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| California house investors target most-affordable counties – Orange County Register | | You’re more likely to find California houses owned by investors in the state’s more affordable communities.
That’s what my trusty spreadsheet found after reviewing a BatchData report from the third quarter of 2025 that calculates investor ownership of houses and townhomes nationwide.
Investors in this study include everything from giant companies controlling thousands of houses to folks with a small collection of rentals to short-term rental operators to people with a second home. Condo ownership was not included. [Article] | | by , Orange County Register. 2026-02-11 | | | | Affordable housing complex opens in Westchester - CBS Los Angeles | | Markuita Brooks, new resident of the affordable Westchester housing development, Red Tail Crossing, shares her story as a single mother and foster parent. [Article] | | by , . 2026-02-11 | | | | Department of Homeland Security must provide 'constitutionally adequate healthcare' at ICE detention center, judge rules - Los Angeles Times | | A federal judge this week ordered ICE and the Department of Homeland Security to provide “constitutionally adequate healthcare” to people detained in California’s newest and largest immigration detention center.
In her Tuesday ruling, U.S. District Judge Maxine M. Chesney also required an external monitor be appointed to ensure compliance, including through review of medical records and on-site inspection and interviews with patients and staff at the California City Detention Facility in the Mojave Desert.
Chesney ordered the government to provide detainees with timely and confidential access to attorneys, temperature-appropriate clothing and blankets free of charge and access to adequate outdoor recreation spaces for at least an hour a day.
The ruling comes in the case of seven detainees who in November filed a federal class-action lawsuit in the Northern District of California against Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement alleging medical neglect, unsanitary living conditions and abusive treatment by the staff at the facility, which opened in August.
Ryan Gustin, a spokesman for CoreCivic, which operates the facility, said they “work closely with our government partner to ensure we are providing all required services and meeting applicable standards.”
Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin called the judge’s order “unnecessary and superfluous given DHS’s medical policy goes above and beyond.” [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2026-02-11 | | | | LAPD to train their body cameras on immigration agents, under mayor's directive - Los Angeles Times | | Los Angeles police officers must turn on their body cameras at the scene of federal immigration enforcement operations and preserve the footage, according to an executive directive issued by Mayor Karen Bass on Tuesday.
Since June, federal immigration raids have disrupted neighborhoods and communities across Los Angeles and around the nation, including at work sites, along neighborhood streets and in commercial areas.
Often, police officers have responded to the scene to try to keep order amid tensions between immigration agents and community members.
“The point that we’re trying to make here is that ICE enforcement is not welcome here,” Bass said at a news conference Tuesday morning. “We have resisted against it since this terror started, and we will continue to do that.”
In addition to recording the federal immigration agents’ actions, LAPD officers must document the name and badge number of the agents’ on-scene supervisor, summon emergency personnel if someone at a scene is injured and take reports from the public about federal agents’ alleged misconduct, Bass’ five-page directive states.
The directive also prohibits federal immigration agents from using city property and imposes a fee on owners who allow federal agents to use private property.
The effort builds on a previous Bass directive that aimed to restrict the city from assisting federal immigration agents. The LAPD has a long-standing policy that its officers should not be involved in immigration enforcement.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Bass noted that officers are supposed to turn on their body cameras anyway, including when they’re responding to a call from the public or when another law enforcement agency asks for assistance.
“We’re saying we really want you to do that, even if you are there and there’s not a disturbance that breaks out, if you’re there on the scene,” Bass said. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2026-02-11 | | | | Instagram boss defends app in lawsuit trial over alleged harms to kids - Los Angeles Times | | A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge threatened to throw grieving mothers out of court Wednesday if they couldn’t stop crying during testimony from Instagram boss Adam Mosseri, who took the stand to defend his company’s app against allegations the product is harmful to children.
The social media addiction case is considered a bellwether that could shape the fate of thousands of other pending lawsuits, transforming the legal landscape for some of the world’s most powerful companies.
For many in the gallery, it was a chance to sit face to face with a man they hold responsible for their children’s deaths. Bereaved parents waited outside the Spring Street courthouse overnight in the rain for a place in the gallery, some breaking into sobs as he spoke.
“I can’t do this,” wept mom Lori Schott, whose daughter Annalee died by suicide after a years-long struggle with what she described as social media addiction. “I’m shaking, I couldn’t stop. It just destroyed her.”
Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl warned she would boot the moms if they could not contain their weeping.
“If there’s a violation of that order from me, I will remove you from the court,” the judge said.
