The Brief

The apex of summer travel is here: Labor Day weekend.

But before you hop on the plane at LAX (with a dream and a cardigan), take a look at what you’ve packed for the trip. There are updated rules on where passengers can and cannot store specific items.

It’s part of a broader effort to control potentially flammable items onboard. Here’s what you should know.

The restrictions

The Federal Aviation Administration updated its prohibited items list recently, which affects your experience with the Transportation Security Administration.

People who love travel hair tools may notice it more. Cordless straighteners and curling irons no longer can be put in your checked luggage if they have these components:

• Gas or butane-fueled
• Lithium metal
• Lithium ion batteries

For younger folks, yes, butane curling irons do exist. Their popularity dipped with the rise of battery-powered options.

Both of these versions are allowed only in carry-on bags, according to PackSafe from the FAA. Leave any gas refill cartridges at home. If agents catch these in the wrong bag, it could be confiscated as a HAZMAT item.

If you do choose to take one of these on a domestic flight, you’re required to put a securely fitted safety cover over the heating area (these usually come with the tools). It also needs to be packed in a way that prevents accidental activation.

Plug-in straighteners and curling irons aren’t restricted unless they have a battery or gas piece.

Why is this an issue?

Safe handling of lithium batteries has been a big focus for the FAA as problems rise.

Last year, there were 89 recorded battery incidents involving smoke, fire, or extreme heat in flights — the highest number since at least 2016.

The FAA also restricted items like portable power banks to carry-on only earlier this year.

The reasoning goes back to accessibility during an emergency.

“Checked baggage goes to the belly of the aircraft, [which] is out of reach and cannot be monitored by passengers and crew,” a TSA spokesperson told LAist.

If one of these tools were to catch fire, no one would be in the luggage area to put it out.

You can always contact the TSA if you’re ever unsure about an item. AskTSA’s live service is available daily between 5 a.m. and 3 p.m. Pacific time. It can be reached via social media on X, Facebook Messenger, and Apple Messages. You also can text “travel” to 275-872.

The start of January often feels like an opportunity for a clean slate, and for many people that means cutting out alcohol for the month, a challenge widely known as Dry January.

What started as a personal experiment for one person in the U.K. has now grown into a global phenomenon. And it's one that researchers say can offer real health benefits. For others, it's the turning point to life-altering change that lasts beyond 31 days.

For Amanda Kuda, that change began nine years ago. She had gone out on December 30, and woke up the next day with a ferocious hangover.

"I said to myself, 'This is not the life that I want to live,'" she tells NPR.

So the next day she committed to not drinking alcohol for the entire month. When the month was up, Kuda said she felt some big health benefits.

"Because I wasn't dragging myself down with hangovers and alcohol, I was able to, all of a sudden, workout every day," she says. "And then I was recovering so much more quickly, because my body was in its most vibrant state."

Studies have shown that abstaining from alcohol for even moderate drinkers can contribute to better sleep, weight loss and clearer skin.

The 'official' Dry January

People use the term 'Dry January' to refer to their effort to cut alcohol out for the entire month, just like Kuda.

But the "official" challenge began across the pond in the U.K., according to Richard Piper, CEO of Alcohol Change UK, the organization that started the official (and trademarked) version. 

Alcohol Change UK's mission is to reduce the harm caused by alcohol.

"We never tell people how much or how little to drink. We want to empower people to make that choice themselves," Piper says. "We do that by our behavior change programs like the dry January program."

Dry January started with the group's former deputy CEO, Emily Robinson in 2011. At the time, she was reading more about the harms of alcohol consumption – at the same time as her half marathon training.

Piper says Robinson "wondered what would happen if she had a whole month not drinking" and how it could benefit her running. "Spoiler alert: It really improved her running performance, but she gained other benefits as well," Piper adds.

In 2013 Alcohol Change UK made its Dry January challenge official and trademarked the name. This official challenge includes an app, daily email and online peer support groups – all with the goal of supporting participants in this challenge, Piper said.

It's now in its 13th year and has grown with more than 1 million downloads on their app, according to Piper.

