The @houstonchronicle.com reviewed some of the 2026 World Cup host cities’ contracts with FIFA. The contracts show that almost all of the costs for organizing the tournament fall on the cities, whose ability to collect revenue is limited. (Published April w/ @texastribune.org)

Must read for anyone who lives in California ... or anywhere else on our planet: weatherwest.com/archives/43880

Roger Shoffstall spent three years in prison for evading income taxes. It hasn’t stopped the FCC from sending him $1 million a year to sell obsolete internet service in Alaska. With @adn.com

Controller and progressive groups rally around police accountability and council expansion, CM Jurado speaks up for unhoused voters, and reactions to HUD pulling funds for homeless services, and more. LA Squawk Box for Friday, June 12, 2026 open.substack.com/pub/lasquawk...

This Silverlake staircase is an important LGBTQ+ historical site! lapublicpress.org/2026/06/matt...

The billionaire donors supporting Susan Collins have a net worth of $888 billion, or nearly nine times Maine’s entire economic output in 2025. None are Maine residents.

NEW: In 2022, Bitcoin miners promised Corpus Christi millions in tax revenues in exchange for the de-annexation of their water-sucking cryptomine. Four years later, the city is in a water crisis & the mine has yielded only a minute fraction of what was promised. www.texasobserver.org/corpus-chris...

A Dallas company quietly bought a site in Lexington, KY for $29M and assumed the city would roll over. The city council voted unanimously to stop them cold. Not here. Not like this. 👇 www.dworkinsubstack.com/p/trumps-whi...

The chemical that nearly exploded in Garden Grove is stored across California Regulators don't require facilities storing methyl methacrylate to have emergency plans. Thousands of people live nearby.

Record winter temperatures in Antarctic raise fears over speed of climate breakdown

‘It’s an injustice’: Shrinking state funds could slow fixes for Californians with toxic water www.latimes.com/environment/...

"We are in extreme danger," says climate scientist Peter Kalmus @climatehuman.bsky.social. He warns that this summer "could be the hottest summer we've ever experienced in our lives, but it could also be the coolest summer for the rest of our lives."

Investigations into fatal shootings by California police now take so long that officers often can’t be decertified or prosecuted. cal.news/43r82bw 📸 Larry Valenzuela

Data centers are consuming enormous amounts of water and energy, driving up utility bills and threatening local ecosystems. Across the country, Indigenous organizers, union members, anarchists and rural Trump voters are finding common cause in fighting back.

Supporters of L.A. County healthcare sales tax declare victory

Colorado River experts dropped a new hydrology forecasts yesterday. Among the possible outcomes of another dry winter: Hoover and Glen Canyon come close to run-of-the-river operations. Story here for @insideclimatenews.org: insideclimatenews.org/news/0206202...

San Diego County may be able to sell desalinated water to Arizona and/or Nevada, helping stave off shortages at Lake Mead: voiceofsandiego.org/2026/06/05/c... via @journomack.bsky.social

Mayor Bass and police commissioners urged to restrict LAPD from helping ICE, county health services sales tax measure surpasses 50%, AP declares Raman is in the LA mayor's race runoff, and more. LA Squawk Box for Tuesday, June 9, 2026: open.substack.com/pub/lasquawk...

NEW: Donald Trump Jr. invests in a co. trying to build an oil refinery in the U.S. Then the richest man in Asia invests... in the same company. Then... his co. gets policy concessions from the Trump Admin. @josh-kaplan.bsky.social & @justinelliott.bsky.social: www.propublica.org/article/trum...

Long Island residents are raising their concerns about groundwater contamination from a nearby landfill that has spread beneath parts of their community in Brookhaven, NY.

The military helicopters and gunfire at a hospital in Pasadena this week that startled residents in the night? It was troops from the U.S. Army Special Operation Command were doing urban combat training. New from @afroxander.bsky.social and myself @lataco.bsky.social lataco.com/military-exe...

50 gallons of water spill into storm drain at site of O.C. chemical crisis, testing underway

Drought and floods drove them from their homes. But hunger and poverty have followed them to a Mogadishu camp

At least three scientific papers that are frequently touted by Department of Health and Human Services Secretary RFK Jr. to promote doubts on vaccine safety have been removed, retracted, or placed under additional scrutiny by the journals that originally published them.

Monterey Park overwhelmingly votes to ban data centers Data center ban backed by more than 86 percent of voters signals rejection of regional boom.

A bill just passed in Illinois that makes environmental justice an explicit part of the air pollution permit review process.