Mosseri, by contrast, appeared cool and collected on the stand, wearing thick wire-framed glasses and a navy suit. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2026-02-11 | | | | LA County Supervisors reject expanding duration and scope of rent debt protection – Daily News | | Esmerelda, who did not give her last name, is a lot like others who are living in fear of being arrested by roaming federal immigration agents. She told her story during an emotional meeting of the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, Feb. 10.
“The raids continue and they keep us terrorized. A lot of us are not able to go out to work without fear,” she said. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Daily News. 2026-02-11 | | | | 9 inmate deaths bring renewed scrutiny of L.A. County jail conditions - Los Angeles Times | | Nine people have died inside L.A. County jails so far this year, an alarming number for the Sheriff’s Department as it continues to face a lawsuit from the state over the conditions in local lockups.
Sheriff’s Department officials said they are continuing to make changes, hoping to reduce the number of in-custody deaths and care for an inmate population that is increasingly struggling with medical and mental health issues.
“Every time I get notified that someone in my care has passed away, it’s like a kick in the groin,” said Sheriff Robert Luna during a brief interview. “It’s not what you want to hear.”
Seven inmates died in January, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, and another two deaths have occurred so far in February. The causes of all nine deaths are still pending autopsy reports.
The rate is on pace with 2025, when nine deaths were reported by the end of February, resulting in 46 in-custody deaths for the year. In 2024, the Sheriff’s Department reported 32 deaths.
“It’s not off to a good start,” Luna said.
The Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission will probe the county’s Correctional Health Services during its next meeting, specifically eight suicides and 10 drug-related deaths that occurred in 2025, said Hans Johnson, commission chair.
In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for the L.A. County Department of Health Services, which oversees Correctional Health Services, said all inmates are screened for medical and mental health services when they enter the jail, and staff works to be proactive in addressing health issues.
The Sheriff’s Department is already moving to implement body-worn cameras on deputies inside the jails, and make physical changes to its Inmate Reception Center in hopes of improving the chances of noting when a person with medical or mental health conditions is booked. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2026-02-11 | | | | Mental health advocate for California tribes dies; victim in murder-suicide - CalMatters | | A member of the Yurok tribe who advocated for better mental health treatment and suicide intervention in rural Northern California has died in an apparent murder-suicide.
Celinda Gonzales was 59.
In 2020, CalMatters wrote about her work in Humboldt County, where about 2 and a half times as many residents die by suicide per capita as the rest of the state.
The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office said deputies found two bodies in a home in the Yurok reservation village of Weitchpec on Feb. 3. [Article] | | by , CalMatters. 2026-02-11 | | | | LA Foster Youth Advocate Denied Bond While Fighting Deportation | | An immigration judge has denied bond for a well-known foster youth advocate who faces deportation and has been locked up in a Southern California detention center for the past six months.
Despite pleas for his release by state lawmakers, local activists and family members, the Wednesday court ruling determined that Axel Pecero, a 25-year-old father of one, remains a flight risk. [Article] | | by , . 2026-02-11 | | | | Gov. Gavin Newsom approves $90 million for Planned Parenthood - Los Angeles Times | | SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill on Wednesday to provide $90 million to Planned Parenthood, a move intended to help offset the losses from recent federal cuts targeting abortion providers.
“These cuts were designed to attack and assault Planned Parenthood,” said Newsom, speaking at a news conference near the Capitol. “They were not abortion cuts; they were attacks on wellness and screenings and they were attacks on women’s healthcare.”
The Republican-backed One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed last year by President Trump, blocked federal Medicaid funding from going to Planned Parenthood. More than 80% of the nearly 1.3 million annual patient visits to Planned Parenthood in California were previously reimbursed by Medi-Cal, the state’s version of Medicaid.
Sen. John Laird (D-Santa Cruz), who authored the legislation for the funding, Senate Bill 106, said the measure showed that California won’t back down. “This is us standing up to the immediate cut that was in that bill,” said Laird. “This is how we are fighting back.”
Jodi Hicks, chief executive of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, thanked legislators for their support and said the organization could not survive without support from the state. She said Planned Parenthood would always fight against federal attacks but “needed an army” this time to stand beside them.
During the news conference, First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom expressed frustration with reporters for asking off-topic questions and said the media should be more concerned about women’s issues.
“All of these questions have really been about other issues,” she said. “This happens over and over and over again — [and we] wonder why we have such a horrific war on women in this country.”
