The Brief

Californians for the past 54 years have relied on the state’s “lemon law” to fight back against car makers that sell them defective vehicles.

Now, critics say Californians’ ability to recoup their money after buying a clunker could become more difficult, due to a hastily passed bill that lobbyists representing U.S. auto manufacturers and powerful attorneys groups drafted in secret.

Gov. Gavin Newsom hasn’t signed or vetoed Assembly Bill 1755. His spokesperson, Brandon Richards, on Friday said “the measure will be evaluated on its merits” before Newsom’s Sept. 30 bill-signing deadline.

But how the bill came to end up on his desk is the latest example of how influential lobbying groups write laws impacting millions of Californians behind closed doors — and how the measures are often passed with little time for public input or legislative debate.

“There wasn’t a single person who represents the people of California who knew about this and was a part of those conversations – for months,” Democratic San Ramon Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan told her colleagues on the Assembly Judiciary Committee last month in the final days of the legislative session.

“They dropped this in our lap, and they expect us to buy an argument related to the urgency that feels, to be honest, not real. And we’re supposed to move this in a week’s time.”

The bill seeks to address a massive uptick in lemon law lawsuits clogging the state’s court system, but it started out earlier in the session as a measure dealing with child support.

Then on August 20, with less than two weeks left in the session, the bill was stripped through the secretive “gut-and-amend” process. Its language was replaced with a 4,200-word bill that seeks to reform how lemon law disputes are resolved. The bill is so complicated its legislative analysis, which lawmakers should read to fully understand a measure’s consequences, was more than 10,000 words. 

Former Los Angeles Democratic Assemblymember Mike Gatto said it’s unlikely that lawmakers actually read all that in those final chaotic days of the session with hundreds of other consequential bills still pending.

“Unfortunately, when the Legislature makes complex policy like that with great haste, it increases the reliance on non-elected personnel,” Gatto said. “And it increases the reliance on special interest groups who tell the legislators what the legislation contains. It’s very hard during that chaotic last week of session to, you know, be able to review things of great length like that.”

Downey Democratic Assemblymember Blanca Pacheco, an attorney, told her Judiciary Committee colleagues she wasn’t comfortable voting for the bill because she wasn’t sure what it would do.

“I want to make sure that consumers are protected as well,” she said. “Those are our constituents. And so that is what we really should be caring about. And I don’t know if consumers are really protected.”

Lawmakers acknowledge secret negotiations

The bill by two Democrats, Santa Ana Sen. Tom Umberg and San Jose Assemblymember Ash Kalra, nonetheless easily passed the Assembly committee, as well as the full Assembly and Senate.

Umberg’s office declined to answer CalMatters’ questions about the bill. Kalra’s office replied to an interview request with an emailed statement.

“AB 1755 went through the full legislative process with two robust committee hearings, consideration of amendments and all procedural steps,” Kalra said. “Despite concerns over process, the vast majority of members in both houses concluded this was a better policy for consumers and we could build upon the policy framework in subsequent years.”

Kalra acknowledged in his testimony that the measure was a product of negotiations between the groups behind the bill.

“AB 1755 represents a compromise between the consumer attorneys, (civil) defense attorneys, and some auto manufacturers, most notably General Motors,” Kalra told the Assembly Judiciary Committee.

Opposing the bill were Tesla and foreign auto companies including Volkswagen and Toyota as well as consumer groups such as the Consumer Federation of America, the Center for Auto Safety, and Consumers For Auto Reliability and Safety, according to the Digital Democracy database.

Sen. Roger Niello, a Republican whose family owns car dealerships in the Sacramento area, said he was troubled that the bill split groups that are typically aligned on legislation.

“My concern about this bill is the process by which it was developed,” Niello told his colleagues on the Senate floor. “And all you have to look at to question that is the support and opposition. This is very unusual. We don’t see this very often. … We have people, organizations from similar sources with opposite views on this. There’s something wrong with that.”

