The Brief

To those barreling through city streets: Your days of speeding are numbered.

Automatic speed cameras will start issuing tickets along Long Beach’s most nefarious roadways next year, in a bid to curb rising traffic fatalities and injuries.

This comes after the Long Beach City Council on Tuesday approved two plans that outline the locations for the cameras, explain their placement, chart the expected cost of the program and govern how data will be collected.

Officials expect to install the cameras in the spring and begin issuing warning citations for 60 days through the summer. Speeding drivers will begin receiving fines in the fall.

How will it work?

The 18 camera locations were chosen for their high rates of street racing, speeding and pedestrian collisions. Most locations are also in or near a school zone.

Cameras had to be placed within either a federally designated safety corridor, school zone or an area that has received calls for enforcement for four separate incidents within the last two years.

A screenshot from a City Council presentation shows the locations for speed cameras.

There is some overlap. Long Beach Boulevard, for example, will have cameras installed at three locations, each for different reasons: one between E. San Antonio Drive and 45th Street, due to being a high-injury network and a bustling truck route; another between Victoria and Market Street for its rampant street racing despite being a school zone; and a third one covering Artesia Boulevard to 70th Street, due to having the highest rate of street racing in the city. It is also a common route for trucks.

There will be warnings you’re approaching a speed camera, said Public Works Director Josh Hickman. Signage will be posted within 500 feet of the pole-mounted devices with “Photo Enforced” in bold below, with other signage posted further back to allow drivers a chance to decelerate.

The only data collected will be a photograph of a driver’s rear license plate. Using that, Public Works employees will issue tickets to their registered owners, who could be a different person than the driver. Cameras will not photograph people’s faces, and license plate data will not be shared with any law enforcement.

Drivers will have time to adjust. Tickets issued in the first 60 days will come only with a warning. Afterwards, owners of any car speeding over 11 mph face a fine of $50, with a cost escalator up to $500 for those driving 100 mph.

Tickets can be paid, negotiated down as much as 80% based on income level or swapped for community service. Data is erased once the ticket is resolved.

The program will cost $835,000 in the first year, with an annual operating cost of about $1.6 million. Over the five-year period it’s expected to run, officials estimate it will cost a total of $8.9 million, covered wholly by citations issued.

Any additional profits from citations will be used to pay for traffic calming improvements, like speed bumps, flashing beacons and lane narrowing.

How’d we get here?

This comes two years after the city was approved to join a state pilot for speed cameras alongside six other cities. But so far, only one, San Francisco, has launched the program, while others continue to lag behind.

Since the bill authorizing the pilot was signed in October 2023, there have been more than 3,200 crashes in Long Beach — of those, more than 20% resulted from speeding, according to state collision data. Of the nearly 3,000 people injured in traffic collisions in 2024, speed was the leading factor in a quarter of the crashes.

According to a 2025 report released last week by the Southern California Association of Governments. The city from 2014 to 2024 saw more than 400 people killed and another 40,000 injured by collisions.

Long Beach’s 55 traffic fatal collisions this year have outpaced homicides and exceeded last year’s total of 36 killed in crashes.

Erin Hoops, with the pro-street-safety group Carlite Long Beach, said this has been “the deadliest year since before the 1990s.”

What’s next?

The pilot will be deemed a success if it can bring a 20% reduction in excessive speeding or repeat offenses at the chosen locations, officials said.

“I know there’s a lot of enthusiasm here, on the public side, the City Council side, I think the timing couldn’t be better,” said Mayor Rex Richardson. “The traffic safety, the incidents of vehicle fatalities have increased post-pandemic and also fluctuate wildly.”

Depending on the pilot’s success, council members said they plan to push California legislators to bring additional cameras to nearby state roads, including Pacific Coast Highway.

Recent legislation will allow Caltrans to install 35 cameras to ticket drivers speeding through construction and maintenance zones along PCH. Signed in October, it will run through 2032.

How does the public feel?

Despite the public concern over fatalities, the camera’s introduction was received with mixed results. Surveys that ran from October to November found 48% of respondents opposed the cameras, while 41% supported them. Ninety-five of the 98 responses received focused on the city’s impact report, though officials were scant on details of what was said in the responses.

No changes were made as a result of the public engagement, officials said.

Some electric bikes in California could soon require license plates under a proposed state bill aiming to address the rise in electric bike related injuries.

AB 1942 or the E-bike Accountability Act, would apply exclusively to Class 2 and Class 3 electric bikes.

Class 2 bikes can be operated without peddling until it reaches the speed of 20 miles per hour.

Class 3 bikes reach a max speed of 28 miles per hour; motor assist could only kick in with peddling.

