Greater LA

From private yards to public parks, gardeners and landscape designers are trying to “rewild” the land with native plants and creatures, and restore the web of life. More people started gardening and composting during the pandemic, and the state passed a new composting law, which drove up demand for worms. Now there’s a shortage of these invertebrates. More than 1,200 scientists in 26 countries protested in downtown LA earlier this month, calling for stronger action against climate change. Some were arrested.

Metrolink is now powering its trains with recycled natural oils from Singapore and Finland, which it says will cut carbon emissions by up to 80%. But that doesn’t make it sustainable. Assimilation is not the key to belonging — that’s what Julissa Arce argues in her new book, “You Sound Like A White Girl: The Case for Rejecting Assimilation.”

Kick off election season in LA County with a roundtable discussion about the biggest races, what’s at stake, and what to watch in the June 7 primary. The old West LA Courthouse skate park is up for demolition and re-development. Skaters want a say in new plans for the space.

Photographer Emanuel Hahn’s new book, “Koreatown Dreaming,” includes interviews and images of 40 Koreatown business owners who’ve been trying to stay afloat amid COVID and gentrification. City officials in Malibu recently voted to explore setting up shelter beds for unhoused people outside city limits. Is that legal? And is it right? Anaheim officials say drug dealing, illegal gambling, and prostitution are happening at two motels on Beach Blvd. The City Council has set new rules for the motels to keep operating.

The Kinsey African American Art & History Collection is back in LA. “What we do is about illuminating a fuller scope of Blackness and humanity at large,” says the chief curator. LA artist Phung Huynh honors the kids of Cambodian American immigrants and refugees in her new exhibit, “Donut (W)hole.” High Desert Test Sites’ 2022 biennial is titled “The Searchers.” It features nine artists at various locations in the Mojave Desert. 

Inglewood residents are upset about a plan to close a local elementary school. But with enrollment down statewide, communities will likely see more permanent campus shutdowns. Hawthorne-based SpaceX just sent another rocket to the International Space Station. But for the first time, most of the crew members were private citizens. Tatiana Brunetti, owner of Healthy Indulgence Bakery in downtown LA, is sending proceeds to help animals wounded and abandoned in Ukraine.

Cameras, sensors, and palm-scanning technology — it’s not science fiction. It’s the new, cashierless Whole Foods in Sherman Oaks. The aggressive “ankle biter” Aedes aegypti mosquito is now in LA. They carry diseases, and can lay eggs in a space as small as a water-filled bottle cap. One company is preparing to release millions of genetically modified versions of the insect to try to get rid of them. Placentia-Yorba Linda is Orange County’s first school district to ban the teaching of critical race theory in its classrooms. What’s driving this decision?

California’s legal cannabis industry once promised to be the world’s most successful weed market. Now many legal operators are about to go out of business. What happened? After Oil Can Harry’s closed during the pandemic, LA lost one of its oldest LGBTQ bars and nightclubs. But LA City Council may designate the site as a Historic-Cultural Monument. The LA Angels will begin their season tonight against the Houston Astros, while the LA Dodgers will start on Friday against the Colorado Rockies. What can we expect during this baseball season?

LA county’s public health director says while people like complaining about getting another booster, it’s quick and comes with zero to mild side effects. Mandates for masks and vax proof may return if COVID surges again in places like nursing homes and schools. Highlighting racial disparities reduces fear of the virus among white people, says a new study. As a result, empathy for the most vulnerable people and support for masks and other safety measures drop, too.

Gas prices just reached a record high, so California will return a big chunk of its budget surplus to drivers. But for super commuters, a $400 rebate won’t last two weeks. Some LA transit officials are concerned that unhoused Angelenos aboard the county’s buses and trains are preventing ridership numbers from returning to pre-pandemic levels. Members of Crosswalk Collective LA have taken it upon themselves to paint crosswalks in the city. “If our city won’t keep us safe, we will keep us safe,” they tweeted.