The alliances were unpredictable. Consumer attorneys fed up with clogged courts backed the bill, while consumer advocates opposed it. And while U.S. carmakers lobbied for it, foreign automakers argued it didn’t go far enough and was too friendly toward trial attorneys.

As Kalra and Umberg pitched their bill to lawmakers in those frantic, waning days of the session, they said AB 1755 would address a growing backlog of lemon law cases that have been increasingly causing havoc in the state’s civil court system.

The number of lemon law cases in California courts climbed from nearly 15,000 filings in 2022 to more than 22,000 last year. In Los Angeles County, nearly 10% of all civil filings are now lemon law cases, according to the bill’s analysis.

The growing caseload is driven by a handful of aggressive law firms that file most of the suits, according to the Civil Justice Association of California. The association wasn’t listed as having a position on the bill in the Digital Democracy database.

“What it does is it reduces the number of filings, which I think logically would lead you to believe that it also reduces the amount of money spent on lawyers,” Umberg told the Senate last month.

The California Judges Association also supported the bill.

Will lemon law bill make it harder for vehicle owners?

Under the proposed law, starting next year, auto companies and car buyers would be required to try to settle their disputes through mediation before beginning the “discovery” process that takes place after a lawsuit is filed.

Discovery is when the parties in a lawsuit gather evidence from each other that they think they’ll need to prove their case. The proposed law also sets rules for what evidence can be requested. One of the reasons the courts are so backlogged from lemon law cases is due to tedious discovery hearings, the bill’s advocates say.

It also would shorten the window during which a consumer can sue over a detective vehicle.

Umberg, a former federal prosecutor, and Kalra, a former public defender and law professor, told their colleagues that consumers would still be able to get their money back from a defective car. They argued that California’s lemon law, which Gov. Ronald Reagan signed in 1970, still would be stronger than that of any other state.

But Rosemary Shahan, president of Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, said the bill would harm car owners stuck with a lemon vehicle in several ways.

It would limit the amount of “negative equity” refunds consumers could get for their defective car, and it would shorten the period in which consumers can use the lemon law to just six years, even when their warranty lasts longer, she said.

“This is a big deal for folks who pay extra for a vehicle with a warranty from the manufacturer, in order to avoid getting hit with a large unexpected repair bill,” she said in an email.

The bill also would require that consumers notify their manufacturer in writing that their car is a lemon, instead of just taking it into a dealer for repairs and starting the process of getting their money back there, she said.

It also would limit the amount of time a consumer can file a lemon lawsuit from four years after a claim is filed to just a year from the expiration of a vehicle’s warranty, she said.

“This would make it easier for unscrupulous auto manufacturers to get away with doing cheap ‘Band-Aid’ type repairs – instead of fixing the underlying problem – until the warranty expires,” leaving consumers on the hook for a massive bill, she said.

The bill’s supporters include General Motors, Stellantis (formerly Chrysler) and Ford Motor Company, as well as RV manufacturers.

Combined, Ford and GM have given sitting lawmakers at least $1.5 million since 2015, according to the Digital Democracy database.

The Consumer Attorneys of California has given at least $2.2 million during the same period.

The bill “addresses urgent procedural problems with how lemon law cases are handled in the state of California, while keeping our lemon law the strongest in the nation,” Nancy Drabble, a lobbyist for Consumer Attorneys of California, told lawmakers last month.

She argued that the proposed revision would be an improvement for car buyers since it would shorten the window that auto companies must respond to a consumer complaint to just 30 days, and it would require car companies to fix a defective car or replace it within 30 days after that.

“I think you will see an increase in buybacks of vehicles within that 60-day period, which will not even have a lawsuit filed,” lobbyist Michael Belote told lawmakers, saying he represented GM.

‘Transparency suffers’ when lawmakers rush

In an interview Friday, Belote said his lobbying firm also represents other parties involved in the negotiations, and he was speaking to CalMatters on those groups’ behalf – and not GM’s.