Planned Parenthood offers a range of services, including abortions, birth control, cancer screenings and testings for sexually transmitted diseases. A coalition of states, including California, filed a lawsuit last year against the Trump administration over the cuts to the nonprofit. The states argue in the ongoing lawsuit that the measure violates the spending powers of Congress by singling out Planned Parenthood for negative treatment. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2026-02-11 | | | | Ballot proposal may change pay for L.A. County deputies, firefighters - Los Angeles Times | | Los Angeles County leaders are pushing forward a measure for the November ballot that would remove their ability to have final say on one of the costliest decisions they make: How much to pay firefighters and sheriff’s deputies.
The supervisors voted 4 to 0 on Tuesday to have their lawyers draft a ballot measure that would give final decision-making power in contract disputes regarding pay and working conditions for public safety workers to a three-person panel, a practice known as binding arbitration.
Supporters say the proposal, which the supervisors are pushing to get on the November ballot, would offer a new tool to smooth over disputes and provide a “reset” after recent tumultuous contract negotiations.
“It incentivizes both parties to come to a fair agreement,” said Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, who introduced the measure along with Supervisor Hilda Solis.
The supervisors are expected to vote again on the proposal in the coming months before putting it on the ballot.
Currently, if contract talks hit an impasse, the five county supervisors can, after a complex mediation process, impose a final offer. Public safety workers, who are not allowed to strike, say they have no leverage with which to fight back, giving the county final word.
Under the new proposal, the power dynamics would shift. An arbitration panel would instead make the final decision on some contract disputes for public safety employees, including firefighters, sheriff’s deputies and county lifeguards. The panel would have one arbitrator chosen by the county, one chosen by the union and one agreed to by both sides.
It’s rare for labor negotiations to get to this point. The county said it has imposed contract terms after reaching impasse over negotiations twice since 2001, once with the Union of American Physicians and Dentists in 2001 and Supervising Deputy Probation Officers in 2024.
“The goal is to never have to get to that step,” Horvath said. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2026-02-11 | | | | Apartments to take over empty office buildings with new L.A. ordinance - Los Angeles Times | | Los Angeles officials just made it easier to convert empty commercial buildings to housing, opening the door to the creation of thousands of apartments across a city clamoring for housing.
Developer Garrett Lee already is rolling.
After years of struggling to find white-collar tenants for a gleaming office high-rise on the edge of downtown, he has just begun converting its office space into close to 700 apartments.
With the new Citywide Adaptive Reuse Ordinance going into effect this month, many more housing conversions are coming to Los Angeles, Lee said.
“This is monumental for the city,” he concluded.
The ordinance opens the possibility of conversion for many more buildings than the 1999 guidelines, which paved the way for converting older downtown buildings and jump-started a residential renaissance that turned downtown into a viable neighborhood after decades as a commercial district where few wanted to live.
The first ordinance applied to buildings erected before 1975 and was focused primarily on downtown. Under the new guidelines, commercial buildings that are merely 15 years old throughout Los Angeles can be converted to housing with city staff approval, rather than going through lengthy review processes that may reach the City Council.
Streamlining conversion approvals for projects that meet city guidelines will remove one of the biggest hurdles for developers who historically had to guess how long it would take to start construction, Lee said.
“When you take that risk off the table, it materially improves the feasibility of conversions,” said Lee, president of Jamison Properties.
“It addresses both the housing shortage and the long-term office vacancy issue,” he said. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2026-02-11 | | | | Report: ICE raids cause $3.7M in losses | News | avpress.com | | Approximately $3.7 million in business losses occurred between July to September due to federal immigration raids in Los Angeles County, according to a report released Monday.
County Supervisors Hilda Solis and Janice Hahn commissioned the report, and the action was approved by the full Board of Supervisors in June, following the start of the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration in the Southland. [Article] | | by , . 2026-02-11 | | | | LA Mayor Bass issues order banning ICE from staging on city property | LAist | | L.A. Mayor Karen Bass is directing staff to keep ICE off of city property and asking the Los Angeles Police Department to increase its monitoring of federal immigration agents.
The mayor issued the instructions in an executive directive Tuesday. She's also directing the Los Angeles Police Commission to ensure the LAPD and other law enforcement agencies operating in the city are complying with new state laws attempting to reign in federal immigration enforcement. [Article] | | by , . 2026-02-11 | | | | Rampant post-fire price gouging went unpunished, report alleges - Los Angeles Times | | When the Palisades and Eaton fires displaced thousands of tenants last year, landlords across L.A. jacked up rental prices while the flames were still burning. Officials were quick to respond, vowing crackdowns on price gouging.
