The Brief

Four new A Line stations in the San Gabriel Valley opened to the public on Friday, bringing the total length of the light rail to nearly 60 miles as it now extends into Pomona.

The extension brings the line to within just a few miles of the original goal of building out to Montclair, which wasn’t possible due to budget shortfalls and might never come to fruition after the county-level body overseeing transportation in San Bernardino decided earlier this month not to support the project.

Still, Habib Balian, the CEO of the Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority, which has overseen the expansion of the A-line, said the $1.5 billion extension to Pomona has been a long time coming.

“It's probably 20 years overdue,” Balian told LAist. “But we're happy to bring it into fruition at this point.”

Metro’s CEO, Stephanie Wiggins, called the extension a major accomplishment.

“An executive heading to her job downtown, a student on the way to class, or a family going to a Dodgers game, Metro serves all of us,” Wiggins said. “We are part of shared communities, and those communities are interconnected here in the San Gabriel Valley.”

What to know about the extension

The new stations are located in Glendora, San Dimas, La Verne and Pomona. The addition brings the total number of stations on the A Line to 48.

The north-south segment of the train runs from Long Beach through downtown, Northeast L.A. and Pasadena. The four new stations extend the eastern segment, moving the terminus from Azusa to Pomona.

The Glendora, San Dimas and Pomona stations connect with the Foothill Transit bus network. You can also catch the San Bernardino Metrolink at the Pomona station.

There will be more trains running along the A Line now that it’s extended, according to Balian.

Metro says trains will run every 8 minutes during peak weekday hours. During off-peak weekday and daytime weekend hours, trains will run every 10 minutes. In the later hours, the frequency dips to a train every 20 minutes.

Metro estimates a trip from Union Station in downtown L.A. to Pomona will take just over an hour.

The A Line is one of the most popular L.A. Metro rail lines with around 1.8 million boardings per month since the beginning of last year.

The Glendora to Pomona segment of the A Line will open to the public on Sept. 19.

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The significance of the extension

There are 19 college campuses along the route from Azusa to Pomona.

“This particular line is sometimes called the brain train,” Ed Reece, chairman of the construction authority board, said.

Lucas LeVieux, an urban planning student at Cal Poly Pomona, said the A Line extension will be a “game-changer” that will help the school progress toward its climate and enrollment goals.

"Cal Poly Pomona students are really thirsty for quality public transit on campus,” said LeVieux, who serves as a student representative on the university’s Alternative Transportation Committee. “Even with over 14,000 parking spots, I hear students constantly complain about parking availability — to say nothing of the congestion, cost, safety risk and environmental impact of all those cars.”

University of La Verne President Risa Dickson said the expanded Metro rail opens more opportunities for students. Students at junior colleges, for example, need access to housing, she said.

“If they can get on a line at one place and get off at our campus, they can live in our dorms at a much lower rate it will cost them to rent in the community,” Dickson said. “It also enables them to have access to the dining services, have access to the campus community, and it makes it much easier for them to think about their future in a four-year degree format.”

Given the breadth of areas the A Line serves, Reece said the four new stations will help with mobility during the 2028 L.A. Olympics.

“There's very much an opportunity for riders, enthusiasts [and] visitors to jump on and be able to attend some of these events at some of these venues,” he said.

The L.A. County Fairplex, where the annual fair is held and where cricket will be played during the 2028 Games, is a short distance from the new La Verne stop.

Five years and $1.5 billion later

The Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority has overseen the planning, design and construction of A Line extensions since the state created the independent agency in 1998.

The A Line was formerly known as the Gold Line, hence the name of the agency.

The independent agency began major construction on the 9.1 mile-long extension in 2020. It turned the project over to Metro earlier this year for continued testing and future operation.

This extension was originally conceived to include an additional two stations in Claremont and Montclair. But due to budget issues, the plan was changed in 2019 to complete the extension in two phases, with the first bringing the A Line to Pomona.