Belote said he rejects “the premise that it watered down the lemon law.”

He said the law itself wouldn’t change. All the bill does, he said, is set clear rules for consumers and for auto companies that will reduce time-consuming court hearings, cut down on plaintiffs’ attorney fees and speed up the process of resolving disputes.

“There is a strong reason to believe that this will get consumers what they need more quickly,” he said, “And what they need … is a car to get to work and get their kids to school.”

But why the rush? Why not wait until January when lawmakers reconvene for the new two-year session — when they could fully vet and debate the bill?

One reason was proponents had threatened to take their case to voters. Belote and Shahan said that as part of their proposed ballot initiative, the groups threatened to put a 20% cap on the fees lawyers could collect from lemon law cases, creating a financial incentive for the attorneys’ groups to negotiate with the car makers.

Belote also disputed the suggestion that lawmakers didn’t know what they were voting on.

“There was an enormous lobbying campaign on both sides that hit, I believe, every member of the Legislature repeatedly in a very short time,” he said. “There was, you know, really a tsunami of information for legislators who had lots of questions that were answered.”

Regardless of whether lawmakers fully grasped the issue, any time complicated legislation such as AB 1755 gets rushed through at the last minute, it harms the Legislature’s credibility and makes it harder for voters to trust their elected leaders, said Gatto, the former lawmaker.

“Transparency suffers,” he said, “And all the different stakeholders that keep the Legislature honest, whether it’s the electorate or the media, it makes it a lot harder for us to do our jobs.”

Every December, the federal government releases a report that reveals the number of homeless residents in each state and across the country.

It’s now May and the report, which compiles data from a homeless census known as the “point-in-time count,” is nowhere to be found.

That’s a problem because the report dictates how funding is allocated in California and beyond. It also shapes policy decisions and provides the country’s main barometer for how the homelessness crisis is being managed.

The five-month delay is leaving public officials, policymakers and advocates scratching their heads. California has filled the gap by tallying its own data, showing a 9% drop in the number of people sleeping outside. But unlike the official federal report, California’s analysis leaves out information such as the race, age and mental health status of the people who are counted. And without the full federal report, there’s no way to tell where California stands compared to other states.

“It’s a big deal,” said Jesse Rabinowitz, spokesperson for the National Homelessness Law Center. “This is, by what I can tell, the latest any point-in-time count has ever come out, including the years where it was delayed during COVID.”

'Point-in-time' count

For the past two decades, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development has required local regions to take a census of their homeless populations every other year in a massive undertaking called the point-in-time count. Volunteers go out on foot over a day or two in January and count every person they see living outside. People sleeping in shelters are tallied as well. Counters also conduct surveys of a sample of unhoused people, collecting extra data on people’s race, age, gender, time spent homeless, medical and mental health conditions and more.

The count isn’t perfect (volunteers can easily miss people, and different counties use different methods), but it’s a key tool policy makers use to measure changes in the population.

Each jurisdiction (which is known in HUD parlance as a “continuum of care” and typically is made up of a county and the cities within it) must submit their count to HUD by the spring. They also release their local data to the public. Meanwhile, HUD verifies the data, tallies the total count for each state and for the country as a whole, submits a public report to Congress and uploads more detailed data on its website.

While there’s no legal deadline, that report usually comes out in December of the year of the count. In 2021 and 2020, when COVID disrupted counts, the reports came out the following February and March, respectively.

It’s unclear why the 2025 report still isn’t out. The report is so much later than usual that some counties, including San Francisco, already released their 2026 count data.

HUD refused to comment.

“It is perplexing that HUD has not released this information,” Tara Gallegos, a spokesperson for Gov. Gavin Newsom, said in a statement to CalMatters. “Perhaps the Trump administration is afraid to release clear data that demonstrates California’s strategies for addressing this issue are actually extremely effective.”

