A dispute between embattled L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and Chief Recovery Officer Steve Soboroff burst into public view on Monday, when a recording emerged of a meeting in which Soboroff said she had “lied” to him about his salary.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom is threatening to withhold aid from cities that do not follow his homeless policies — while arguing at the same time that it would be wrong for the federal government to withhold aid from California.
Few insurance companies are complying with California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara’s request that they cover 100% of the personal property lost by policy holders in the Los Angeles fires by the February 28 deadline.
Ambassador Ric Grenell, possibly the country’s most influential California conservative, floated the idea Sunday of a “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) to clean up state government there — and Elon Musk agreed.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) sent a letter Friday to Congress asking for $40 billion in funding for fire relief — two weeks after signing $50 million in spending to fight the Trump administration on immigration and other policies.
Ambassador Ric Grenell, President Donald Trump’s envoy for special missions, says that there will be “strings” attached to federal aid to California for cleaning up after the devastating wildfires last month in Los Angeles.
State Sen. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica) has proposed legislation that would require insurance companies to cover 100% of the losses to personal property in fires without requiring customers to fill out details lists of possessions.
Embattled Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has been editing out the question-and-answer (Q and A) portion of many of her press conferences, limiting exposure of reporters’ questions about her handling of the Palisades Fire disaster.
Palisadians are angry. We just aren’t showing it yet. My best advice to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass in the early days after the fire would have been to stay away, for her own good.
L.A. Mayor Karen Bass fired L.A. Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley on Friday, claiming that she failed to pre-deploy firefighters ahead of the Palisades Fire and refused to allow an investigation.
ABC News is reporting that the transgender community in Los Angeles was the “hardest hit” by the deadly wildfires in Los Angeles, because of “the destruction of a safe space, built with love and care to support their healing.”
No new water storage infrastructure has been built in California, more than a decade after voters approved a $7.5 billion water bond in Proposition 1 of 2014.
Los Angeles County will test the soil for contaminants after the debris of burned homes and structures is removed, stepping in where federal and state authorities have not, according to a report Wednesday by the Pasadena Star-News.
Developer Rick Caruso’s non-profit organization, Steadfast L.A., is introducing free prefabricated homes for people to live in on their property in Pacific Palisades, Malibu, Altadena, and Pasadena if they cannot yet afford to rebuild.
The Los Angeles Times published text messages Wednesday between L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath that suggest Bass is failing to cooperate with other local government leaders.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said Tuesday that she “wasn’t aware” of warnings about the extreme winds that led to the devastating Palisades Fire on January 7, but she posted those warnings on her official X account on January 6.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is blaming L.A. Fire Department (LAFD) Chief Kirsten Crowley — again — for they city’s failure to prepare adequately for the extreme winds that spread the Palisades Fire on January 7.
Survivors of the fearsome plane crash at Toronto Pearson International Airport on Monday afternoon — which, thankfully, includes everyone who was aboard the aircraft as there were no fatalities — said their plane flipped over without warning just seconds after its wheels touched the tarmac.
California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara says that he is tired of being “white mansplained on how to do my job,” after facing criticism from elected representatives, including Democrats, over his recent job performance.
A former high school classmate of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has written to the L.A. Times to defend the mayor’s conduct during the Palisades Fire — which broke out when Bass was abroad at Ghana’s presidential inauguration.
Residents in the small town of Pikeville, Kentucky, are grappling with disastrous flooding as crews work to rescue their neighbors.
California appears unlikely to follow Tennessee’s example of refunding the property taxes of victims of natural disasters — even though the failure of state and local services, including water and firefighting, caused their suffering.
Residents of the Pacific Palisades are increasingly concerned that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) continues to refuse to test soil for contaminants after the removal of debris following the Palisades Fire.
Flooding in areas across the eastern United States has resulted in the deaths of at least three people.
The Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) could have pre-deployed ten engines to the Pacific Palisades ahead of the deadly Palisades Fire on January 7, but chose not to, according to former fire chiefs quoted by the Los Angeles Times.
California, which failed to prevent the spread of wildfires in Los Angeles last month and is struggling to repair the damage, is set to spend nearly $10 billion on health care for illegal aliens, according to a nonpartisan state analyst.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has hired a top law firm to defend itself against lawsuits by residents who blame it for the spread of the Palisades Fire — especially as the Santa Ynez Reservoir was almost empty.
Mudflows in Malibu washed a firefighter, in his vehicle, from the Pacific Coast Highway and into the ocean on Thursday, as intense rains swept sheets of water over the hillsides and mountains scorched by the Palisades Fire last month.
The Eaton Fire, which burned through parts of Altadena and Pasadena, east of Los Angeles, last month, also saw fire hydrants lose water pressure — even though, unlike Pacific Palisades, there was no empty reservoir to blame.
Winter storm Jett is about to sweep across the United States, prompting travel warnings and weather advisories from California to Maine.
Los Angeles residents are furious at an announcement by the Army Corps of Engineers that there will be no testing of local soil for toxins after the first six inches of topsoil are taken away during debris removal that began this week.
California is finally enjoying an abundance of rain, making this the third wet winter in a row — but the rainfall comes too late to save Southern California from the fires that burned large parts of Pacific Palisades, Altadena, and Malibu.
Funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) have been allocated to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) to house homeless victims of the Palisades Fire — though there are very few.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass declined to answer Tuesday when asked why the city had chosen Hagerty Consulting behind closed doors to manage the recovery from the recent Palisades Fire — or what, precisely, Hagerty would do.
Gov. Gavin Newsom plans to stage a photo-op Tuesday afternoon to mark the start of debris removal after the Palisades Fire — even though the state government has little to do with it.
Two children were found dead in a van in a parking garage of a Detroit casino on Monday and officials suspect the pair froze to death.
Steve Hagerty, the founder of Hagerty Consulting, which Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass chose behind closed doors to lead the city’s rebuilding effort, had a disastrous tenure as mayor of the liberal college town of Evanston, Illinois.
Developer Rick Caruso slammed the Los Angeles city government for an apparent delay in construction at a venue that is to be used during the 2028 Summer Olympics that officials are blaming on the recent Palisades Fire.
Two former disaster recovery experts at Hagerty Consulting, which L.A. Mayor Karen Bass appointed to lead rebuilding efforts after the recent wildfires, pleaded guilty in 2022 and 2023 to defrauding New York City of Hurricane Sandy relief funds.
Los Angeles Chief Recovery Officer Steve Soboroff once mocked Trump supporters as “all white” in a post on Twitter (now X) during the 2016 election, when he was on the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners. The post was then deleted.
