How To LA: Solar Rooftop Program Helping Low-Income Families (And Other Headlines)

Historically, Pacoima, one of the hottest neighborhoods in L.A., has seen on average around 50 days above 90° F every year. And by 2035, the neighborhood is projected to experience on average 108 days above 90° F.

Free solar program faces hurdle

So what can families, especially low-income households, do to conserve and save money on energy?

My colleague Erin Stone talked to a family in the area about how a free rooftop solar program is helping them make the switch. But the program also faces one major challenge: getting homeowners to trust it. Read Erin’s story here.

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(After you stop hitting snooze)

• Beginning this month, childless adults between the ages of 18 to 50 will need to show they work at least 80 hours a month or are enrolled in a training or education program to receive CalFresh benefits.
• Workers across industries have gone on strike and rallied throughout the summer, calling for better working conditions. One throughline is that workers simply can’t afford to live where they work. That’s not only bad for workers, it’s also bad for the climate crisis.
• This has been a summer of strikes in Los Angeles, with hotel workers, actors, and script writers exercising their union muscle. But it wasn't always that way in L.A.
• September kicks off with a week of great stuff to do! Here are all the fun things happening in Los Angeles and SoCal. 
• A state law that went into effect this year required CHP to create a new online training program for E-Bike safety — we have some details.

The band M Street took to the stage for a benefit concert this weekend less than two weeks after two of its band members were wounded during the mass shooting at Cook's Corner in Orange County.

Wait... one more thing...

What is an octopus garden?

Researchers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute studied female octopuses that nest together off Central California at a depth of about 3,200 meters.

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Courtesy MBARI

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As someone who works in social media, something that grabs the audience is unusual sea occurrences — like the bioluminescent waves, for example. And here’s another one to add: Off the coast of California, there’s a rare “octopus garden” where 6,000 octopuses call an extinct underwater volcano home. But why did they pick this specific area and why is it so unusual? This factoid stood out to me:

“Octopuses generally are antisocial loners that would rather fight another octopus than live in close quarters. And yet biologists had stumbled onto an enormous octopus garden, a trippy scene straight out of a Beatles song.”

Read more about the “octopus garden” and the findings here.