The bill would also require owners to carry proof of ownership and would direct the Department of Motor Vehicles to establish a registration process. It was introduced by Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan of Orinda in Contra Costa County earlier this month.

E-bike injuries spiked 18 fold between 2018 and 2023, according to state traffic data.

The bill may be heard in committee March 16th.

NASA could launch four astronauts on a mission to fly around the moon as soon as March 6.

That's the launch date that the space agency is now working toward following a successful test fueling of its big, 322-foot tall moon rocket, which is standing on a launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

"This is really getting real," says Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator of NASA's exploration systems development mission directorate. "It's time to get serious and start getting excited."

But she cautioned that there's still some pending work that remains to be done out at the launch pad, and officials will have to conduct a multi-day flight readiness review late next week to make sure that every aspect of the mission is truly ready to go.

"We need to successfully navigate all of those, but assuming that happens, it puts us in a very good position to target March 6th," she says, noting that the flight readiness review will be "extensive and detailed."

The Artemis II test flight will send four astronauts on an approximately 600,000-mile trip around the moon and back. It will mark the first time that people have ventured to the moon since the final Apollo lunar mission in 1972.

When NASA workers first tested out fueling the rocket earlier this month, they encountered problems like a liquid hydrogen leak. Swapping out some seals and other work seems to have fixed these issues, according to officials who say that the latest countdown dress rehearsal went smoothly, despite glitches such as a loss of ground communications in the Launch Control Center that forced workers to temporarily use backups.

Members of the Artemis II crew — NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen — are starting their roughly two-week quarantine to limit their exposure to illnesses before their flight.

Glaze says she spoke to several of the astronauts during the recent test fueling, as they were in Florida to observe the preparations. "They're all very, very excited," she says. "They are really getting a lot of anticipation for a potential launch in March."

Copyright 2026 NPR

An exhibition that takes visitors through the magical water worlds of the 2008 film Ponyo and the hand-drawn artistry of Studio Ghibli is now open at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.

The films from the Japanese animation studio and director Hayao Miyazaki have captivated imaginations around the world for decades — this reporter with my four tattoos of favorite Studio Ghibli characters included.

This is now the second time the Miracle Mile museum has dedicated an exhibition to Miyazaki’s works, with the focus on Ponyo arriving more than four years after the retrospective of all his animated feature films.

“These drawings have never been shown outside of Japan,” Shraddha Aryal, the museum’s executive vice president of exhibitions, told LAist. “We have an amazing conservation team who actually cell by cell took care of these, conserved these and that was what led us to say let’s do another exhibition really highlighting their artwork.”

The exhibition includes more than 100 items from Studio Ghibli, including animation cells from Ponyo.

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The cult of Studio Ghibli

Since Studio Ghibli’s founding in 1985, the animation powerhouse has created more than 20 feature films, including My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service and most recently The Boy and the Heron, steadily gaining international acclaim.

Its Spirited Away is among the most celebrated animated movies of all time, becoming Japan’s highest-grossing film and holding that record for 19 years. It was also the first hand-drawn film to win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature in 2003.

The studio and Miyazaki would achieve the same feat again two decades later with The Boy and the Heron in 2024.

Studio Ghibli’s films are often fantastical with a lens of childlike wonder, but they also touch on difficult topics like the horrors of war, fascism, greed and environmental destruction. Characters are complex, with women and girls regularly in strong roles, such as the spear-wielding San or the brave but stubborn Kiki.

For me, there’s something about the carefully crafted storylines and colorful style that still make me feel like I’m exploring the forest with Princess Mononoke or stuck in a secret world of sorcery with Spirited Away, even as an adult.

Miyazaki's magical world

Ponyo is one of Miyazaki’s most kid friendly films — with positive themes of courage and curiosity as the audience tags along with the adventures of the young main characters. Plus, there’s no unnerving scenes of parents being turned into pigs like in Spirited Away (if you know you know).

The 2008 film tells the story of its namesake, the magical goldfish-like creature, Ponyo, and her budding friendship with a 5-year-old human boy named Sōsuke. The film follows Ponyo’s desire to leave her underwater world and become a human to be with Sōsuke, disrupting the balance of nature and having to contend with challenges like a tsunami along the way.

The exhibit creates a 3D version of the filmic world where visitors can climb inside an interactive version of Sōsuke’s green bucket or walk on wave displays like Ponyo in the tsunami.

“Ponyo exhibition is all about this character’s perseverance, and the joyful nature and triumph through ups and downs, [being] willing to explore a new world,” Aryal said. “And it's such a beautiful love story about friendship.”