Nearly 6 billion people live in the 101 countries that a study identified as confronting a net decline in water supply — signaling enormous challenges for food production and a heightening risk of conflict and instability. (Published July 2025)

DACA renewal delays are upending lives across LA. As federal delays drag on, DACA recipients in Los Angeles are watching careers unravel and questioning whether the country they’ve spent years contributing to still has a place for them. lapublicpress.org/2026/06/daca...

LA food stamps benefits are getting cut again after new federal work requirements. 260,000 LA County residents could lose benefits due to the change. 108,000 have already lost benefits since July. lapublicpress.org/2026/06/la-f...

After Emily Waldorf was denied care for a life-threatening miscarriage, her mother and stepfather were outraged: “If I took my dog to a vet and it had this problem, that dog would get better treatment.”

"Whether it’s extreme heat, mega-storms, floods, massive wildfires or droughts hitting food supply and prices,” he said, “every nation is already paying a huge price from this global climate crisis.” --U.N. climate chief Simon Stiell apnews.com/article/clim...

The LA Reporter talks elections with LA Podcast, Google co-founder donates to Pratt, LA city leaderss calls for scrutiny of Flock contracts and Harbor area chemical plants, and more. LA Squawk Box for Monday, June 1, 2026: open.substack.com/pub/lasquawk...

California air officials approved a sweeping overhaul of the state’s signature climate program, cap-and-invest. Caroline Jones of the Environmental Defense Fund says it "undermines the cap’s role in actually limiting climate pollution." @hayleysmith.bsky.social www.latimes.com/environment/...

A tank at a Garden Grove aerospace plant came within a crack of exploding and forcing a toxic chemical cloud over 50,000 evacuated residents. Here's what regulators knew before it happened. cal.news/3S9uT8O 📸 Ethan Swope, AP

Texas, as the lower riparian, actually has no legally cognizable rights whatsoever. It steals water. About as simple as that. www.texastribune.org/2026/05/28/t...

A report published May 15 by California Attorney General Rob Bonta found that overcrowding in California’s seven ICE facilities led to inadequate medical care, food and hygiene as well as excessive use of force from guards. capitalandmain.com/conditions-a...

Scientists have reached a consensus that human behavior is a big driver of climate change—but Americans aren't buying it.

Xavier Becerra and Tom Steyer, by far the top two Democratic candidates in the party’s own polling data, have more substantive differences over housing policy than some of their debates and appearances might suggest. capitalandmain.com/top-democrat...

A guide to voter guides in LA County Voting is an open-book quiz, and luckily there are lots of guides to help you make your choices.

What exactly *is* happening next month? Join me and special guests to talk about where I'll be specifically focusing my reporting efforts and how you can help me track the World Cup's impacts across the city during this 39-day period. And bring your questions! 🗓️ Friday, June 5 at 11 a.m. on Zoom

Rita Robles’s life is ruled by allergies, the worst effects from which can last for months at a time. She’s just one of millions of Americans living in communities where people’s quality of life is secondary to the hum of big business — communities at the front line of Trump’s regulatory rollbacks.

Conservation groups and tribes say Southern California could get 85% of its water locally by 2045, ditch the Delta tunnel: www.latimes.com/environment/... via @ianjames.bsky.social

Cancer drug Revlimid is one of the bestselling pharmaceutical products of all time, with total sales of over $100 billion. It’s also extraordinarily expensive, costing nearly $1,000 for each pill, even though that pill costs just 25 cents to make. (Published May 2025)

Immigrants detained at Adelanto are hunger striking. Dozens of immigrants on hunger strike are demanding the ICE facility be shut down due to lack of medical care and a recent uptick in deaths at the desert complex. lapublicpress.org/2026/05/immi...

Mayor Karen Bass, pointing blame at former Fire Chief Crowley, hints at further leadership shakeups at City Hall if she is re-elected squawkbox.la/i/198729033/...

Why a chemical explosion in Orange County could be so catastrophic

LA City Council saves ‘Safe Parking’ program in budget, but its troubles aren’t over LA’s safe parking programs give people a place to sleep “ without fear of being hassled.” lapublicpress.org/2026/05/la-h...

"It's harrowing to see the immiseration of the entire population." Independent journalist Ed Augustin reports from Havana and describes the "unfolding humanitarian crisis" gripping Cuba due to the intensified U.S. blockade.

In May, the Leona Valley is usually bustling with families who arrive from across Southern California for an annual tradition: U-pick cherries. But climate change is bringing warmer winters, and this year has been so warm that the trees produced no cherries. www.latimes.com/environment/...

Big Pharma just lost at SCOTUS trying to stop Medicare drug price negotiations. Reminder: taxpayers spent $11.7B helping develop all 10 of the first drugs selected for negotiation. Then drugmakers turned around and charged Americans prices they couldn’t afford.