The Brief

It’s hot, it’s sticky, and it smells like death. But time and again, hundreds of visitors flock to The Huntington Library’s muggy conservatory each year to see the infamous corpse flower. This year it’s expected to bloom and emit its putrid odor around July 22.

So, why do people line up to see this giant flower unfurl?

First thing’s first — the corpse flower typically only blooms once every few years. But the Huntington has a collection of more than 40 of them, so at least one is in its bloom cycle every year. Some people come just to catch a whiff of the plant, which gives off a rotten, decaying smell. Others want to catch a glimpse of the bloom that lasts for just a day or so.

And then there are the people who expect something more elegant and graceful, like a big rose.

“Then they smell it, and the reactions are hilarious,” said Brandon Tam, a curator who oversees horticultural operations at the Huntington. “They see this gigantic plant. It's huge and it's funky looking. It's almost alien-like. … People are disgusted by it. They're amazed by it. They're intrigued by it.”

What’s the big deal?

For starters, the plant is massive. It's been called the largest flower in the world, but it's actually an inflorescence — that’s botany speak for a plant that holds many flowers. It can grow up to 12 feet high, 4 feet wide, and at its peak development, the monster can grow 6 inches per day.

It blooms just once every two to three years, according to Tam, and only for a day before it starts to wilt. It happens even less frequently in the wild, where there are fewer than 1,000 corpse flowers left, according to the U.S. Botanic Garden.

But thanks to conservationists, a corpse flower now blooms many times a year at the Huntington’s Rose Hills Foundation Conservatory for Botanical Science, where they’ve successfully cultivated 43 specimens since 1999.

A corpse flower blooms at the Huntington Library's Rose Hills Foundation Conservatory for Botanical Science in 2023.

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The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens

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What the heck is that smell?

Against our better judgment, most of us want to sniff this thing. Tam couldn’t explain why, but he said it's definitely the biggest draw to the tropical plant native to Sumatra and Indonesian rainforests.

“People compare it to gym socks, runny eggs, things like that. So it's actually quite pungent,” Tam said.

The plant has evolved to emulate the scent of rotten flesh, and it does a good job of it. As it turns out, flesh flies and carrion beetles are drawn to the stench.

“The plant being so devious, it's trying to mimic that to attract pollinators in hopes that they will pollinate it, and of course, produce fruits and then seeds.”

How to see (or smell) the flower 

Though the flower is expected to bloom sometime in the next 10 days, factors like heat and cloud cover can make the exact timing hard to predict. The Huntington sends updates on expected blooms on their website so you can plan your trip to the grounds in San Marino.

But if you'd rather watch the flower bloom from afar — sans stench — you can check a livestream here.

The ink isn’t dry on an expansion of pension benefits for California police and firefighters — in fact, Gov. Gavin Newsom hasn’t even signed it into law — but unions are already negotiating contracts as if their members could soon be eligible for more lucrative retirement formulas.

It sweetens the perks for public safety employees by allowing them to retire with full benefits at 55 rather than 57, and it allows their unions to bargain for more generous pension formulas by increasing the maximum accrual rate to 3% per year of service from today’s 2.7%.

It also includes a provision that will boost retirement income for all higher-earning public employees by increasing a cap on how much they can receive from their pensions.

The Senate passed the measure by a vote of 33-0. It passed by a similarly overwhelming majority of 70-2 in the Assembly.

“I’m supporting this because the men and women who run toward fire, violent crime and life threatening emergencies are not working ordinary jobs,” said Sen. Suzette Martinez Valladares, a Republican representing Lancaster.

If Newsom signs Assembly Bill 1383, it will mark the state’s first enhancement of public employee pensions since former Gov. Jerry Brown championed a law that required public employees hired after 2013 to work longer for full benefits and kick in more money from their paychecks to fund their retirements.

Brown’s law followed the back-to-back financial crises of the dot-com bust and the Great Recession, which obliterated tens of billions of dollars of assets in California pension funds and set off fears that they could become insolvent.

California’s largest pension fund has not fully clawed out from its recession-era losses. The California Public Employees’ Retirement System as of July 1 held assets worth $637 billion, or about 85% of what it owes to its 2 million members over time.

