Footage shows a fire burning near Dubai International Airport after a drone ignited a fuel tank, according to authorities in the UAE. Flights have been suspended. Civil defence crews say the blaze is under control.
Published On 16 Mar 202616 Mar 2026
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Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says Tehran never sought a ceasefire with the US, and is ready for a long war.
Published On 16 Mar 202616 Mar 2026
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Good morning, and welcome to L.A. on the Record — our City Hall newsletter. It’s Noah Goldberg, with an assist from David Zahniser and Melissa Gomez, giving you the latest on city and county government.
Former Deputy City Atty. Michelle McGinnis wants to know why she was escorted out of City Hall in front of her colleagues, forced to turn in her work computer and placed on administrative leave in April 2024.
In her search for answers, a separate issue has arisen: whether her former boss is withholding or deleting text messages.
In a lawsuit against the city, McGinnis subpoenaed text messages about her between City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto and one of her top deputies, Denise Mills.
But according to a new petition that McGinnis filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, Feldstein Soto produced zero text messages between her and Mills, and Mills produced just three with Feldstein Soto. The subpoena also asked for messages on Signal and other apps.
McGinnis’ lawyer, Caleb Mason, said the lack of texts strains credulity and probably means that some were deleted or withheld. McGinnis, who headed the criminal branch of the City Attorney’s Office, was fired in January 2025.
“It is obviously relevant and critical … to see what Ms. Feldstein [Soto] and Ms. Mills were saying to one another about Ms. McGinnis … that led to the extraordinary and unprecedented action of escorting a Branch Chief out of the building,” Mason wrote in a Feb. 23 brief.
A deputy city attorney representing Feldstein Soto and Mills disputed Mason’s claims in court filings, calling the new petition “uncomprehensible [sic]” and asserting that the two officials complied with the subpoenas. The attorney also sent 2,061 pages of documents to Mason.
Feldstein Soto, in a declaration, said that she “diligently searched for any documents” and shared them with her lawyer.
Mills said she did the same. In an effort to “retrieve any backup text messages,” she performed a factory reset of her phone on Jan. 30. McGinnis said the subpoenas were served on Dec. 15.
McGinnis’ lawyer said that was tantamount to spoliation — or destruction of evidence.
“Every court and every attorney in the country knows that ‘performing a factory reset’ means erasing information from a phone,” he wrote.
“It is reckless or negligent to reset a device when you know the opposing party is seeking that info,” said Laurie Levenson, a professor of law at Loyola Law School.
Still, Levenson said, politicians and lawyers often prefer speaking in person or on the phone to avoid their communications being exposed in a lawsuit. So it’s possible that the two didn’t exchange many text messages.
Feldstein Soto said in a statement that she has turned over all text messages about McGinnis. “There is nothing new here,” she said. “Ms. McGinnis was terminated, for cause. We remain confident in that decision.”
The city has argued that McGinnis “routinely opposed” Feldstein Soto’s policy and prosecutorial decisions.
McGinnis was placed on administrative leave due to a “pattern of insubordination and failure to meet minimal job requirements,” the city wrote in a legal filing in 2024.
The lawsuit that McGinnis filed against the city in 2024 alleged that Feldstein Soto retaliated against McGinnis and made prosecutorial decisions based on “personal relationships” or “perceived political gain.” The lawsuit also accused Feldstein Soto and Mills of “inappropriate alcohol consumption” in the office.
Other local politicians have also coughed up remarkably few text messages in response to public records requests.
Mayor Karen Bass came under scrutiny following the Palisades fire over the fact that her text messages auto-delete after 30 days, destroying potentially critical information about her decisions surrounding the devastating blaze. The Times sued the city after Bass’ counsel argued that her texts were “ephemeral” and not subject to public records requests. L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger also said she auto-deletes messages after 30 days — and sometimes manually deletes them.
City Council President Marqueece Harris Dawson, meanwhile, turned over zero texts, emails, Signal and WhatsApp messages in response to a Times public records request for his communications with Bass from Jan. 6 to Jan. 16, 2025 — before, during and after the Palisades fire.
Harris-Dawson’s office said it had “conducted a search and found no responsive records for this request.”
— IDK, VOTERS SAY: A majority of Angelenos have not made up their minds about the June 2 mayoral primary, according to a poll released this week. Bass had the most support at 20%, while reality TV star Spencer Pratt had 10% and Councilmember Nithya Raman had 9%, the poll found.
— HOMELESS DEATHS DROP: For the first time in the decade that homeless mortality has been tracked in Los Angeles County, fewer people have died on the streets and in shelters than the year before, the Department of Public Health reported Tuesday. A sharp decrease in overdose deaths drove a decline of 10% in the rate of homeless deaths from all causes in 2024, the most recent data analyzed by the county.
— LAST-MINUTE MEMO: The City Council was set to vote on a $177-million contract for the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles to continue representing tenants for the next three years, with other groups providing related services. But the night before the March 3 vote, Feldstein Soto sent a confidential memo to council offices recommending that council members “reconsider the award of such a large contract to a frequent litigant against the city.”
The council approved the contract, with changes, a week later.
— CAMPAIGN REVELATION: Community organizer Jordan Rivers, who is running against incumbent Tim McOsker to represent Council District 15, said he will continue his campaign after a report surfaced that he stabbed a neighbor when he was 12. Rivers, now 22, stabbed the 8-year-old boy in the neck and shoulders, inflicting “severe and life threatening physical and emotional injuries,” a lawsuit said. On Monday, Rivers said it was an “accident” that happened a decade ago.
“I do not believe that past situations or indeed past mistakes define or determine who a person is or what they are,” he said.
— LAPD REFORMS: A series of proposed changes to the city’s charter — essentially its constitution — could give elected leaders in Los Angeles more oversight over the Police Department and enable the police chief to fire problem officers. The changes, recommended by the city’s Charter Reform Commission, have long been sought by advocates and are likely to face fierce opposition.
— SUPE SPEAKS: Embattled Los Angeles schools chief Alberto Carvalho made his first public statement since the FBI raided his home and district office on Feb. 25. He denied any wrongdoing and asked to return to his duties.
“While the government’s investigation remains ongoing, no evidence has been presented by prosecutors supporting any allegation that Mr. Carvalho violated federal law,” the statement said.
— A WEEK OF WIPEOUTS: With city officials finalizing the list of candidates for the June 2 election, a number of hopefuls failed to gather enough signatures to qualify for the ballot. They include community leader Eddie Ha, publicist Dory Frank and entrepreneur Jeremy Wineberg on the Westside; residential connectivity specialist Rosa Requeno on the Eastside; neighborhood council member Jon Rawlings in the San Fernando Valley; and neighborhood council president Adriana Cabrera, civil rights attorney Chris Martin and social worker Michelle Washington in South L.A.