Reimagining Ponyo

The exhibition includes rare Studio Ghibli donations on display in North America for the first time ever, such as original Miyazaki drawings and Ponyo animation cells, according to the Academy Museum. Guests can explore more than 100 items hand-picked by the studio, including an original animation desk and a make-your-own stop-motion station.

The experience is designed for all ages, reporter superfans with several tattoos of Studio Ghibli characters included.

But Jessica Niebel, the museum’s senior exhibitions curator, told LAist she hopes the Ponyo exhibition helps children feel inspired by the "beautiful messages” of the movie, especially after last year’s L.A. fires and the COVID pandemic.

“Sometimes you live through times where you have a tsunami, where you lose your magic or your mojo, you know, you're not quite sure of your identity,” she said. “[Miyazaki] gives us hope and courage that we can be free and run on the waves like Ponyo.”

“And instead of seeing things as a threat, maybe we use them to carry us,” she continued.

Dipping into the 3-D world

The exhibition is split into four sections focused on different aspects of the film.

The first dives inside Ponyo’s magical underwater home, introducing some main characters with a scene played on a screen spanning nearly the entire room.

The Ponyo exhibition takes visitors inside the 2008 film's magical water worlds.

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The first section includes Ponyo's goddess mother.

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A portrait of Ponyo’s goddess mother, Granmamare, is set up behind a few bean bag chairs in the space, giving guests the sense she’s watching the sea creatures over your shoulder.

The second section centers on Ponyo leaving her home, following her curiosity to dry land where she meets Sōsuke.

The room intentionally reflects the green and blue tones of the film, with curved designs and an interactive bucket that mirrors Miyazaki’s spirit, according to Aryal.

The second section includes the original Japanese release posters from Studio Ghibli’s other famed films, including Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle and The Wind Rises.

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The walls are lined with the original Japanese release posters from Studio Ghibli’s other famed films, including Howl’s Moving Castle, Porco Rosso and The Wind Rises.

The third section takes you inside “the animators’ imaginative world,” Niebel said. The centerpiece is an original animation desk donated by Studio Ghibli and surrounded by Miyazaki’s detailed drawings for Ponyo.

The exhibition includes rare materials, such as a Studio Ghibli animation desk with drawing supplies.

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Stations are set up where guests can make their own stop motion animation using sea creature cut-outs.

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Two stations are set-up on the side where guests can create their own stop motion animation scene using some of the sea creature cut-out materials sent by the studio, according to Arturo Arias, an Academy Museum educator and gallery attendant.

“It's really nice to have the sort of underwater theme happening and so people submerge — no pun intended — into it and just kind of play along,” Arias told LAist.

The final section focuses on the scene where Ponyo runs on waves instead of being swallowed by the water.

“That's a moment that's really close to my heart and I think it's sensational and only [something] Hayao Miyazaki could do,” Neibel said. “[Ponyo]'s just so joyful and so free.”

Painted waves cascade on the exhibition walls as a bright Ponyo pokes out, with behind-the-scenes clips showcased on the side.

The film follows Ponyo’s desire to leave her underwater world and become a human disrupting the balance of nature with a tsunami along the way.

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Behind the scenes clips from the making on Ponyo were showcased on the side in the last section of the exhibition.

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The movie may be nearly 20-years-old, but Aryal said the hopeful messages of Ponyo are still “really relevant” in the current world and political climate.

“It kind of becomes a refuge, if I may say that, this joyful refuge,” she said. “There is an option for you, even in this sort of disruptive climate that we're living in right now, that you can come and go through this joyful immersive experience.”

Details

The Academy Museum’s “Studio Ghibli’s PONYO” exhibition is open until Jan. 10, 2027. General admission to the museum is free for children and $25 for adults.

As the region’s lead homelessness agency, the main job of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority this year was to dole out nearly $700 million to contractors who operate shelters and other services for unhoused people.

But it turns out that more than halfway through the budget year, many of LAHSA’s 116 service providers are still waiting for LAHSA to pay them for those services. In all, the agency told LAist that it owes at least $69 million in outstanding invoices to providers. About 40% of those invoices are more than two months old.

Those delayed payments are causing cash flow problems for organizations large and small. Several providers told LAist that they've have had to dip into reserves or take on debt.

“These delays are one of the biggest issues for our organization because if we cannot pay our staff, we don't operate,” said Stephanie Klasky-Gamer, CEO of the nonprofit LA Family Housing. "That breaks the entire system and renders people homeless.”

Where things stand

LAHSA officials have said they're working to fix delays and make internal changes so that they don’t happen again.

And they offered details on how they got here:

• They said some payments were delayed because the agency is struggling to process an influx of recently submitted invoices.
• Other payments are delayed because the agency is still waiting for millions in payments, mostly from the city of L.A.