What California's data show

California’s data does point to a reduction in homelessness, suggesting the state’s methods are starting to work. Data provided by the Newsom administration, and echoed by an independent analysis, show a 4% overall decrease between 2024 and 2025, and a 9% drop in people sleeping in tents, on the sidewalk, in cars or in other places not meant for habitation.

That data comes from the 30 California continuums of care that counted their street homeless populations last year. The remaining 14 that counted this year instead (they’re only required to count at least every other year) are not included.

“I think it shows that the headwinds in California continue to be very strong and continue to push more people into homelessness,” said Alex Visotzky, senior California policy fellow for the National Alliance to End Homelessness, “but the investments to build up the response to homelessness have made a really big difference and are moving people out of homelessness faster than ever before.”

That runs counter to President Donald Trump’s platform, which holds California up as an example of failed homelessness policy. California follows a principle called “housing first,” which prioritizes getting people into housing immediately and then addressing their other needs (such as mental health and substance use help). The Trump administration wants to end housing first, which it says isn’t working, and instead withhold housing until people enroll in addiction treatment or other programs.

California also uses most of its federal funds to pay for permanent housing, which experts say is the most effective way to end someone’s homelessness. The Trump administration recently tried to divert that money to temporary shelters where people stay for a limited time.

California's homelessness strategy

California is one of 19 states suing the Trump administration over that change. That case is ongoing, but, in a win for the states, a federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s changes.

A drop in homelessness in California would have a significant impact on the country’s overall homeless population. Nearly a quarter of all unhoused Americans lived in California as of 2024 — a total of more than 187,000 people, according to the most recent HUD report.

The New York Times found homelessness also dropped in other places around the country last year, including Chicago, Denver, Washington, D.C., Minnesota, Florida and Maine, which it found points to a nationwide reduction.

If homelessness dropped nationwide in 2025, it would be the first time in eight years. In 2024, the national count hit 771,480 — an 18% increase from the year before.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

The Los Angeles City Council is considering a contentious plan to roll back minimum wage increases for tourism workers, as the city faces the looming prospect of a measure to repeal the business tax that could financially ruin the city landing on the November ballot.

The move, approved in a 10-5 vote Wednesday, is an about-face for the council, which voted just last year to increase the minimum wage for airport and hotel workers in the city to $30 an hour by 2028.

Now, the council is considering a plan to delay that boost until 2030, slowing down the pace of annual increases to the minimum wage. City leaders are hoping to stave off a tax repeal that would slash the city budget and lead to major cuts and layoffs. Business leaders behind that ballot initiative garnered enough signatures to get it placed on the ballot but could still withdraw it.

Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson said Wednesday the city was in ongoing discussions with labor and business leaders to broker a compromise and that he expected the proposal the council was considering would change as those discussions continue.

" There is a commitment on both sides to continue to negotiate," Harris-Dawson said. "It's our role as a council to mediate between two opposing forces: the people who work for us and are residents of this city and the people who have businesses and who, in many cases, are residents of this city."

It's a maneuver hotel workers called a "shakedown" at the City Council meeting, where public comment lasted more than two hours, as dozens of people implored the council not to delay wage increases.

" I would expect my councilmember to stand up for working Angelenos, not help giant companies take money out of our pockets," said Jordan Long, a bartender at LAX who said he lives in Harris-Dawson's district. " Do not be fooled by corporate threats against the city budget."

Business leaders behind the measure to repeal the business tax told LAist they were open to pulling the measure off the ballot if the council goes through with delaying pay bumps.

" This is a huge step in that direction," said Nella McOsker, president of the Central City Association, one of the backers of the measure.

Stuart Waldman with the Valley Industry & Commerce Association told LAist that business groups decided to advance their ballot measure after unions wouldn't broker a deal with them directly.

"The business community has taken a page out of the union playbook to play hardball," he told LAist.

