A house fire amid stiff winds brought more than 100 firefighters onto the narrow streets and steep slopes of Laurel Canyon Saturday morning. Firefighters said the three-story house at 8522 West Oak Court was heavily damaged, but the flames did not spread and the blaze was extinguished in a little over an hour with no injuries reported.

L.A. City Fire Battalion Chief Nick Ferrari said “it started on a balcony and caught a whole house on fire. The wind definitely added to its acceleration.”

The first firefighters arrived by 9:45 a.m. as neighbors watched flames rise 10 to 15 feet above the roofline, surrounded by trees bending in the wind. Though the house’s location on a steep slope at the end of a cul-de-sac posed a challenge, the L.A. Fire Department incident report said firefighters were able to knock down the fire in 73 minutes.

Neighbors said the house, a 960-square-foot, three-story residence built in 1961, has its own minor celebrity status in the area. To reach the structure, visitors had to climb a long set of stairs or ride a private tram up the slope. The home was owned by radio personality and John Lennon publicist Elliot Mintz in the 1970s and 1980s, then later by Olympic gold medalist Ian Thorpe (who swam for Australia in the early 2000s). It was featured in Dwell magazine when it was offered for sale in 2024.

“I was told, when I moved in 40 years ago, that John Lennon was there [often], during what was described as his dark years. My neighbor said John Lennon used to come out in the morning and pee off the balcony,” said architect Andew Ratzsch, 68, who lives a few doors down the street.

Wary of winds on Saturday morning, firefighters responded in force.

“We’ve probably got between 20 and 25 pieces of equipment here, counting L.A. County Fire,” L.A. City firefighter Jose Perez said.

Ferrari said firefighters were paying close attention to neighboring structures and vegetation on the slope, with a “structure defense group” remaining on site to monitor areas made vulnerable by the wind. The site would remain on “patrol status through the night and into the morning,” Ferrari said. The Fire Department incident report said that ”crews will be on scene for an extended duration [conducting] overhaul on any hotspots and monitoring the area.”

In January 2025, the Palisades fire was caused by a small arson fire that was handled by firefighters Jan. 1 but rekindled during severe wind conditions six days later. The firestorm plowed through the Pacific Palisades and into Malibu, burning 23,400 acres and leveling more than 6,800 structures, including many homes. Twelve people died.

Just three months after declaring “I’m not quitting,” Republican Rep. Darrell Issa of California announced Friday he is retiring instead of facing a difficult reelection campaign in a redrawn district.

“It’s the right time for a new chapter and new challenges,” Issa said in a statement. “…Serving in Congress has been the honor of my life.”

Issa, a car alarm magnate considered one of the wealthiest members of Congress, had been a chief antagonist for then-President Barack Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton while he served as chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, from 2011 to early 2015.

Issa’s abrupt reversal injects more uncertainty in the race for Southern California’s 48th District, which was drastically reshaped in November after voters approved a new U.S. House map for California to favor Democrats.

With an incumbent out of the running, it may be harder for Republicans to hold the seat and, by extension, the party’s fragile majority in the House.

After redistricting, Issa flirted with the idea of leaving California to run for Congress in Texas. But at the time he decided to stay put in his home state.

“I can hold this seat. I’m not quitting on California and neither should anyone else,” Issa, who represents a district anchored in San Diego County, said in a statement at the time.

California’s new congressional map, which was spearheaded by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, is intended to tip as many as five Republican-held seats to Democrats this year to offset President Trump’s push in Texas to gain five seats for his party there.

A national battle to redraw U.S. House districts for partisan advantage is still raging in some states ahead of the November midterm elections.

Voters in Texas and North Carolina already have cast ballots in primary elections for U.S. House districts redrawn at Trump’s urging. But the final boundaries for voting districts remain uncertain in Missouri, even though candidates already are filing for office. They also are unclear in Virginia, where new congressional districts could hinge both on a voter referendum and court rulings.

In a video posted to social media Thursday, Obama called on Virginia voters to support the redistricting effort. Virginia currently has six Democrats and five Republicans in the House. Plans offered by elected Democratic leaders this year would try and shift those lines in a way that could result in sending 10 Democrats back to the House and just one Republican. 

In his statement, Issa said he was endorsing San Diego County Supervisor James Desmond to succeed him.

A group of tech industry leaders and self-described “radical centrists” are vowing to push back on left-leaning policies in California that are causing an exodus among wealthy entrepreneurs and businesses from the Golden State.

The New York Post reported that the group held an event attended by about 350 people in Mountain View, California, that featured elected officials, including San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, tech industry leaders and hundreds of attendees who want to challenge the progressive tilt of the state’s policies.

The meeting comes as several prominent wealthy entrepreneurs have left California to avoid a proposed 5% one-time wealth tax on billionaires who were California residents at the start of this year, with the tax due next year. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Oracle founder Larry Ellison and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel are among those who have moved assets or relocated from California. 

Business leaders who are spearheading the group urged those in attendance not to give up on California by leaving and instead push back on left-leaning policies by electing more moderate politicians.

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“Some people have decided to leave our state as some kind of heroic thing. Like, ‘I’m going to Florida,’” Ripple Chairman Chris Larsen said at the event, according to the Post’s report. “That is not brave. That’s surrender. So, let’s get involved. Let’s take back our state.”

Larsen said the group needs to “fight on par with the unions when they’re proposing stupid job-killing ideas like the San Francisco CEO tax.” 

He also called out Democratic politicians who are competing to become the party’s nominee for California governor, including former Democratic presidential primary candidate Tom Steyer, Rep. Eric Swalwell and former Rep. Katie Porter for supporting the union-backed CEO tax.

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He said it’s “really disappointing,” and it reflects the pressure that labor unions have put on the state’s elected officials. Larsen added that while the group isn’t anti-union, it aims to balance labor’s ability to influence elected officials.

Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan hosted the event after he launched “Garry’s List” last month to serve as a “citizen’s union” to support centrist candidates in California who are supportive of policies to improve the state’s schools and addressing issues related to housing and public safety.

Tan criticized Steyer, saying he’s attempting to “buy the governor’s mansion to raise your taxes,” and praised Mahan as the “next governor of California.”

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The Post’s report noted that Garry’s List is focusing on voter education efforts through a blog Tan writes with the assistance of AI. Tan launched the site criticizing anti-growth policies, wealth taxes and a strike by San Francisco teachers.

Garry’s List is one of several groups that have been formed in an effort to stem the leftward lurch of California’s politics.

A group called Grow California was created by Larsen and Tim Draper, which will spend about $40 million to support “pragmatic” candidates focused on addressing issues like the cost of living.

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Another group called Building a Better California was launched by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, venture capitalist Michael Moritz and other tech leaders. It has raised over $45 million to help advance initiatives to reform tax policy and spur development.