| Families struggling to recover from January's Palisades fire worry about a long list of unknowns, from whether they can afford to rebuild to what their old neighborhoods will be like if they return. |
| A project by the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health may help calm concerns over at least one other variable — the quality of the air in and near the burn zone. |
| Researchers at the university announced this week they had finished installing 20 air quality sensors to measure pollution, stretching from the Palisades Highlands and Sunset Mesa (near the Getty Villa) to Santa Monica. |
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| Left to right, Yifang Zhu, Qiao Yu; and Brad Shimada install an air quality sensor station at the PS1 School in Santa Monica, July 18, 2025. (UCLA Fielding School of Public Health) |
| The monitors sample the air every five to 10 minutes, checking for the kind of fine particles spewed out by fires and car exhausts, and the slightly larger dust-like particles that might be stirred up by debris removal. |
| Microscopic detritus in the air will continue to be a concern during the months of cleanup, grading and construction still to come. The level of crud in the air can increase when building sites get particularly active, or when winds increase, as they tend to in the fall. |
| UCLA translates the results into color-coded categories — from green for "Good" to red for "Hazardous" — and displays the results on an online dashboard. |
| Those concerned about air quality, but who want to avoid clicking on a digital map all day, can sign up to be alerted by email when particulate pollution reaches an unhealthy level in their neighborhood. |
| While the public previously may have relied on weather apps or sites like PurpleAir to get a sense of air quality, those often do not track the larger particles being measured by UCLA's monitoring stations. |
| Around the site of the Eaton fire in Altadena, Caltech began tracking particulate pollution at 28 locations not long after the fires and continues to provide data. Its sensors find that pollution levels are generally low and do not exceed limits established by the Environmental Protection Agency. |
| There's similar good news from the Palisades: Almost every day this week, the 20 monitors around the Westside showed mostly good air quality for both the fine and coarser particulate matter. |
| That's welcome information, especially for those who suffer from respiratory problems. |
| "Air quality can change frequently, like when there is construction or debris removal without adequate migration," said Yifang Zhu, a professor of environmental health at UCLA and director of the project. "The whole purpose of this dashboard is to give people information, as close to real-time as possible, so they can make decisions to help protect their health." |
Today's top stories |
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| Attorney Meg Barnette, wife of New York Comptroller Brad Lander, holds the hand of an immigrant child while escorting her family outside immigration court June 17, 2025, in New York. (Olga Fedorova / Associated Press) |
Legal help in immigration court fades as the Trump administration ramps up arrests |
- Over the last two months, once bipartisan-supported programs for those in detention have either been chopped or taken over by the government.
- Now, basic legal services meant to help people in what is often the most stressful and consequential moments of their lives are gone.
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Trump's top federal prosecutor in L.A. struggles to secure indictments against protesters |
- Legal experts and some of U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli's own prosecutors say he's stretching legal limits to serve as Trump's attack dog in L.A.
- While his office has filed felony cases for alleged misconduct that either took place during last month's protests or near the sites of raids, many have already been dismissed.
- Legal experts said Essayli's low number of indictments raised concerns about the strength of the cases he is filing.
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More food delivery bots are coming to L.A. |
- Coco Robotics, a startup born on the UCLA campus, is about to carpet-bomb the city with hundreds of additional adorable delivery bots recently enhanced with some of the same AI that powers ChatGPT.
- Residents of Silver Lake — one of the neighborhoods most recently occupied by delivery bots from Coco and others — give the rolling bots mixed reviews so far.
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What else is going on |
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Commentary and opinions |
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This morning's must-reads |
| | | AI isn't hovering at the edges of acting anymore. It has reshaped faces, smoothed dialogue and fast-tracked everything from dubbing to reshoots. And its reach is growing. | | | |
Other must-reads |
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| Keep up with California | Your support helps us deliver the news that matters most. Subscribe to the Los Angeles Times. | | | | | |
For your downtime |
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| San Diego Comic-Con starts today. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) |
Going out |
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Staying in |
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A question for you: What are some ways you pamper your dogs? |
| Brian says, "I cook food for him. Most recently ground turkey, a sweet potato, and some broth. This gets mixed in with his kidney friendly canned food. He is old and takes medication for his heart and thyroid along with the kidney diet." |
| Email us at essentialcalifornia@latimes.com, and your response might appear in the newsletter this week. |
And finally ... from our archives |
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| Before Elon Musk entered the picture, Twitter had a real, and mostly sustainable, business model. Now it has a cool name — at least if you're Elon Musk. (Ringo H.W. Chiu / Associated Press) |
| On July 24, 2023, Elon Musk began rebranding the social media platform formerly known as Twitter to its current identity, X. Since then, the site has introduced the artificial intelligence chatbot Grok, which has prompted concern among experts for its record of spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories — especially during vulnerable periods like natural disasters. |
Have a great day, from the Essential California team |
| Jim Rainey, staff writer
Diamy Wang, homepage intern
Izzy Nunes, audience intern
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Andrew Campa, Sunday writer
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters |
| How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com. Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on latimes.com. |
