The Brief

Federal immigration enforcement authorities are facing scrutiny and widespread criticism over their tactics, including the lack of body-worn cameras, following the killing of two U.S. citizens by immigration officers in Minneapolis.

Several factors have led to this: Federal law does not mandate the use of body cameras by the two agencies tasked with leading the efforts to arrest and detain illegal immigrants — Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. Additionally, there is a shortage of cameras and a de-prioritization of body-camera programs in the second Trump administration.

This month, immigration officers shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis — Renee Macklin Good and Alex Pretti – in separate incidents, and have since been confronted by large crowds of protesters and legal observers. The administration has defended the actions of the two officers involved in the shootings.

After Pretti's killing Saturday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the VA nurse was committing an "act of terrorism" by "attacking" officers and "brandishing" a weapon. The video evidence and eyewitness accounts that have surfaced so far refute that assertion. There has been no evidence that NPR has verified of Pretti brandishing his handgun at any time during the encounter with federal agents.

"There is body camera footage from multiple angles which investigators are currently reviewing," a DHS official told NPR in a statement Monday. The investigation is being led by Homeland Security Investigations, a division of ICE, and supported by the Federal Bureau of Investigations. CBP will also do an internal investigation.

There are about 2,000 immigration officers rotating through Minneapolis for what the administration dubs "Operation Metro Surge." Democratic lawmakers and immigration advocates have criticized the rapid deployment of ICE officers and Border Patrol agents, as well as the officers' tactics to control crowds and conduct arrests. Minnesota officials are suing the administration over these tactics. Criticism has also centered on whether officers are or should be using body-worn cameras that can document these incidents.

A shortage of body cams

ICE is struggling in Minneapolis to use body-worn cameras: first, there are none available in the area; second, officers deployed are not properly trained in their use.
In written testimony, Samuel Olson, field office director in St. Paul for ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, said that body-worn cameras had not been implemented for ICE officers out of his office.

"To equip every ICE law enforcement personnel operating out of Minnesota with a BWC [body worn camera] device will require approximately 2,000 devices," Olson said, adding that ICE would also need 180 days to ship, install, and test the necessary equipment and train hundreds of law enforcement personnel on proper usage, maintenance, and storage.

Furthermore, there are no body-worn cameras "physically located" at the St. Paul field office and that the agency would have to ship in additional devices, potentially needing more than ICE nationally has.

"At this time, the ERO St. Paul Office is not scheduled or funded for BWC deployment. ICE law enforcement personnel out of the ERO St. Paul Offices are not properly prepared, trained, or equipped for an immediate deployment of BWC use," Olson said.

Customs and Border Protection has a slightly different situation.

According to court filings, body cameras "will be used to record official law enforcement encounters, except when doing so may jeopardize agents and officers or public safety."

"For purposes of Operation Metro Surge, CBP personnel who are equipped with and trained in [body cameras], have been instructed to have their body-worn camera on their person for use in operations," said Kyle Harvick, deputy incident commander with Border Patrol overseeing border patrol operation in Minneapolis during "Operation Metro Surge."

Changing policy on body cameras

In 2021 Congress mandated ICE work with the Homeland Security Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties to design a pilot program for body-worn cameras. A 2024 report says the agency expected body cameras to be implemented agency wide by September 2025.

This was a part of a broader Biden administration executive order to expand the use of body cameras to federal law enforcement.

When President Donald Trump began his second term in 2025, he rescinded Biden's executive order related to body camera use by federal law enforcement. The office tasked with helping to oversee the ICE pilot program was also depleted.

The use of body cameras has surfaced several times during the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. In Chicago, District Judge Sara Ellis issued a temporary restraining order in October ordering federal agents conducting immigration enforcement in her district to activate their body cameras if they have them and unless exempted by agency policy. An appeals panel in the seventh circuit later overturned Ellis' order, which also included broader limits on use of force.

In order to address concerns about the lack of body cameras, lawmakers in the House recently passed a spending bill that would provide DHS with $20 million for cameras for ICE and CBP. But the bill only mandates the money be spent -- it does not mandate the use of the cameras.

After the latest deadly shooting, the broader package is in limbo. Senate Democrats are seemingly more resistant to passing the package, which would fund the entire federal government.
Copyright 2026 NPR

Live Nation has reached a settlement with the Department of Justice over a federal antitrust lawsuit accusing the company of monopolizing the live entertainment industry, according to a report from the Associated Press. NPR has not independently confirmed the settlement. The trial, which began a week ago in a New York City courtroom, aimed to break up Live Nation and its subsidiary, Ticketmaster.