“It was determined that it was more important to get the project built as far as we could,” Balian said.

The $1.5 billion extension was primarily funded through Measure M, the half-cent sales tax for transportation and mobility projects that L.A. County voters approved in 2016. Unused funding from the Pasadena to Azusa extension, as well as state and local government dollars also supported the project.

Uncertainty for future extension

Whether the train makes it to Montclair is unclear.

The San Bernardino County Transportation Authority announced earlier in September that without a seat on the governing board of the Construction Authority, which would build the project, it was pulling funding from the Montclair extension.

“This decision was not made hastily,” the agency said in a statement. “It comes after nearly a decade of deliberation about the ever-escalating timelines and costs associated with the extension, coupled with the Board’s frustration over the absence of local control in decision-making.”

Balian said the dispute and ensuing decision over the governing structure was “unfortunate.”

“ Although it's worked in every other city along the way over the last 25 miles, it was not something that they were interested in doing or felt comfortable doing,” Balian said.

The agency is still looking to build at least one additional station in Claremont. Balian said the Construction Authority is hoping to award a design contract for that extension in November, followed by a construction contract in two years.

“ In the intervening years, we'll look to San Bernardino to come up with an alternative,” Balian said.

Southern California is getting a dose of unseasonably cool weather — a welcome break after a series of hot, humid heat waves over the last few months.

Lower than normal temperatures are expected to stick around through the weekend.

Highs along the coast will be in the 70s over the next few days. Inland areas of L.A. and Orange counties will get up to the 80s. Even the Inland Empire is expected to peak at about 90 degrees on Friday.

The cooler temperatures are also expected to come with cloudy skies across the region.

The cloud cover will likely be widespread on Friday and much of Saturday, but concentrated mostly in the morning hours and along the coast, where skies could stay cloudy through the afternoon.

The cool, mild conditions won’t last long, though.

Forecasters say temperatures will start to tick back up on Saturday. They will stay below normal seasonal levels for a few days, but the summer heat will be back by the middle of next week.

So this weekend might be a good time to go on a hike or host that barbecue.

Low pressure equals mild temperatures 

The cool weather is a pretty stark change.

Just a few weeks ago, the National Weather Service was issuing warnings across Southern California for extreme heat and predicting nearly record-breaking temperatures. Now, atmospheric conditions have shifted.

Much of that suffocating heat was driven by a massive system of high pressure air hovering over the Southwestern U.S.

High pressure systems trap warm air beneath them and compress it, further warming the air and preventing cooler air from displacing it.

This week, the high pressure system finally loosened its grip.

“That ridge of high pressure kind of broke down, and then a trough of low pressure developed off and along the coast of California,” said Devin Black, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

Low pressure systems force air to rise, and as air rises it cools. It also eventually condenses, often forming cloud cover.

That’s one reason behind the clouds in Southern California this week.

Meanwhile, a deep marine layer and onshore winds are helping push those clouds farther inland. Forecasters note that the low pressure system and onshore winds are also keeping humidity levels up.

Despite the cloud cover and moisture, it’s unlikely there will be much, if any, rain. Some minimal precipitation could be possible in Ventura and Santa Barbara county mountains.

The low pressure system and marine layer will start to shrink on Saturday, allowing heat-generating high pressure to move back into the region.

The deadline set by L.A. Mayor Karen Bass for the removal of all rotting food from the Lineage Logistics cold storage facility in Boyle Heights is fast approaching.

Bass reiterated on Thursday to The LA Local that all of the approximately 88 million pounds of food that had been stored inside when the facility caught fire in June is expected to be removed by Friday. 

City Councilmember Ysabel Jurado, who represents District 14 where Lineage is located, said in a press release Thursday afternoon that the cleanup efforts will likely not meet the deadline. 

