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Nearly a year after the expiration of a $7,500 federal tax incentive for new electric vehicles, California is stepping in to try to motivate buyers to go electric.

Gov. Gavin Newsom allocated $135 million in his new state budget to provide incentives for new and used EVs. Participating automakers will match the funds. The EV incentives will take effect in the coming weeks as the California Air Resources Board irons out agreements with dealerships.

Here’s what you need to know.

As many outdoor lovers know, there’s a special kind of magic when the stars align, you snag a last-minute reservation and realize you’ll soon be sleeping under the stars in a place you’ve never been.

But given the popularity of California’s campgrounds, is it really possible to book a campsite on short notice? 

In this edition of The Wild, our outdoors staff writer Jaclyn Cosgrove explains not only how you can book campsites last minute but also where you will be more likely to find open spots (even, if lucky, on a holiday weekend like Fourth of July weekend).

Here’s what to know. 

In the pre-dawn chill of the Sierra Nevada, Christina Klayko bounced on the balls of her feet, trying to keep warm and calm before one of the planet’s most punishing competitions.

Surrounding her at the starting line for the Western States Endurance Run — a lung-busting 100-mile race over towering mountain ridges and through deep, sun-scorched canyons — were some of the most elite athletes in the world, including former champions, record holders and an Olympic marathon medalist.

Klayko, a 48-year-old mother of three, had no illusions about winning — she was just relieved to be there. She is a two-time cancer survivor, and a year earlier, she was lying on an operating table enduring a full hysterectomy, followed by months of radiation treatment. She was terrified she might die.

Read more. 

New “mega master” hearings have packed around 60 to 100 cases at once in immigration courts nationwide, creating chaotic lines and overflowing courtrooms.

Judges race through grouped cases, often without addressing immigrants directly. Those who miss their hearings can be ordered deported.

The expanded hearings are meant to target the most vulnerable asylum seekers and issue as many removal orders as possible, lawyers and advocates said.

Read more.

The Lineage refrigerated warehouse fire in Boyle Heights carried astronomically high levels of smoke and soot, surpassing some of the worst air pollution during the Los Angeles County fires in January 2025, according to preliminary data from air officials. 

During the 2025 L.A. County fires, local air officials announced that several monitors downwind had detected elevated levels of brain-damaging lead and cancer-causing arsenic from toxic paint and construction materials used in older homes. The Lineage warehouse, built in 2018, is likely to contain different materials of concern. Thick insulation foam required for a massive refrigeration operation, solar panels and refrigerants were burned.
Even though three public agencies conducted air monitoring, the picture is still murky.

Read more.

Townhomes, row houses and bungalow courts are likely coming to 57 neighborhoods across L.A. as part of the city’s plan to delay Senate Bill 79.

The historic housing bill, which took effect Wednesday, was written in hopes of addressing California’s housing crisis. It’s designed to boost apartment construction by overriding local zoning laws and allowing taller, denser developments near bus stops and train stations: up to nine stories for buildings adjacent to certain transit stops, seven stories for buildings within a quarter-mile and six stories for buildings within a half-mile.

It serves as a definitive statement from Sacramento lawmakers to cities that have failed to keep up with housing demand in recent years, including L.A., where single-family housing is still king. However, the bill was so contentious that in order to squeak it through, legislators stuffed it full of carve-outs and exemptions, allowing cities to delay implementation by passing their own plans to add density.

Read more at the link.

The battle between a yoga teacher and the city of San Diego is heating up.

At the center of the controversy is a sidewalk vending ordinance San Diego adopted in 2024 that also prohibited yoga classes of four or more people at shoreline beaches and parks without city permission. Steve Hubbard, known as “NamaSteve,”  first sued San Diego in federal court in June 2024, alleging the ordinance violated their 1st Amendment rights. Recently, Hubbard has filed a third lawsuit alleging the city has violated his rights by citing him for teaching free public yoga classes.

Read more.

A new federal lawsuit by California drivers accuses major gas chains, including Walmart and 7-Eleven, and technology company Kalibrate of using AI software to collude and keep pump prices artificially high.