— REWORKING ULA (TAKE 3): The City Council voted Wednesday to create an ad hoc committee to look at potential changes to Measure ULA, the tax on high-end property sales passed in 2022. City leaders have made two previous moves to rewrite the measure, neither of which succeeded.
— VOTING OLYMPIC VALUES: The council voted Friday to “express concern” about LA28 Olympics committee chairman Casey Wasserman, saying his appearance in the Epstein files poses a “potential conflict” with the values of the Olympic movement. Several elected officials at City Hall, including Bass, had already called for Wasserman to step down.
— MEETING OF MAYORS: On Friday, about 20 mayors and city council members from across L.A. County, including Bass, came together to discuss the impact that immigration raids have had on their communities. Many raised concerns about the role of local law enforcement in allowing federal agents to act with what they described as impunity.
One mayor suggested that all the cities that contract with the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department should get together to demand accountability for deputies in their interactions with immigration agents.
That’s it for this week! Send your questions, comments and gossip to LAontheRecord@latimes.com. Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Saturday morning.
A strike on the heavily fortified United States embassy compound in Baghdad caused a fire and damage to the complex. It is the second attack on the embassy since the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran on February 28.
Published On 14 Mar 202614 Mar 2026
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The Bahraini interior ministry released footage of a massive blaze at a fuel storage facility following an Iranian attack. Bahrain hosts the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet and has been consistently targeted amid the US-Israeli initiated war.
Published On 12 Mar 202612 Mar 2026
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Jacob Ulibarri spent about six hours on New Year’s Day last year squashing hot spots where the Lachman fire had burned.
The rookie Los Angeles firefighter arrived sometime after 7 a.m., when the smoky areas were all over and easy to see. By the time the next crew swapped with his that afternoon, they were scarcer: “One every 30 minutes, roughly,” Ulibarri recalled.
At that point, Battalion Chief Martin Mullen, who was running the mop-up operation, had walked three laps around the perimeter of the fire. He recalled one hot spot he saw at about 10 a.m., which crews hit with water. Later in the afternoon, Mullen did his fourth and last loop and left the area for good.
He decided to leave the hoses out overnight, just in case.
Over the next two days, a series of communication failures and questionable decisions led crews to leave the area prematurely, with embers from the small Jan. 1 fire later reigniting into the devastating Palisades fire. A firefighter picking up hoses on Jan. 2 found crackling, red-hot coals in the dirt and warned colleagues that a more thorough mop-up was needed. Also that morning, a captain cautioned his chief that it was too soon to pick up the hoses. In yet another missed opportunity, crews apparently did not walk the entire perimeter of the burn scar after a caller reported smoke in the area on Jan. 3.
Because of the holiday, some were filling in for others outside of their normal assignments. Firefighters said they adhered to the LAFD’s strict chain of command and did not question higher-ups, while those in charge had fuzzy memories or shifted responsibility to others.
The revelations, contained in the sworn testimony of a dozen firefighters earlier this year as part of a lawsuit filed by Palisades fire victims, corroborate previous reporting by The Times and call into question the LAFD’s repeated claims that commanders left the fire “dead out.” More than a year later, with much of the Palisades still in ruins, LAFD leaders have refused to explain how or why the breakdowns occurred.
The LAFD employees mentioned in this story either could not be reached or declined to comment.
In a statement Monday, LAFD spokesperson Stephanie Bishop pointed to the alleged arsonist charged by federal prosecutors with deliberately setting the earlier fire. “The Lachman and Palisades Fire incidents would not be matters of discussion had this individual not allegedly initiated the original fire,” she said.
“It is important to allow the legal process to proceed without external influence or speculation. Offering running commentary on depositions outside of the courtroom risks compromising witness testimony, affecting the integrity of evidence review, and impacting ongoing judicial proceedings. We stand by the investigation conducted by the ATF,” Bishop added, referring to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Around 6 a.m. on Jan. 2, 2025
At the end of his 24-hour overtime shift, Mullen handed the reins to Battalion Chief Mario Garcia, recommending that the incoming chief scope out the fire perimeter.
“I told him I left him hose lines in place overnight. You need to walk that and make sure there’s nothing going up on there,” said Mullen, whose regular job is managing the LAFD’s 106 fire stations and 30 or so other buildings.
Before Garcia set foot on the burn scar, he put word out to station captains about the plan for the morning: Pick up hoses.
At Fire Station 19 in Brentwood, Capt. Alexander Gonzalez got a text from the chief’s aide, directing him to bring a “plug buggy” — a pickup truck used to carry equipment — “to help pick up hose.”
The plan reached Capt. David Sander at Fire Station 23 in the Palisades and Capt. Michael McIndoe at Fire Station 69.
McIndoe had reservations.
He told the chief’s aide that he thought the hoses should stay out longer. He had seen the forecast that day — a National Weather Service alert had warned of weather conducive to wildfires — and handling any lingering hot spots would be easier with hoses in place. The aide told him to take it up with the chief.
So McIndoe shared his concerns with Garcia over the phone.
Garcia “said something along the lines of, ‘OK. Let me go check it out, and then I’ll get back to you,’” McIndoe testified.
But the orders for the morning never changed.
8:30 a.m. on Jan. 2, 2025
After a briefing at Fire Station 23, Scott Pike and his partner took their ambulance to a cul-de-sac near the burn area. They spotted some hose dangling over a retaining wall covered in ivy.
An engine crew threw a 20-foot ladder to get over the wall. Soon, Pike said, they got another call and left.
“We were kind of making jokes, like, ‘It’s on us,’’’ recalled Pike, a firefighter normally assigned to a station in Sunland.
He grabbed his brush jacket, helmet and gloves and climbed over. He decided to hike to the end of the hose line — he was feeling good and thought he’d get a workout in.
Pike followed the main line — called the trunk line — which had hoses branching off in other directions. About 100 feet in, he saw where grass had burned. He navigated through culverts and climbed a steep hill of about 300 feet before hitting a hiking trail.
When he got to the end of the line, at about 8:45 a.m., he noticed a handful of smoky areas in heavier brush, and a hand line that wasn’t cut properly.
One ash pit was so hot he didn’t want to touch it, even with gloves. So he kicked it with his boot, exposing red-hot coals. He heard crackling and smelled smoke. He looked around, and there were no other firefighters.
We shouldn’t be picking up hoses, he thought to himself. Instead, we should be filling the hoses with water to do a more thorough mop-up.
He pinched the hose, directing any residual water to the ash pit. It steamed and crackled. He felt defeated when he only got a couple of gallons out, which wasn’t enough.
