Mistrial By Fire

Alissa, Godfrey, and Kate examine why the Palisades arson case ended in a mistrial, and how the feds biffed the prosecution. What you won’t see on the November ballot after LA City Council charter reforms go down in flames. Then, LA finally has a city service agreement with LA28, but human rights advocates are sounding alarms.  A mistrial has been declared against Jonathan Rinderknecht, the man accused of arson in the 2025 Palisades Fire after a deadlocked jury  Juror #4 on the case spoke publicly about deliberations, and the potential confusion surrounding convictions for a holdover fire  The jury voted 10-2 in favor of acquitting Rinderknecht, and some Palisades residents would rather the effort of a retrial go into the effort of rebuilding. Longtime resident and journalist Lisa Sweetingham says, “They really don’t have the evidence to bring it home”  Unlike the Palisades fire, the Eaton fire in Altadena has confirmed evidence that a century-old idle transmission line that Southern California Edison failed to remove was the cause of the blaze. Affected residents have to do the calculus between a compensation fund and a lawsuit, though rebuilds from both fires have a long journey ahead  Fireworks are still banned in the city of Los Angeles South LA families remain displaced by the LAPD’s 2021 botched fireworks detonation  Seven workers were killed in  Northern California last year due to an explosion at a ranch storing huge amounts of fireworks owned by the aptly named company Devastating Pyrotechnics LA Material’s Jessica Garrison reports on the massive black-market fireworks operation in Los Angeles, and how the illegal explosives are entering the city We talked about charter reform a few weeks ago, but there’s an update: the ballot proposals for noncitizen voting and LAPD measures have been pulled   Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez suggests in a comment that punting the LAPD measure may have been intended to support Mayor Bass’ reelection. And Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez says that protecting the status quo means the “city will remain broken   A charter allocation for parks did make it through and will be on the ballot in November: Listen to Councilmembers Bob Blumenfield and Monica Rodriguez discuss the allocation here Is LA’s mayor actually weak? Kate thinks the charter amendment process shows that might not be true! Read Robert Greene’s piece on power in LA for LA Reported LA28 presented its human rights plan and answered questions about a city service agreement at the city’s  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vj9