CalPERS over the last decade has ratcheted up the rates it charges cities, counties and the state, both by requiring employers to pay down losses faster and by revising its earnings targets to acknowledge that it expects to earn less money from investments. Payroll and employer contributions to CalPERS totaled $14.9 billion in the 2017 financial year; by 2025, the number climbed to $30.2 billion, according to the pension fund’s annual financial reports.

The new retirement bill would require government employers and employees to contribute an additional $282 million to CalPERS to cover the lower retirement age and increased cap on pensionable income. The sum is expected to increase by hundreds of millions of dollars more if all public safety agencies agree to pay the maximum benefits, according to the California Department of Finance.

The finance department, which reports to Newsom, recommended that lawmakers reject the bill.

The measure would also apply to pension systems outside of CalPERS, including 20 that are managed by counties.

Cities, counties fought pension expansion

California local government agencies united in opposing the measure. They’re now hoping Newsom will veto it.

“We want to pay our police and fire and all our employees all we can, but it has to pencil out at the end,” said Napa Mayor Scott Sedgley, who is a retired Napa firefighter.

Unions were confident the measure would pass because it sailed through every vote in the Legislature, with Republicans joining with Democrats in arguing it’s an important investment in public safety.

Some local police and fire unions insisted on including clauses in new contracts that reopen bargaining over retirement benefits if Newsom signs the bill. One was in Napa, where the city recently struck a five-year contract with its firefighter union that includes a reopening pensions connected to the bill that just passed the Legislature.

The unions “don’t want to miss the year, two years, or whatever they’re locked into their agreement,” said attorney Michael Youril of the firm Liebert Cassidy Whitmore.

“I would say there’s going to be immense pressure” on local government agencies to increase retirement benefits to the maximum rate allowed, he said.

San Diego Police Department officers arrest a group of protesters who barricaded themselves inside Mayor Todd Gloria’s office at San Diego City Hall in San Diego, on Jan. 23, 2026. The protesters demanded to meet with Gloria to discuss concerns about how SDPD interacts with federal immigration agents.

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Adriana Heldiz

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CalMatters

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Unions are allies to Gov. Newsom

The bill would benefit public safety unions that have been critical allies to Newsom, including California Professional Firefighters and the California Correctional Peace Officers Association. Leaders of the firefighter union in particular lobbied for the lower retirement age by pointing to the toxic hazards their members face, which can shorten their careers and lives.

The unions stress that the bill does not fully unwind Brown’s pension law. Until that law took effect, police and firefighters could retire at 50 with even more generous pension formulas. They characterize the current bill as a modernization of the one Brown signed.

Revising the pensions has been the top legislative priority for the Peace Officers Research Association of California, an organization that represents California police unions. The association’s president, Brian Marvel, said the possibility of a Newsom veto worries him.

“We’re really hoping that the governor doesn't want to go down that path because we really feel that this is a great opportunity for him to leave office addressing a huge issue within public safety,” Marvel said.

Recruiting and retention have been a problem, Marvel said.

“We want to make sure that we have the necessary resources to be able to address what the community’s needs are,” he said.

If the bill doesn’t get past Newsom, Marvel said law enforcement groups “would have to have serious conversations regarding his veto” if Newsom seeks the presidency.

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

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California lawmakers are poised to adopt a proposal Monday to exempt independent Hollywood productions from a new cap on how many tax credits they can claim each year, following months of pressure from the multibillion-dollar entertainment industry and fears about more productions fleeing the state.

The proposal, Assembly Bill 186, effectively maintains independent productions’ ability to access California’s film tax credits. Such productions often have smaller budgets than major studios and claim less tax credit.

Created in 2009 to help California's film industry compete with the tax incentives and lower costs in other states and countries, the film tax credit lets production companies offset a portion of their annual tax liability. Last year, as Hollywood reeled from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, union strikes and wildfires, Gov. Gavin Newsom successfully pushed state leaders to double the size of the program and allocate up to $750 million a year in film tax credits in an attempt to keep more film and TV jobs in California.

AB 186 also revises that program to benefit other motion picture companies by allowing them more time to use their film tax credits and giving them a bigger refund — and more quickly — if they choose to cash out on their unused credits.

Under the new program, companies can apply leftover credits to future tax years, or get a cash refund — often in the millions of dollars — for the unused portion.