He slowed down, in case the pickup plan were to change because of his observations, and was relieved when more crews began hiking over.
“Hey, guys, are you seeing what I’m seeing?” Pike told a couple of firefighters. He was working an overtime shift away from his usual fire station, so he didn’t know them. “Like, maybe we should be charging these lines instead of picking them up.”
Since they were already there, he figured, some extra mop-up could save them work down the line if the fire were to reignite.
The firefighters shrugged him off and seemed eager to finish the assignment.
“They were like, ‘Yeah, I see what you’re saying,’ And then it was like, ‘We’ll tell one of the skippers. We’ll tell one of the captains.’ But, like, in the meantime, people were just very much like, just get the hose picked up,” Pike testified.
Shortly after, he saw a captain and raised the same concerns.
“That’s how I approached him, is like, ‘Hey, Cap … We have hot spots in general. We have some ash pits,’” Pike said. “That’s an alert to double-check the whole area and maybe we need to switch our tactics.”
Pike testified that it was not his job “to overstep and tell him what to do. He earned that rank.”
The captain suggested possibly bringing hand tools or a backpack filled with water up the hill to extinguish any hot spots.
Pike went back to picking up the hose while awaiting new orders, which never came.
The LAFD has declined to say whether the captain has been identified. Pike believed the captain was from Engine 69, which would have been McIndoe. But McIndoe told The Times he did not speak with Pike that day.
McIndoe said he also came across a smoldering ash pit during the couple of hours he was on the hill.
He retrieved a backpack with water from his engine, sprayed into the ground with a couple of gallons of water and dug up the dirt with his hand tool until he was satisfied it was cool.
At one point, he saw Garcia, the battalion chief, and brought up their earlier conversation.
“I just went up to him, and I said, ‘Hey, I hope you don’t think I’m just trying to get out of work,’” McIndoe said. “And he said, ‘No, that’s — that’s fine.’ Something along those lines, and that that’s all I can really recall.”
He said he was trying to tell Garcia that he believed “that the hose should stay up a little bit longer.”
By the time Gonzalez, who was backfilling that day at the Brentwood station, got to the scene, the operation was well underway, with half the hose already down the hillside.
“When I got there, it was just, it’s like a big daisy chain of hands pulling hose off and getting it down to the street. And rolling it, hosing it off and loading it into the plug buggy,” he testified.
He did not see smoldering that day. He testified that he went about 200 to 300 feet up, to where piles of hose were being dropped. “The next person brings it back down and that was it,” he said.
Some firefighters on hose pickup duty that day have not been deposed in the lawsuit. Aside from McIndoe and Pike, the four other firefighters who testified that they were at the burn scar on Jan. 2 said they did not see smoldering.
Garcia testified that at the burn scar, no one raised any concerns with him about the hose pickup. Nor did he see any need to leave the hoses at the site.
At 1:35 p.m. on Jan. 2, Garcia texted two higher-ups: “All hose and equipment has been picked up.”
Around 4:30 p.m., Garcia walked the area again with his aide to see if they had left any equipment behind. He saw no issues.
“We both walked the whole area,” Garcia said. “We went separate directions, but covered the whole area, and there was nothing that would bring any concern.”
11:51 a.m. on Jan. 3, 2025
Shortly before noon, someone called the LAFD about a grass fire in the burn area.
Engineer Edward Rincon, who had been on Engine 23 retrieving hoses the day before, pulled up to the same cul-de-sac. Once again, his crew threw the 20-foot ladder over the retaining wall. As on the previous day, he never entered the burn scar. He stayed with the engine while the captain and two firefighters went to scope out the area. He set the volume high on his radio to hear if they needed anything.
On the other side of the wall, Capt. Cesar Garcia walked for what he said was more than a couple of football fields, while the two firefighters went to different peaks to look around for smoke or fire.
“Everything is completely burned. I don’t smell anything. I don’t see any smoke. I don’t see any fire,” he testified.
He canceled another engine that was assigned to the call.
Firefighter Michael Contreras said he also didn’t see smoke. He said he could not see the entirety of the burn scar from his vantage point. He also said he did not suggest to his captain, Cesar Garcia, that they walk the whole perimeter.
“Is there a reason you did not?” a plaintiffs’ attorney asked.
“Again, would not be my lane to tell him that, you know,” he said.
Battalion Chief Mario Garcia was on duty again that day. Like Rincon, he stayed with his vehicle. Cesar Garcia said the chief pulled up a live feed on an iPad from two cameras on the mountain, which showed no smoke or fire.
An incident report shows they spent about 34 minutes on the call.
On the morning of Jan. 7, LAFD records show, a captain on duty in the Palisades called Fire Station 23 and told colleagues: The Lachman fire had started up again.
A Maronite Catholic priest has been killed by Israeli tank fire after it targeted a home in southern Lebanon. Father Pierre al-Rahi was reportedly killed when an Israeli tank fired on the home of a local couple a second time after several people had rushed there to try to help.
Published On 10 Mar 202610 Mar 2026
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“I put in everything I would have wanted playing clubs — bus parking, a great green room and amazing sound system,” Mesh said. “In L.A., I wouldn’t have come close to getting this. But Indio’s very exciting — a lot of young metal bands are thriving, and now you don’t even have to go to the high desert to find them.”
Mesh is well known in the desert’s music scene (he also opened Studio B, a high-end mix studio). The venue — formerly the Little Street Music Hall — had a knotty opening after some early ownership disputes with former partners. But for salty desert rockers and hungry young punks who can’t afford Coachella tickets, it’s a welcome addition to the scene. “Pappy’s has a vibe where you go to the club just knowing there’ll be something cool there,” Mesh said, “Indio is getting that too.”
Whilst he may be a stranger to Wales, Govil is quick to point out his familiarity with franchise success.
His Washington Freedom side have won the most games in the three years of MLC, taking home the trophy in 2024 and finishing runners-up in 2025.
“I have a history of doing this, it’s not just the Washington Freedom. I had a professional badminton team in India and in the very first year we won the championship,” the Maryland-based entrepreneur said.
“Even business, I’ve taken over assets, which are really underperforming and turned it around.”
The secret to his success?
“It’s all about looking at a big picture, having the right components, and creating an environment which is very fertile towards success,” he explained.
Fire have already been busy trying to acquire the right components.
Salt, Chris Woakes, Marco Jansen and Rachin Ravindra have joined the men’s side as direct signings whilst Freya Kemp, Georgia Wareham and Georgia Voll have signed with the women’s team.
If Govil is to be successful in reversing the fortunes of his new franchise, the team’s performances on the field will need to mirror his own bold confidence.
