DORANY PINEDA

Water, climate, environment reporter

Pineda writes about water, climate and the environment in Latino communities across the U.S.
Debris from January wildfires is processed at a recycling facility set up on a golf course in Altadena, Calif., Wednesday, June 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
LA fires charred homes into piles of metal and concrete. By recycling them, they’re given new life
After the Palisades and Eaton fires scorched entire neighborhoods, the Army Corps of Engineers set up operations to recycle concrete and metal from mostly fire-damaged homes.
 
Danny Westergaard, left, cools of with water with pacing help from daughter Madison Westergaard as the sun rises during the Badwater 135 Ultramarathon, Tuesday, July 8, 2025, in Death Valley National Park, Calif. (AP Photo/John Locher)
The grueling 135-mile journey of a 66-year-old runner through one of the hottest places on Earth
For 37 years in a searing California desert, runners from across the globe have embarked on a 135-mile race through one of the hottest places on Earth.
 
Jake Pogrebinsky smokes a cigarette while diving his boat on the Yukon River looking for logs to collect, Tuesday, May 20, 2025, in Galena, Alaska. (AP Photo/John Locher)
PHOTO ESSAY: In rural Alaska, collecting driftwood saves time, money and brings jobs
GALENA, Alaska (AP) — As ice breaks on the Yukon River, Jake Pogrebinsky looks at the water from shore, searching for a large log floating downstream.
 
Jade Thurmond poses for a portrait at a construction site of a solar energy project Friday, May 23, 2025, in Galena, Alaska. (AP Photo/John Locher)
In words and photos, rural Alaska residents reflect on their village’s sustainable practices
GALENA, Alaska (AP) — In rural central Alaska, a village is in the midst of a clean energy transformation that locals say will boost savings, build resilience and provide jobs.
 
Workers install panels at a solar project Wednesday, May 21, 2025, in Galena, Alaska. (AP Photo/John Locher)
In rural Alaska, a village turns to solar and biomass energies to cut diesel and save money
On a former military base in Galena, Alaska, a school that houses about 200 high school students teaches sustainability among many things.
 
Esta fotografía muestra un letrero que indica en tres idiomas por dónde ingresar a un tribunal de inmigración, a un costado del tribunal, el lunes 16 de junio de 2025, en Chicago. (AP Foto/Nam Y. Huh)
Cambios en políticas migratorias de Trump hacia ciudades gobernadas por demócratas generan confusión
CHICAGO (AP) — Para José Abel García, un inmigrante guatemalteco en el área de Los Ángeles, la promesa más reciente del presidente estadounidense Donald Trump de expandir las deportaciones en ciudades gobernadas por demócratas no representa gran diferencia.
 
Jose Abel Garcia, a Guatemalan immigrant, comments on President Donald Trump's latest promise to expand deportations in Democratic-led cities Monday, June 16, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Trump immigration policies targeting Democratic cities energize organizers, leave others confused
Jose Abel Garcia is a Guatemalan immigrant who says President Donald Trump’s latest promise to expand deportations in Democratic-led cities doesn’t change much.
 
Trabajadores agrícolas recolectan verduras, el 12 de junio de 2025, en Moorpark, California. (AP Foto/Damian Dovarganes)
Redadas migratorias amenazan negocios que abastecen alimentos en EEUU, según asociaciones agrícolas
VENTURA, California, EE.UU. (AP) — Las redadas migratorias a gran escala en empacadoras y campos en California están amenazando a las empresas que suministran a Estados Unidos gran parte de los alimentos que consume, de acuerdo con las asociaciones agrícolas.
 
Farm workers gather produce on Thursday, June 12, 2025, in Moorpark, Calif. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Immigration raids are threatening businesses that supply America’s food, farm bureaus say
Federal agents have rounded up dozens of California farmworkers in large-scale raids at packinghouses and fields that farm bureaus say threaten businesses that supply much of the country’s food.
 
Perla Rios, líder comunitaria indígena, en una conferencia de prensa el lunes 9 de junio de 2025, en Los Ángeles. (AP Foto/Dorany Pineda)
Redadas en California sacuden a comunidades inmigrantes, incluso a quienes están legalmente en EEUU
LOS ÁNGELES (AP) — Jacob Vásquez comenzó a trabajar en un almacén de ropa en Los Ángeles poco después de llegar desde México hace menos de tres años.
 