Industry leaders celebrated last year’s expansion but it soon clashed with another Newsom priority: Capping corporate tax credits. In July, the governor signed into law a permanent cap, limiting the amount big companies can claim at up to $5 million or 70% of a company’s tax liability, whichever is higher, amid a gloomy budget outlook and pressure to make billionaires and corporations pay more.

Hollywood advocates were infuriated, arguing the cap threatened to hamstring the film tax credit program. Bryan Lourd, CEO of the Creative Artists Agency, urged lawmakers earlier this month to exempt the industry from the cap.

“Without this fix, we risk destabilizing a program that is critical to keeping film and television production in California and the thousands of jobs it supports,” he said in a letter.

While the final deal does not exempt the entire industry, it reflects a starting point, said Assemblymember Rick Zbur, a Democrat who represents Hollywood and co-authored last year’s film tax credit expansion.

The legislation will “provide greater stability and certainty for productions and workers, mitigate the impacts of the business tax credit limitation, and help us continue competing for jobs and investment,” he said in a statement.

Under AB 186, some studios would be able to claim the tax credits above the cap up to 15 years in the future, instead of the nine years allowed under current law. Those who claimed tax credits from the expanded program last year would also be able to claim up to 95% of the unused tax credits as refunds, up from the current 90%, and the state must pay off the refund within two years, instead of five.

If approved, the measure would cost the state up to $170 million in annual tax revenue, according to a legislative analysis of the proposal.

A slew of lobbyists representing motion picture studios, such as SkyDance and Walt Disney, as well as labor unions, such as the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), supported the deal during a budget hearing Sunday.

Shane Gusman, lobbyist for SAG-AFTRA and the Teamsters Union in California, told CalMatters the deal represents a compromise.

“It’s fair to say that the unions and others were arguing for a full exemption,” he said Sunday. “But it’s one of those things we … got enough so that the program will continue to work.”

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

The Los Angeles Police Department wants 300 new vehicles for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, and it's asking the city to pay for them.

LAPD officials say the request for around $30 million to procure the vehicles would help temporarily expand the Police Department's fleet during the summer of 2028, so the police force could patrol Olympic venues while maintaining its presence around the city.

City officials are skeptical. The L.A. City Council discussed the request at a Budget and Finance Committee meeting earlier this month, where councilmembers questioned why the city should cover the cost.

"I'm incredibly uncomfortable with spending $30 million on cars, and the excuse being used that we need them for the Games, when the Games are going to be a month long," Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, the chair of the Budget and Finance Committee, told LAPD officials.

The committee kicked the decision down the road, asking the city administrative ffficer for more information on the financial impact of procuring the vehicles, the different options to pay for them and where else LAPD might find the resources, including from other law enforcement agencies in the state.

But the request highlights an increasingly thorny question around the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games: Who will pay for astronomical security costs?

The price tag for LAPD activity during the Olympics is of huge importance to the city of L.A., which is the financial backstop for the Games. The Olympics are intended to be privately funded and cost-free for the taxpayer.

Private Olympics organizing committee LA28 has not included expenses for police in its more than $7 billion budget, and is banking on the federal government covering security costs.

The Trump administration has allocated $1 billion for security at the Games, but those costs will be distributed among the many cities with Olympic and Paralympic venues, and it's not clear how much Los Angeles will get.

LAPD's vehicle request is one example of the limits of that support, according to Police Chief Jim McDonnell, who wrote in a July letter to the Budget and Finance Committee that he does not expect federal funds to cover the 300 additional vehicles he's requesting.

That's because LAPD is anticipating federal dollars to go toward paying to deploy thousands of officers across the city during the Games.

According to one estimate sent to the City Council by LAPD in May, the department's personnel costs for the Olympics and Paralympics could be more than $730 million, with close to half of that money going to outside law enforcement brought in to fill staffing holes.

As the council delays a decision on new patrol vehicles, the city is moving ahead with a separate request. It already approved $13 million to procure 107 non-patrol vehicles for the Games in its 2026-2027 budget. Those include trucks, prisoner transport vans and unmarked investigative vehicles.

According to the department, vehicles acquired for the Olympics won't permanently expand the LAPD fleet. Instead, new vehicles will replace old ones once the Games are over.

