Good morning, it’s Monday, June 29 and you can expect the cloud cover to yield to sun, eventually (high 70s).
1. How a ranch explosion revealed an alleged illegal fireworks hub.
Illegal fireworks light up the sky with the downtown cityscape in the background for Independence Day, in Los Angeles, California on July 4, 2025. (Photo by Etienne LAURENT / AFP via Getty Images)
Here are two somewhat contradictory facts:
All fireworks, even sparklers, are outlawed within the city of Los Angeles.
Fireworks are a near-nightly fact of life in much of Los Angeles, where loud and colorful neon explosions populate the skies.
In a wild and utterly engrossing new story, my colleague Jessica Garrison seeks to understand where all these fireworks are coming from, why no one seems able to contain them and what all of this has to do with a deadly explosion last summer that rocked the little Northern California farm town of Esparto and left seven people dead.
Her story traces how black-market sales, regulatory gaps and California’s love of illegal fireworks allegedly collided with fatal results. The fallout now includes murder charges and new scrutiny of the state’s fragmented oversight system.
Jessica is our editor here at L.A. Material — she spends most of her time guiding our journalism and making all of our work much better than it deserves to be. But she’s also an outstanding reporter and writer in her own right (seriously, see her brilliant book The Devil’s Harvest and the embarrassment of journalism awards she’s racked up).
She covered the Esparto ranch explosion last summer for the Los Angeles Times and has been obsessed with this story ever since. In this piece, she untangles the complicated web around that ranch, which authorities allege was the hub of a business importing millions of pounds of dangerous fireworks from China and selling some of them on California’s booming black market. And she traces how events there have been allegedly deeply intertwined with L.A.’s nightly spectacles, which will likely reach a peak this 4th of July weekend.
2. A quick look at the week ahead.
TUESDAY: Mexico (L.A.’s other home team) faces Ecuador in the World Cup knockout round, so expect plenty of action at L.A. watch parties. Eater LA also has a list of the best sports bars for general World Cup viewing.
WEDNESDAY: In another World Cup match likely to generate big L.A. energy (though it will be played in Santa Clara), the United States plays Bosnia-Herzegovina.
THURSDAY: The massive Anime Expo — billed as North America's largest celebration of Japanese pop culture — opens in downtown Los Angeles Thursday, if you’re suddenly wondering why so many people in elaborate costumes are crossing Figueroa Street.
FRIDAY: The holiday weekend starts in earnest Friday, with many offices closed because July 4 falls on a Saturday this year.
SATURDAY: Saturday will be a packed day of local festivities and parades as L.A. goes all out for America’s 250th birthday, including a free evening block party at downtown’s Gloria Molina Grand Park and a beach party and drone show at Hansen Dam in the northeastern San Fernando Valley.
SUNDAY: If you haven’t yet had your fill of red white and blue, Culver City is going against the grain and holding their Independence Day celebration on July 5, with live music and a drone light show.
READING MATERIAL
BETTER LATE THAN NEVER: L.A. city officials have finally reached a tentative agreement with organizers of the 2028 Olympic Games around reimbursement for city services, the L.A. Times reports.
COASTAL COMMISSION UNDER FIRE: The Trump administration will be reviewing the powers of the California Coastal Commission. The controversial state agency that stewards the shoreline has been a frequent target of the president’s ire.
DON’T FLAKE ON PARADISE: Competition for reservations at California’s vaunted campgrounds is fierce, and new rules will deliver harsher penalties for no-shows, SFGATE reports.
PARASOCIAL PR WOES: Rabid fans help power Hollywood. They’re also a publicist’s nightmare, Wired reports.
MAKE L.A. ART DECO AGAIN? Former L.A. Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne delves into failed mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt’s Art Deco obsession in a California Post opinion piece.
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RAW MATERIAL
For today’s peek inside our subscriber-only Discord server, @Miguel Contreras offers a micro-review of The Rooster in the #i-was-here channel:
AND FINALLY… A poem to pair with your morning coffee: “Fireworks” by Amy Lowell.
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