Council members Eunisses Hernandez, Ysabel Jurado, Nithya Raman, Hugo Soto-Martinez and Katy Yaroslavsky voted against the motion.

"We're talking about some of the lowest paid workers in one of the most expensive cities in America," Hernandez said. "This motion sends a terrible message that corporate pressure matters more than workers' lives."

The council has directed the city attorney to draft an ordinance to delay minimum wage increases, and will have to vote again on the proposal. Council President Harris-Dawson noted multiple times that negotiations are ongoing and the proposal could change.

A long political struggle over the 'Olympic wage'

The ordinance to raise minimum wages for tourism workers was celebrated as the "Olympic Wage" and was pegged to the arrival of the 2028 Games in Los Angeles. But a battle to upend it started as soon as the city council passed it last year.

The struggle started when a business group backed by Delta and United Airlines launched a referendum to repeal the wage increase. That effort failed to gather enough signatures.

Unite Here Local 11 responded with its own raft of ballot measures, including raising the minimum wage citywide and requiring Angelenos to vote on building new hotels and event center developments.

That's when business interests introduced their ballot measure to repeal the city's business tax, except for cannabis businesses. That measure gathered enough votes to make the ballot.

What would repealing the business tax do to the city?

The ballot initiative would eliminate the city's gross receipts tax, except for cannabis businesses. That tax is a major revenue source for the city, and will bring in more than $800 million this fiscal year. The tax makes up 10% of the city's general fund, according to a report by the city administrative officer. If passed, tax cut would take effect in 2028.

City Administrative Officer Matthew Szabo warned Wednesday that the council in a report that the measure could send the city into fiscal ruin and lead to major cuts.

"The City would be forced to implement austerity measures far more severe than those seen during the Great Recession or the COVID-19 pandemic," Szabo said.

Councilmember Imelda Padilla put it more strongly.

"This would cause an economic apocalypse for the city," she said to her colleagues.

While the city weighs its options, some workers told the council that their financial plans would be derailed if expected wage increases are delayed.

" I am counting on the wage increase this summer to help me provide for my daughter," said Erick Cruz, a cook at LAX. "That increase is not extra money. It is money for rent, diapers, food, gas, and basic things a young family needs to survive."

Harris-Dawson said that the city council will revisit the issue next Tuesday.

When Jessica Serrato's boyfriend called a few hours into her morning, she was finally able to breathe.

His call meant the internet at his military base wasn't disrupted by any Iranian strikes. It meant that his unit wasn't relocating for their safety like they have before. Most importantly, it meant that he's still alive.

As she whisked pancake batter, Serrato cradled the phone on her shoulder and ran through her routine questions:

"How was guard duty today?" Serrato asked. "Have you had dinner?"

No matter how busy the mother of two kids was, Serrato always answered her partner's call. She missed him. But since the war with Iran broke out, Serrato's need to hear his voice was also driven by worry. Is he safe? How is he holding up mentally? What if this is our last chance to talk?

About 50,000 American troops are currently deployed across the Middle East as hostilities between the U.S. and Iran grind into a third month. The two nations are once again at an impasse — with President Donald Trump on Monday calling Iran's latest demands "garbage" and warning that the ceasefire was on "massive life support."

Military life has always involved some degree of uncertainty. But for many families, including Serrato's, the war in Iran is the first time they are navigating the fear and unknowns that come with having a loved one deployed to an ongoing conflict.

NPR spent time with the family of an Army reservist and got a close look at how the war — with its bursts of fighting, shaky truce and slow-moving peace talks — has reshaped life at home thousands of miles away. The family asked NPR to not name the soldier because they say he fears retribution for being featured in a media story.

In their separate worlds, Serrato and her partner both anxiously looked for signs that the war was winding down.

" If I find out something, I'll let you know," she said over the phone. "If you find out something, let me know?" To which he agreed.

Serrato cleans up the kitchen while her children eat breakfast before school.

