In fall 2016, the community college had more than 3,500 international students enrolled; that number has dropped to less than 1,600 this year.

Grace Smith, a spokesperson for Santa Monica College said, “In recent years, several interconnected federal restrictions continue to exert pressure on international enrollment and are likely to impact future enrollment cycles.”

Declining international student enrollment has a “significant impact on the college’s fiscal outlook,” Smith said as international student enrollment accounts for about 8% of the college’s unrestricted revenue.

Caltech’s president Ray Jayawardhana told LAist’s AirTalk program that he came to the U.S. as an international student from Sri Lanka.

“ Growing up in Sri Lanka, I thought of universities like Caltech in the United States as beacons on a hill,” he said. “They really were beckoning the best and the brightest from around the world, and I think it behooves us to preserve that attraction, preserve that draw, so that this country and the world at large benefits from students, from researchers, from scholars.”

While the uncertainties are “discouraging,” Jayawardhana said, Caltech is seeing “continued interest that's as strong as ever.”

Hits to the U.S. economy

Rachel Banks,  senior director for public policy and legislative strategy at NAFSA: Association of International Educators, said the current climate for international students is the “most difficult and most challenging” it has been since World War II.

“Having gone through the first [Trump administration], there were certain expectations of what we might see coming,” she said. “What I think was unexpected was the severity and degree to which we saw the Trump administration make moves specifically with respect to international students.”

Banks says her organization projects that the loss of around 111,000 international student enrollments could cost the U.S. economy $3.4 billion and nearly 4,000 jobs. California’s economy could see a hit of about $500 million because of declining enrollment.

The volume of visa revocations, particularly for students involved in campus protests for Palestinian rights, was “unprecedented,” she said. The State Department’s move to pause on interviews for visa applications and renewals was also something that hadn’t happened at this scale before, Banks said. And the new visa limits for international students, she said, is “incredibly disruptive” and takes the decision making away from students and universities.

The new memo about CPT authorizations adds to the uncertainty, she said.

Following World War II, the government put a lot of emphasis into fostering and developing our higher education system, Banks said, which allowed universities “to attract the best and brightest talent and that has led to the numerous innovations and achievements that we've been able to see come out of the United States.”

That talent, she said, will now look to go to other countries more favorable to international students.

Ballots are going out in less than a month, and California remains locked in a legal battle with the Trump administration over the president’s push to rein in universal mail-in voting.

The back-and-forth has some California voters likely wondering whether they’ll be able to vote by mail in this upcoming election. And if so, should they?

In short — yes, mail-in voting will still be an option this year. And yes, it’s still safe and generally reliable, although county election officials are urging voters to send in their ballots as early as possible ahead of the Nov. 3 election.

In case you missed it, the U.S. Supreme Court is poised to issue a ruling that will determine, at least for now, whether President Donald Trump can force the U.S. Postal Service to restrict vote-by-mail ballots in time for the midterm election. Trump wants to create a federal database of registered voters that the postal service would then cross-reference to ensure mail-in ballots are only delivered to eligible voters — in other words, U.S. citizens. His plan would have the postal service refuse to deliver ballots in states that withhold the data.

The dizzying, monthslong legal saga has baffled voters and even some election officials, which some voting rights advocates argue is probably the point.

But California election officials say the state is well-equipped to administer the election, regardless of how the Supreme Court rules. Although county registrars are monitoring the court rulings, they’re also preparing to mail ballots as usual by the state’s Oct. 5 deadline. Local and state officials are urging voters to make a plan to vote early and to use the state’s various non-mail voting options, such as drop-boxes and in-person voting sites, if they’re worried about the postal service.

“Like we do for all of our elections, we have contingency plans or disaster plans put into place,” said Tricia Webber, clerk and registrar of voters for Santa Cruz County and president of the California Association of County Election Officials.

Some counties, including Santa Cruz and Los Angeles, are exploring options for pop-up stations where voters could request and submit ballots. In Santa Cruz County, Webber said her team is strategizing how to deploy their votemobile around the county to add yet another option for voters.

“Until there’s an answer,” Webber said, speaking of the pending court ruling, “California counties are doing business as usual.”

What does Trump want USPS to do?

Trump issued an executive order in March that sought to give the federal government control over who receives mail-in ballots. Almost immediately, more than 20 Democratic attorneys general, including California’s Rob Bonta, sued the Trump administration on the grounds that the Constitution allows only Congress and state governments to administer elections.

Federal district and appellate courts sided with the Democratic states and upheld a temporary injunction preventing the postal service from implementing any part of its plan while litigation continues.

The central questions in the case remain unresolved. The Supreme Court last month allowed the Trump administration to continue planning for how it would implement the president’s order. Democratic states promptly sued again to contest the postal service’s plans.

The postal service’s proposal, the final version of which was published in August, would create a system to track each voter’s ballot with a unique barcode and cross-reference it with a database of eligible registered voters.

While some states fear they’ll need to reprint envelopes if the postal service’s rule is upheld, the vast majority of California counties already use compliant ballot envelopes, Webber said.

The federal government does not have a comprehensive list of every eligible registered voter and would need to rely on states to submit voter information to a “federal ballot mail portal” that does not yet exist.

It seems unlikely that the postal service’s portal would even be functional in time for the 2026 midterm elections. A postal service whistleblower asserted that the process to develop and deploy the portal was “rushed,” “risky and haphazard” due to the “impossible timeframe,” according to Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal’s office, which received the whistleblower complaint.

“In an effort to meet impossible deadlines, USPS has eliminated standard and needed testing, thereby creating substantial risk of a ‘catastrophic failure’ of the system that could ‘derail the midterm elections,’” wrote Blumenthal, of Connecticut, in a late August letter to Postmaster General David Steiner.

The postmaster in June told a congressional committee that the postal service would withhold ballots in states that refuse to share basic voter information, including name, address and the unique ballot barcode.

Secretary of State Shirley Weber, California’s chief elections administrator, has not said whether California would comply with the proposed voter information requirement.

“California’s elections officials will continue to do everything within our power to ensure that every eligible California voter has the right to cast a mail ballot and have that vote count.”

Last year, the U.S. Justice Department sued Weber and five other Democratic secretaries of state for refusing to turn over their unredacted voter files, which contain far more sensitive personal information than the postal service rule would require. A federal judge in Southern California dismissed that case in January.

Uncertainty could fuel more early voting

Ironically, concerns about the postal service’s reliability could facilitate what election officials and voting advocates have struggled to do for years — get people to vote earlier.

Unlike the lead-up to the June primary, where nervous Democrats urged fellow voters to wait until the last minute to pick a candidate for governor, social media is now awash with posts urging people to vote early and use ballot drop-boxes rather than rely on the mail.

“This whole play may backfire,” said Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation. “What you’re seeing now on social media in response to this court drama and this confusion are lots of people urging their friends to vote early — and that’s exactly what we’ve been saying.”

Voting earlier helps county election officials tabulate results more quickly on election night, which helps race callers like The Associated Press declare winners faster. And since ballots in envelopes take the longest to process, dropping them off several days before the deadline is the best way to help election officials count faster, since they can remove ballots from envelopes and prepare them for counting before Election Day.

“Fortunately, we give voters lots of options, and that’s really going to work to California’s benefit,” Alexander said. “Other states do not have the kind of robust process that creates lots of redundancies and avenues for voters to vote.”