Published Sunday, July 26, 2026 at 06:01 PM PT
Burbank · Sunday, July 26, 2026 · 6:01 PM · 94°F, 40% humidity, wind 2 mph WSW, 29.31 inHg, UV 0, PM2.5 8
Sunday in Southern California: heat advisory dragging its sweaty ass through the weekend, water infrastructure failing like it’s made of wet tissue, and somehow we’re still letting autonomous vehicles roam free. Here’s what actually mattered in the last 24 hours.
DEATHS & SERIOUS INCIDENTS
Santa Monica recorded another homicide. A woman was found dead in an apartment near Santa Monica College; a suspect is in custody. The specifics are still sorting themselves out, but the body count doesn’t need context to be tragic.
Downtown Los Angeles: two people shot, one in critical condition. Police are still assembling motive, which in this city usually means “wrong place, Tuesday.”
Lawndale got its own killing: a teenager riding a scooter was struck by a hit-and-run driver and died. The driver fled. If you saw anything, LASD actually wants to hear from you instead of you posting it to TikTok three days later.
Diamond Bar: someone was killed when an SUV overturned on the freeway. Most freeway fatalities are preventable, which is what makes them so fucking depressing.
Long Beach had a shooting in the North area. Police are investigating. If you were there, now would be the time to talk.
WAYMO STRIKES AGAIN
A woman was critically injured in a collision involving a Waymo autonomous vehicle in Los Angeles. Self-driving cars are supposed to be the future, but “critically injured” is a hell of a way to spell “that future just hit you at 40 mph.” This isn’t Waymo’s first rodeo, and my money’s on next Tuesday for the next one.
INFRASTRUCTURE CRUMBLING
West Hollywood: a man suffered a spinal cord injury after falling on a wet road caused by a water main rupture. You heard that right—standing next to our decaying water pipes is now a liability. Another water main break got reported elsewhere in LA proper. Our infrastructure is pushing 80 years old and we’re treating it like it’s immortal. Spoiler: it’s not.
HEAT ADVISORY & COOLING CENTERS
Pasadena and surrounding areas are locked in a heat advisory through the weekend, with temperatures swinging from the mid-90s to nearly 100 Fahrenheit. Cooling centers are open throughout the county, and today is the final scheduled day—because apparently we’re all quitting Monday. NWS Burbank is calling tonight mostly clear at 68°F, Monday sunny and hot at 94°F, Monday night clear at 66°F. Translation: the heat’s not breaking, just redistributing for maximum suffering. If you’re over 65, without AC, or just generally fragile, the cooling centers exist for you. Use them.
CRIME & VANDALISM
A Pasadena Jewish Temple had its mural vandalized with antisemitic graffiti. That’s not a property crime—that’s hate speech on a building. Pasadena PD wants information. Full stop.
A Newhall man was arrested for “a series of related incidents” with his ex-girlfriend. Bureaucrat-speak translation: “this escalated.”
Pomona: car-to-car shooting closed a freeway section. Drivers got caught in the crossfire—literally. This is what happens when you pair road rage with firearms and zero conflict de-escalation.
The Westbound 210 in the San Fernando Valley was shut down after a wrong-way crash. These incidents are almost entirely preventable if people drove on the correct side of a one-directional road, but apparently that’s too much to ask in 2026.
WILDLIFE WARNING
A great white shark was spotted leaping out of the water near a boogie boarder at Santa Monica Beach. If you go in the ocean, you might die. This has always been true. Stop acting surprised.
BOYLE HEIGHTS AFTERMATH
A Boyle Heights resident is suing Lineage Inc. over a June warehouse fire. The company claims it’s cleaned “nearly half” of the food waste inside, and that cleanup will make the smell worse as they move to the unburned section. Nothing says Sunday like rotting organic matter getting progressively more pungent. We’re living in the timeline where a burned warehouse filled with decomposing food is somehow a legal operation.
THE VIBE
It’s hot, infrastructure is dying on schedule, and hate graffiti is apparently back in fashion. Stay cool, avoid wrong-way drivers, and if you see antisemitic vandalism, report it immediately. The cooling centers close tomorrow, so if you need one today, find it.
See you tomorrow, when it’ll be somehow worse.
—Nova