California
Commentary: From the scene of South L.A.’s erupting sidewalks, 5 questions for Bass and Raman
OK, I’ll admit it. I’m going to miss Spencer Pratt.
I had never heard of the former reality TV star before he said God wanted him to be mayor of Los Angeles. And now that he’s out of the race, he’s still serving up lazy fastballs down the middle of the plate, calling the top two vote-getters — Mayor Karen Bass and Councilmember Nithya Raman — dummies and morons.
Quick question for Pratt: If you’re on record claiming that 9/11 was an inside job and the Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax, and you run for office in a deep blue city with President Trump’s backing but not much of a plan or even a clue as to what a mayor can or can’t do, should you be calling other people morons?
And yet the pouting Pratt pulled more than 200,000 votes. So sore loser or not, he tapped into a lack of faith in elected officials and simmering frustration with City Hall, which happen to be the essence of today’s column.
I have five questions for Bass and Raman. They’re somewhat inter-related and have to do with matters I hear about regularly from readers:
Infrastructure (sidewalks, streets, etc).
Homelessness (billions of dollars spent, and a long way to go).
Parks (L.A.’s national ranking for quality and accessibility just dropped again).
Trash and blight (no explanation needed, right?).
And focus. (Do the candidates have a clear set of goals and a plan for achieving them?)
We’ve got five months to visit and revisit these topics, and today I’m going to focus on the first, so here we go.
Infrastructure:
A few days ago, I met with Earl Ofari Hutchinson of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable. Hutchinson is a longtime community activist and commentator, and he had just launched a torpedo in the direction of City Hall.
“There are hundreds of busted, dangerous sidewalks in South L A that have gone unrepaired for years,” he wrote to his network of followers. “They cause hundreds of injuries, and have resulted in massive numbers of claims and payouts in settlements. LA City Officials must act now to jumpstart a crash program to fix these sidewalks.”
On my way to meet Hutchinson, I traveled west along Florence Avenue and saw dozens of typical rough patches on the street and sidewalks. But if there were a contest to identify the all-time worst sidewalks in Los Angeles, Hutchinson’s discovery of the one at 71st Street and 11th Avenue would be a Hall of Fame contender.
For starters, it’s got the classic uplift, and the villain is the usual suspect — ficus tree roots. A 20-foot slab of sidewalk is pitched sharply, as if designed by trip-and-fall lawsuit lawyers. Way back in 2014, in my early days on sidewalk patrol, I was able to crawl under a similarly ruptured sidewalk in West L.A., and I could’ve done the same at 71st and 11th.
But I thought better of it after Hutchinson peered into the opening and said it looked like a comfy home for rats and other vermin.
The homeowner, Sharon Kelly, can’t use her front gate because of the lopsided sidewalk. She let me borrow her tape measure, which revealed a 16-inch rise in the pavement.
“It keeps rising,” Kelly said. “But it was already lifted when we came here.”
That was in 1997. I asked if she’s called the city for help.
“Several times,” she said, and the only response was a slapdash temporary asphalt patch.
Hutchinson said residents have responded in force to his call for emergency sidewalks repairs, just as they did when he crusaded for a crackdown on widespread illegal dumping.
“Dozens of residents have come out of the woodwork, and here’s what they all say: ‘We have called our city council person and various city departments repeatedly, over and over again.’”
And the response?
“Nothing,” Hutchinson said.
While we were talking, two people with walkers steered clear of the worst spot near Kelly’s property. Charles McQuarn, 77, said traversing the neighborhood means zigzagging around all the hazards.
“I gotta come out into the streets, too,” he said.
When he was a teenager, McQuarn said, he worked for a community group that fixed sidewalks. I mentioned that Councilmember Monica Rodriguez has been using Conservation Corps youths to do the same, but it’s time to scale up that program and come up with other remedies to speed the process.
The city is fixing about 600 sidewalks each year, the backlog of requested repairs stands at about 30,000 and if you get onto the waiting list, you’re looking at about 10 years before help arrives.
When we were done on 71st Street, Hutchinson led me over to a nearby stretch of Florence where, for blocks and blocks, it appears as if there have been volcanic eruptions around the trees. Large chunks of cracked sidewalk form mounds, one after another. The Hutchinson Himalayas are a site to behold — a mile-long museum of municipal neglect.
And it’s been like this, Hutchinson said, “for years.”
The question for Bass and Raman: What will you do to speed the repairs?
Homelessness:
Voters have been generous when it comes to repeatedly taxing themselves more, and more, to address homelessness. There’s been Measure H, Measure A, Measure ULA and Proposition HHH.