The next step to building this team will come in this week’s inaugural auction.
As well as having the opportunity to build a competitive team Govil will have the chance to shine a light on Welsh talent and create an identity fans are more likely to subscribe to.
Then, comes the hope of bringing a history of success to a place that has not yet experienced it.
Footage captured a massive fire raging at the Shehran oil depot on the outskirts of northern Tehran following an Israeli attack late Saturday night. The Israeli military claimed responsibility for striking fuel storage and related sites it alleges are affiliated with the Iranian armed forces.
Published On 7 Mar 20267 Mar 2026
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Good morning, and welcome to L.A. on the Record — our City Hall newsletter. It’s David Zahniser, with an assist from Howard Blume and Noah Goldberg, giving you the latest on city and county government.
She’s blunt. She’s combative. She doesn’t go along to get along.
And now, Los Angeles City Councilmember Monica Rodriguez is almost certainly getting four more years in office.
On Wednesday, with the deadline past, no one filed a petition to challenge Rodriguez in the June 2 primary election. That makes her the only official at City Hall to be in that coveted position this year.
One caveat: Someone could still run as a write-in, waging a long-shot campaign. But realistically, Rodriguez has a free ride to continue representing her northeast San Fernando Valley district.
Rodriguez, who lives in Mission Hills, said she had been prepping for “another fight,” raising money and giving endorsement interviews. Now, she’s started talking about what her third and final term could look like.
“Giddyup. Everyone better buckle up,” she said, cackling.
For an elected official, nothing can bolster one’s confidence like a reelection victory or two. Newly elected council members tend to keep a low profile their first few years. The longer they stay, the more outspoken they become.
Rodriguez, on the other hand, has been willing to speak her mind for quite some time.
She’s been a longstanding critic of Mayor Karen Bass’ Inside Safe program, which moves homeless people indoors. She has pushed, without success, for the city to yank its money from the embattled Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, or LAHSA. Last fall, she told a mayoral aide that Bass’ team “botched” the Palisades fire recovery in the first few months.
Rodriguez frequently expresses her views in vivid terms, and in ways that can annoy her colleagues.
Last year, she warned a proposal to hike the minimum wage for hotel and airport workers to $30 per hour would trigger job losses, leaving the city with “the best paid unemployed workforce in America.”
She denounced the city’s plan to upgrade the Convention Center, saying the council was continuing to “fund failure.” She regularly drops the phrase “merry go round from hell” — shorthand for her struggle to get her colleagues to pull out of LAHSA, the city-county homeless agency that’s been the subject of blistering audits.
With the election approaching, the zingers have only gotten zingier.
Six weeks ago, City Councilmember Nithya Raman launched a last-minute bid to rewrite Measure ULA, the city’s tax on high-end property sales, saying it had chilled development of much-needed apartments. Raman wanted her proposal to go on the June ballot but failed to garner support from her colleagues, who said it hadn’t been vetted.
Rodriguez, in a screed delivered on the council floor, compared Raman to “the arsonist that comes showing up as a firefighter.”
That was a not-so-veiled reference to the fact that Raman promoted Measure ULA in 2022 — and downplayed concerns that it would affect housing production.
“Ms. Raman, you supported and endorsed the false notion to voters that [Measure ULA] was going to be the panacea — without study, without any of the verified proof,” she said. “We knew that these were the implications.”
Raman, in a statement on Friday, said she endorsed Measure ULA after reading through research suggesting that the tax, which generates money for housing programs, would not affect housing production. Newer analysis, she said, found that the measure “indeed resulted in less investment in multi-family housing.”
“That is a huge concern to me and should be to everyone in L.A., a City that is still very much facing a housing shortage,” said Raman, who is now running for mayor. “I am willing to take some heat to get the best outcomes for the City and to secure support for these crucial revenues.”
Stuart Waldman, president of the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn., a San Fernando Valley-based business group, said he appreciates Rodriguez’s direct approach, even when he disagrees with her.
“A lot of councilmembers, if they don’t agree with you, they won’t even meet with you,” he said. “There are council members who say they’ll listen and take [an issue] under advisement, even though they’ve made up their mind. They just don’t want to tell someone to their face that they disagree.”
Rodriguez’s approach doesn’t always reap political dividends.
Last year, Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson removed her from a number of high-profile committees, including those that oversee homeless programs, public safety and the city budget.
Despite her warnings, the council hiked the minimum wage for tourism workers and approved the $2.6-billion Convention Center project. She championed the creation of a new youth development department, only for it to wind up on the chopping block in last year’s budget.
Rodriguez, 52, grew up in Arleta, the daughter of a U.S. Marine veteran who served in Vietnam while holding a green card, and later became one of the city’s earliest Latino firefighters in the wake of a federal consent decree on hiring. She graduated from San Fernando High School in 1992, one year after Assemblymember Luz Rivas and two years after U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla.
She worked for former Mayor Richard Riordan and former Councilmember Mike Hernandez and later ran unsuccessfully against former Councilmember Richard Alarcon. She joined the Board of Public Works in 2013, running for council a second time four years later.
With a third term looming, Rodriguez wants to take a program she launched in her district — moving homeless people out of RVs and into housing — and take it citywide. She’s excited about expanding a program for fixing sidewalks that also teaches job skills to young people.
Rodriguez acknowledged that her stances, and her remarks, can rub people the wrong way, noting that it’s “more comfortable to walk in a group than to walk alone.” Nevertheless, she doesn’t intend to change her approach.
“I know what I’m here to do, and I’m just going to continue,” she said.
— SCRAMBLE FOR SIGNATURES: The deadline for candidates for city office to turn in petitions arrived on Wednesday, and the signatures are still being counted. By Friday, 12 mayoral candidates had qualified to run against Bass, including Raman, reality television star Spencer Pratt and tech entrepreneur Adam Miller. The City Clerk’s office is still reviewing the petitions of several other mayoral hopefuls, all of them political unknowns.
— ANOTHER FREE RIDE: L.A. Unified School board member Kelly Gonez is also running unopposed in the June 2 election. On Wednesday, her one potential opponent, JP Perron, announced he was dropping out. Like Rodriguez, Gonez represents part of the San Fernando Valley.
— A HELPING HAND: For a hot minute, things were touch and go for Sylvia Robledo, a former council aide looking to unseat Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez. After filing her petitions, Robledo learned Tuesday that she was short 14 voter signatures. Raul Claros, one of her rivals in the race, stepped in to help close the gap, gathering some signatures himself. “People want options,” he said later on Instagram. “People want anybody but Eunisses Hernandez.”
Two of Robledo’s other opponents — entrepreneur Nelson Grande and nonprofit executive Maria Lou Calanche — added their own names to her petition. On Wednesday, she qualified for the ballot.
