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1 week ago | 
lapublicpress.org | Alfredo Santana
Rafael Abrego said a month ago he purchased three small avocados for $1. Now, they are sold two for a dollar. He has President Donald Trump’s new tariffs to thank for that. “There are products [that are] much more expensive,” said Abrego, a gardener living in Highland Park who drove to the neighborhood El Super grocery store in his white cargo van after work.
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1 month ago | 
lapublicpress.org | Alfredo Santana
Inside La Asunción Family Restaurant in North Hills, a large wall canvas depicts the Lady of Solitude in front of a church named in her honor inOaxaca. It welcomes customers to dive into dishes like mole negro, tlayudas, and tamales Oaxaqueños. While La Asunción owner Dolores De Los Santos dishes warm and aromatic foods under the protection of the Lady of Solitude, serving the North Hills community has become more difficult.
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2 months ago | 
boyleheightsbeat.com | Alfredo Santana
This article was first published by the nonprofit newsroom LA Public Press on Feb. 28, 2025 and is republished here with permission. The Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday at a community meeting that a toxin found at the former Exide Technologies battery smelter in Vernon was not generated by the plant, dealing a serious blow to calls from residents and elected leaders to designate the site as a Superfund.
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Jan 29, 2025 | 
lapublicpress.org | Alfredo Santana
Maria Ramirez knows a thing or two about hazardous cleanups. Two weeks ago, her home on Esperanza Street in Boyle Heights with a chain-link fence and a large front yard was detoxified from the lead and arsenic that blanketed this area from the former Exide Technologies plant. And Ramirez had a few pieces of advice for the homeowners starting to return to their burnt-out properties in the Eaton and Palisades fire: bring in the experts.
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Oct 15, 2024 | 
boyleheightsbeat.com | Alfredo Santana
This article was first published by the nonprofit newsroom LA Public Press on Oct. 10, and is republished here with permission. Following requests from environmental justice organizers, residents who live near the former Exide Technologies plant in Vernon now have until December 4to submit public comments regarding the proposed addition of the site to the federal Superfund National Priority List (NPL) for cleanup — a 30-day extension.
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Oct 10, 2024 | 
lapublicpress.org | Alfredo Santana
Following requests from environmental justice organizers, residents who live near the former Exide Technologies plant in Vernon now have until December 4to submit public comments regarding the proposed addition of the site to the federal Superfund National Priority List (NPL) for cleanup — a 30-day extension. The Exide site has landed itself on the fact-track to Superfund designation following the June publication of a 111-page report by the engineering firm Weston Solutions.
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Sep 4, 2024 | 
boyleheightsbeat.com | Alfredo Santana
This article was first published by the nonprofit newsroom LA Public Press on Aug. 30, and is republished here with permission. Soil cleanups of more than 6,400 parkways tainted with toxic lead levels spewed by the former Exide Technologies battery smelter are scheduled to start in September. That’s according to state officials at a informational meeting for residents organized by the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) in August.
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Aug 30, 2024 | 
lapublicpress.org | Alfredo Santana
Soil cleanups of more than 6,400 parkways tainted with toxic lead levels spewed by the former Exide Technologies battery smelter are scheduled to start in September. That’s according to state officials at a informational meeting for residents organized by the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) in August. Nearly 80 people showed up to the event in Huntington Park, hosted at the offices of a nonprofit housing developer, Newstart Housing Corporation, on August 21.
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Aug 21, 2024 | 
lapublicpress.org | Alfredo Santana
If you have lived or spent time in Southeast Los Angeles, you’re likely familiar with the smell of decaying animal remains from one of the area’s industrial meat-processing facilities. Now, a former animal rendering plant in Vernon, where operations ceased in October 2022 due to a myriad of smelly violations to air quality rules, may reopen as a temporary storage facility for raw animal remains before shipment for processing or disposal elsewhere.
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Jul 10, 2024 | 
lapublicpress.org | Alfredo Santana
Twelve residents of Maywood, all diagnosed with cancer, have filed a class-action lawsuit against a company that sterilizes medical equipment for allegedly leaking, over decades, a toxic carcinogen that, the residents say, has led to a cancer cluster in the small Southeast LA city. The residents are suing a company called Sterigenics.
