The Brief

The Trump administration on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to lift a temporary restraining order that blocked “roving” immigration stops in Los Angeles and eight other California counties.

In an emergency appeal, the federal government argued the order poses a significant barrier to enforcing federal immigration laws. The request for a stay is filed on the Supreme Court’s emergency docket, so oral arguments are not likely.

An attorney for the plaintiffs in the initial suit — a coalition of civil rights, immigrant rights, and local government agencies — said they look forward to arguing the case before the high court.

"The federal government has now gone running to the Supreme Court asking it to undo a narrow court order—applicable in only one judicial district—that merely compels them to follow the Constitution.” said Mohammad Tajsar, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU Foundation of Southern California.

U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong issued the temporary restraining order last month in the Central District of California, citing “a mountain of evidence” that the government’s aggressive enforcement tactics likely violated people’s Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Trump's Solicitor General, D. John Sauer argued in the filing with the high court that Frimpong’s order puts a “straitjacket” on agents and “threatens to upend immigration officials’ ability to enforce the immigration laws … by hanging the prospect of contempt over every investigative stop of suspected illegal aliens.”

Frimpong ruled federal immigration authorities could not rely on four factors for reasonable suspicion: race, ethnicity, language, and location or employment; either solely or in combination.

'A racial profiling case'

“This is basically a racial profiling case: Can Latinos be shaken down in their communities and where they live because they look Latino?” Kevin R. Johnson, the director of Aoki Center on Critical Race and Nation Studies at UC Davis School of Law, said Thursday in response to the administration filing.

Starting in early June, heavily armed agents, often in masks and plain clothes or military-style uniforms, aggressively detained immigrants and U.S. citizens using heavy wartime equipment at Home Depots, car washes, and Latino markets across Los Angeles. Agents often filmed the arrests and shared the videos on social media, set to hip hop music. The Trump administration vowed to bring similar actions to cities across the nation, especially in blue states.

The federal government’s appeal to the Supreme Court follows a denial from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals last week to lift the temporary restraining order.

Multiple legal cases involving Trump’s immigration policies have already reached the Supreme Court, including the government’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans accused of being gang members. The Supreme Court lifted a lower court’s temporary restraining order that had blocked those deportations. Many of the high court’s rulings, especially on immigration issues, have sided with the administration in recent months.

“I think it’s not surprising that if you’re having some wins in the courts through appeals, you bring appeals,” said Johnson, who noted both Democrat and Republican administrations have used the appeal strategy.

Prior to the temporary restraining order, Border Patrol Sector Chief Gregory Bovino, the leader of the LA operations, carried out military-style raids across large swaths of Los Angeles. Calmatters and Bellingcat mapped out over 100 locations of raids including 15 separate Home Depots.

After the lower court’s order, he moved operations northward to the state’s capital.

'No sanctuary anywhere'

“There is no sanctuary anywhere,” Bovino said after a July 17 raid at a Home Depot in Sacramento. “We’re here to stay. We’re not going anywhere. We’re going to affect this mission and secure the homeland.”

Frimpong’s restraining order did not entirely stop immigration enforcement in Los Angeles.

On Wednesday, heavily armed Border Patrol and other federal agents hid inside a Penske truck before jumping out and ambushing people at a Home Depot in an operation dubbed “Trojan Horse.”

In a written statement, the Department of Homeland Security said Border Patrol agents conducted a “targeted raid” at the Home Depot that “resulted in the arrests of 16 illegal aliens from Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras, and Nicaragua."

Johnson of UC Davis said at least the federal government is pursuing a legal avenue to continue its actions, but if the temporary restraining order is lifted, it could cause “real damage” in the LA community.

“These roving patrols are terrifying communities,” Johnson said. “It’s going to have an impact on whether people are going to take their kids to school and whether people can take their kids to the doctor.”

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

The giant warehouse that burned for eight days in June in Boyle Heights had used thousands of pounds of anhydrous ammonia to cool the facility.