“We may have a different vision or path, but we all want new leadership,” Robledo said.
— JANISSE JETS OFF: The top executive at the Department of Water and Power, Janisse Quiñones, announced this week that she has taken a job as CEO of a privately owned electrical company in her native Puerto Rico. Quiñones, who was hired at $750,000 a year, faced criticism over the DWP’s decision to drain a reservoir shortly before the Palisades fire broke out. Her first day in the new job is March 30.
— TRUMP ON LINE 1: Bass spoke on the phone this week with President Trump to request FEMA reimbursements for the Palisades fire, KNX News reported. Bass told the station that the president was “very receptive.”
“I was reluctant to call because there are a few other things going on, like what’s happening overseas, and I didn’t think, given all that was happening internationally, that he would actually return my call,” she told the station.
— OVERDUE BILLS: The county Board of Supervisors voted this week to fund a financial review of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, after finding that the agency owes tens of millions of dollars to nonprofits that oversee interim housing for the region’s homeless population. Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said her phone was “ringing off the hook” from groups needing to get paid by LAHSA.
— TIT FOR TAT: Meanwhile, the long-running feud between Bass and Horvath continued to boil over, with the two taking digs at each other over the future of the region’s homeless programs. Bass, in a statement, said pulling out of LAHSA too quickly would bring “unintended consequences” and leave “more Angelenos to die on our streets.”
“When the County created their new Department of Homeless Services and Housing, they also created a $300 million gap, which they had to close by prioritizing bureaucracy rather than services,” Bass said.
Horvath shot back, saying she is already conferring with council members on a strategy to have the city pay the county to provide homeless services.
“I’m ready to work with the City Council and show the Mayor what locking arms actually looks like,” she said, swiping one of Bass’ signature phrases.
— PALISADES BOWL IN PERIL: The owners of a mobile home park destroyed last year in the Palisades fire are marketing the site as a potential “mixed use” project — housing plus commercial space, which would result in permanent displacement of residents. City Councilmember Traci Park said any developer looking to take the sellers up on their offer should “pound sand.”
“What we are interested in doing is restoring this property as a mobile home park for the people who were there and remain displaced,” she said.
— PURSUING POT PROCEEDS: L.A. cannabis companies owe the city more than $400 million in business taxes, late fees and interest. Hoping to recoup $30 million of that total, the council voted this week to set up an amnesty program for those pot businesses that still owe money and haven’t already shuttered.
— JAIL DEATHS: Ten people have died in L.A. County jails so far this year, putting the county on track for another record-setting year of in-custody deaths. Now, county supervisors want the Sheriff’s Department to reverse that trend by beefing up safety checks, more closely monitoring cameras and increasing access to the overdose reversal drug Naloxone.
— FOR FLOCK’S SAKE: The Police Commission wants to know how data captured by the controversial license plate reader Flock Safety are being stored and shared. Commissioner Jeff Skobin asked for the information following reports that federal agencies had repeatedly accessed Flock’s surveillance data as part of Trump’s ongoing immigration crackdown.
That’s it for this week! Send your questions, comments and gossip to LAontheRecord@latimes.com. Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Saturday morning.
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Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
Civilian onlookers out in the street filming the air-to-air engagement rapidly unfolding in the bright blue sky above them, a trail of smoke, and the low rumble of fighter jet engines. This is the latest video to have emerged from the extraordinary incident earlier this week in which a Kuwaiti Air Force F/A-18 Hornet was responsible for shooting down three U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles.
As in the previous videos of the incident and its aftermath, the usual caveats apply as to the nature of its authenticity, which remains unconfirmed. However, everything points to this being genuine, and it clearly indicates a within-visual-range air-to-air engagement, likely involving a heat-seeking AIM-9 Sidewinder series air-to-air missile.
Check the video out here:
New footage shows a Kuwaiti F/A-18C downing a U.S. Air Force F-15E at close range with what appears to be an AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missile on March 2. pic.twitter.com/OZ1vIuOtzq
— OSINTWarfare (@OSINTWarfare) March 6, 2026
It was initially rumored that a ground-based air defense system, such as the Patriot, which is present in Kuwait, took the F-15Es out. However, the earlier video footage of one of the jets spiraling to the ground suggested it was an air-to-air engagement, based on the damage to the aircraft.
At 11:03 p.m. ET, March 1, three U.S. F-15E Strike Eagles flying in support of Operation Epic Fury went down over Kuwait due to an apparent friendly fire incident.
Read more:https://t.co/i2y3Q3vo2E
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) March 2, 2026
The new video is also in line with our original assessment of the likely cause of the shootdowns, namely, tail-aspect missile shots made by smaller-yield weapons. As we noted at the time, under certain circumstances, if the Hornet employed passive heat-seeking missiles (AIM-9), the F-15E pilots may not have known they were being engaged until the weapon detonated.
Footage of an F-15 falling out of the sky this morning over Kuwait, in an apparent “friendly fire” incident involving the U.S. Air Force. pic.twitter.com/GQvryfJ4C4
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) March 2, 2026
The video clearly shows one of the F-15Es after being hit, with part of its rear portion burning brightly, and the same aircraft in a flat spin toward the ground. You can also see the two crew members ejecting. The F/A-18 is also seen, toward the top of the frame.
For at least part of the engagement, the F/A-18 and F-15E are clearly in the same frame and are in close proximity.
An experienced former F/A-18 pilot TWZ talked to about the event and the new video concluded that the incident is, altogether, “very strange.”
“I have genuinely no idea how someone could make this mistake,” the ex-Hornet driver continued. “Unless it’s something procedural and GCI [ground-control intercept] has messed up, talked him on, and he’s seen what he wanted to see … but even that’s bordering on implausible.”
Undoubtedly, the challenge of deconfliction of friend from foe in a very complex war zone is a significant one, as we outlined previously. At the same time, the threat from Iranian aircraft was, at the time, real. Also this week, a Qatar Emiri Air Force F-15QA shot down a pair of Iranian Su-24 Fencer strike aircraft that were inbound to attack the sprawling air base at Al Udeid.
While the cause of the friendly-fire incident remains unclear, the chance to see such an aerial engagement is remarkable in itself, especially the very rare sight of a modern fighter firing one of its air-to-air missiles in an operational context.
