To get a COVID test now, you have to be a savvy consumer. KCRW shares tips on navigating options from LA County, pharmacies, and drugstores. Also, be careful about scams online and at pop-up tents. Thieves have taken 22 ornate bronze street lamps from the Glendale-Hyperion Bridge. Residents are upset, and the city is trying to save the remaining lamps. What’s being done to fix LA’s potholes during the rainy winter season, and prevent them from forming in the first place?

After nearly two years of free bus rides, LA Metro is resuming fare collection this week. The agency says it needs to charge to continue the service, but riders and public transit advocates aren’t buying it. “We The Unhoused” covers the stories and issues of Angelenos living on the streets. Host Theo Henderson personally knows the experience.

LAUSD requires students and staff to submit a COVID test before returning to school on Tuesday. More than 60,000 have tested positive, and that has parents worried. The recycling system is rampant with fraud and is costing consumers tens of millions of dollars a year, according to Consumer Watchdog. Kelly Ernby — a rising star in the California Republican Party and anti-vaxxer — died last week due to COVID.

Diablo Canyon is supposed to start closing in a few years, but a Stanford-MIT report says keeping it open would help California transition to clean energy more cheaply and cleanly. More than 700 people who broke into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 have been charged with crimes — many from LA and Orange County. A lot of them have made plea deals. Where do the cases stand? Jan. 6 is Erin Aubry Kaplan’s birthday — and the day of the U.S. Capitol insurrection last year. She writes, “The prospect of 1/6 becoming a kind of permanent memorial day for the unhinged right makes me want to give my birthday back, like damaged goods.”

SoCal water agencies are investing in cloud seeding programs to squeeze more moisture out of their winter storms. But playing rain god has risks and limitations. Some truck drivers live full-time — and cook — in their big rigs, driving across the country to keep the supply chain going. The human body is the focus of two artists with shows up in LA right now: Nevine Mahmoud at M+B and Julia Phillips at Matthew Marks Gallery.

Marine Mammal Care Center LA has survived struggles and the pandemic as it cares for injured sea life. Now the center has reopened to the public. The Black Phoebe, the Cassin’s Kingbird, and Pacific Slope Flycatcher are among the unusual birds found in the San Fernando Valley during the latest annual Christmas Bird Count. Bassist Frederick “Juice” Johnson suffered strokes, cancer, and then homelessness. His life turned around thanks to nonprofits, and now he’s giving back to those same organizations.

The supply chain backlog increased toxic emissions at the ports in 2021. There’s a plan to clean things up, but residents worry it’s not moving fast enough. The current COVID surge is “short, sharp, and fast,” says microbiology and immunology professor Paula Cannon. She adds that it’s moving toward “endemic” status, like measles and mumps. After less than six months on the job, Mater Dei High School’s president has resigned. The OC campus made headlines for a football hazing controversy that left a student severely injured.

On this holiday rebroadcast, Greater LA looks at the history of Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, which sits on land that was the private domain of one woman 100 years ago, and why the first Black woman to own property in Los Angeles has a park named after her but no street.

This year included many stories of struggles and trauma, but Greater LA also highlighted hope through “The Helpers” series — about people making unique differences in their communities. Three of the Helpers we’ve featured over the past year are still active with their efforts, and they shared personal and professional updates as we reflect on 2021.

The leader of the Juaneńo Band of Mission Indians follows in the footsteps of her ancestors by foraging for acorns in the Angeles National Forest. And the tribal president of the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians says more and more individuals are interested in learning about Native American culture and acknowledging the tribal land.