Koko Nakajima

3 weeks ago | latimes.com | Liam Dillon |Koko Nakajima |Sandhya Kambhampati

In what’s believed to be a first-of-its-kind program, L.A. city and county building officials will use artificial intelligence to assist with permitting for rebuilding after January’s wildfires. The software, donated by wildfire recovery foundations, aims to speed up a process already being criticized as moving too slowly. Disaster recovery and government technology experts said permitting was a good use of AI technology, but cautioned that human oversight was needed.

3 weeks ago | flipboard.com | Liam Dillon |Koko Nakajima |Sandhya Kambhampati

1 day agoInsurers seek to surcharge California homeowners for L.A. County fire costsInsurers are seeking to charge homeowners across California for some of the costs of the catastrophic Los Angeles County fires the companies were burdened with when the state’s insurer of last resort needed a bailout. The California FAIR Plan Assn., with the approval of state Insurance Commissioner …1 day agoThree and a Half Months Later, Los Angeles County Has Issued . . .

1 month ago | latimes.com | Rebecca Ellis |Koko Nakajima |Sean Greene

Long before the evacuation order came, law enforcement officers knew fire was spreading in west Altadena. At 12:55 a.m. Jan. 8, a sheriff’s official reported a flaming structure on the corner of Las Flores Drive, a few doors down from the home of a 71-year-old who would later die in the fire. At 2:33 a.m., a Pasadena police officer told 911 dispatchers that flames had consumed Monterosa Drive, where a man would die on his walkway, clutching a garden hose.

2 months ago | latimes.com | Hannah Wiley |Laura J. Nelson |Koko Nakajima

Despite having some of the nation’s strictest school vaccination laws, California reported a decline last year in the share of kindergarten students who were immunized against measles, including in 16 counties where students no longer have herd immunity against one of the most contagious diseases.

Feb 7, 2025 | latimes.com | Phi Do |David Wharton |Koko Nakajima

The scars left behind — charred hillsides, entire neighborhoods like checkerboards of ash and rubble — reveal only a fraction of what January wildfires took from Southern California. A month after the first signs of smoke and flame, victims are still mourning the loss of small things, a snapshot or a teacup. Communities have been robbed of the parks and libraries and churches where they used to gather.