The Brief

On a recent Thursday evening, traffic was slow on the 10 Freeway as cars crawled into the downtown Los Angeles area. It was an average commute back to Pasadena for Bryan Gonzalez until he saw a man on the other side of the freeway cutting through a guardrail with a reciprocating saw.

“OK, there's something weird going on,” Gonzalez said about his observations from Aug. 21, which he captured on video and reported to Caltrans. “I was debating whether or not saying anything, but I said, ‘Hey, I'm in slow traffic. He has a saw. No, thank you.’”

What Gonzalez observed was not a fluke. Guardrail theft is a problem that has been on the rise for the last eight years, according to the local Caltrans office covering L.A. and Ventura counties. Over the last two years, the state transportation agency has spent more than $62,000 on repairs related to guardrail theft in the region.

The man who appeared to be trying to steal the guardrail apparently didn’t succeed. A photo Gonzalez shared with LAist the following week shows an intact guardrail with a mark where the saw was used.

California Highway Patrol, whose jurisdiction includes state-owned highways, said it’s investigating the incident. A spokesperson for the agency said it hasn’t found the man in the video.

Aluminum, which Caltrans’ guardrails are made from, is just one metal used in public infrastructure that is increasingly stolen and sold to metal scrapyards and recyclers.

Missing guardrails

Over the last several months since he’s been commuting to work in Culver City, Gonzalez said he’s noticed guardrailing disappearing on the 10 Freeway near the 110 Freeway interchange.

“I was just equating it to normal wear and tear of accidents and the guardrailing doing what it's supposed to do,” Gonzalez said.

When he saw the man with the saw, Gonzalez said the dots began to connect.

A statement from Caltrans calls guardrail theft an “ongoing” problem in downtown L.A. that causes safety issues for drivers. More specifically, the state transportation agency said there has been “a marked increase in rail theft” along a stretch of the 10 Freeway between Santa Fe Avenue and the 110 interchange.

Nearly 470 sections of guardrailing were stolen in the last fiscal year alone in L.A. and Ventura counties, costing the state transportation agency $17,000 to replace, the agency said.

Guardrail theft spiked in 2023 after an arsonist set fire to a storage yard beneath the 10 Freeway. Caltrans said it spent $45,000 on repairs in the 2023-24 fiscal year.

Google Map Street View images from May 2024 near the San Pedro Street and Central Avenue ramps leading to the 10 Freeway in downtown show additional sections of missing guardrails.

To prevent thefts, Caltrans said it tried welding bolts into the guardrails, but thieves were able to breach that deterrent.

The next step the agency is considering is using fiberglass composite instead of aluminum to construct guard rails “to remove the value to the thieves.”

The value of aluminum

Aluminum is critical to transportation infrastructure, said Lance Hastings, the president and CEO of the California Manufacturers and Technology Association.

“Like most base metals, the price of aluminum has increased in recent years,” Hastings said. “Tariffs further disrupt the global supply chain, driving up costs and creating market instability.”

President Donald Trump announced 50% tariffs on imported steel and aluminum earlier this summer. In August, the Department of Commerce announced that hundreds of other “derivative” steel and aluminum products would also be subject to tariffs.

Metal theft

Metal theft in L.A. is a persistent problem that damages telecom, lighting, train and other critical infrastructure. It also hamstrings government agencies, which, as a result of increasing thefts, say they're unable to keep up with repairs.

The head of the L.A.’s street lighting department told LAist earlier this year that copper wire theft causes 40% of all repairs, up from a quarter just two years ago.

Earlier in August, 60 feet of copper cable was stolen from a portion of the track that services L.A. Metro’s A-line train, resulting in reduced service for about 16 hours, according to a statement from the countywide transportation agency.

Ally Happel, an executive at security company ECAM, said thieves will target any materials that are “accessible and easy to sell at a high price.”

ECAM uses AI surveillance systems to “detect and predict suspicious activity.” It has partnered with Foothill Transit, as well as the L.A. Police Department and port police.

Bronze, brass, iron, lead and steel are also “vulnerable to theft,” Happel said.

