New York Times reporting shares one Altadena family’s experience living in their ‘toxic house’

New York Times reporting shares one Altadena family’s experience living in their ‘toxic house’

Devastating fires struck Los Angeles at the beginning of last year, as thousands of displaced families were told by their insurance companies that their smoke-damaged homes were not completely uninhabitable and instead needed to be professionally cleaned and sanitized before it was safe for them to return. However, a recent New York Times investigation has found that chemicals like lead, beryllium, cadmium, chromium, lithium, and manganese were all found in a smoke-damaged Altadena home after a family returned to their home, based on their insurance company’s approved remediations. With no clear standards for how smoke-damaged areas should be cleared for rehabilitation, families are left with a few choices: either accept the remediation provided to them or pay out of pocket to clear out all leftover toxins. Today on AirTalk, we’re joined by Rukmini Callimachi, real estate and housing correspondent for the New York Times, and Blacki Migliozzi, data journalist for the New York Times, who both wrote the piece ‘How Did This Family End Up Back in a Toxic House?’ We also want to hear from you! Have you returned to your smoke-damaged home after insurance remediation? Did you need additional clean-up by a third party? Give us a call at 866-893-5722 or email atcomments@laist.com.

Why Trump’s plan to ban investor home-buying might not help California affordability

Keep up with LAist.

If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less.

Subscribe

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump said he plans to make housing affordable again by cutting deep-pocketed investors out of the single-family home market. But in California, housing policy experts say Trump’s strategy might not move the needle on affordability much. That’s because institutional investors aren’t buying many single-family homes in the Golden State to begin with. Homeownership has become increasingly out of reach for many young families, especially in pricey California. Would a ban on private equity buying homes have an actual impact on the market? How big of a deal is this to California?Joining us for the conversation is LAist housing reporter, David Wagner, and David Garcia, deputy director of policy at UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation.

Read the full LAist story here. 

Smorgasburg LA adds new vendors to kick off 2026

Since opening in June 2016, Smorgasburg LA has helped offer a variety of different food vendors to Angelenos that are as diverse as the city itself. The 10th year of the outdoor market includes the addition of more than a dozen vendors to their lineup, with food ranging from Hawaiian poke to a churro spot originating from Mexico City. Today on AirTalk’s Food Friday, we’ll dig into what this year’s first Smorgasburg LA weekend is looking like with Zach Brooks, the General Manager for Smorgasburg LA, and Paimon ‘Farsi’ Jahanbin, owner of Mamani Pizza, one of the new vendors at Smorgasburg LA.

FilmWeek: ‘Dead Man’s Wire,’ ‘Greenland 2: Migration,’ ‘All That’s Left of You,’ and more!

Larry Mantle and LAist film critics Lael Loewenstein and Beandrea July review this weekend’s latest movie releases in theaters and on streaming platforms.

Films:
Dead Man's Wire, AMC Burbank & AMC Grove|Expands Jan. 16                              
Greenland 2: Migration, Wide Release                    
I Was a Stranger, In Select Theaters                                
All That's Left of You, Laemmle Royal [West LA]                             
The Mother and the Bear, Laemmle Glendale              
Homegrown, Available on VOD                                    
The Forgotten Occupation, Lumiere Cinema [West LA] Jan 10

FilmWeek: Legacy of Hungarian filmmaker Béla Tarr

The celebrated Hungarian filmmaker Béla Tarr, director of such works as Sátántangó and The Turin Horse and the recipient of numerous awards for his long and often darkly comic films, has died at 70. During a career spanning decades, Tarr wrote and directed nine feature films, starting with his debut, Family Nest, in 1979 and ending in 2011 with The Turin Horse, which won the Silver Bear Jury Grand Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival that year. Tarr frequently collaborated with Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai. Tarr’s films, the longest of which, Sátántangó, clocks in at 439 minutes or more than seven hours long, were widely praised as being beautifully shot while often using slow pacing and stark imagery to depict despair and social decay. Often shot in black and white and defined by long, hypnotic single takes that could last upward of ten minutes, Tarr’s films depict bleak, hopeless, even dystopian landscapes set during Hungary’s socialist era or in the years following the end of Soviet-dominated communism in Eastern Europe. We’re joined by film critic Carlos Aguilar, whose work often appears in the LA Times, to talk about Tarr’s unique impression on film.

With files from the Associated Press.

Feature: Director Park Chan-wook talks about his new film No Other Choice

South Korean director Park Chan-wook is considered one of living legends working today, known for his dark comedies inspired by film noir like his breakout hit Oldboy. His work also plays with shifting tones, like the paranoia and romance in the 2022 film Decision to Leave. Chan-wook’s newest film No Other Choice continues this pattern, melding the dark tone of a crime thriller with the slap-stick of a comical farce. The film stars Lee Byun-hun as a paper company employee who has just been laid off. Desperate to maintain his identity as a working man, he takes drastic measures to eliminate his competition in the job market. This time on FilmWeek, Larry Mantle speaks with director Park Chan-wook about his new film No Other Choice and how he decides what films to make at this stage in his career. Park Chan-wook is accompanied by his interpreter Jiwoon Lee.

You can see No Other Choice in select theaters.