Anhydrous ammonia is a common refrigerant used in cold storage warehouses. But it is also toxic, and if it leaks, it can cause respiratory irritation; in large doses, it can lead to lung and eye damage and even death. In 2020, a contractor at a Lineage Inc. facility in Statesville, North Carolina, was killed and others were injured during an ammonia release.

On June 17, the first day of the Boyle Heights fire, Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Jaime Moore told CBS LA that ammonia had escaped from the facility.

“We believe an ammonia line was then compromised, because we had a large powerful stream of ammonia coming out,” Moore said as clouds of smoke and flames rose behind him. Moore said the Fire Department had ordered residents to close their windows and doors and shelter in place.

Since then, Lineage and the Fire Department have provided few details to the public about what happened. Lineage has denied that a leak occurred and has said ammonia was removed from its warehouse during the blaze. In July, Moore later reportedly said no ammonia was detected, but the Fire Department has not released results of its monitoring for the chemical or for other toxics during the fire.

More recent ammonia readings raise a separate question: Why is ammonia, which can remain in the air for about a week, being detected more than a month after the fire?

In recent weeks, the South Coast Air Quality Management District has reported levels of the contaminant at a local elementary school about a half a mile from the warehouse that far exceed average exposures for the L.A. area. Lineage has reported even higher levels in fine print on the company’s website. On July 10, for example, one of the company’s readings taken less than 100 feet from peoples’ homes detected ammonia at 13,000 parts per billion, more than double the level the state of California considers safe for short-term exposures. Another reading that also exceeded the safety guideline at 7,000 parts per billion. Several other readings — one measured as recently as Aug. 6 — were also elevated.

Lineage spokesperson Melanie Mendoza didn’t respond to Capital & Main’s request for comment on ammonia levels that the state considers unsafe. She had previously denied in an email that there were any “measurable ammonia concentrations” detected in the community. She later walked that back, saying ammonia levels had not exceeded the state threshold for acute exposures.

“At no point has ammonia reached a level that would pose a health risk,” she said.

What first responders logged

There is still no official report of what happened during the fire. But newly obtained Fire Department records offer a minute-by-minute view from the perspective of first responders as they confronted the blaze in June. A computer-aided dispatch log, obtained by Capital & Main through a public records request, showed that firefighters identified “an active amonia [sic] leak” on the roof of the building at 3:12 p.m. — about 35 minutes after a 911 caller first reported the warehouse fire.

A minute later, the log reports the appearance of “an unknown vapor cloud” rising over the warehouse. Moore later reportedly said the cloud was the result of cold air mixing with hot air and did not contain ammonia.

By 3:25, the log again notes an ammonia leak and says that firefighters would battle the blaze in “defensive mode,” or from outside the structure, likely because it was considered too dangerous to go inside. At the same time, the Fire Department ordered residents to close their windows and doors, shut off air conditioners and shelter in place.

Los Angeles Fire Department hazardous materials crews monitored the air for ammonia and other toxic gases during the fire. But the department has not disclosed its findings. Fire Department spokesperson Branden Silverman told Capital & Main in a statement that “collecting it will take some time.”

A spokesperson for Mayor Karen Bass didn’t respond to Capital & Main’s questions about the facts that caused Moore to change his opinion about the ammonia release or about the department’s delay in reporting the results of its air monitoring during the fire.

Lineage reported a “potential spill” to the California Office of Emergency Services about 90 minutes after the fire erupted, according to a hazardous materials spill report. By law, even potential releases of hazardous materials such as ammonia must be reported to state and federal authorities. The report — provided to Capital & Main by the Office of Emergency Services — paraphrases a Lineage representative, whose name is redacted, as saying: “There is no potential release of anhydrous ammonia and no concerned [sic] of release.”

To date, there has been no publicly released investigation of whether a hazardous ammonia leak occurred.

But on Aug. 4, Los Angeles Public Press reported that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency demanded that Lineage answer questions about a possible ammonia release. The agency gave Lineage an Aug. 17 deadline to produce a “detailed description and timeline” of what happened, to disclose any contaminants that were released and the calculations made to make that determination. The agency also asked for the results of air monitoring that was conducted when firefighters initially reported an ammonia leak and in the days that followed, as well as any emergency response measures taken to stop or minimize hazards it may have posed.