“While a combination of contracting delays, outdated internal policies, and a leadership vacuum caused by the historic funding shifts happening within the rehousing system all contributed to this bottleneck, we are already taking corrective action,” Ahmad Chapman, a LAHSA spokesperson, said in a statement.

At a LAHSA Finance Committee meeting Friday, Janine Lim, the agency's deputy chief financial office, broke down the issues based on agency.

• Under contracts funded by city, the agency doesn’t have some of the money it owes providers, Lim said.
• For county-funded contracts, LAHSA has the funds, but has failed to pass some of them to providers, she said.

Lim acknowledged her department failed to request certain county funds and told commissioners her team is overwhelmed by staff turnover and nonstop crisis management.

Lindsey Horvath's rebuke

The meeting prompted a harsh rebuke from L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath Friday night, who issued a statement demanding a public hearing about LAHSA’s late payments, a forensic audit and immediate payment of all outstanding invoices to county-funded contractors.

“If LAHSA were a publicly traded company, regulators would shut them down.” Horvath said, in a statement “LAHSA balance sheets don’t balance, and they fail to provide real-time financial information to their very own commissioners.”

LAHSA’s funding sources

LAHSA has an approved budget of about $828 million this fiscal year. Most of that money — $697 million — comes from a variety of government sources and passes along to contracted service providers.

This budget year it breaks down like this, according to LAHSA records:

• 46% from L.A. County
• 35% from the city of Los Angeles
• Nearly 11% from the federal government
• More than 8% from the state of California
• A small fraction from private philanthropy,

LAHSA representatives said the delayed payments stem partly from delays in finalizing contracts with homeless service providers this fiscal year, which started July 1.

By that time, the agency had only finalized about one third of its contracts with providers. Providers can’t file invoices until those contracts are final.

Now, eight months into the budget year, LAHSA said more than 99% of contracts are in place. But many weren’t finalized until December. Now that contracts are executed, there’s an “avalanche” of recent invoices from providers, covering the past six months, according to LAHSA officials.

Challenges for providers 

South L.A homeless services provider HOPICS said LAHSA owed it nearly $20 million as of last month, because of late contract executions and delayed payments across two budget years.

“Providers cannot continue operating on uncertainty and IOUs,” the Kelvin Driscoll, the nonprofit's director, told LAist. “To keep services operating, we, like other organizations, have had to exhaust reserves and take on debt.”

Some homeless services providers said late payments have been a problem, but not an insurmountable one.

“The issue of floating unpaid invoices is part of business, especially if we're working with bureaucracy and government.” said Rowan Vansleve, president of Hope The Mission. “Anybody who's taken a contract with the government is not expecting to be paid incredibly quickly.”

Still, as the size of L.A.’s homeless services sector has grown, some service providers say they are being asked to take on larger financial burdens. LA Family Housing is waiting on both reimbursement payments and advances for recent months, its CEO said.

“Our contract is with LAHSA,” said Klasky-Gamer. “We are delivering on our end of the contract by delivering the service. They're not able to deliver on their end of the contract because they don't have access to the money to pay us.”

At the Friday meeting, LAHSA Commissioner Amy Perkins said she had received “countless” calls from leaders of large providers who are considering closing down.

“They don’t want to say that publicly because they don’t want to scare their staff and they will do everything they can not to close,” Perkins said. “They have maxed out their lines of credit. There's no more rocks to turn over. Vendors are walking off jobs.”

Commissioners demands answers

Last year, L.A. County supervisors voted to strip LAHSA of about $300 million in county funding from LAHSA, beginning this July. Until then, county homelessness funding still goes through LAHSA.

Perkins, appointed to the LAHSA Commission by Horvath, told LAHSA officials on Friday that the payment crisis shows why the county's move was necessary.

"This is exactly why we have said for a long time that the structure of LAHSA doesn't work,” Perkins said. “How are you supposed to administer funding for people who won't pay you?”

Justin Szlasa, another LAHSA Commission member said he has frequently heard service providers complain that LAHSA pays them late.

Szlasa said he asked for an itemized summary of all of LAHSA’s unpaid bills. The report should have been easy to generate immediately, Szlasa said.

Months later, LAHSA still has not produced the document, he said. This month, he filed a public records request for that information, including which contractors LAHSA owes money to and how behind on payments it is.

“We as commissioners don’t have visibility into how we’re doing if we don’t know how much money we owe and how late we are with payments to these service providers on the front lines of our homelessness response,” Szlasa said.

LAHSA officials said the agency will work with outside consultants to update the agency’s finance operations to ensure providers are paid accurately and on time.