Science
An L.A. Doctor’s House Burned. Now He Treats the Fires’ Effects in Neighbors.
Another long-term concern is pulmonary fibrosis, a progressive disease in which scarring thickens and hardens lung tissue, making it difficult for oxygen to move into the bloodstream. Dr. Elsayegh describes a lung with pulmonary fibrosis as “a stiff balloon from the party store” — your face flushes as you try to force air inside, but it simply refuses to inflate.
As a former Palisades resident intent on returning to the neighborhood, Dr. Elsayegh is also doubling as a trusted confidant, drawing on his personal experience to help his patients face uncertainties and find solutions — or next steps, at least.
“In an ideal world, I would go in there and say, ‘Everyone that lives in the Palisades and in L.A. County, let’s all move. Let’s all go somewhere else and we don’t have to worry about this,’ ” he said. “That’s not reality. I’m trying to find this unbelievably difficult balance of helping us return to normalcy or return to our life, but doing it as safely as possible.”
In early February, Dr. Elsayegh pulled up a chair next to Dana Michels, a cybersecurity lawyer and healthy mother of three who had gone to check the damage at her house and now could not shake a cough.
“Sweetheart, you’re not moving air at all,” Dr. Elsayegh said, listening to her lungs through a stethoscope and quickly ordering a breathing test and a nebulizer, to start. A pulmonary student asked to take a listen, then glanced up at Dr. Elsayegh, looking confused.
“I’m not hearing anything,” the student said. Dr. Elsayegh gave a single nod.
After years of renting, Ms. Michels and her husband got their first mortgage almost four years ago; it was a family milestone. Now, with their Palisades home smoked through, the family is split between two rental apartments in Marina del Rey — one for boys, one for girls — and they are navigating a new school, new insurance paperwork and new prescriptions to manage the wheezing.
Science
Video: Crowds Flood New York City Streets for First Day of Manhattanhenge
new video loaded: Crowds Flood New York City Streets for First Day of Manhattanhenge

By James McManagan
May 29, 2026
Science
Oxnard man smuggled baby crocodiles, among 1,700 reptiles, gets 5 years
An Oxnard man has been sentenced to more than five years in prison for smuggling at least 1,700 reptiles worth more than $739,000 into the U.S. over six years, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday.
The animals, including baby crocodiles and Yucatán box turtles, were bought and sold over social media and came from Mexico, Hong Kong and elsewhere, an investigation led by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service revealed.
From January 2016 to February 2022, Perez and co-conspirators brought in wild animals without the permits required by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora — and without declaring them, the Justice Department said.
In August 2022, Jose Manuel Perez pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of smuggling goods into the country and one count of wildlife trafficking.
The animals smuggled from Mexico were advertised on social media, with defendants posting photos and videos of the reptiles being captured in the wild.
People working with Perez would collect the reptiles including Mexican box turtles and Mexican beaded lizards, at from an airport in Ciudad Juárez, then move them by car over the border to El Paso.
According to federal authorities, Perez paid people a “crossing fee” each time they traversed the border. Payment depended on how many animals they trafficked, the size of the package and the level of risk they faced.
Sometimes Perez and another person would traveled to Mexico to buy animals taken from the wild to smuggle into the U.S. Once shipped, they were transported to Perez’s home, in Missouri and then California after he moved there.
When the sentence came down, Perez was already serving nine years for felony possession of firearms. Due to convictions in Ventura County Superior Court for “street terrorism” and assault with a deadly weapon, he is not allowed to have firearms, the department said.
According to the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, illegal wildlife trafficking is the second-largest threat to species after habitat loss and the world’s fourth-most-lucrative trafficking industry.
“Illegal wildlife trafficking not only diminishes the populations of targeted wildlife species, it also impacts related species, their interconnected ecosystem, local and global economies, and has the potential to impact the health of people through zoonotic disease transmission,” the alliance says on its website.
Reptiles get caught in the fray. Earlier this month, the Justice Department announced that a Daly City man suspected of purchasing and exporting hundreds of poached turtles from Florida was facing federal wildlife trafficking charges.
The U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of California and a section of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, along with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security Investigations, assisted federal wildlife officials with the investigation into Perez’s dealings. The case was prosecuted in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
Science
Video: Blue Origin Rocket Explodes on Florida Launchpad
new video loaded: Blue Origin Rocket Explodes on Florida Launchpad
transcript
transcript
Blue Origin Rocket Explodes on Florida Launchpad
A rocket built by the Jeff Bezos-owned space company, Blue Origin, blew up during a test at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
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“Oh, no, that’s an explosion.” (explosion erupts) “That is crazy.” “What?” “Oh, my God!”

By Nailah Morgan
May 29, 2026
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