Mendoza said the EPA inquiry is “the agency’s standard response to the notifications Lineage made in accordance with the law.” She added, “Lineage will continue to provide the EPA with all requested information.”.

Publicly, Mendoza and other company representatives have provided little information and have denied there was an ammonia release.

On Aug. 6, Dominic DiCarlo, Lineage vice president of global safety and compliance, said, “We’re highly confident that ammonia from the refrigeration system was not compromised.”

DiCarlo cited tests the company and local fire officials conducted of the refrigeration system and statements by fire officials.

He also said “no ammonia readings were picked up outside the facility.”

DiCarlo didn’t specify when the readings were taken.

DiCarlo was testifying at a South Coast Air Quality Management District hearing, which was held to resolve odor complaints resulting from the warehouse cleanup. The issue of community exposure to toxic chemicals came up repeatedly during the two-day proceeding. The company agreed to 93 conditions to mitigate odors and reduce residents' exposure to toxics, including additional “fenceline monitoring” at the warehouse site for ammonia and other contaminants and notifying AQMD and the community if readings exceed state or federal thresholds.

Mohan Balagopalan, one of the five-member panel that presided over the hearing, in closing remarks, expressed skepticism about the company’s assertion that there was no ammonia release during the blaze.

“I would take that with a grain of salt,” he said.

Balagopalan, a retired AQMD manager and a toxics expert, said he thought the ammonia hazard was likely one reason firefighters battled the fire from the ground and the air via helicopters instead of remaining on the roof.

Angelo Bellomo, a retired Los Angeles County Department of Public Health deputy director, said an investigation is required to discover whether there was a hazardous materials leak.

He said first responders’ observations can provide important information.

“If they say there is an active anhydrous ammonia release, you don’t have to drill them over that,” he said, adding that ammonia is easily detectable because of its distinctive odor.

Smoke from the warehouse fire inundated Boyle Heights.

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Alejandra Molina

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Boyle Heights Beat

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Concerns about ammonia

A month after the fire erupted, there are renewed concerns about community exposure to ammonia. Ammonia can remain in the atmosphere for a week, according to the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

But five weeks after the fire, AQMD air monitoring found ammonia at “much higher than typical levels in the air in urban Los Angeles,” according to Jill Johnston, an associate professor of environmental and occupational health at UC Irvine, who has reviewed the data. The AQMD monitoring was conducted outdoors at Eastman Elementary School, about a half mile from the warehouse.

The Los Angeles Unified School District’s Office of Environmental Health and Safety also found elevated ammonia levels inside a classroom at the school according to an Aug. 10 report, which found elevated levels in a classroom at the Eastman Early Education Center and in one at Humphreys Avenue Elementary School.

Ammonia “can cause wheezing, coughing, irritate the eyes, nose and throat, exacerbate asthma or COPD,” (chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder), Johnston said, adding that “kids in particular tend to be more vulnerable to adverse impacts.”

Boyle Heights residents have told Capital & Main they’ve experienced sore throats, skin rashes, headaches, irritated eyes and worsened asthma, among other symptoms during the fire and its aftermath.

Two of Lineage’s own measurements — conducted by private contractor Onterris — registered ammonia levels that far exceeded safety guidelines.

The state Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment advises that ammonia levels at 4,500 ppb or higher can cause adverse health effects during short-term exposures. One of the readings, on La Puerta Street — no more than about 50 feet from homes — was more than double the state standard at 13,000 ppb, while the other registered 7,000 ppb. Several other readings by the company showed elevated levels near Boyle Heights homes as recently as Aug. 6, when ammonia levels reached 3,000 ppb near the warehouse on Prado Street and as far back as July 3, with a 4,000 ppb measurement at the facility fenceline about 50 yards from Indiana Street.

It is not unusual for corporations like Lineage to hire their own environmental testing firms. But Onterris, which until April 2026 was known as the Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health, has earned a reputation for producing health and environmental assessments that favor the companies that hire it. In 2023, when a train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, and spilled dozens of hazardous chemicals that caught fire, ProPublica and the Guardian reported that CTEH tested residents’ homes with hand-held monitors and told them the air was safe. But independent experts the news organizations consulted said the monitoring devices were insufficient to detect all the chemicals that may have been present and the monitoring period was too short to capture accurate results.