A global phenom

Some research indicates that younger Americans are generally drinking less than prior generations. A Gallup poll released last summer reveals that the percentage of Americans who say they drink alcohol fell to a record low. Only 54% of Americans said they drink alcohol, according to the analytics company, which has tracked Americans' drinking habits since 1939. That's one percentage point under the previous record low in 1958.

Along this general move away from a glass of wine or beer, the unofficial Dry January trend has exploded as well.

Piper says he'd prefer if everyone took part in the official challenge put on by Alcohol Change UK to get the most support and benefit, but he says he supports anyone's effort to stop drinking, regardless of the length of time.

"One of the things I love about the Dry January phenomenon is that cultural feeling of, hey, we're in this together," he says. He adds that taking 31 days off from alcohol can be beneficial.

"We think of it sometimes like a fire break, like you have a gap between the trees in a forest in order that the fire can't spread, it stops your alcohol [use] getting worse and worse over time."

And for Kuda, that break nine years ago helped launch her into a new life without alcohol: she's now a sober coach and author.

She says her first Dry January "kind of just snowballed into three months, into six months and a year. I decided to keep going. I was living a pretty miraculous life, and I didn't want to go back."

Copyright 2026 NPR

During the 2024 election, President Donald Trump promised to release the Epstein files as part of a campaign message arguing the government was run by powerful people hiding the truth from Americans.

At the start of 2026, many people agree — and believe that he is now one of the powerful few keeping the public in the dark.

In the two weeks since the Justice Department failed to fully meet a legal deadline to release its expansive tranche of files on Jeffrey Epstein, old conspiracy theories about his life and death have subsided and new ones have taken shape. The late financier was a convicted sex offender and accused of sex trafficking minors while associating with top figures in politics, academia and other influential industries.

Both supporters of the president and his opponents have criticized the rollout of documents, often heavily redacted and shared without any clear organization or context. Included in the roughly 40,000 pages of new information published in the last week are unvetted tips from the public — and a complaint made to the FBI more than a decade before Epstein was first criminally charged.

There could be well over a million files still unreleased, along with potentially terabytes-worth of data seized from Epstein's devices and estate, according to 2020 emails between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York included in the most recent batch of files.

On Wednesday, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche wrote on social media that lawyers were working "around the clock" to review documents but did not specify the scope or scale of the remaining work.

"It truly is an all-hands-on-deck approach and we're asking as many lawyers as possible to commit their time to review the documents that remain," Blanche said. "Required redactions to protect victims take time but they will not stop these materials from being released. The Attorney General's and this Administration's goal is simple: transparency and protecting victims."

A bipartisan group of lawmakers is threatening to take action against the Justice Department for failing to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act passed in November, but the law itself contains no penalties or enforcement mechanism.

Politically, the Epstein files saga caps off a rocky first year for an administration facing record-low favorability ratings and a president whose grasp on his base is appearing to slip. Trump spent most of 2025 downplaying the significance of the files, at times lashing out against Republicans who demanded the release of information about other potential perpetrators.

Congress' demands to release the files are unusual

Jeffrey Epstein abuse survivor Danielle Bensky and National Director of World Without Exploitation Lauren Hersh embrace after receiving word that the U.S. Senate unanimously approved passage of the House's Epstein Files Transparency Act on Capitol Hill on Nov. 18, 2025, in Washington, D.C.

(

Heather Diehl

/

Getty Images

)

The Epstein Files Transparency Act gave a deadline of Dec. 19 for the disclosure of "all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials in the possession of the Department of Justice, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and United States Attorneys' Offices."

Congress gave limited exemptions for redacting and withholding files, including identifying information, photos and videos of victims, child sexual abuse materials and images that depict death, physical abuse or injury.

The law also allows the attorney general to withhold or redact anything classified "in the interest of national defense or foreign policy" or details that would "jeopardize an active federal investigation or ongoing prosecution, provided that such withholding is narrowly tailored and temporary."

It is highly unusual for federal law enforcement to release the entirety of its investigative file for a case, even one that has garnered heavy public interest — let alone be directed to do so by Congress.

The President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, for example, is a 16-page law that set out a 25-year timeline for the release of records related to his assassination, and established a review board to identify relevant records with explicit guidelines and directions. Similarly, the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act of 1998 and Japanese Imperial Government Disclosure Act of 2000 set out a process for evaluating and releasing more than 8.5 million pages.