Yet although billions of dollars have been spent and tens of thousands of people have been helped and housed, more than 40,000 people are homeless in the city and roughly 70,000 in the county. In her primary victory speech, Bass said families shouldn’t have to step around encampments, and Raman has said greater urgency is needed.
Questions for Bass and Raman: Why haven’t taxpayers gotten more for their money with the two of you at the helm, what are you going to do to speed progress and create more accountability, and what distinguishes you from each other?
Parks:
In the annual rankings by the National Trust for Public Lands, Los Angeles has dropped from 90th to a tie for 93rd in park investment and accessibility among the nation’s 100 most populous cities.
The City Council is about to consider a motion to increase park funding through charter reform (with dozens of community groups in support), and progress is ridiculously slow on an agreement to use schools as after-hours playgrounds.
Question for Bass and Raman: Do you support the charter reform, and what else are you going to do to address the sad state of the city’s parks?
Trash and blight:
In downtown L.A., vandalism, shuttered storefronts and post-COVID abandonment have crippled what was a vibrant, revenue-generating economy that benefited the whole city.
In Hollywood, a resident hired her housekeeper to help report illegal dumping of goods that are often used to construct more homeless encampments, leading to all sorts of problems.
On the south lawn of City Hall, a graffiti-tagged monument and fountain have been out of commission for most of the last six decades.
Question for Bass and Raman: At the very least, can you fix the fountain?
Focus:
Like any big city with great assets and unlimited challenges, many residents have a love-hate relationship with L.A. But years ago, someone told me he loves Los Angeles because it’s a messy, multi-cultural work in progress, set on a dramatic landscape between mountain and sea, trying to figure out what it wants to be.
Question for Bass and Raman: Whether in the realm of basic services or grand visions, what three or four primary objectives do you have over the next four years?
In other words, what do you want L.A. to be?
steve.lopez@latimes.com
A California fugitive wanted in connection with two murders was captured in Laos and extradited to the United States.
Myung Jin Kim, 31, was taken into custody by Laotian authorities in late May and flown back to Los Angeles International Airport on June 9.
Kim was wanted for his alleged roles in two murders — one that occurred in 2016 and another in 2018, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office said.
On June 27, 2016, Kim was accused of orchestrating the botched ambush killing of the wrong man in San Jose.
The victim was in a vehicle when the suspects, who were lying in wait, ambushed him after he came to a stop. At least one suspect got out of their vehicle, shot the man, and fled before police arrived.
Investigators later identified several suspects and discovered the shooting was a targeted killing believed to have been orchestrated by Kim. Prosecutors said the person who was fatally shot ended up being the wrong man and was not the intended target.
A warrant was issued for Kim’s arrest, however, police were unable to locate him.
On Sept. 5, 2018, Kim was accused of shooting and killing his friend, Christopher Kim, 26, after arguing with him over money in the parking lot of a CVS store in Westminster. He reportedly shot the victim six times in front of the victim’s girlfriend before running away, authorities said. Another arrest warrant was issued for Kim on Nov. 20, 2018, for murder.
Kim remained in hiding for several years until December 2025, when investigators learned that he had fled the country and was overseas in Laos.
Authorities from multiple agencies, including the Orange County and Santa Clara County district attorney’s offices, along with the FBI and U.S. Marshals Service, began working to return Kim to the United States for prosecution.
In late May 2026, Kim was taken into custody by Laotian authorities for using fraudulent travel documents. He was flown back to Los Angeles International Airport on June 9.
He was booked into the Anaheim Police Department jail, where he was taken into custody by the San Jose Police Department and later transported to Santa Clara County on June 10.
Kim’s arrest and extradition mark the first-ever return of a wanted fugitive from Laos to the United States, prosecutors said.
“Mr. Kim’s cowardly acts of violence finally caught up with him, despite being halfway across the globe,” said Patrick Grandy, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office. “The FBI’s Orange County Violent Crime Task Force is proud to assist police departments seeking violent subjects who’ve fled the jurisdiction, and we will continue these partnerships and those we’ve developed with countries all over the world to seek justice for victims of violent crime.”
“Justice knows no borders and we will go to the literal ends of the earth in the pursuit of justice,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer. “It may not be today. It may not be tomorrow. But the long arm of the law of Orange County is coming for you and there is not a country on earth that is capable of shielding you from our unwavering pursuit of justice. We believe in consequences for your actions, and you will be held accountable for every crime you commit and for every victim you harm.”
Kim is expected to be prosecuted in Santa Clara County first, before returning to Orange County to be prosecuted for the crimes committed in that jurisdiction.