It’s not just an L.A. problem. Nearly a third of all copper theft and telecom infrastructure vandalism nationwide happened in California, according to state Attorney General Rob Bonta. 

It’s unclear what the LAPD is doing to address the problem for metal stolen from city infrastructure. The department disbanded its metal theft detail six years ago, according to a report it delivered to City Council last year.

There were at least two LAPD metal theft task forces funded by council offices that were active last year. It’s unclear if they still exist.

LAPD has not responded to LAist’s repeated questions about the continued existence of those task forces and whether there has been more recent metal theft enforcement actions.

Sophie Kinsella, who wrote the massively popular Shopaholic book series, has died. The writer, whose real name was Madeleine Sophie Wickham, was 55 years old. Last year, she announced she had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer in 2022.

Her death was announced on Instagram on Wednesday: "Despite her illness, which she bore with unimaginable courage, Sophie counted herself truly blessed — to have such wonderful family and friends and to have had the extraordinary success of her writing career. She took nothing for granted and was forever grateful for the love she received."

Kinsella's novels were a sensation; they sold tens of millions of copies and were translated into dozens of languages. The first two books in the Shopaholic series were adapted into the 2009 movie Confessions of a Shopaholic, starring Isla Fisher.

In an NPR interview from 2019, she said her novels focused on young women and their travails, even though she was herself a mother with five children.

"I just think there's something exciting about the time of life where you're on the lookout for opportunities in all directions. You're looking at your career. You're looking at finding someone to love. Everything is ahead of you," she said. "And for me, the — kind of the wide, open horizon is so exciting. There is something exhilarating about meeting a stranger in a coffee shop and thinking, 'Where's this going to go?'"

Copyright 2025 NPR

After the January fires, thousands of Southern Californians suddenly faced having to apply for FEMA assistance and battle insurance companies to rebuild what was lost.

Faculty, students and volunteers at Pepperdine University were on the ground within days of the Eaton and Palisades fires offering free legal assistance and relaunching the Disaster Relief Clinic, which provided pro bono services after the Thomas and Woolsey fires in 2017 and 2018.

Since then, Pepperdine Caruso School of Law's Disaster Relief Clinic has assisted more than 300 fire survivors, according to the university. The clinic has helped recover at least $750,000 in FEMA assistance and millions more from insurance claims.

“We provide really good legal help for people that have been damaged by the fire[s],” David A. DeJute, the clinic’s director, told LAist. “It makes me feel like I'm providing something of value and worth back to the community.”

About the clinic

The clinic is designed to help fire survivors with a wide variety of legal issues they may face as they go through the recovery and rebuilding process, including having to find rental housing, working with remediation companies to clean up ash and navigating insurance policy limits.

Pepperdine University faculty, students and volunteers were on the ground within days of January's fires, offering free legal assistance to survivors.

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Courtesy Pepperdine University

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DeJute, who’s also an adjunct professor with Pepperdine’s law school, said the weeks after the fires were a “little like triage” as the clinic focused on helping people prioritize their next steps.

“When you have someone in your family die, you experience trauma and shock and remorse, and nobody is surprised that it affects your mood and your ability to process information,” he said. “Same thing happens when you've lost your home.”

DeJute said some of the most common legal issues that come up at the clinic have to do with FEMA applications, landlords and price gouging.

If a survivor needs more help than the clinic can handle, like with litigation, it will refer them to other lawyers who’ve agreed to take clients pro bono, according to Pepperdine.

The clinic also has trained around 600 lawyers to bring free legal services to their own communities after a disaster, according to the university. DeJute said that includes a student who stepped in to help after the deadly flash flooding in Texas this summer.

A survivor’s story

Pergrin Jung’s family home was “completely destroyed” in the Palisades Fire in what he described to LAist as “the worst days of our lives.”

Jung, like many other survivors, wasn’t sure how to start picking up the pieces.

“Not only were we in a state of shock,” he said. “But also, none of us really knew what the next steps would be.”