More recently, presidents have used executive orders to release files related to high-profile events. Former President Joe Biden signed an executive order in 2021 leading the FBI and DOJ to declassify and release roughly 4,000 files related to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Trump's January 2025 executive orders related to the assassinations of JFK, Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. led to the release of close to 400,000 pages.

The 2025 Epstein law is less detailed in its requests and does not provide any additional funding for the Justice Department to complete the process of reviewing and releasing the files.

What we know about the files made public

The vast majority of the roughly 250,000 documents that are now available about Epstein are from public court dockets, Freedom of Information Act requests from state and federal agencies, and records turned over to the House Oversight Committee by Epstein's estate.

That includes communications between Epstein and a vast web of influential figures in politics, academia, business and more, even after he registered as a sex offender.

Trump, who had a decades-long friendship with Epstein before a falling out in the early 2000s, is mentioned frequently in both old and new Epstein files by Epstein himself. Trump has not been credibly accused of wrongdoing in connection to Epstein's alleged crimes.

In one newly released email from 2020, a prosecutor whose name is redacted flags that "Donald Trump traveled on Epstein's private jet many more times than previously has been reported (or that we were aware)." At the same time, Epstein's own emails reveal a near-obsession with Trump's presidency and mock his time in office.

One email sent by federal agents after Epstein was arrested in 2019 for allegedly sex-trafficking minors mentioned 10 possible co-conspirators, including Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell. Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2022 for sex-trafficking minors and other charges. Most of the other names on that list are redacted.

Some emails released in the files detail challenges that federal prosecutors faced obtaining, processing and organizing more than a million documents taken from Epstein's estates, as well as more than 60 devices and other evidence accumulated in the investigation into Epstein and Maxwell.

What we don't know about the remaining files

The Justice Department hasn't indicated how many files remain, how many will be released or whether any information it does release will be factually accurate.

Some of the investigative files released in the last two weeks include unverified fantastical claims about Trump, Epstein and others, including a fake video purporting to show Epstein's death by suicide in his federal prison cell. There was also a forged letter that appeared to be from Epstein to convicted sex offender Larry Nassar that alleged Trump shared a "love of young, nubile girls."

The Justice Department posted on social media last week that the Nassar letter was fake, citing inconsistencies with handwriting and other aspects of its construction.

"This fake letter serves as a reminder that just because a document is released by the Department of Justice does not make the allegations or claims within the document factual," the DOJ X account stated.

Before the president's second term, Trump and top allies like now-FBI Director Kash Patel amplified conspiracy theories about Epstein and his death, which were embraced by their supporters.

Trump's about-face on releasing the files and the trickle of information have spawned new conspiracy theories by some Trump opponents who have seized on salacious and unverified claims released in the document dump. Others have shared previously published redacted court filings out of context to claim that the administration is doctoring files to benefit Trump.

There are also several types of files that lawmakers and victims of Epstein's abuse say exist and should be made public. California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna said on NPR's All Things Considered last week that FBI witness interviews are among those he is looking for.

"I know from survivors and survivors' lawyers that when they had these conversations with FBI agents, they specifically named other men who they were trafficked to or who showed up at the island or who covered up for this abuse," Khanna said. "There were lawyers of the survivors present there. There are dozens of these interview memorandums. The DOJ has not released a single one."

What's next in the Epstein saga?

Reps. Thomas Massie, R-K.Y. (center); speaks alongside Ro Khanna, D-Calif.; and Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., during a news conference on the Epstein Files Transparency Act outside the U.S. Capitol on Nov. 18, 2025.

(

Heather Diehl

/

Getty Images

)

It's unclear what steps Congress may take to try to compel faster or more complete production of files from the Justice Department, or if Khanna and others follow through on proposed "inherent contempt" proceedings against Attorney General Pam Bondi. Lawmakers have been on recess for the holidays and return to Washington next week.

Trump himself continues to fan the flames, including in a Dec. 26 Truth Social post where he appeared to suggest the Justice Department should focus on releasing names of Democrats mentioned in the files and move on.