Protesters gather at the U.S. Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Prisons after federal immigration authorities conducted an operation on Friday, June 6, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
Raids in Southern California rattle immigrant communities — including those in the US legally
Immigration raids across Southern California are rattling the area’s immigrant communities, even among those in the country legally.
 
A person with a dog walks along a trail as a layer of smog blankets downtown Los Angeles, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
Southern California air regulators reject rules to phase out gas furnaces and water heaters
Air quality regulators in Southern California have rejected rules that would have curbed harmful emissions from gas-powered furnaces and water heaters.
 
Yurok Tribe members Tiana Williams-Claussen, left, and Morgan Clayburn make their way to Blue Creek while traveling on the Klamath River, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, in Humboldt County, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
California’s Yurok Tribe gets back ancestral lands that were taken over 120 years ago
Roughly 73 square miles of ancestral homelands once belonging to California’s Yurok Tribe have been returned to them.
 
Glenn Chavez sets a timer as water fills a newly installed Heli-Hydrant, a small, open tank that helicopters can rely on to get water faster for urban fires, Friday, April 11, 2025, in Cabazon, Calif. (AP Photo/Brittany Peterson)
Urban fires can mean long trips for helicopters to get water. One firefighter had a better idea
Retired firefighter Mark Whaling knows firsthand what it’s like to wait on a helicopter to refill on water while he’s battling a blaze on the ground.
 
Matt Holmes with the California Environmental Justice Coalition gives a speech before Thursday's Board of Environmental Safety public hearing in Cypress, Calif., Thursday, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Dorany Pineda)
Board stops California toxic waste regulators from weakening a hazardous waste rule
The board that oversees California’s toxic substances agency unanimously voted Thursday to remove a controversial proposal that would have weakened a state hazardous waste disposal rule.
 
El incendio Palisades arde en un terreno frente a la playa el miércoles 8 de enero de 2025 en Malibú, California. (AP Foto/Etienne Laurent, Archivo)
Humo de incendios forestales por cambio climático causa miles de muertes en EEUU, según estudio
Los incendios forestales impulsados por el cambio climático han contribuido a provocar miles de muertes cada año y miles de millones de dólares en costos económicos en Estados Unidos debido al humo, según un nuevo estudio.
 
Smoke rises above homes as a grass fire burns near Interstate 580 in Oakland, Calif., Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)
Smoke from climate-fueled wildfires contributed to thousands of US deaths over 15 years, study says
A new study out in the journal Nature Communications Earth & Environment finds that wildfires fueled by climate change are linked to as many as thousands of annual deaths and billions of dollars in economic burden.
 
Erin Grant improvisa durante una clase de comunicación climática creativa el jueves 20 de marzo de 2025 en Boulder, Colorado. (AP Foto/Brittany Peterson)
El cambio climático no es chistoso. Pero hay más comediantes generando conciencia sobre el tema
BURBANK, California, EE.UU. (AP) — En un reciente programa de comedia en vivo, el comediante colombiano-americano Esteban Gast compartió con los espectadores que sintió mucha culpa al responder a una lista de preguntas para calcular su huella de carbono durante la escuela secundaria.
 
Corinna Yee performs during Stand Up For Climate, a comedy show at Flappers Comedy on Thursday, March 20, 2025, in Burbank, Calif. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
Global warming isn’t funny — except in the hands of these comedians
Comedians have long used jokes to raise awareness of serious problems, and many are now turning the gaze to climate change.
 
Phillip Yazzie espera que un tanque de agua en la parte trasera de su camioneta pickup sea llenado en Teesto, Arizona, en la Navajo Nation, el 11 de febrero de 2021. (AP Foto/Felicia Fonseca, archivo)
Reporte destaca cómo comunidades afectadas por cambio climático crean sistemas de agua resilientes
Malynndra Tome estaba ayudando a mapear estanques para ganado en la Navajo Nation cuando vio algo que la inspiró a actuar.
 
Phillip Yazzie waits for a water drum in the back of his pickup truck to be filled in Teesto, Ariz., on the Navajo Nation, on Feb. 11, 2021. (AP Photo/Felicia Fonseca, File)
Report highlights how communities hardest hit by climate change can build resilient water systems
A new report identifies ways to create resilient water and wastewater systems in communities hardest hit by climate change.
 