The case tests California’s updated antitrust law, which now treats algorithm-driven common pricing as potential price-fixing, amid statewide gas averaging $5.46 a gallon and growing scrutiny of corporate pricing tactics.

Real estate and other industries already face probes into algorithmic and surveillance pricing, as Americans cite housing and energy costs as top worries and question whether genuine competition still exists.

Read more.

An aging downtown office complex will be converted into apartments as part of an ambitious plan by local real estate companies to create 4,000 affordable housing units in Los Angeles.

The first project will be a $200-million makeover of the L.A. World Trade Center, a sprawling white elephant of an office complex on Figueroa Street built in the 1970s that will be turned into 512 apartments in one of the largest affordable housing conversions to date downtown.

Future projects being planned in the central city for delivery over the next five years will include other office-to-apartment conversions and new housing built from the ground up.

Read more.

The Supreme Court voted to uphold laws in West Virginia and Idaho that forbid transgender athletes from competing on girls’ sports teams.

In a 6-3 decision, the court said the federal Title IX law envisioned separate teams for girls and boys based on their biological sex at birth.

Read more at the link

These are just a few of the phrases you might have seen on your food items:

• Use by
• Best by
• Expires by
• Please enjoy by

Each phrase can convey a different message about the food product. These meanings however, are often not conveyed to the consumer, who may unintentionally contribute to food waste by disposing of food they believe is spoiled.

Californians toss out 2.5 billion meals' worth of unspoiled food each year, contributing to organic waste that accounts for 48% of what residents send to landfills, according to the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, or CalRecyle.

To remove the ambiguity and resulting food waste, Assembly Bill 660 was signed into law and goes into effect July 1. Here's what the bill will do

The Space Shuttle Endeavour is approaching its final mission. But this time, it won’t be blasting into a different atmosphere.

The California Science Center announced its Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center will open to the public on Nov. 13. The $450-million, 200,000-square-foot addition will permanently house the Korean Air Aviation Gallery and the Kent Kresa Space Gallery. Featuring immersive exhibits — from a J.J. Abrams-produced launch film and fog-filled reveal to glass-floor views and a reentry slide — this new addition was built to ignite Angelenos’ curiosity about spaceflight.

The centerpiece of the museum’s new facility? The Samuel Oschin Shuttle Gallery, where the Space Shuttle Endeavour will be on permanent display in its vertical “ready-to-launch” position. Learn more about this one-of-a-kind exhibit at the link.

When the Trump administration began its crackdown on illegal immigration last year, ICE reversed its previous guidance against making arrests in or near immigration courthouses.

As a result, many people accused of being in the country illegally have been detained and separated from their families when they show up for routine immigration hearings and check-ins.

A federal judge in California has issued a ruling Tuesday banning Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from making arrests inside immigration courts nationwide.  Here’s what that means for current undocumented citizens

With thousands of FIFA World Cup spectators now streaming into the City of Angels, officials at Los Angeles International Airport had initially hoped to greet travelers with a fully functioning electric train that would run high above the airport’s chaotic traffic loop and whisk passengers to a shiny new transportation center.

But the long-awaited automated people mover — considered by some to be a crucial missing link in the region’s commuter rail network — has yet to transport a single passenger.

Read more at the link.

Los Angeles City Councilmember Bob Blumenfield would like to see Angelenos’ old banana peels and moldy bread stay local.

On Tuesday morning, Blumenfield  told a small crowd of waste advocates in front of city hall that he was introducing a motion to reduce the city’s greenhouse gas emissions by strengthening local composting infrastructure and decreasing reliance on distant facilities.

Take a look at his plan

For the third year in a row, accidental drug-related overdose and poisoning deaths have dropped in Los Angeles County, a decline officials attribute to ongoing investments in prevention and harm reduction resources countywide.

Drug overdoses continue to be the leading cause of accidental deaths countywide — surpassing the deaths due to vehicle crashes and firearms in 2017 combined. 

However, these accidental deaths have been on a downward trend. Fentanyl-related deaths dropped by 40% and methamphetamine-related deaths declined by 25% from 2022 to 2025. 

Here’s a look at that number and why L.A. officials think they’re continuing to drop