A video shows a U.S. Air Force F-15C Eagle fighter jet destroying a towed target at very close range with one of its Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, during a live-fire exercise over the Atlantic Ocean on December 8, 2020:
F-15 Firing Training Sidewinder NATM-9M At Drone
The same former Hornet driver also explained exactly how a short-range AIM-9 Sidewinder missile would be fired from the jet in a WVR scenario:
“You’d be in air-to-air master mode and bring up the weapon using HOTAS [‘hands on throttle and stick’ controls]. You rock a castle switch that puts you in Sidewinder mode. From there, you can select your radar scan mode, again using HOTAS. Now you have a weapon looking for an infrared signature and a radar looking for a target. In a combat mode, the radar will latch/form a track almost immediately. The weapon system then cues the Sidewinder to the radar track, and so long as it’s within the weapon’s kinematic capabilities, you’ll get a SHOOT cue. The weapon then leaves on trigger press.”
“You can also just point and shoot with a Sidewinder, but then your radar isn’t giving you any info, so you risk a shot that can’t make it.”
In such a scenario, it is conceivable that the F/A-18 pilot might have accidentally launched a missile that then found its target, the same pilot agreed, but that would not explain the three friendly-fire kills.
“Once, yes. Twice, no way. Thrice?”
It is worth bearing in mind that there have been previous incidents of friendly-fire shootdowns, even when a visual ID had been conducted. This happened in 1994, when two U.S. Air Force F-15 Eagle fighters shot down two U.S. Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters over Iraq, killing 26. Perhaps the Kuwaiti pilot thought they had encountered Iranian MiG-29 Fulcrum fighters, but, again, to make the same mistake three times over seems highly improbable, especially at close range.
Another fighter pilot’s analysis, seen in video below, questions whether the Kuwaiti pilot might even have gone rogue against an ally. That actually seems possible based on the evidence, but it is hard to believe.
Accident or Crime? A Kuwaiti F/A-18 Hornet Shot Down Three U.S. F-15E Strike Eagles?
Ultimately, based on the latest video and the limited reports so far, it’s still far from clear how this costly incident happened. A friendly-fire kill involving a longer-range weapon would be more believable, but the within-visual-range nature of this engagement is bizarre, to say the least.
Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com
MADISON, Wis. — A Wisconsin man who allegedly told police he tried to set fire to a Republican congressman’s office last year because he was angry that the lawmaker backed a bill requiring TikTok’s Chinese owner to sell off its U.S. operations was sentenced Thursday to seven years in prison.
In addition to the prison time, Fond du Lac County Circuit Judge Tricia Walker sentenced 20-year-old Caiden Stachowicz to seven years of extended supervision, court records show.
Stachowicz, of Menasha, pleaded no contest to an arson charge in November. Prosecutors dropped burglary and property damage counts in exchange for Stachowicz’s no contest plea, which isn’t an admission of guilt but is treated as such for the purposes of sentencing.
According to a criminal complaint, a police officer responded to a fire outside Republican U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman’s office in Fond du Lac, about 55 miles northwest of Milwaukee, at around 1 a.m. on Jan. 19, 2025, and saw Stachowicz standing nearby.
He told the officer that he started the fire because he doesn’t like Grothman, according to the complaint. He initially planned to break into the office and start the fire inside. But he couldn’t break the window, so he poured gas on an electrical box behind the building and around the front of the building, lit a match and watched it burn, according to the complaint.
He said he wanted to burn down the office because the federal government was shutting down TikTok in violation of his constitutional rights and peace was no longer an option, the complaint states. He added that Grothman voted for the shutdown, but he didn’t want to hurt Grothman or anyone else.
Grothman voted for a bill in April 2024 that required TikTok’s China-based company, ByteDance, to sell its U.S. operation. The deadline was Jan. 19, 2025, but President Trump has issued multiple executive orders prolonging it. TikTok finalized a deal two months ago to create an American version of the social video platform. Trump praised the deal.
Danielle Gorsuch, one of Stachowicz’s attorneys, told the Associated Press after the sentencing that the incident was the culmination of a mental health crisis for her client and stressed that no one was hurt.
“Caden took every caution to make sure no one was present in the building at the time of the incident, as he only wanted to hurt himself,” Gorsuch said. “He took responsibility from night one.”
A spokesperson for Grothman’s congressional office didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Richmond writes for the Associated Press.
Two months after the anniversary of the devastating Southern California firestorms, several legislators at the state Capitol unveiled a package of bills aimed at preventing wildfires and lessening their harms.
“California has reached a tipping point,” Assemblymember Steve Bennett (D-Ventura) said during a news conference Wednesday. “In the last nine years, we’ve had the eight largest fires in the history of California — we shouldn’t have this problem.”
Two of the most destructive wildfires ever in California erupted on the same day last January. The fires devastated Pacific Palisades and Altadena — destroying homes and businesses, displacing residents and killing 31 people. The Palisades and Eaton fires caused an estimated economic loss of $250 billion.
Among the dozen bills announced Wednesday were:
Allen, who represents the Palisades, said neighborhoods are being turned upside down by wildfires.
“Modern fires are now spreading from wild lands into urban communities,” he said. “The reality that so many people in my district have been living through over this past year has been immensely challenging. Tens of thousands of families remain displaced from their homes.”
State Sen. Benjamin Allen (D-Santa Monica) hosts a discussion with local leaders and residents to mark 100 days since the start of the L.A. County wildfires at Will Rogers State Beach on April 17, 2025, in Los Angeles.
(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times)
Many fire survivors have expressed anger over government action that they believe enabled the disaster and hindered recovery efforts. When asked whether the Legislature had plans to dissect the response, Allen said he would support a robust investigation.
“I think the public is expecting that the state is really looking into this,” he said. “But I know there’s always 10 million different priorities around here — one of my jobs as somebody who represents these folks is to make sure it continues to be on the radar screen.”
Bennett said Californians had a right to expect oversight and transparency but should not “expect perfection” during emergencies.
“I think we are best in California if we develop a culture where everybody says, ‘You do the best you can,’” he said. “I think we would be better off.”
Survivors in Altadena and Pacific Palisades recently marked the anniversary of the disaster with solemn memorial services.
“This year has been the hardest year of our lives,” Joy Chen, executive director of the Eaton Fire Survivors Network, said during a service in Altadena. “Unimaginable grief. The 31 people who died that day, and the hundreds who have died prematurely since. Homes lost. Jobs lost. Incomes lost. A sense of safety and identity stripped away.”
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News US-Iran War Puts Strait Of Hormuz Under Fire, Disrupting Global Energy Trade
US strikes on Iran escalate Strait of Hormuz tensions, spiking energy prices, disrupting trade and heightening global geopolitical risk.
Trade traffic within the Strait of Hormuz has nearly halted as fuel tankers and other shipping remain vulnerable to attacks and are virtually uninsurable, amplifying fears that the US-Israeli war on Iran is turning into a broader global conflict with major economic consequences.