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Missed birthdays and school performances

As she whipped up the pancakes, Serrato listened carefully to the tone of her partner's voice — trying to discern if he was stressed or overwhelmed, which can be hard for him to admit on his own.

This morning, he sounded lethargic.

"You're OK?" She asked. "Are you bored?"

He confirmed that he was all right and so Serrato's focus swung back to her children. She could have pried more but she doesn't like to discuss the war in front of her two kids, who are from a previous marriage. At the start of the conflict, Serrato said her 11-year-old daughter Laylah had difficulty concentrating in class, consumed with worst-case scenarios.

"Laylah wants to tell you something," Serrato announced over the phone.

"Chicken butt!" Laylah giggled.

Serrato laughs while talking on the phone with her partner as she drops her children off at school.

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Serrato's children play in the backseat.

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Serrato continued the call from her car. For a few moments, the conversation flowed like he was there — until Serrato mentioned that Laylah had a dance performance in the afternoon.

"I know that's way past your bedtime," she said. "I'll record it and send it to you."

Serrato's partner is expected to return to Los Angeles this summer but she's skeptical. His return date has already been delayed a month — meaning he'll miss Laylah's birthday. Now, the hope is to reunite by August, which is Laylah's first day of sixth grade.

After Serrato dropped off her children at school, she and her partner finally had their first moment truly alone that morning. In a soft voice, he told her that he wanted to come home.

"I know, mi amor."

'I love you. Look out for yourself'

When Serrato's partner volunteered to go on a nine-month deployment to the Middle East, he mainly thought about the extra pay and how it could help buy their first house, she said.

Serrato, who's an assistant at a law firm, reminded herself that they had managed long distance before, when he was deployed to Europe a few years ago. They could do it again, she thought.

His most recent deployment began in October. Come late February, the U.S. and Israel had launched airstrikes in Iran, setting off a series of back-and-forth attacks across the region. Serrato had no idea what was happening until her partner called in the middle of the night. She said she could hear sirens from his end of the line.

"I love you. Look out for yourself. Be aware of your surroundings," she replied, trying her best to sound strong and calm. But as soon as the call ended, Serrato said she broke down.

Serrato holds her partner's dog tags. Serrato doesn't know when her partner will come back home to Los Angeles. His return date has already been delayed a month.

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Over the next few weeks, Serrato and her partner's parents were glued to the news — constantly searching for updates on additional strikes or a potential truce between the U.S. and Iran.

"I would bring up one thing and another thing. 'Did you hear about this? Did you hear anything about that? Did they mention this?' " Serrato said. "And he would tell me the same thing, 'I don't know.' "

But as the conflict dragged on, Serrato couldn't read the headlines anymore — they only added to her stress. She said it was difficult trying to keep up with the rapidly evolving political situation, which would bring moments of hope, quickly dashed by disappointment.

"How many times have they said there's a deadline? How many times have they said, 'OK, there's a ceasefire right now. We're gonna work something out?' " She said, referring to U.S. officials. "I just can't believe anything that they say."

Serrato spends time her kids as they wait for their boba drink orders after school.

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Deployment challenges

A unique aspect to the current conflict is that many service members are being deployed on short notice, according to Shannon Razsadin, the CEO of the Military Family Advisory Network.

A monthslong deployment typically requires a lot of prep work for military families, such as managing finances and arranging childcare. During the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Razsadin said most families had months to prepare. But under Operation Epic Fury, many service members were sent off in a matter of days.

"During the global war on terror, people had a lot of lead time before their deployments," she said. " Commands were able to help the full family get ready for the deployment so that they knew what to expect when that happened. We don't really have that right now."

Serrato's partner had a few months' notice before he left. But for families of National Guard members or reservists, deployments can be especially challenging because they often don't live near or on military bases — as in Serrato's case — making it harder to access resources and support networks, Razsadin added.

Serrato assembles a piece of furniture at home while she talks to her partner on the phone.