A new report asserts that many of those threats were toothless.
Published by activist organization the Rent Brigade, the report analyzed L.A. County’s rental market in the year after the fires. It found 18,360 potential examples of price gouging in listings, but only 12 lawsuits filed so far.
Gov. Gavin Newsom put price-gouging rules into effect on Jan. 7, the day of the fires. They’ve been in place in L.A. County ever since, and they’re currently extended through Feb. 27, 2026. The protections prohibit landlords from raising rents by more than 10%, but many seemed undeterred by the rules.
In the week after the fires, one agent told The Times that their landlord client said they “doubt it’ll be prosecuted,” ordering the agent to raise the price more than 10%. A Beverly Grove condo jumped from $5,000 to $8,000. A property in Venice listed for 60% more. A Santa Monica home got a price bump of more than 100%.
“I was shocked by how many clear, unavoidable cases of price gouging there were,” said Philip Meyer, a volunteer with the Rent Brigade who co-authored the report. “A lot of folks didn’t seem to think there’d be any accountability, so they were breaking the law in plain view.”
Meyer helped design a tracking system that scrapes data from Zillow to detect price hikes greater than 10%. He said price gouging predictably skyrocketed in the month after the fires, but then it continued all year long as enforcement lagged.
“I’m not sure if people realized that price-gouging laws are still in effect,” he said.
Illegal listings were scattered across the Southland, but the report said that 42% were found in L.A. County’s 3rd District, which covers Pacific Palisades, as well as the surrounding communities where many fire victims tried to relocate, including Malibu, Santa Monica, Venice and Calabasas. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2026-02-11 | | | | VA terminates leases of West L.A. land, leaves land used by Brentwood School's athletics in limbo - Los Angeles Times | | The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has terminated agreements allowing three outside entities including a prestigious K-12 academy to use portions of its West Los Angeles campus.
The agency posted a notice on its website late Monday saying it had ended leases to Brentwood School and a parking lot firm and the license for an oil pumping operation on the 388-acre property.
The VA said it was taking the property in furtherance of President Trump’s executive order of last May calling for creation of a National Center for Warrior Independence with housing for 6,000 veterans.
The notice did not say whether the school would lose access to extensive athletic facilities it built on its 22-acre leasehold. Those include a football/soccer stadium, a baseball field, basketball pavilion, exercise equipment and a 10-lane swimming pool.
School officials issued a brief statement saying the VA had offered to meet with them in Washington.
“We look forward to that meeting with hopes of preserving our longstanding relationship and the extensive services Brentwood School provides that so many Veterans value.”
On Tuesday, the school’s use of the facilities continued as normal.
The announcement threw a new twist into the tangled intersection of a federal court order requiring the VA to build more than 2,000 housing units on the campus and Trump’s executive order. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2026-02-11 | | | | LA County identifies the ZIP codes hit hardest by ICE. Here’s where they are | LAist | | A new report from L.A. County offers a closer look at the economic damage to the region caused by federal immigration enforcement — and at the neighborhoods most affected.
The analysis, compiled by the Los Angeles County Department of Economic Opportunity and Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation, identified the neighborhoods hardest hit by ICE, and found that they were more economically precarious. [Article] | | by , . 2026-02-11 | | | | California, other states sue over Trump's latest cuts to HIV programs - Los Angeles Times | | California and three other states sued the Trump administration Wednesday over its plans to slash $600 million from programs designed to prevent and track the spread of HIV, including in the LGBTQ+ community — arguing the move is based on “political animus and disagreements about unrelated topics such as federal immigration enforcement, political protest, and clean energy.”
“This action is lawless,” attorneys for California, Colorado, Illinois and Minnesota said in a complaint filed in federal court in Illinois against President Trump and several of his officials.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funding had been allocated to disease control programs in all four states, though California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta’s office said his state faces “the largest share” of the cuts.
That includes $130 million due to California under a Public Health Infrastructure Block Grant, which the state and its local public health departments use to fund their public health workforce, monitor disease spread and respond to public health emergencies, Bonta’s office said.
“President Trump ... is using federal funding to compel states and jurisdictions to follow his agenda. Those efforts have all previously failed, and we expect that to happen once again,” Bonta said in a statement.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., one of the named defendants, repeatedly has turned his agency away from evidence-backed HIV monitoring and prevention programs in the last year, and the Trump administration has broadly attacked federal spending headed to blue states or allocated to initiatives geared toward the LGBTQ+ community.