"When do they say NO MORE, and work on Election Fraud etc.," Trump wrote. "The Dems are the ones who worked with Epstein, not the Republicans. Release all of their names, embarrass them, and get back to helping our Country! The Radical Left doesn't want people talking about TRUMP & REPUBLICAN SUCCESS, only a long ago dead Jeffrey Epstein - Just another Witch Hunt!!!"

But the dump of files is expected to continue, as the tail of the political fallout grows longer heading into the 2026 midterm elections in November. Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is set to resign from the House Jan. 5 after Trump repeatedly attacked her over her lobbying to release the files, shrinking an already-tenuous majority for House Republicans.

Have information or evidence to share about the Epstein files and the Department of Justice's release of documents? Reach out to the author, Stephen Fowler, through encrypted communications on Signal at stphnfwlr.25.
Copyright 2026 NPR

From its start over 200 years ago in central Mexico to the late 20th century, the mariachi genre was traditionally dominated by all-male groups.

Until Rebecca Gonzales helped bust open the door.

“It was very difficult for me in the very beginning,” Gonzales said in a recorded interview now available as part of UCLA's oral history project, Mariachi Music in Los Angeles and beyond. “I felt like all the eyes were on me."

All eyes were on her.

As the sole woman in the leading mariachi group Los Camperos de Nati Cano, the house band at famed La Fonda restaurant in the 1970s, and one of a handful of women in the scene at all, she was a rarity. Gonzales was not the first woman to play music in the genre, but she was the first to be asked to join such a high profile all-male mariachi in either the U.S. or Mexico.

A third generation American integrates a very Mexican genre

Rebecca Gonzales was born in 1953 in San Jose, California. Her mother was born in Arizona and her father in Texas. Her grandparents immigrated from Mexico.

“I never learned Spanish… I started taking Spanish at a community college,” she said.

She started playing violin at 10 years-old and would practice at home with her younger sister.

Rebecca Gonzales, center, joined Los Abajenos de Isidro Rivera before joining Los Camperos de Nati Cano in L.A.

(

Rebecca Gonzales collection, courtesy Mary Alvaro Velasco.

)

“I was an average student. I mean, the only thing I was really good at was music,” she said.

And she was painfully shy, she said. But that all changed when she was 16 and had her first boyfriend.

“He was a musician, so we had that in common, and we would go to concerts all the time. And back then, there was fantastic concerts going on at the Fillmore in San Francisco, where he was, an hour drive from my house,” Gonzales said. That's where she saw Carlos Santana, Jethro Tull and other late 60s rock stars.

Those experiences fed her love of many musical genres, but her music studies still focused on classical violin.

Mariachi wasn’t part of her cultural upbringing. Her father liked and played norteño, the accordion-focused music played by small musical groups on either side of the U.S.-Mexico border.

But when she signed up for a mariachi class at San Jose City College after graduating high school, it was a revelation. The joy and smiles on the faces of the students in that class were contagious, a far cry from the serious face she made, she said, when playing classical music.

“I'll never forget coming home to let my father know that night. I said, 'You know what? This music is really great… I think this is going to be a big part of my life,'" Gonzales said.

She began playing and singing in local Mariachi bands. But that wasn't enough to leave classical music just yet. She transferred to Cal State L.A. and Cal State Northridge to continue studying classical music.

Her big break in L.A.

Mariachi’s pull, however, continued in L.A. The leader of a local mariachi ensemble asked her to join and she jumped at the chance. She also visited La Fonda, to hear what was arguably the best mariachi group outside Mexico at that time, Los Camperos de Nati Cano, the house band at the club on Wilshire Blvd.

Rebecca Gonzales, front-left, was the first woman to join an established all-male mariachi in 1976 in either the U.S. or Mexico.

(

Rebecca Gonzales collection, courtesy Mary Alfaro Velasco

)

“My big break came when I… went there one night to visit, and there was my friend that I worked with in the mariachi in San Jose," who was playing for Los Camperos, she said.

The friend asked Gonzales to come up on stage. A few more impromptu performances followed, until the group's manager asked her to come back again so the founder, Nati Cano, could see her.

“He hired me that night,” she said.