In 2010, two then-U.S. Congressmembers, Rep. Lois Capps, D-Calif., and Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., who is now a U.S. senator, cited the company’s track record as they urged Tony Hayward, then-CEO of BP PLC, not to use CTEH to assess the health of cleanup workers in an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

“CTEH has a history of being hired by companies accused of harming public health and releasing findings defending the corporate interests of those that employ them,” they said in a letter.

Onterris’ media representatives did not answer a Capital & Main email inquiring about the company’s environmental track record.

In Boyle Heights, the source of the ammonia detected weeks after the fire broke out isn’t known. The company stored between 10,000 and 24,999 pounds of ammonia in the warehouse daily, according to a report posted by the California Environmental Protection Agency. At the Aug. 6 hearing, DiCarlo said the company had removed all of the ammonia from the facility —more than 10,000 pounds – from the facility.

But Johnston said the elevated levels in the environment could suggest that some ammonia remains in the burnt remnants of the warehouse. Rotting meat that still has not been removed from the structure could also emit ammonia, she said.

What's next

Boyle Heights residents may have an opportunity to question Lineage about whether there was an ammonia leak and how extensive it was. In its letter to Lineage, the U.S. EPA says the company could be required by federal law to hold a public meeting within 90 days of “a reportable accident,” depending on what substances were released. Capital & Main asked Mendoza if such a meeting is planned, but she didn’t respond before this story was posted.

Residents may still face barriers in getting the information Lineage provides in answer to the EPA’s questions. EPA spokesperson Julia Giarmoleo told Capital & Main in an email that “documents are available to the public in response to a FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] request,” which can take weeks or months to be fulfilled.

This article was originally published by Capital & Main. Aaron Cantú contributed to this report. Copyright Capital & Main 2026.

It’s election season, which means California residents are receiving text messages from candidates making pleas for their votes, time and money ahead of November.

If you feel like your phone is being flooded with political messages, you’re not alone.

According to data compiled by PACspam.org, an organization that analyzes political spam texts, the number of political texts in the U.S. has increased dramatically over the last decade, from 300 million in 2018 to 66.5 billion in 2024.

In California, registered voters received more than 2 billion political texts in 2022, according to the latest yearly data available from Robokiller, a text and spam call blocker app.

Experts note that the texts are far less expensive, compared to other methods of reaching voters, so candidates have little reason to pull back.

“It’s basically like if you’re not doing it, it’s a big missed opportunity,” said Julia Leitner, a political strategist.

But some lawmakers want to change that.

The California State Assembly is in committee working out the details of a bill that would bar text message advertisements, including campaign ones, from being sent between 9 p.m. and 9 a.m. and allow people who receive the ads during those hours to seek legal damages of $500 per text.

Meantime, campaign texts are legal under Federal Communications Commission guidelines. So, if you don’t want the texts, how can you make them stop?

How to stop receiving campaign texts 

There are steps you can take to reduce the number of political texts you receive.

You can reply “STOP,” and the sender should cease sending messages. But that may not end them completely.

Alex Quilici, the CEO of YouMail, a phone call blocking service, said unsubscribing from one text chain likely won’t stop you from receiving messages from other text chains.

“The question is how big is the list?” Quilici said. “Are they just taking you off the list for one candidate? Or [do] they take you off the party list? You may have to reply ‘stop’ a bunch to really stop them.”

If the sender keeps contacting you, you can report them directly to the FCC by forwarding the text to 7726 or “SPAM”.

The FCC is able to investigate the number and potentially prevent the sender from delivering more messages if they’re violating their rules.

Why campaigns use texts

Leitner, who is a recruiting director at Close the Gap California, an organization that prepares progressive female candidates to run for seats in the California Legislature, said texts are a low-cost and effective tool for campaigns to connect with voters.

“We are all on our phones all of the time and so a text message is kind of the easiest way to reach a voter,” Leitner said.