He was also previously charged in Orange County with drug dealing, possessing a gun as a convicted felon and metal piercing ammunition.
Kim’s removal and extradition to the U.S. were a result of the collaboration and cooperation of local, federal and international law enforcement agencies, including:
- Multiple divisions/units in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
- U.S. Department of Justice Attaché in Manila
- U.S. Department of State Diplomatic Security Service in Vientiane (Laos) and Singapore
- U.S. Marshals Service Pacific Southwest Regional Fugitive Task Force
- U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations (Bangkok and Singapore)
- Lao PDR law enforcement
- Orange County District Attorney’s Office
- Westminster Police Department
- Anaheim Police Department
- Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office
- San Jose Police Department
- U.S. Customs and Border Protection
California
Officials say sprinklers at California medical equipment warehouse didn’t work during blaze
TRACY, Calif. — Firefighters responding to a blaze that destroyed a massive medical equipment warehouse in Northern California and sent embers flying for miles were hindered by sprinklers and hydrants that weren’t working, authorities said Friday.
The 1 million-square-foot (93,000-square-meter) warehouse in Tracy, a city about 55 miles (88.5 kilometers) east of San Francisco, supplied medical equipment to area hospitals. It’s owned by Medline, a major medical-surgical products provider of equipment such as latex gloves, masks, surgical instruments and other medical supplies.
Thick black smoke billowed Friday from the site, as firefighters continued to put out hotspots.
Authorities said they don’t yet know why the water system failed during the blaze but it appeared to be a problem with the facility’s system, not city supply. The blaze broke out around 1 p.m. Thursday. Crews found the building’s sprinkler system wasn’t working and hydrants on the property lacked water pressure, Tracy Deputy Fire Chief Brian Bagley said. A fire official found little or no water was flowing through either system, he said.
Firefighters were forced to try to connect to city hydrants instead. The building was engulfed by fire within 40 minutes, Bagley said.
“We did a defensive approach at that point,” he said.
The facility had been evacuated, and no one was injured.
Smoke from a medical supply warehouse fire in Tracy, Calif., is seen from Livermore on Thursday, June 11, 2026. Credit: AP/Santiago Mejia
Embers from the blaze sparked two grassfires and set pallets and multiple big rig trailers at a nearby FedEx facility ablaze. Firefighters were able to knock those fires down.
Crews overnight had to contend with new fires in trailers that were loaded with supplies.
Bagley said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives would help investigate the cause of the blaze, but authorities would probably not be able to get into the warehouse for at least a couple of more days. The sprinkler system had been tested in January by an outside company and no issues were found, Bagley said.
The warehouse is in a massive industrial park that also houses fulfillment and distribution centers for Amazon, Home Depot and FedEx.
No homes were evacuated. Bagley recommended people near the fire stay indoors but said air quality tests had not raised any “grave concerns.”
When Rickey Spivey Towner had a heart attack in his Coachella Valley home last September, his stepdaughter Megan Conner found him unconscious and called 911.
But there was a problem: The equipment used to answer 911 calls at the Desert Hot Springs Police Department malfunctioned and Conner couldn’t connect with a dispatcher for more than two minutes, according to dispatch records obtained by NBC Bay Area.
In a recording of one of Conner’s 911 calls, the dispatcher is immediately disconnected, and Conner is met by silence for 25 seconds until the dispatcher can get back on the line.
Towner did not survive. His family said he died of a heart attack.
Ricky Spivey Towner’s death is the first documented fatality that may be linked to Cal OES’ problematic 911 upgrade.
Towner’s death may be the first documented fatality potentially linked to the state’s ongoing 911 system overhaul.
Newly obtained records under the California Public Records Act reveal the connection problems were linked to call processing equipment approved by the state as part of California’s troubled Next Generation 911 rollout, sold by a state contractor called NGA 911, and deployed by the Desert Hot Springs Police Department in 2023.
Police records reveal emergency dispatchers were unexpectedly logged out of their phone system as Conner called 911 to report her stepfather lying unresponsive on the floor.
Records obtained by NBC Bay Area show all of the dispatchers were logged out of their systems when the 911 call came in.
It’s unclear if Towner could have been saved had his stepdaughter been able to summon help faster, but records show a police dispatch manager sent a scathing email shortly after his death to NGA 911. She also copied top officials with the California Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES).
“People’s lives are on the line and your failed system may have just cost this person their life,” the dispatch manager wrote on September 12, 2025. “I believe that your engineers are continuously making changes to our live environment which is affecting our user experience. Which again is unacceptable, especially when I had continuously asked you to stop.”