“I fully support the Mayor leveraging all the enforcement, cost-recovery, and accountability tools available to make clear that when the City establishes a public-health deadline, corporations are expected to meet it — and there are consequences when they do not,” Jurado said in the statement.

The company’s reports on the cleanup progress, similarly, have not appeared to be on pace with meeting that deadline. And some residents believe the putrid air they’ve had to live with for months will linger indefinitely despite the bureaucratic goal posts being met or moved.

Here’s what we know about the final phase of cleanup.

What is the deadline?

Workers continue to clear out the Lineage warehouse in Boyle Heights.

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Soon after a fire broke out on the roof of the 500,000-square-foot cold storage facility on Los Palos Street on June 17, the managers cut the power to the two massive refrigerated rooms in the building. While firefighters took about a week to contain the blaze, the millions of pounds of food inside quickly began to rot in the summer’s heat.

Bass on June 29 issued an executive order requiring the removal of all remaining food in 45 days, or Friday, Aug. 14. Food cleanup began in early July.

Meanwhile, residents of Boyle Heights, East L.A. and several other neighboring communities who were left to deal with the putrid odors, have made more than 4,000 air quality complaints to regulators since early July.

It’s not the only deadline Lineage Logistics faces.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District, which regulates air pollution in the region, issued 19 notices of violation alleging the odors created a public nuisance. Last week, the agency ordered the company to meet dozens of cleanup and air quality control standards, including enforceable requirements for food removal and full facility cleaning.

That agency set a separate deadline of weeks for the food and other material to be removed before the remaining freezer room is fully sanitized.

What’s been cleaned up so far?

The freezer that was extensively damaged by fire has been cleared. The remaining freezer held the vast majority of the rotting food that has been polluting the air in nearby neighborhoods.

Lineage Logistics has for weeks reported on its website about its progress toward 100% cleanup. 

Residents can get a sense of their pace for cleanup by tracking their reports:

• Aug. 7: 85% of food waste had been removed 
• Aug. 11: 92% of “bulk food cleanup” was completed
• Aug. 12: 93% of food had been cleaned up

It’s unclear how exactly Lineage is arriving at these measurements and how the city or some other agency is independently verifying this progress.

Will they meet the deadline?

The deadline set by Mayor Karen Bass for the removal of all rotting food from the Lineage Logistics cold storage facility in Boyle Heights is fast approaching.

Lineage is clearing between 1% and 1.5% of food each day, according to their progress reports. This roughly aligns with the weekly goal AQMD ordered Lineage to maintain, 10% or 8.8 million pounds of food removed each week.

At that pace, it is unlikely they’ll be able to remove the remaining 7% of food waste in the next 24 hours. 

Unless they significantly accelerate, this puts full food cleanup somewhere into next week. That revised timeline better aligns with the one Dominic DiCarlo, vice president of global safety and compliance for Lineage, outlined during the AQMD hearing last week.

DiCarlo added that the company expects to spend between $80 and $100 million on the cleanup and related expenses, which has been described as continuing around the clock.

Lineage did not respond to The LA Local’s request for more information about their progress toward the mayor’s deadline on Thursday.

What happens if they blow the deadline?

Jurado reported Thursday that Lineage would not meet the deadline, and expressed frustration with what residents have had to deal with.

Jurado’s statement reflected this: “For nearly two months, families in Boyle Heights have lived with unbearable odors, flies and pests, truck traffic, uncertainty, and disruption to their homes, businesses, and daily lives. They were told there was a deadline, and they had every right to expect that deadline to mean something.”

Bass’ executive order does not provide details on what will happen if Lineage does not meet the Friday deadline for clean up. Her office told The LA Local that it will provide more information on Thursday about the consequences if the deadline is not met.

She is also hosting a virtual community meeting Thursday about the cleanup efforts. 

Bass was among several local elected officials who had pushed AQMD to levy fines on Lineage for its air pollution violations, which it did not do. She has pushed city agencies to prevent Lineage from reconstructing the facility and continuing its business there. Local lawmakers have also introduced legislation that could increasingly regulate similar businesses in the future.

