FREE
Former Stanton city councilwoman charged with multiple felonies
Real estate agent charged in alleged price gouging of Eaton Fire victims
PG 02
PG 27
VISIT HEYSOCAL.COM
MONDAY, JANUARY 27- FEBRUARY 02, 2025
VOL. 14,
NO. 208
Newsom signs $2.5 billion funding bills for wildfire relief; banks, county agencies offer assistance to fire victims
Donald Trump’s No. 2 pick for the EPA represented companies accused of pollution harm
By City News Service
This story was originally published by ProPublica. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.
G
ov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday signed legislation providing $2.5 billion in relief funds to support recovery from the deadly wildfires that ravaged Pacific Palisades and Altadena. Newsom said the money will be “made available immediately” and will help cover “ongoing operations, disaster recovery, debris removal, work on logistics, traffic management, address all the myriad of issues that we’re facing in real time.” Sen. Ben Allen, D-Pacific Palisades, hailed the signing of the legislation. “The long road to recovery is just beginning, and these bills are a couple of important first steps to usher us along the path,” Allen said in a statement after the signing ceremony. “Relief from these devastating fires is going to require a holistic approach, which will incorporate not just a massive financial undertaking, but strong policy that ensures the best interest of victims and survivors are upheld through the rebuilding process as well. I am grateful to see this starting to come together, and am eager to see the money start flowing as quickly as possible to this community in dire need.” According to Allen, the bulk of the funding in the legislation will go toward cleanup efforts and removal of hazardous waste, along with remediating hazards such as water and air quality, flooding and debris flows. The money can also be used for sheltering people left homeless, expediting rebuilding efforts and replacing damaged or destroyed school facilities. The California Latino Legislative Caucus, noting that the fires affected many people, including 74,000 Latinos, and “there is nothing
By Sharon Lerner, ProPublica
T
A firefighter sifts through the rubble of a structure destroyed in the Eaton Fire. | Photo courtesy of Cal Fire_Official/Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)
more important than acting quickly to respond to the moment.” “Looking ahead, we are pleased to know these funds will boost emergency response and cleanup, help rebuild schools faster, and increase preparedness efforts to prevent the dangers that arise during extreme weather events,” according to the caucus. LA County launches Business-to-Business Space Share program Businesses that were displaced by the Southland wildfires could find a temporary workspace through a new program, county officials announced Thursday. Los Angeles County’s Department of Economic Opportunityintroduced an initiative called the Business-to-Business Space Share, which serves as a free exchange platform connecting displaced businesses and nonprofits to temporary workspaces donated by other
businesses throughout the LA region. Businesses interested in donating or finding space can visit the Business-to-Business Space Share portal at https:// sharespace.lacounty.gov/. LA County Supervisor Janice Hahn said she came up with the idea after speaking with Whittier Councilwoman Cathy Warner, who has a periodontal practice in East Whittier with her husband. Warner, who sees patients in her office three days a week, offered her space to other periodontists to use. With this in mind, Hahn proposed using an LA County website to facilitate this exchange of goodwill and connect businesses countywide. “If you have space, this is how you can help. Whether you can offer a space where a dentist can treat their patients, a hair stylist can See Wildfire relief Page 27
keep their appointments, a lawyer can see their clients, or any other space, you will be helping someone in need maintain their livelihood and helping our economy through this crisis,” Hahn said in a statement. The website is maintained by the county’s Internal Services Department, and it will be available for a limited time. Through the Space Share portal, businesses with available space can post listings with details such as location, capacity and availability. Displaced business owners can browse the listings to find workspaces that best meet their needs. Metro approves free rides for LA County residents impacted by fires The Metro Board of Directors on Thursday approved a proposal to expand its reduced-fare initiative and
he man tapped by President Donald Trump to be second-in-command of the federal agency that protects the public from environmental dangers is a lawyer who has represented companies accused of harming people and the environment through pollution. David Fotouhi, a partner in the global law firm Gibson Dunn, played a key part in rolling back climate regulations and water protections while serving as a lawyer in the Environmental Protection Agency during Trump’s first administration. Most recently, Fotouhi challenged the EPA’s recent ban of asbestos, which causes a deadly cancer called mesothelioma. In a brief filed in October on behalf of a group of car companies called the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, he argued that, for the specific uses that were banned, the “EPA failed to demonstrate that chrysotile asbestos presents an unreasonable risk of injury.” The EPA banned the carcinogen in March, long after its dangers first became widely known. More than 50 other countries have outlawed use of the mineral. The agency had worked toward the ban for decades, and workers died while lobbyists pushed to delay action, as a 2022 ProPublica investigation showed. Less than a day after Trump’s inauguration last week, the White House webpage that celebrated the historic ban was gone. Fotouhi’s nomination to be the EPA deputy administrator must yet be approved by the Senate. The asbestos rule is just one of several environmental issues at the heart of the EPA’s regulatory mission on which Fotouhi has represented companies accused of polluting. The 39-year-old lawyer, who is expected to play a critical role running the agency, represented International Paper in lawsuits accusing the firm of contamination from PFAS, or “forever chemicals”; a tire company that allegedly released a chemical known to kill endangered salmon (the firm disputed the claim and is fighting the lawsuit); and a coalition of businesses in Washington state that sued the EPA over its water quality standards for legacy pollutants known as PCBs. Environmentalists are calling on Fotouhi to recuse himself from decisions regarding asbestos and other issues he’s recently worked on at Gibson Dunn. “Here’s a guy who wrote a very biased and one-sided attack on the EPA rule on asbestos. I would not want him to come anywhere near EPA decision-making on the asbestos rule,” said Robert Sussman, an attorney who represents the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization and served as EPA deputy administrator during the Clinton administration. “I recused myself from everything involving former clients,” said Sussman. Fotouhi declined to comment for this story. An EPA spokesperson said in a statement, “Every person President See Pollution harm Page 28