Global energy prices, especially, are a key focus point since the Strait serves as a critical maritime artery for roughly 20% of the world’s oil flows — 70% of that oil goes to China, South Korea, India, and Japan.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump’s standoff with EU leaders over the use of certain military bases is making an already contentious situation worse.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards claim total control of the passage just days after US-led airstrikes killed Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The UK Maritime Trade Operations Center is actively documenting multiple vessel attacks and electronic interference affecting navigation in and around the Gulf.
A bomb-carrying drone boat struck a Marshall Islands-flagged tanker in the Gulf of Oman, killing at least one mariner, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing Omani authorities.
The economic shock was swift. West Texas Intermediate crude notched its biggest two-day rally since March 2022. European natural gas prices nearly doubled in 48 hours. The biggest jolt came after QatarEnergy halted liquefied natural gas production following attacks on its facilities, sending European gas prices soaring more than 40%. The United States Oil Fund LP rallied over 15% over the past five days.
Analysts are also at odds over whether a total Iranian blockade will occur.
“A sustained, structural military blockade by Iran that totally stops ships from passing through is unlikely,” Morningstar Equity Director Joshua Aguilar said. Still, the commercial reality may produce the same effect.
“Ships may not pass through because no insurance is willing to cover them,” Aguilar added
Mutual insurers such as the London P&I Club, NorthStandard, UK P&I Club and Noord Nederlandsche P&I Club provide coverage for vessels navigating volatile regions. If that coverage drops, shipping companies face untenable exposure — effectively freezing commerce even absent a formal blockade.
In response, Trump said on his Truth Social platform that he had ordered the US International Development Finance Corporation to offer political risk insurance and guarantees “for the financial security of all maritime trade, especially energy, traveling through the Gulf.” He also said the US Navy would escort tankers through the Strait.
BIMCO’s Chief Safety & Security Officer, Jakob Larsen, scrutinized the logic of Trump’s plan. Indeed, naval escorts would reduce the threat ships currently face.
“That said, providing protection for all tankers operating in areas currently threatened by Iran is unrealistic,” he says. “This would require a very high number of warships and other military assets.”
CaixaBank, in a research note on Wednesday, issued its own warnings about Iran’s attacks and Strait of Hormuz closures. Energy prices will spike as long as the disruption continues, the firm predicts.
“Iran’s response — expanding the radius of the conflict, effectively closing maritime traffic through Hormuz, and threatening critical infrastructure — is causing a short-term escalation of tensions,” the firm stated. “It remains to be seen for how many days this response can be sustained and what approach will be taken by the new leadership core (and, in particular, by Khamenei’s successor).”
Persistent high prices could prompt hawkish European Central Bank and Federal Reserve moves, increasing economic drag, the firm continued.
The maritime chaos is unfolding alongside a sharp diplomatic rupture with Europe. Trump on Tuesday threatened to “cut off all trade with Spain” after Madrid refused US access to its military bases. He also criticized the UK’s decision to block the use of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.
“This is not the age of Churchill,” Trump said during a White House meeting with European counterparts. “The UK has been very, very uncooperative with that stupid island that they have.”
The remarks underscore mounting friction within NATO and the broader Western alliance at a moment when coordinated action would be critical to stabilizing markets. Instead, the spat adds another layer of uncertainty to global trade flows already strained by inflation and tariff confusion on the heels of the US Supreme Court ruling against Trump.
Many dealmaking plans are also likely on hold, marking a stark contrast to 2025, the second-highest year on record for transaction value.
“The sentiment was that the stars were aligned” for a similar trajectory in 2026, said Kyle Walters, an analyst at PitchBook.
M&A consultancies such as McKinsey & Company and Bain & Co. had projected sustained M&A growth in 2026 due to energy security priorities, sovereign wealth fund firepower, and supportive fiscal reforms.
Then one weekend changed the narrative. As Walters puts it: “Uncertainty is bad for M&A appetite.”
Tariff ambiguity can slow deals. Inflation complicates financing. Armed conflict in a region central to global energy flows is far more destabilizing.
“In periods of uncertainty, buyers take a step back. They’re in wait-and-see mode,” Walters said, adding that domestic M&A has been “flipped on its head.” Cross-border activity is particularly exposed, with capital flight, currency volatility, and political risk creating an “unopportunistic M&A environment.” European firms considering expansion into the Middle East now face heightened scrutiny; “It has to be an A+ transaction to proceed,” Walters said.
What began the year as a story of alignment and acceleration has become one of recalibration — with capital pausing just as geopolitical risk surges.
BMI, a unit of Fitch Solutions, outlined a short-term scenario in which the US coordinates with Israel to overwhelm Iran and minimize retaliation against US assets and the Strait itself.
But even a limited campaign carries economic consequences.
Abigail Hall, a senior fellow at the Independent Institute, warned that energy markets are likely to bear the brunt. “There are already concerns about shipping and other disruptions — particularly around the Strait of Hormuz,” she said, pointing to “knowledge constraints on the part of policymakers and the presence of misaligned incentives.”
Hall also expressed skepticism that the US-led strikes would produce long-term political transformation inside Iran. “You may have ‘cut the head off the snake,’ but neglected the fact that there were many other vipers in the room,” she said.
Military strikes, she explained, often empower the most extreme factions of a country and produce a “rally-around-the-flag” effects whereby an external attack draws the civilian population toward the existing regime.
“In Iran we’ve seen that military escalation, and the domestic dissent it inspires,” she adds. “It often leads to harsher repression and increased regime control.”
The torta Chingona at Tacos Don Pillo is a beast of a sandwich, a tower of asada steak, jamon asado, tomato, onion, jalapeno, avocado and big slabs of salty, squeaky queso fresco. It’s enough to share, or satiate in a way that requires a nap shortly after. It is the star of the Tacos Don Pillo menu, an expansive list of tacos, quesadillas, burritos, salads, nachos and mulitas. Some days require the heft of the torta Chingona, others lean toward the tacos camarones. The trio of corn tortillas barely contain the plump, grilled shrimp, sweet and smoky grilled onions and slivers of avocado. Expect a perpetual line anywhere near an established meal time, but things move quickly.
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Every time Adriana Molina drives up Lake Avenue to her retro-style women’s clothing shop Sidecca in Altadena, she sees the new outdoor mural she commissioned for the store by muralist and illustrator Annie Bolding. It gives her hope.
“I’m here to stay, and this mural solidified my decision to reopen my business,” said Molina on a recent winter day, sitting next to Bolding inside the boutique. “I grew up in Altadena. The community has motivated me this whole time, and I want them to drive by this mural and smile.”