AQMD can levy penalties if Lineage does not meet its deadlines for cleanup in the coming weeks.

What are residents saying?

Residents on Prado Street were still hopeful Thursday that cleanup would be finished by the deadline.

“Ojalá,” that’s what Irma Soto said when she was asked if she believed workers would finish in time. “I hope they finish so this could all end.”

“It smells horrible,” she added as the stench emanated from the neighborhood early Thursday afternoon.

Soto said she’s been seeing more trailers picking up debris lately. Her neighbor said there appears to be more nighttime work near the facility recently.

“Who knows if they’ll finish, but they are working faster,” the neighbor said.

The post Lineage unlikely to meet deadline to clear 88 million pounds of rotting food from Boyle Heights appeared first on LA Local.

Jake Hemann grabbed a board and headed out to surf. But an hour later, he wound up sitting at the lifeguard station soaking his foot in a pail of hot water alongside four other beachgoers.

It is a common scene at Bolsa Chica State Beach and some other popular beaches in Southern California where the number of people being hit by the sharp, serrated caudal barbs found on the tails of stingrays has gone up significantly from a year ago as a marine heat wave draws more stingrays — and people — to shore.

Hemann, a 31-year-old tourist from New Mexico, said he was learning to surf when he hopped off his board and landed on what he thought was a sharp stick. “It hurt pretty bad,” he said, while sinking his throbbing foot into the hottest water tolerable to ease the pain. “It was radiating up to my ankle.”

Bolsa Chica and Huntington State Beaches reported more than 3,100 incidents so far this year, twice the number for all of 2025. The city of Huntington Beach’s 3.5-mile (5.6-kilometer) stretch of shoreline has reported more than 2,000 such incidents so far this year, more than during all last year, while more than 900 stings were recorded on San Diego’s beaches during the first half of 2026, more than during the first six months of any of the past five years, lifeguard data shows.

“We’re definitely seeing an increase,” said Bryan R. Etnyre, state park superintendent in northern Orange County. “A lot of it is due to warming ocean temperatures that are consistently staying in the 60s. I don’t think there was a week all winter where we dropped below 60 this year.”

Warmer water draws rays and people

Round stingrays are found in Pacific Ocean waters from Panama to Southern California and are known to veer toward the shore when the swell is down and the water warm.

In recent years, many species that feed on rays, such as sharks, sea lions and giant sea bass, have seen their populations dwindle, causing the number of stingrays to grow, said Chris Lowe, a professor of marine biology and director of the Shark Lab at California State University, Long Beach.

Rays are known to prefer warmer water, such as lagoons. Females prefer these waters to reproduce, and during the summer male rays have a higher metabolism that drives them to seek out food in the invertebrates along the shore, Lowe said.

“They’re really a subtropical species that is thriving at the end of its range because of climate change,” Lowe said.

The ocean already has been warming because of human-caused climate change, according to meteorologists.

This year has seen even more rays with a marine heat wave persisting off parts of the West Coast, marking the third time on record that such a large section of coastal waters stayed warm for so long, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In June, officials confirmed the formation of an El Niño, the natural warming of parts of the central Pacific that alters weather worldwide, that is expected to grow to historic strength.

Meanwhile, more people have been heading to beaches seeking outdoor recreation since the coronavirus pandemic. And when the water is warm, they are more likely to swim.

When rays are stepped on, they instinctively flick up their tails, stinging people with venomous barbs. Lifeguards urge bathers to shuffle their feet as they enter the water as the movement often gets rays to slide out of the way without stinging.

In Southern California, lifeguards can treat 10,000 stingray injuries a year, Lowe said.

In Seal Beach, one area draws so many due to an influx of warm water from a nearby power plant it is known as “ray bay,” though lifeguards there haven’t seen much change in stings this year.