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Kathy Roth-Douquet, CEO of Blue Star Families, said as a result of these sudden deployments, some spouses have had to cut back on their work hours or quit their jobs to hold down the home front.

" This is an extra burden of military service, of the sacrifice that the whole family makes to do the nation's bidding," she said. "And it's even more reason why it's incumbent upon the rest of us to really help support these folks."

'She's the one who gives me strength'

"Have you seen any shooting stars?"

That's how Yadira Dessaint, the mother of the Army reservist, asks her son if he's seen any missiles or drones in the sky. She can't utter those exact words without getting emotional.

Dessaint's son was only a kid when the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan broke out, but she remembers how many men and women lost their lives in the same region that her only child was heading to.

When he told her about his deployment, Dessaint texted him "I'm so proud of you" before she stepped away from work, sat in her car and bawled.

"I called my husband and I was crying on the top of my lungs, like ugly crying in my car," she said.

The hardest moment for Dessaint came March 1 when the Pentagon identified the first U.S. service members killed in the war. The U.S. military death toll has since risen to 14.

That same day, Dessaint's son told her and Serrato that his military base was under attack. The two women immediately called one another and wept.

Their bond has been a silver lining. A week later, Serrato and her children moved into Dessaint's home. The two have since built an unspoken connection, each knowing when the other is feeling especially bogged down by the conflict.

"She'll just come and give me a hug," Serrato said. "She's the one who gives me strength."

Dessaint (left) and Serrato (right) catch up on news from the Middle East.

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'I just miss him feeling OK'

Dessaint and Serrato have started a new tradition in the waiting.

Before bed, they light a candle for St. Michael the Archangel and lower their heads. This evening, her children joined them — setting aside their homework and video games to pray.

Serrato said out loud, " Defend us in the battle. Be our protector."

A framed photo of Serrato's partner hangs at his parents' home, and a shrine with a candle Serrato lit for her partner while he is deployed.

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She was praying not only for her partner's physical protection — but also his mental well-being. As agonizing as it has been at home, Serrato knows it has been tougher for him overseas.

"I can hear it in his voice. Like, I can hear how sad he feels," she said. "I just miss him feeling OK."

It's why her phone is always within reach. Serrato wants to be a steady presence — someone her partner can count on during a war that's unpredictable.

" When I don't know what to say, he just tells me, 'Just be there for me, baby. Just tell me you love me and everything's gonna be OK,'" she said.

So, that's what she tells him over and over. Even when things feel far from OK.

She said, "That's the least I could do."
Copyright 2026 NPR

Serrato pulls out a sweatshirt from her partner's closet.

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The California Science Center has installed the first of more than a dozen aircraft in the museum’s 200,000-square-foot expansion coming to Exposition Park.

As of this week, the front portion of a Boeing 747-400 towers over the ground floor of the Korean Air Aviation Gallery, one of three main spaces in the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center.

The new center, which recently completed construction, is built around a towering centerpiece: space shuttle Endeavour in its 20-story vertical launch position.

Once open to the public, the center will be the only place in the world to see an authentic space shuttle in its “Go for Stack” position, which is what officials called the months-long process of moving each component into place, according to the museum.

Walter Cho, chairman of Korean Air, said the airline’s namesake gallery is all about inspiring future generations to dream big.

“We want them to see more than airplanes, but the science, engineering and imagination behind them,” Cho said during a news conference Tuesday. “And most importantly, we want them to think, ‘I can do that, too.’”

Jeffrey Rudolph, president and CEO of the California Science Center, said museum officials are working to announce an opening date for the center within the next several weeks. He told LAist that people will be able to visit “well before” the 2028 Olympics.

Admission to the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center will be free.

What's inside?

The California Science Center unveiled the first few aircraft on display in the Korean Air Aviation Gallery about six months after offering a sneak peak inside the Kent Kresa Space Gallery.