A new NASA space telescope launched Sunday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida that will help scientists probe the nature of dark matter, dark energy and other mysteries of the universe.

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which is about the size of a tour bus, lifted off at 4:26 a.m. PT on SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket. The 18,000-pound spacecraft is now on a million-mile journey that will take it to its new home in space.

"What a glorious dawn launch," NASA's Jackie Townsend, Roman telescope project manager, said at a press briefing soon after liftoff. "The ride was magnificent. It put us right where we wanted to be."

More good news came shortly after launch as the telescope began deploying its solar panels and other instruments. "Ground controllers at NASA Goddard have been receiving telemetry data from Roman, and apparently all systems are nominal," said NASA administrator Jared Isaacman.

The journey to Roman's new home

Roman has an unusual origin story: Initially designed as a spy telescope for the National Reconnaissance Office, the spacecraft was donated to NASA instead. The new telescope is named for Nancy Grace Roman, NASA's first chief astronomer who was known as the 'Mother of Hubble' for her championing of the iconic Hubble Space Telescope. Her namesake telescope will have the sharpness of Hubble but a field of view that is at least 100 times larger, allowing it to image huge swaths of the sky at once.

Before it can do that, the Roman Space Telescope will have to get to its new home in the sky about a million miles away. Roman will live at the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point known as L2. There, the competing gravitational pulls of the Earth and the Sun help the telescope keep a steady orbit while using minimal fuel. The James Webb Space Telescope orbits at this point, which gives the spacecraft an unobstructed view of the sky.

"It takes us a good three-plus months to get out there, and we're spending that time checking everything out and doing a whole bunch of calibrations and making sure everything is working the way we know it can," said NASA's Jeremy Perkins, an integration and test scientist on the mission. "It's basically like our time to kick the tires and just make sure that the focus is right, the pointing is right."

Uncovering cosmic mysteries

Roman is on a kind of ghost hunt, searching for more evidence of dark matter — mysterious, invisible stuff whose gravitational influence appears to hold galaxies together and define the overarching structure of the cosmos. Roman will study how gravity subtly affects the path of light along great distances throughout a massive survey of the sky. By doing this, the telescope will help map both normal and dark matter, giving scientists a better understanding of just what this elusive substance might be.

Astronomers will also use Roman's observations to uncover dark energy, the strange force that is believed to drive the expansion of the universe. Scientists' understanding of dark energy comes from observations of a kind of exploding star known as a Type Ia supernova. These supernovas appear to shine at known and predictable brightness throughout the cosmos, giving them the nickname "standard candles." By cataloguing even more of these supernovas, scientists hope to develop a better understanding of how dark energy works, which could fundamentally change the way astronomers view the universe.

Roman will also search for planets outside our solar system. Since astronomers confirmed their existence in the 1990s, more than 6,000 exoplanets have been identified. With Roman, NASA expects to identify more than 100,000 of them by identifying dips in starlight caused by a planet passing in front of its own star. The telescope also hopes to find some 1,000 through microlensing — a technique that searches for tiny changes in background starlight caused by the gravity of a far-off planet.

"Why do we care so much about exoplanets? Because one of our main goals at NASA is answering the question: Are we alone in the universe?" Nicky Fox, NASA's associate administrator of the science mission directive, said at the Sunday morning briefing.

The spacecraft is poised to bring scientists a step closer to answering that question: It will demonstrate technology that can take a picture of a planet by selectively blocking out the light from its home star.

"We are going to make this giant leap forward with the coronagraph technology that is going to allow us to look at these distant worlds and start to really resolve the atmosphere around them to let us know if they could be habitable," she said.

A deluge of data

The telescope will beam back 1.4 terabytes of raw science data each day, using a refrigerator-sized high-gain antenna. The data will be available immediately to scientists and the public.

"Roman's database at the end of its prime mission after five years is going to be bigger than your standard music streaming platform," Perkins said.

Because of the massive amounts of data, NASA is making it available to anyone through a cloud-based system called Roman Nexus. For Perkins, that's what makes this mission unique — anyone can look at the raw data and find new discoveries.

"It's all the things that we are not expecting to see," he said. "It's all these one-in-a-million things that we're going to be able to see with Roman that really excites me."
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