Jung reached out for help with an insurance claim for his homeowner’s policy and said the clinic was a “staple” every step of the way. He said students and staff helped explain the legal system, gave feedback on letters he sent to the insurance company and guided his strategy throughout the process.

“Having this resource made all the difference to us,” Jung said. “They were invaluable.”

Educational experience

The clinic is run by Pepperdine faculty, staff and law students who get hands-on experience operating as attorneys under DeJute’s supervision.

The students are tasked with communicating with clients, diving into details of their legal needs, pushing back against price gouging and managing issues with mortgage companies, to name a few.

Taylor Wedlock, a third-year law student, said the clinic was an opportunity to do her part for the community, especially after her father, an L.A. fire captain, spent about a week fighting the Palisades Fire.

“We weren't just doing FEMA appeals or applications,” she told LAist. “We're going to … help to get this survivor his instruments back so he can so he can start his, you know, his musical career again.”

Wedlock said the clinic helps students apply what they learn in law school textbooks and lectures while exploring the more personal aspect of being a lawyer.

Wedlock recalled the relief in her client’s voice when she got approved for FEMA rental assistance after more than six months of denials, for example. She said she considers that one of her major wins of the semester.

“It may seem impossible to come back from such devastation, but there are options,” Wedlock said. “There are a lot of people who are willing to help.”

How to get involved

People seeking disaster-related legal assistance from the clinic can fill out the request form here. (Please note: A staff attorney or law student will respond to each request, but filling out the form doesn’t create an attorney-client relationship, according to Pepperdine.)

The clinic also has online resources available, including advice on dealing with FEMA and insurance, as well as training for attorneys looking to provide pro bono legal services in their communities.

Long Beach was recently recognized as one of the country’s top digital cities for its digital equity work and programming, something officials say is an effort that won’t lose steam in 2026 despite federal funding cuts.

The survey was from the national research and advisory institute, the Center for Digital Government, which focuses on policies and practices in state and local governments. Long Beach was among five cities nationwide to grab high marks in the Digital Cities Survey, which looks at how local governments use technology to address social challenges.

Lea Erikson, Long Beach’s director of technology, credited the recognition to the city’s approach to digital equity.

“We're not relying on federal funds to advance our work. And so even though it does definitely minimize what we can do, I'm really proud of what we have been able to do despite that,” Erikson said.

Why was Long Beach named? 

Over the years, the coastal L.A. County city has grown into an epicenter for digital equity to grant more residents access to the internet.

According to the survey, the city advanced digital equity, among other things, through programs such as its “Pitch Long Beach!” — an initiative that allows the public to submit pitches on how to implement and explore technology as a way to improve city services.

Long Beach has also partnered with the California Emerging Technology Fund to launch a multilingual internet service enrollment hotline to help residents navigate telehealth, job searching and online learning.

“One of the things I think makes Long Beach a leader in this space is we have a dedicated staff to digital inclusion, and they're not dependent on federal funds, so they're actually funded by local government resources,” Erikson said.

Why are programs at risk? 

In May, the Trump administration canceled the $2.75 billion Digital Equity Act, which the president called “racist” and “illegal.”

The cancellation put a stop to programs all over the country, including digital courses for seniors and laptop distributions in rural areas.

The Federal Communications Commission voted in September to end E-Rate discounts to libraries and schools for hotspot lending and school bus Wi-Fi. Officials said the initiatives “exceeded” or were “inconsistent” with the commission's authority. This decision effectively shut off funding for digital loaning programs.

Locally, the repercussions were felt instantly. Los Angeles County Library announced it would sunset its laptop and Wi-Fi hotspot lending programs shortly after the decision.

What are officials saying for 2026 and beyond? 

Erikson said federal headwinds won’t stop the city’s digital equity work.

The city is working to create its own fiber-optic network by 2027 to offer free Wi-Fi in public places in an effort to save residents money and get them online.

“We're hoping to have that go out to bid … next year. We would hopefully have that done in about a two-year timeframe, so it might be a little delayed, but we have local funding for that as well,” Erikson said.