It costs campaigns tens of cents to send each text. Leitner said that often makes them a better investment than direct mail campaigns, which can cost between $0.43 to $1.19 per piece of mail, or TV spots that can cost hundreds to millions of dollars, depending on factors like market, size and time.

How campaigns get your information

Campaigns have several ways to get your contact information. One is by requesting voter files from the Secretary of State’s office. When you register to vote, including online or at the DMV, that information goes into a database.

State law allows certain people, such as political candidates, academics and journalists, to request that information, which can include your name, date of birth, address, contact information and political party preference.

Another way campaigns get your data is by buying it.

Huge databases, like Democratic Data Exchange and Data Trust, use a combination of public records and their own consumer data to curate lists of people for campaigns to contact.

But there are restrictions as to how that information can be used, said Paul Mitchell, vice president of bipartisan voter data firm Political Data Intelligence.

“We don’t sell data to anybody using [it] for private purposes,” Mitchell said. “It is only for campaigns or if a local government wants to reach voters.”

Data brokers who operate in California are required to report their activities, including what information they collect and who they’re selling it to, annually to the California Data Broker Registry operated by the California Privacy Protection Agency.

If they don’t, they can be fined $200 per day they fail to register by the CPPA, be charged the $6,000 registration fees they failed to pay, and have to pay for expenses incurred by the CPPA in their investigation.

Data companies often collect information when voters donate to political causes through fundraising technology like ActBlue or WinRed, and agree to receiving texts, calls or other types of communication.

Most Southern California renters continue to struggle to find housing they can afford. An important — and for some, possibly life-changing — option opened up on Monday for low-income residents.

The Los Angeles County Development Authority (LACDA) began accepting applicants for its waitlist for public housing for a limited time.

Tracie Mann, the chief of programs for LACDA, said the waitlist was last open in April 2024.

“We need to refresh the list, get new families who are interested in applying, not only to our family sites, but also to our senior sites,” she said.

Mann said she expects more people to apply now because of the sharp rise in the cost of living.

“We know that housing is a serious need here within the region of Los Angeles County, and having LACDA in a position to be able to offer public housing units to those most in need is just so… critical,” she said.

The rent in these county-owned and managed units is generally capped at 30% of a household’s gross income. That limit helps families build savings, said  Justin Fitzsimmons, a lawyer with the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles.

“It is a really valuable resource and can be a great opportunity for people to be able to build wealth in this economy and set up their generations in the future,” he said.

Orchard Arms is a public housing property with 183 units in Valencia. It's reserved for seniors.

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Courtesy Los Angeles County Development Authority

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It’s common, Fitzsimmons said, to see clients come to his office for legal help after a life event, such as an accident or major illness that has depleted their savings.

"Public housing is a really wonderful opportunity for a person to help to weather those events that life throws your way," he said.

The waitlist application window opened at 8 a.m. Monday and is set to close at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 16.

Here’s who qualifies and how to apply

To qualify, families must be earning significantly less than the median income in L.A. County. There are different tiers, Mann said, including 30% and 50% of that median income.

People in L.A. County will fall below the 50% threshold if they earn up to $58,300 per year. Families of four will meet the cutoff if they earn no more than $83,300 per year.

Follow this link for more information about how to apply. If you’ve already registered with LACDA, you can apply at this link.

South Bay Gardens is a public housing property with 100 units in South Los Angeles.

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Courtesy Los Angeles County Development Authority

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You can seek help with your application by calling LACDA at (626) 586-1522 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

LACDA staff also helps people complete their online applications in person at their offices in Alhambra. Their address is 700 W. Main St., Alhambra.

Location, location, location

LACDA oversees public housing on 68 properties for more than 6,600 residents. The agency is opening up wait list registration at only 16 of those sites. Thinking about which location to apply to is important because if you apply to a location and you don’t accept the unit that you’re offered, you will be removed from the waiting list until it opens back up.

People leave public housing units for various reasons, Mann said, such as moving outside the county, finding another apartment or facing eviction. She said LACDA’s public housing program averages 300 vacancies per year. Wait times can be months or longer, depending on vacancies at each property.