Gonzales was not even 25 years old.

“That took a lot of guts. That's inspiring," said Mary Alfaro Velasco, an L.A. based bolero and mariachi performer who interviewed Gonzales for the archive. “That she went into this all-male, paisa-man environment, as a young Mexican American girl, pochita, that didn't even speak the language."

Gonzales spent eight years playing with Los Camperos, where she became a celebrity of sorts in the U.S. mariachi scene.

“A lot of movie stars used to come to La Fonda,” Gonzales said, noting actors Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Montgomery, and former Beatle George Harrison, who brought his Latina wife, Olivia.

There’s even a photo of her in a mariachi outfit dancing with President Ronald Reagan.

Rebecca Gonzales, left, dances with Ronald Reagan in a photo dated 1982, when Reagan was U.S. President.

(

Rebecca Gonzales collection, courtesy Mary Alfaro Velasco

)

But it was not always glamorous. Gonzales told Velasco about some of the painful parts of being the first woman in such a famous all-male mariachi band.

“I remember her describing what it was like, playing in restaurants [when she was a young woman] and literally being assaulted, men touching her,” Alfaro Velasco said.

La Fonda’s house mariachi made it a tourist destination, including visitors from Japan. The group’s leaders recognized that and included songs outside the Mexican repertoire, like Sakura, a Japanese folk song that’s become representative of Japan.

“I would sing it… and they loved it because we're connecting with their culture,” Gonzales said.

Eight years of performing at La Fonda ultimately took its toll on her health. Patrons smoked inside La Fonda because it had not been banned yet. She began feeling sick, and asked that ventilation be put in. But, she said, the managers refused.

“That was one of the things that turned me off and made me want to leave the group,” she said.

After she left the group in the mid-1980s, she joined other groups and founded her own. In 2004, she was inducted into the Tucson International Mariachi Conference Hall of Fame and in 2023 the Mariachi Spectacular de Albuquerque also inducted her into its hall of fame.

One of her aspirations was for a woman to do what she'd done in the home of mariachi music.

“I'm hoping that I live to see the day that a woman is part of one of those big groups in Mexico,” she said in the interview.

But that didn't happen. Gonzalez died last year at the age of 71, just a few years after recording the oral histories.

Meanwhile, Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan and Mariachi Sol de Mexico de Jose Hernandez, two of the biggest bands in Mexico, remain all-male.

Her story is in the historical record

With her story now in the UCLA archives, it's part of the historical record.

“[Mariachi] is such an important form… everybody who lives in L.A. hears mariachi music and nobody really knows very much about it in terms of the general public,” said Jane Collings, the project manager for the series.

The oral histories of Mexican Americans and other non-white people, she said, are very important in this day and age.

“There's a clear attempt [by the Trump administration] to erase this history and that makes the work of an archive such as this ever more important,” Collings said.

And it's the mission of the UCLA archive, she said, to keep those stories alive for current and future generations.

The pull of Altadena has never let up for Kevin Cooley and his family — through fire, debris and the long, current stretch where the lot that once held their house on El Molino Avenue has sat barren.

"There's no more fire debris. It's all gone. I mean, there's certainly a reminder of the fire everywhere," Cooley said. "It's just all construction ... and lots that are for sale."

Cooley and I first met a day after his house burned down in the Eaton Fire. This summer, he told me they were ready to rebuild. This time around, I suggested meeting at his Altadena lot, expecting to see some signs of construction — and found none.

A rock denoting Kevin Cooley's home in front of his lot in Altadena. Cooley lost his house in the Eaton Fire a year before.

(

Fiona Ng

/

LAist

)

The Altadena lot where Kevin Cooley and his family's house once sat before the Eaton Fire.

(

Fiona Ng

/

LAist

)

Kevin Cooley sitting next to his cleared lot in Altadena.

(

Fiona Ng

/

LAist

)

'Like a rollercoaster'

 "It's been a lot of fluctuation, like a rollercoaster," Cooley said of the decision-making process.  "Just not knowing what the right thing to do is."

The January fire wiped out nearly a decade's worth of life he and his family built in Altadena, confronting them with what Cooley called a "blank slate."