The galleries will guide guests through hundreds of exhibits and authentic artifacts focused on the exploration of the universe — including rocket ships that carried humans into space and telescopes used to view stars and galaxies beyond our reach, according to museum officials.

The Korean Air Aviation Gallery has three themes — learning to fly, everyday flight and advanced aviation, according to the museum. It’s designed to explore the four forces that affect every aircraft: lift, thrust, weight and drag.

“That basically shapes the aircraft, tells you what it has to look like in order to accomplish whatever mission you have,” said Kenneth Phillips, the curator of aerospace programs.

The roughly 20 aircraft that’ll be displayed — some already suspended from the ceiling — were selected by the California Science Center for the engineering principles they can teach.

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The 747, at least the front 70 feet of it, was moved to L.A. last year. After taking thousands of flights under Korean Air for two decades, it was rescued from an “aircraft graveyard” in Arizona, Rudolph said.

Museum crews took the plane apart, reassembled it in the building and gave it a fresh paint job.

Officials said the 747 played a significant role in aviation, helping take the technology from daredevils testing the limits to a regular part of global travel. Visitors will be able to explore the inside of the aircraft and take a simulated five-minute flight from LAX to Seoul.

Walter Cho, chairman of Korean Air, celebrated the first aircraft installed in the Korean Air Aviation Gallery, including the front of a real Boeing 747-400 that was built for the airline in 1993.

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Makenna Cramer

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LAist

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A rendering of the final vision for the Korean Air Aviation Gallery in the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center.

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Makenna Cramer

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LAist

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The other roughly 20 aircraft that’ll be on display — some are already suspended from the ceiling — were selected for the engineering principles they demonstrate, according to Rudolph.

For example, the section on speed will feature a F-106A Delta Dart, the fastest turbo-jet powered airplane with a single-engine, according to officials. The museum is also working on displaying an F-100D Super Sabre, the world’s first supersonic fighter jet, and a Vampire T.35, the first British aircraft powered by a single jet engine.

This Northrop T-38 Talon was built around 1959 and joined NASA's fleet a few decades later. It was used for air force and astronaut training, according to the museum.

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Makenna Cramer

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LAist

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A de Havilland Vampire T.35 was the first jet to land on and take off from an aircraft carrier, according to the California Science Center.

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Makenna Cramer

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LAist

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The museum is also looking ahead to advanced aviation, including an indoor drone flight area.

Perry Roth-Johnson, curator of science and technology, told LAist he wants visitors to be able to explore the autonomous tech you can already see in L.A. today through self-driving cars like Waymo.

“We want to give people a little cityscape where they can fly drones on sample missions around the city and get a sense of how this technology works,” Roth-Johnson said in an interview.

What's outside?

Construction of the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center was completed last month, nearly four years after the California Science Center broke ground.

The expansion’s curved stainless-steel design stands out from the museum’s mostly copper-colored exterior.

Construction of the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center was completed last month, bringing the expansion closer to welcoming visitors.

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Makenna Cramer

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LAist

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According to officials, it was inspired by the aerodynamic geometry of the space shuttle. Endeavour itself is hidden beneath a 2,000 ton diagrid structure, peaking at 200-feet-tall, that offers unobstructed views of the artifacts inside.

Steven F. Matt, chairman of MATT Construction — which built the expansion — said that construction was completed successfully without a scratch on the space shuttle.

“This project stands as a tribute to the generations who built our aerospace legacy and will continue to inspire children for decades to come,” Matt said in an April statement.

Amie Nulman, a structural engineer and principal with Arup, which engineered the building, told LAist previously that one of the challenges was making sure the design could withstand earthquakes without damaging the space shuttle. She said the shuttle’s support system is on base isolation, meaning it’s going to glide around when the ground starts to shake.

“The stack is going to be moving different to the building, and so we did a lot of studies to make sure they did not get too close to each other during earthquakes,” Nulman said in a 2024 interview.