Albert Florida, residente del Lower 9th Ward desde hace más de 40 años, observa uno de los árboles plantados por SOUL (Sustaining Our Urban Landscape) en Nueva Orleans, el jueves 27 de febrero de 2025. (AP foto/Matthew Hinton)
Servicio Forestal de EEUU cancela $75 millones para plantar árboles en comunidades desfavorecidas
Arthur Johnson ha vivido en el Lower 9th Ward de Nueva Orleans durante casi tres décadas, el tiempo suficiente para apreciar los árboles que filtran la contaminación de los grandes barcos que navegan por el cercano río Mississippi y que ofrecen sombra en los sofocantes días de verano.
 
Albert Florida, a resident of the Lower 9th Ward for over 40 years, looks at one of the trees planted by SOUL (Sustaining Our Urban Landscape) in New Orleans, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton)
$75 million was awarded to plant trees in places that badly need them. In anti-DEI push, that’s over
The U.S. Forest Service has terminated $75 million awarded to the Arbor Day Foundation to help disadvantaged communities plant trees.
 
Ron Gochez, segundo de izquierda a derecha, un profesor voluntario para Unión del Barrio, una organización que defiende los derechos de los inmigrantes, escucha a otros voluntarios reunidos en un estacionamiento antes de rastrear operativos de agentes del Servicio de Control de Inmigración y Aduanas (ICE) en Los Ángeles el jueves 27 de febrero de 2025. (AP Foto/Jae C. Hong)
Voluntarios usan megáfonos y sirenas para advertir a inmigrantes sobre presencia de ICE en su área
LOS ÁNGELES (AP) — Justo antes del amanecer, diez personas se reunieron en un estacionamiento compartido por una lavandería y una cafetería en el sur de Los Ángeles en lo que se ha convertido en una misión diaria: buscar a los agentes de inmigración y advertir a la población de su presencia para int
 
Ron Gochez, a teacher volunteering with Union del Barrio, an organization advocating for immigrant rights, is reflected in a side mirror as he searches for ICE activity in a neighborhood in Los Angeles Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Volunteers use bullhorns and sirens to warn immigrants when ICE is in their area
Before dawn this week, dozens of volunteers spread across Los Angeles to look for immigration officers. When they see U.S.
 
Esta fotografía de archivo del 10 de marzo de 2015 muestra la planta de reciclaje de baterías de Exide Technologies en Vernon, California (AP Foto/Nick Ut, Archivo)
Una segunda administración Trump podría tener impactos en el programa Superfund, dicen los expertos
LOS ÁNGELES (AP) — Por casi 20 años, Patricia Flores ha vivido a una milla y media (2,4 kilómetros)) de una antigua planta de reciclaje de baterías que arrojó elementos tóxicos al medio ambiente durante casi un siglo.
 
Una vista aérea muestra la devastación del incendio Palisades en las viviendas de la primera línea de playa en Malibú, California, el miércoles 15 de enero de 2025. (AP Foto/Jae C. Hong, Archivo)
Científicos se apresuran a investigar el daño oceánico causado por los incendios en Los Ángeles
LOS ÁNGELES (AP) — En un domingo reciente, Tracy Quinn condujo por la autopista Pacific Coast para evaluar los daños causados en la costa por el incendio de Palisades.
 
An aerial view shows the devastation from the Palisades Fire on beachfront homes Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025 in Malibu, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
Scientists are racing to discover the depth of ocean damage sparked by LA wildfires
As crews work to remove potentially hundreds of thousands of tons of hazardous materials from the Los Angeles wildfires, researchers and officials are trying to understand how the fires on land have impacted the sea.
 
This March 10, 2015, file photo shows the Exide Technologies battery recycling plant in Vernon, Calif. (AP Photo/Nick Ut, File)
As Trump administration reforms the EPA, cleanups of America’s most toxic sites are uncertain
For nearly 100 years, the former Exide plant melted lead-acid car batteries that polluted properties in the mostly Latino region of southeast Los Angeles.
 
Equipamiento para medir la calidad del aire se ve en el Parque Lario, utilizado de forma temporal por la Agencia de Protección Ambiental de Estados Unidos (EPA, por sus siglas en inglés) para procesar materiales peligrosos del incendio Eaton, en Irwindale, California, el viernes 31 de enero de 2025. (AP Foto/Damian Dovarganes)
La gestión de los residuos peligrosos enoja a algunos vecinos tras los incendios de Los Ángeles
DUARTE, California (AP) — No muy lejos de donde vive Ceci Carroll, una compañía de minería de rocas ha contaminado el aire con polvo en todo el Valle de San Gabriel, dijo ella.
 
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