In a whirlwind year of trying to put their lives back together, the thought of whether it's just easier — and less costly — to start anew elsewhere has crossed their minds.

"It's daunting but also kind of interesting to think about all the possibilities that you could have," Cooley said.

Along the way, Cooley, a photographer, turned to his art to make sense of all that was lost — and ended up forging an even deeper relationship with this place.

A picture of roses found growing on a lot on Calaveras Street in Altadena. Cooley says this photo best encapsulates his intention for the series.

(

Kevin Cooley

)

He told me about his first impression of Altadena — how  it seemed "impossibly far away." How the interminable drive that day up Lake Avenue deposited him on the Echo Mountain trail — "one of the most beautiful hikes I've ever been on." How the neighborhood quickly became their entire world after he and his wife bought the place on El Molino, some eight years later.

" I walked my kid to school. My wife, Bridget, she would ride her bike to work," he said. " I mean, that's not what you think of as living in Los Angeles, but yet, it's so close in a lot of ways to everything in L.A."

Home sick

Since the fire, Cooley has been coming up to Altadena, sometimes as many as several times a week. He would drive around the neighborhood, over and over again, to take pictures of whatever might catch his eyes.

His route always begins at his lot on El Molino.

Aloe on Harriet Street.

(

Kevin Cooley

/

Courtesy Kevin Cooley

)

" It seems like a natural starting point and also a place to reflect on coming back, to seeing if it's really a place that I want to rebuild my life again," Cooley said.

About six months ago, he told me he was photographing flowers and plants that rose out of the fire's impossible ruins and burnt trees that managed to sprout new growth.

A redwood palm on Palm Street.

(

Kevin Cooley

/

Courtesy Kevin Cooley

)

A ponytail palm on Athens Street.

(

Kevin Cooley

/

Courtesy Kevin Cooley

)

The 'homesteaders'

Since Thanksgiving, he started to fix his lens on some of the folks living in temporary dwellings on their lots.

"They call themselves the 'homesteaders,'" Cooley said.

Homesteader Tom in Altadena.

(

Kevin Cooley

/

Courtesy Kevin Cooley

)

Cooley took me on a drive, pointing out an Airstream on one block ... then a tiny box of an ADU down another ... then a trailer the size of a school bus ... then a tent ... then a giant RV. A sign in front of it says, "My entire life burned in Altadena and all I got was a stupid sign."

"They're all intending on coming back in a permanent way, but in the meantime, they have many different reasons for being here," Cooley said.

For some, they simply could not stay away.

An Airstream in Altadena.

(

Kevin Cooley

/

Courtesy Kevin Cooley

)

"Being elsewhere has been really hard on them," he said. " They want to feel a connection to this place. They want to be back in Altadena."

Cooley photographed the homesteaders the same way as the wildflowers and the trees, with strobe lights illuminating his subjects against a darkened backdrop at dusk.

Homesteaders Michael and Brooke in Altadena.

(

Kevin Cooley

/

Courtesy Kevin Cooley

)

" Those homesteaders are like the human equivalent of what the plants are doing," he said. "  My idea was to have them match conceptually and visually."

As we drove around, with the majestic mountains sporting a dense coat of Kelly green as our constant North Star, it's impossible to miss the new phase Altadena has entered — as debris and wreckage gave way to neat, empty lots and "For sale" signs to now the wooden frames sprouting into shape on many blocks, all within a year's time.

A fact of life

And these in-between moments of resiliency — be it the plants or the homesteaders — are disappearing quickly.

 "People are building so fast and some people have already built, finished and have moved in. Photographing people in these temporary conditions is almost, again, a race against time," he said.

But their resolve, their longing to be rooted, has reaffirmed his own decision to stay.

A rusted, beat-up VW bus in Altadena

(

Kevin Cooley

/

Courtesy Kevin Cooley

)

Cooley and his wife still will rebuild. They now need to settle on one of the two companies on their shortlist for the job.

This time, the family will have a home tailored to their needs. For Cooley, that means a proper art studio space, instead of working out of the garage like he did before.

Above all, their new house will be built with the next fire in mind.

" Wildfires are a fact of life in California," he has told me every time we meet. "That would mean building the most fire-hardened house possible."