A lawsuit filed by the Justice Department, the District of Columbia and 39 states in 2024 accused Live Nation and Ticketmaster of unfairly wielding their power over concert promotion, artist management, venue operations and ticketing services to shut out competitors. The Biden-era Justice Department complaint was moved forward under the Trump administration. In previous comments shared with NPR, Live Nation denied the government's claims and stated that there is more competition in the ticket marketplace than ever.

Live Nation and the Department of Justice did not immediately respond to NPR's requests for comment.
Copyright 2026 NPR

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Eighty-eight condos could be coming to Windsor Hills after the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors overruled an appeal last week from a local residents’ advocacy group.The five-story project, dubbed The View, would nest into the hillside between Overhill Drive and La Brea Avenue, south of Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area. 

Developers have battled Windsor Hills residents for nearly a decade over building housing on the empty hilltop parcel.  The board’s vote sends the project back to a county judge, according to the LA County Department of Regional Planning.

The View’s fiercest opposition has come from locals organized in the United Homeowner’s Association II, a nonprofit that represents any dues-paying resident of Windsor Hills, View Park and surrounding communities. The group is “extremely concerned” about the project’s effects on the local water system and its proximity to the Inglewood Oil Field and nearby earthquake fault lines, according to Angela Sherick-Bright, the nonprofit’s land use chairperson.

“We’re not against development,” Sherick-Bright said. “If you’re going to approve a project of this magnitude, why not make sure it’s going to work for us?”

Project developer The Bedford Group did not return a request for comment, but promotional materials for the project said it was designed to “reflect the legacy of the Windsor Hills community by offering upscale workforce housing opportunities to young professionals, couples and empty nesters.” 

The Bedford Group plans to set aside 10 of the condos for sale to moderate-income families, according to planning documents. The state defines a moderate annual income for a LA family of four as more than $127,000.

Susan Tae, a Planning Department assistant deputy director, said that after years of court and planning hearings, planners believe the project has taken community concerns into account.“We feel confident we’ve addressed any of the outstanding issues,” Tae said. 

The county first approved the project to go ahead in 2017, according to county documents, but the residents’ group sued and a court ordered The Bedford Group to do a deeper environmental review. Bedford made attempts throughout the process to rally community support for the project, including with a 2017 video outlining the company’s take on several of the potential pitfalls raised by locals. 

When the project landed back in front of supervisors on Feb. 25, it came with a fresh environmental review, but also with a renewed appeal from United Homeowner’s Association II.

Here are three concerns the residents’ group raised: 

There’s concern over the project affecting fire hydrant water pressure

Sherick-Bright said homes in the area have struggled with weak water pressure. The nonprofit is concerned the new project could hurt the local water system, including fire hydrants, even further. Brian Barreto, a California American Water spokesperson, said computer models show 96% of hydrants in the area pump 1,000 gallons or more, above the baseline recommended by the National Fire Protection Association. Barreto also said the water company won’t give The View access to water unless The Bedford Group makes a set of mandatory system upgrades.

There’s concern about underground drilling near a fault line

The View backs up closely to the Inglewood Oil Field, where the county is in the middle of a lawsuit against four oil companies for allegedly failing to plug old wells. It’s also near the Newport-Inglewood earthquake fault line. Sherick-Bright said locals are worried that digging down for a subterranean parking lot, as the project plans, could set off issues — either because of underground drilling or the fault line.“We just don’t know,” Sherick-Bright said. 

The county said in planning documents that the development will require a new geotechnical review to move forward. The last such review was in 2014.

There’s concern the project is a danger to drivers

The planned project is situated just a stone’s throw away from the high-traffic Overhill-La Brea-Stocker intersection. The residents’ group argued in its written appeal that one of the project driveways that spits vehicles out onto the steep Overhill Drive was dangerously situated. Tae said that the public works department reviewed signage and striping plans for the driveway in 2024 and found they met county requirements.

Here’s what comes next

Sherick-Bright said the nonprofit is weighing next steps but still is concerned about the project. The timeline for the environmental review to go before the court is not yet clear, according to Tae, the county planner. Tae said the county is actively working to address some of the resident concerns that go beyond the scope of The View project, including with the recent kickoff of its Westside Planning Area Capital Improvement Plan. 

The plan is targeted at water, sewer, electrical and other infrastructure issues in some of the county’s unincorporated communities.

“It will be an important project for the community to continue to be engaged,” Tae said.

The post LA County green-lights 88-condo project in Windsor Hills despite concers from locals appeared first on LA Local.

