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American Lung Association's Grade of LA's Air: Big Fat 'F'
In the American Lung Association's latest"State of the Air," it's no surprise Los Angeles County fails. For 2008, Los Angeles had 185 orange days (unhealthy for sensitive populations), 55 red days (unhealthy for all of us) and 11 purple days (very unhealthy). In fact, Los Angeles made all 6 top 25 lists for most polluted and at-risk with various factors. On the clean county lists, many northern and eastern California counties made it, including Santa Barbara and San Francisco. Today, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is expected to counter the report touting "improvements to Los Angeles air quality" at a mid-morning press conference.
One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.
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You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
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