“ALTADENA.” The word — in big white letters, set against layers of blue — appears toward the top of the mural, on the store’s brick wall facing Lake. Above are the San Gabriel Mountains, painted a deep brown, California poppies and Mariposa Street and Lake Avenue street signs. Below are green grass, a monarch butterfly and Altadena’s Christmas Tree Lane. A bright blue house is on a multicolored striped path in the middle of the mural. Next to it, on a hiking trail, a sign says, “Welcome Home Altadena… With Love, Sidecca.”
For Molina and Bolding, the mural is a personal ode to the Eaton fire-ravaged community — art as a message of optimism and healing.
A car passes by the new Altadena mural on the side of Sidecca apparel shop, which commissioned the piece after fire and floods devastated the community.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
When the fire tore through Altadena in January 2025, Sidecca and a few other stores on the north side of Mariposa Street’s bustling Mariposa Junction survived, while the other half-block of businesses burned to the ground. The fire leveled Bolding’s parents’ house off Lake and the home of one of Molina’s close relatives.
Molina staged pop-ups and sold merchandise online during months of remediation, and officially reopened Sidecca’s doors in November as part of Mariposa Junction’s larger comeback. Then the store suffered another blow: flooding and damage during rainstorms in late December. While Molina prepped to temporarily close her store yet again for renovations, Bolding began work on the mural. She started painting on the one-year anniversary of the fire and finished eight days later.
“On the day I started it, it was so cold and windy, and I was scared being up on the ladder,” said Bolding. “But getting to talk to community members while I was painting was very special. People were excited and honking as they drove by. That night, I drove up to the lot where my parents’ place was, and I stood there and all the feelings flooded back.”
The mural’s origin story is that of two creative women bound by strength and a desire to give back.
Molina, who has worked in the fashion industry for more than 30 years, opened Sidecca’s Altadena spot in 2023, after closing its longtime Pasadena location. Voted Pasadena’s best women’s clothing store five times by Pasadena Weekly, Sidecca sells fun vintage-inspired merchandise and clothes, from ‘50s style dresses to snazzy magnets, tote bags and sunglasses. A big rainbow zips across the top of one of the store’s walls.
A display in Sidecca in 2023, two years before the Eaton fire devastated Altadena.
(Alejandro R. Jimenez)
“A few months after Sidecca opened in Altadena, my mom walked in and saw how colorful it was, and said, ‘This reminds me of my daughter,’ ” Bolding said. “With zero hesitation, my mom said to Adriana, ‘Here’s her Instagram. This is my daughter’s stuff.’ ”
Bolding, who goes by Disco Day Designs, calls herself “a joyful creator who loves to intentionally transform spaces.” Known for the bright murals she creates for brands and shops, Bolding gained attention on social media for a trash bin she painted with palm trees and stripes. She brought it to the 2024 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival as part of a contest organized by the festival’s sustainability partner, Global Inheritance.
“I fixated on the trash can,” said Molina. “I looked at Annie’s murals and was like, ‘Oh, she has to do something in here for us.’ ”
“Game recognizes game,” added Bolding, smiling.
Molina wanted to rebrand Sidecca with a new logo, bags and art, and connected with Bolding about that and a possible mural inside the store. “I wanted ‘Sidecca’ painted across a wall as an acronym that stands for style, individuality, diversity, expression, community, culture and art,” she said. “That’s who we are.”
Then came Jan. 7, 2025.
The store was closed all day for a holiday lunch. Then the winds picked up and the flames roared. Molina, who lives with her husband and two children on the Altadena-Pasadena, evacuated with her family to Long Beach and came back days later. She knew the store was OK because she’d seen it — intact — on the news.
“As soon as we could come up to the shop, we went,” Molina said. “There were ashes all over.”
Bolding and her husband were in Palm Springs fixing up an AirBnb they cohost when Bolding got a call from her mom about the fire in Altadena. She urged her mom, dad and younger brother to evacuate. After they did, their home burned down. Her parents now live in a Pasadena apartment.
When Molina started selling Altadena-themed merch on Sidecca’s website, Bolding donated three designs, including one with lively retro daisies. In July, she wrote an email to Molina reviving the idea of a mural, but outside versus inside, as an ode to Altadena.
“It felt like anything I could do to bring joy, let’s go,” said Molina. “And I really wanted a little house in there, and for it to say, ‘Welcome home.’ ”
The mural would be Bolding’s first public piece of art on a main street.
“Lake always felt like the road going home,” she said. “That rainbow road in the mural, leading to the mountains, is so symbolic. Very ‘Wizard of Oz.’ The mountains, their silhouette, have always felt majestic, safe, and why it was so heartbreaking anytime to see them burn. To me, they feel like mother.”
Muralist Annie Bolding stands in front of her new Altadena mural on the side of the Sidecca apparel shop. The work is Bolding’s first piece of public art on a main street.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Bolding’s joyful daisies decorated the Sidecca tote bag given to customers at November’s reopening, just before December’s intense rainstorms. Water gushed through Sidecca’s ceiling. Molina and her employee Manisa Ianakiev were overwhelmed.
“We were like, ‘Is this really happening?’ ” said Molina. “Then people started bringing tools and towels. It was an example of community.”
Bolding planned to start painting the mural Jan. 4, during the Altadena Forever Run, but rain swept through. After Molina’s landlord installed a plywood base, Bolding started on the mural several days later.
Since then, the shop’s ceiling has been replaced, and Molina is working on trying to replace the floor — while continuing to stage pop-ups and sell merchandise online — before fully reopening the bricks-and-mortar boutique this spring.
“People say, ‘Every time I go into your store, I just get happy. I’m in a better mood,’ ” said Molina. “I get that all the time. And what Annie has done, this mural, is beautiful. It makes me happy.”
March 2 (UPI) — A United Airlines flight made an emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport on Monday after a possible engine fire was reported, authorities and the airline said.
United flight 2127 from Los Angeles to Newark, N.J., departed LAX at 10:43 a.m. PST, but was diverted back to the airport about 40 minutes into the flight, according to flight traffic tracker FlightRadar24.
It landed at 11:20 a.m., the Federal Aviation Administration told UPI.
After the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner landed, slides deployed from its fuselage, which some passengers used to deplane. Uncorroborated video posted online shows passengers going down the slide, where firefighters met them on the tarmac before they ran from the plane.
United Airlines confirmed to UPI in a statement that the flight “safely returned to Los Angeles” and that the issue was “a possible engine fire.”
“Customers deplaned via slides and airstairs and were bused to the terminal,” the company said.
No serious injuries were reported among the 265 passengers and 12 crew, United Airlines said, adding that a second aircraft was arranged to take them to Newark.
According to a statement from the Los Angeles Fire Department, no passengers required transport to the hospital.
The FAA told UPI that it was investigating.