Using a 75-foot-long net, researchers swept up some 200 stingrays, each about the size of a dinner plate, on a section of the beach on a recent morning.

“There can be so many that they actually carpet the bottom, like you can’t see sand,” Lowe said. “During El Niños, we get more of them up from the south, and they come closer to shore. So this year, we’re expecting record numbers.”

Sting advisory and booties aim to help

Lowe said he is working with television stations to develop a stingray advisory to help reduce the number of people who get stung, and the number of rays that get squished. Rays help keep the beach healthy by feeding on small clams and aerating sediment.

Many beaches use an app to notify bathers when there are multiple stings at a location. Meanwhile, a company has developed surf booties that claim to be barb-resistant — though swimmers are urged to still tread lightly to avoid trampling the rays.

At Bolsa Chica State Beach, swimmers suffering stings to the sides of their feet and toes sat in a circle refilling their pails with hot water from a hose. Some were there more than an hour waiting for the pain to ease.

Most stings don’t require additional medical attention. If redness and swelling continue more than four or five days, there could be a medical complication such as an infection or a retained barb that can be seen on an X-ray, said Dr. Christanne Coffey, who researches the stings at University of California, San Diego Health.

Allen Lowry said he was playing with his 7-year-old grandson when he came down on something squishy. He lifted his foot and saw blood so his wife drove him to the lifeguard station for a hot water soak, which is the remedy for stings.

Lowry, 69, said he swims three times a week at another beach, and getting stung, though painful, won’t change that. He said some people in his swim group have been stung multiple times.

“Usually, once the pain you feel goes away, you feel fine the next day,” he said.

California's prison system has systematically failed to protect incarcerated women from sexual abuse and harassment by guards, the U.S. Department of Justice said Thursday.

The federal investigation also found that California’s corrections department failed to provide victims with a safe way to report sexual abuse and harassment without retaliation. On top of that, staff who were tasked with investigating the misconduct were often themselves accused of sexual abuse or harassment.

The investigation, which began during the Biden administration, focused on two state prisons: the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla and the California Institution for Women in Chino. It uncovered numerous instances where guards regularly sexually abused incarcerated women. In at least one instance, a guard was convicted of rampant abuse over roughly a decade and sentenced to 224 years in prison.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Women were told to report misconduct on an online system that wasn’t confidential and that the accused officers had access to, according to Harmeet K. Dhillon, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

Dhillon said that women are “fully aware of this gap in confidentiality, and this serves as a deterrent from women reporting this misconduct.” She named at least one sergeant whose job it was to investigate misconduct who was himself sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to receiving child sexual abuse images on the job.

“The upshot of our investigation is that California’s prison system, when it comes to women, has inadequate systems in place to deter, detect, and hold accountable rampant sexual misconduct and assault on female prisoners,” Dhillon said at a news conference held in Los Angeles on Thursday.

The Associated Press in previous years exposed similar patterns of rampant abuse by federal prison staff against women held in Dublin, California, a facility that at the time was nicknamed the “rape club.” The prison was closed following the AP investigation.

The federal government on Thursday gave California's prison system 49 days to remediate the conditions  that enabled the rampant abuse, warning that a failure to do so could result in civil litigation.

The measures include expanded camera coverage, enhanced confidential reporting channels and strengthened investigative protocol.U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, who was appointed by President Donald Trump as the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, said California has to take action.“The State must confront the persistent failure of its own employees to prevent and address sexual abuse at these facilities,” Essayli wrote in a statement, “and the systemic breakdowns that have permitted these conditions to persist.”

How to report abuse

An incarcerated person, or someone acting on their behalf, has several options to report alleged abuse while in custody of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR):

• Complete a form
• Call the Office of Inspector General’s hotline at (800) 700-5952 or *7732# (quick dial from a CDCR phone or tablet)
• Write to: OIG, 10111 Old Placerville Road, Suite 110, Sacramento, CA, 95827