Do you hate composting as much as I do?

Even though I know it has benefits for both my garden and the environment, I hate turning the pile and worrying about the right ratio of greens to browns and whether it’s too wet or too dry. And it’s always dispiriting to check for loamy, wonderful compost at the bottom only to pull up chunks of vegetables from two months ago.

And before you ask about worm farms, I’ve tried them too. Let’s just say that at some point, I expect to be held accountable for my crimes against worm-kind.

But for the compost- and time-challenged like me, I think I may have found a solution that allows me to simply toss my kitchen scraps into a bin and have it turned into fertilizer in about a month.

The catch: It involves thousands of maggots.

Don’t bail just yet. I think I can convert you into a larvae lover.

Black soldier flies, a composting powerhouse

Black soldier flies are dark blue and shiny, less than an inch long and don’t buzz around your head or bother you like a house fly might. They also live a handful of days, with their entire existence oriented around laying hundreds of eggs on organic waste so their larvae can go to town and start the cycle of reproduction all over again.

It’s those millimeters-long larvae that are going to speed up the composting process for us.

This is what you'll be dealing with: tiny larvae that turn darker when they're about to become flies.

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John Obermeyer

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Purdue University

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Adult black soldier flies live only a few days. Their job is to mate and lay eggs and keep the composting process moving.

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Laura Ingwell

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Purdue University

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“Unlike earthworms, [they’re] much more tolerant of a wider range of conditions and food sources. It will eat any organic waste in the larval form,” said Kerry Mauk, associate professor of entomology at UC Riverside.

She and her colleagues recently wrote a paper that describes a food waste processing system driven by black soldier fly larvae that was largely self-sustaining for about two years. Similar systems have been used to process food waste around the world.

The larvae will eat paper, vegetables and fruits, as well as meats and animal fats (two things you're often discouraged from adding to traditional compost), breaking them down into smaller bits that can be further processed by microbes in the soil. Adding organic matter like frass to the soil can help improve soil health.

Importantly, the insect frass that’s left behind — maggot poop, as well as the bits and pieces of exoskeleton they shed as they grow — is an organic fertilizer that has a nutrient profile similar to chicken manure, she said.

The exoskeletons contain chitin — a type of sugar molecule found in the shells of crabs and lobsters that breaks down into tiny pieces over time. When detected by plants, it can prompt them to boost their immune systems in anticipation of insect attacks, making them more resilient, Mauk said.

Composting with the help of black soldier fly larvae may just change your relationship with maggots.

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Laura Ingwell

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Purdue University

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How to build your own black soldier fly system

You’ve got a lot of flexibility, depending on the size of your space and how much food waste you create.

“You don't have to make it complicated at all. It can be set-it-and-forget-it if you want it to be,” said Laura Ingwell, an associate professor of entomology at Purdue University who’s been working with black soldier flies for about a decade.

Her system is quite simple.

A Purdue entomologist's black soldier fly contraption is simple but effective.

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Laura Ingwell

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Purdue University

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She fills a 50-gallon barrel with food waste, lets the soldier flies continuously go through their life cycles over the course of a year and harvests their frass when they die during the winter.

Here in Southern California, we don’t need to worry about extreme cold killing off our larvae, so we can keep our systems rolling year-round.

Simple systems and where to get flies

Your system can be as simple as a bucket or black plastic tote that you toss food waste into. Unlike a traditional compost bin, the containers need only be about a foot deep or so, as the larvae don’t travel far.

Order some black soldier fly larvae from an online store like Symton or Fluker Farms, drop them in and just keep piling more food waste on top over time.

If you don’t want to spend money on black soldier flies, you can also attract your own. Dump citrus and coffee grounds in a bucket, cover it with a screen and place a stack of cardboard pieces on top. Every few days, check the fluting on the cardboard for tiny soldier fly eggs. Once you’ve got a few, drop the cardboard into the food waste and let them eat.

Check inside the cardboard for fly eggs.

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Purdue University

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The eggs aren't big: just the size of the head of a pin.

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Purdue University

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My system

My system’s going to be a bit more complicated, as I want to harvest frass repeatedly throughout the year. I’ll have three totes inside a screened-in platform. That should keep the black soldier flies in and other bugs and critters out.

My screened black soldier fly house prevents other bugs from getting in and keeps the black soldier flies from escaping. This should encourage them to keep laying eggs in the containers I'll place inside.