Desert Hot Springs dispatch manager’s email to NGA 911 and Cal OES shortly after Towner’s death.
Records from the police department lay out the details of what went wrong and show Conner had to call 911 three times that morning before she was finally able to relay any information to a dispatcher. It took nearly two-and-a-half minutes.
The national standard calls for 90% of 911 calls to be answered within 15 seconds.
The equipment that failed is called call processing equipment (CPE) and it was purchased by Desert Hot Springs police after Cal OES suspended new sales of existing call processing equipment and began pushing dispatch centers toward cloud-based systems designed for the state’s Next Generation 911 network.
State officials say the Next Generation 911 project is a critical upgrade to California’s antiquated 911 system and will improve emergency response.
After a series of reports by NBC Bay Area’s Investigative Unit, however, the overhaul has faced mounting scrutiny from lawmakers over delays, technical problems and a rising price tag exceeding $450 million.
WATCH NBC BAY AREA’S INVESTIGATIONS CA 911: TOO BIG TO FAIL
Like most emergency dispatch centers across California, Desert Hot Springs has not switched over to the new Next Gen 911 network. However, it was among the first to use the new cloud-based CPE that Cal OES promoted after suspending sales of legacy call processing equipment that failed to meet Next Generation 911 standards.
NGA 911’s equipment had passed state lab testing conducted by Cal OES and was among a handful of vendors approved to sell the new cloud-based CPE when Desert Hot Springs purchased its equipment.
While Cal OES, NGA 911, and Desert Hot Springs police were discussing the equipment failure during Conner’s 911 call, the family says they were left in the dark. They say nobody had told them about what happened until they were recently contacted by NBC Bay Area.
“Why didn’t I know any of this,” said Lakisha Romero, Towner’s daughter. “My dad has been talked about around the state and I had no clue what was going on.”
Lakisha Romero (left) and Megan Conner (right).
A timeline of “major events and challenges” in the state’s implementation of Next Gen 911 that has since been posted on Cal OES’ website shows the CPE purchased by Desert Hot Springs had been plagued by persistent problems since it was first deployed more than two years before Towner’s death.
“911 calls that were disconnected before being answered by the [911 center] are not displaying for dispatchers,” the Cal OES timeline states. “A workaround was immediately implemented that required dispatchers to use third party technology. NGA 911, LLC is notified of the problem and indicates it is working on a solution.”
About a year later, the Wasco Police Department also purchased NGA 911 call processing equipment and experienced “the same problems as [Desert Hot Springs],” according to Cal OES.
By May 2025, police in Desert Hot Springs and Wasco had opened roughly 300 trouble tickets concerning issues with NGA 911’s CPE, including 17 of “critical importance” and 99 of “high importance.” Two months later, both departments canceled their CPE orders with NGA 911.
In a statement, the Desert Hot Springs Police Department said it “worked collaboratively with NGA and Cal OES regarding operational and technical concerns that arose during implementation and operation.”
Cal OES said it took “immediate steps” to help both departments swap out the problematic CPE with equipment from a new vendor, but the process took months to complete and had not occurred before Towner died.
Three weeks after his death, Cal OES said it removed NGA 911 from the approved CPE vendor list and the agency eventually cancelled the company’s CPE contract in March of this year.
Cal OES declined an on-camera interview request but said in an email the agency is committed to oversight and accountability of its contractors.
NGA has not responded to NBC Bay Area’s repeated requests for comment regarding Towner’s death and the equipment failure in Desert Hot Springs. It has posted this timeline on its website explaining its project record in California.
California’s Next Generation 911 project is years behind schedule, but state officials say there’s a new plan in place to get the project moving forward again and hope to have the Los Angeles region hooked up to the network in time for the 2028 Olympics.
The state agency recently requested another $142 million to meet that goal, which would be paid for by an additional 13 cent surcharge on the phone bill of Californians.
As the state moves forward with Next Generation 911 and upgraded call processing equipment that 911 centers desperately need, Towner’s family continues to seek answers.
Romero visited the Desert Hot Springs Police Department in May to get some clarity about what happened in her father’s case but said she was disappointed by the response.
Lakisha Romero is still searching for answers about what went wrong.
“I went asking for answers and nobody wanted to tell me anything,” Romero said.
In a statement, the department said it’s “committed to transparency and reliable emergency response services.”
Towner’s family said nobody has contacted them about the long history of problems associated with the 911 equipment and questioned why it wasn’t removed a long time ago.
“Why should it take someone dying for them to do that,” Romero asked.
Candice Nguyen is the reporter on this story. If you have a comment or a question, email her at candice.nguyen@nbcuni.com.
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