The White House justified the latest cuts by claiming the programs “promote DEI and radical gender ideology” but did not explain further. Health officials said the cuts were to programs that did not reflect the CDC’s “priorities.”
Neither the White House nor Health and Human Services immediately responded to requests for comment.
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said the cuts would derail an estimated $64.5 million for 14 county grant programs, resulting in “increased costs, more illness, and preventable deaths,” the department said.
Those programs focus on response to disasters, controlling outbreaks of diseases such as measles and flu, preventing the spread of diseases such as West Nile, dengue and hepatitis A, monitoring and treating HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, fighting chronic illnesses such as diabetes and obesity, and supporting community health, the department said. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2026-02-11 | | | | L.A. County beaches could be managed by the federal government - Los Angeles Times | | While most environmental exchanges between California and the federal government these days are adversarial, one process has been quietly underway for two decades and is just now ripening: an examination of whether the federal government should manage Los Angeles County coastal areas.
The National Park Service held a first public meeting Wednesday to help determine whether most of the county coastline should be part of a “park unit.”
There are 28 park units in California, including the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, Channel Islands National Park and Yosemite. Management is flexible. It can mean ownership with management, management only or co-management with a nonprofit.
Most people at the meeting, held over Microsoft Teams, expressed excitement at the potential for conservation in an area stretching from Will Rogers State Beach to Torrance, plus 200 yards inland. The designation would mean no change for the hundreds of private property owners in the zone. One person at the meeting asked if the park service could prevent oil and gas projects, including an upgrade of an underground gas storage facility near the Ballona Creek Ecological Reserve. Some were concerned the federal government would take the land or prevent access.
At this point, the park service is merely studying the idea, and the study could lead to no action at all.
It looks at four questions: Does the area have national significance — historical landmarks or archaeological sites? Does it represent a natural or cultural resource not already represented in the park system? Is it feasible to include, and is it clear that the national park system is the best manager of the area?
The acquisition of the county coastal areas was first conceived by Marcia Hanscom, director of Los Angeles Coast Forever!, a nonprofit that has advocated for federal management of the fragile ecosystem for years. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2026-02-11 | | | | 'Environmental time bomb': Illegal pot farms poison California forests - Los Angeles Times | | Law enforcement raided the illegal cannabis operation in Shasta-Trinity National Forest months before, but rotting potatoes still sat on the growers’ makeshift kitchen worktop, waiting to be cooked.
Ecologist Greta Wengert stared down the pockmarked hillside at a pile of pesticide sprayers left behind, long after the raid. Wild animals had gnawed through the pressurized canisters, releasing the chemicals inside.
“They’re just these little death bombs, waiting for any wildlife that is going to investigate,” said Wengert, co-founder of the Integral Ecology Research Center, a nonprofit that studies the harms caused by cannabis grows on public lands. For all her stoic professionalism, she sounded a little sad.
For over a decade, Wengert and her colleagues have warned that illegal cannabis grows like this one dangerously pollute California’s public lands and pristine watersheds, with lasting consequences for ecosystems, water and wildlife.
Now, they’re sounding another alarm — that inadequate federal funding, disjointed communication, dangerous conditions and agencies stretched thin at both the state and federal levels are leaving thousands of grow sites — and their trash, pesticides, fertilizers and more — to foul California’s forests.
Dozens of fertilizer bags wept blue fluid onto the forest floor. Irrigation tubes snaked across the craters of empty plant holes. The cold stillness felt temporary — as if the growers would return at any moment to prop up the crumpled tents, replant their crop and fling more beer cans and dirty underwear into the woods.
Wengert has tallied nearly 7,000 abandoned sites like this one on California’s public lands. It’s almost certainly an underestimate, she said. Her team knows of only 587 that have been at least partly cleaned up.
No government agency can provide a comprehensive count; several referred CalMatters back to Wengert’s nonprofit for an unofficial tally.
Most of the sites Wengert’s team identified are in national forests, where “limited funding and a shortage of personnel trained to safely identify and remove hazardous materials” are driving a backlog in cleanups, a U.S. Forest Service spokesperson told CalMatters via an unsigned email.
The federal government, the spokesperson said, has dedicated no funding for the forest service to clean them up. And it’s leaving a mess in California. [Article] | | by , Los Angeles Times. 2026-02-11 | | |
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