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Jacob Margolis

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LAist

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As they close in on three weeks of life, I should see the pupae turn from creamy white to dark gray, and their eating will slow down. At that stage, I’ll start dropping food waste into a new container, so when the first black soldier flies emerge, they’ll mate and lay eggs on the fresh food, keeping the cycle going.

I’ll then be able to drop the first bucket of frass on my veggie garden and fruit trees.

At least, that’s how I’m hoping it’ll work.

What to feed black soldier fly larvae

Ingwell said they’ll eat pretty much any type of organic waste, including manure, pizza crusts and noodles or even those questionably compostable cardboard takeout containers and light green produce bags. It may take the maggots a bit longer to get through those, Ingwell said. It’s also worth experimenting on your own to see what they consume.

“ I've put a whole pack of hot dogs in there once,” Ingwell said. “ They ate it, and they got really big, but it smelled so bad. My students forbid me from ever putting hot dogs in there again because they hated dealing with the colony when they were on their hot dog diet.”

More than 5,000 black soldier fly larvae are lurking just beneath the surface of this kitchen waste dumped inside of a black tote.

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Jacob Margolis

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LAist

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Larvae from one gram of eggs can eat approximately two pounds of food in a week and a half.

Troubleshooting

Search the internet and you’ll find all sorts of black soldier fly contraptions, like this one, which has ramps for the larvae to march up before they pupate. Ingwell said these systems often don’t work well, and she wouldn’t bother.

If the system is too wet, it may smell rancid and the larvae may try to leave. In that case, throw in some dry wood chips or paper or drain the liquid. When I first started my bin, it took the larvae a bit to get adjusted, and some fled in the process.

If you’re considering using the frass in your garden but you’re disposing of meats, you may be concerned about E. coli. To reduce the presence of microbes in the frass, you can age it for a few weeks, though contamination is an area that needs more research, Mauk said.

Keep us updated

I’ll be documenting my journey over on YouTube, on 89.3 FM and right here at LAist.com.

If you decide to give black soldier flies a try, let us know. Send me an e-mail or comment on one of our videos.

First 5 Orange County was awarded $75,000 from the county to jump-start a childcare business incubator. Officials say the money is badly needed, but it’s unclear how the investment will address the ongoing provider crises.

Around one-in-eight infants and toddlers have access to licensed childcare in the county, according to a recent study from First 5.

O.C. Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento, who issued the funds last month, said the money will boost support for childcare businesses.

“We must address the shortage of spots and assist local entrepreneurs in our district with the necessary training and assistance to successfully create these additional businesses to serve the needs of our residents,” Sarmiento said in a statement.

Leaders at the agency, which distributes funds generated from California’s tobacco tax, said the incubator aims to support the needs of working families, but the childcare crisis is a systemic issue.

Why it matters

A child’s early years are also critical for brain development, Goll added. Their brains are exploding with new things and researchers have shown just how much a child’s early experiences can affect their health and behavior later in life.

In Orange County, at least 68% of children need childcare, nearly on par with the 74% of kids statewide who need care, according to Kids Data. Those unmet needs can mostly be attributed to the exorbitant costs of childcare.

Kim Goll, CEO of First 5 Orange County, said the demand for childcare is “woefully” underserved in the region.

“We have one licensed childcare slot for every eight kids that we have,” Goll told LAist. “Stress and strain on parents and the lack of quality and accessibility is going to be a problem when we think about the impact of the child, but [also] when we think about the impact on the economy overall.”

Details on the incubator 

The incubator program will give entrepreneurs support in opening, stabilizing and expanding their childcare businesses.

Future childcare providers who join the program will spend two months building their knowledge of business basics, early child development and how to run a childcare program.

Those who finish the training and successfully apply for their childcare license will receive a stipend.

For childcare providers, economics are a hurdle, Goll said, even with financial assistance.

“Subsidized rates from the state of California are not competitive, so even if you want to run a subsidized program, it's very hard to pay your staff enough to keep them,” Goll said. “Rates often keep the workers within child care living at or below poverty, so it's not a really attractive workforce environment.”

Is the incubator program the solution? 

It’s complicated. Goll said that while the incubator program is aimed at addressing the needs of working families and their children, the childcare issue is a looming systemic one.

“Even if you can afford an apartment, but you can't afford childcare, or you're toggling between those two, you've upended both,” Goll said.

The reality is families are stressed out, Goll added.

“If we want people to be able to afford housing, they have to be able to get to work. Well, if you're a parent, your ability to get to work is significantly impacted by where you place your child, and most of our workforce are parents,” Goll said. “We have to solve this problem if we want to solve the rest of the problems.”

Interested applicants can request more information here.