Applications for the smaller properties will be capped at 1,000 applications, and their waitlists will close early if that threshold is reached before Sept. 16.

You can find more information about the 16 sites opening their waitlists at this link.

Los Angeles Lakers governor Jeanie Buss is legally contesting her siblings’ plan to sell the family’s remaining 17.8% minority ownership stake in the team to Josh Kushner and Bob Iger, according to a letter obtained Monday by the Associated Press.

ESPN and The Athletic first reported that the siblings had voted to sell the family trust’s remaining interest in the 17-time NBA champion team purchased by their father, Jerry Buss, in 1979. The decision would end Jeanie Buss’ tenure as the Lakers’ governor because that job requires at least 15% ownership of the team.

Jeannie Buss’ attorney, Adam Streisand, wrote to representatives for her five siblings to state that any decision to sell the family trust’s ownership stake could not be “effectuated without approval of the current co-trustees, Jeanie, Janie and Joey Buss.”

The letter further states that the co-trustees “are bound to vote the Los Angeles Lakers, Inc. shares to ensure that the minimum 15% ownership requirement is maintained in order to ensure that Jeanie Buss may remain Controlling Owner. Any attempt by the co-trustees to do otherwise, and any attempt to aid or abet the co-trustees as such, would constitute a breach of trust, breach of fiduciary duty and be in contempt of court.”

Jeanie Buss has been the Lakers’ governor since Jerry Buss’ death in 2013, and she led the family’s decision to sell a controlling stake in the Lakers to Dodgers owner Mark Walter last year at a valuation of $10 billion. Walter, who is under federal investigation for tax issues, abruptly reached a deal earlier this month to flip the Lakers to Kushner and Iger at a valuation of $12.5 billion, another record for a pro sports team.

Venture capitalist Kushner and former Disney CEO Iger are reportedly buying about 65% of the team from Walter. They would own about 83% if they reach a deal with the Buss siblings — and Jeanie Buss would lose the governor role that she had been slated to keep at least through 2030 under the deal with Walter.

Sibling rivalry

The siblings have been in frequent conflict since their father’s death, with Jeanie firing Jim from his job as the Lakers’ head of basketball operations in 2017, followed a week later with a lawsuit against her brothers amid an attempt by Jim and Johnny to oust Jeanie from her role as the Lakers’ controlling owner.

Not all of the six Buss siblings — Jeanie, Jim, Johnny, Janie, Joey and Jesse — were in favor of the deal despite retaining their family trust’s minority ownership stake, and Joey and Jesse were fired from their front-office jobs with the team last November.

The siblings say they voted this month to sell their family’s remaining interest in the Lakers, but Jeanie Buss claims any vote is void. ESPN reported that Jeanie Buss was the only sibling who didn’t support the final sale.

“We have decided as a family to sell the remaining Buss Family Trust shares to the Bob Iger group as part of the ongoing transaction,” the Buss family said in a statement. “We love the Lakers, Laker fans and will continue to support Los Angeles, but it is time to use this opportunity to move on and exit gracefully while we still can.”

In his letter, Streisand said Joey and Jesse Buss have leaked information to ESPN for many years “for the malicious purpose of doing harm to the Los Angeles Lakers so long as Dr. Buss’s chosen successor, Jeanie Buss, carries out her father’s wishes.”

Jerry Buss was a chemist and real estate investor who bought the Lakers, the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings and the Forum arena from Jack Kent Cooke for $67.5 million. The Lakers quickly entered a renaissance in which they became known for their flashy “Showtime” style of play while winning five NBA titles between 1980 and 1988 behind Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

While the NBA and professional sports became increasingly more corporate, the Lakers remained essentially a family business despite their massive profile and steady success. Jerry Buss and the Lakers have employed many of the basketball world’s greatest players and coaches of the past five decades, and Kobe Bryant led the Lakers to five additional championships between 2000 and 2010 before LeBron James added the 17th in 2020.

The sale agreement with Kushner and Iger still must be approved by the NBA’s board of governors, and the process could take months.