My first reaction, when I heard about the proposed $2.3-million fence around MacArthur Park, was skepticism.
Yeah, the park and the immediate neighborhood have long dealt with a nasty web of urban nightmares, including homelessness, crime and a rather astonishing open-air drug scene, all of which I spent a few months looking into not long ago.
But what would a fence accomplish?
Well, after looking into it, maybe it’s not the worst idea.
Skepticism, I should note, is generally a fallback position for me. It’s something of an occupational duty, and how can you not be cynical about promises and plans in Los Angeles, where each time you open the newspaper, you have to scratch your head?
I’m still having trouble understanding how county supervisors approved another $828 million in child sexual abuse payments, on top of an earlier settlement this year of $4 billion, even after Times reporter Rebecca Ellis found nine cases in which people said they were told to fabricate abuse allegations.
The same supes, while wrestling with a budget crisis, agreed to pay $2 million to appease the county’s chief executive officer because she felt wronged by a ballot measure proposing that the job be an elected rather than appointed post. Scratching your head doesn’t help in this case; you’re tempted instead to bang it into a wall.
Drone view of MacArthur Park looking toward downtown Los Angeles.
(Ted Soqui/For The Times)
Or maybe a $2.3-million fence.
The city of L.A. is primarily responsible for taking on the problems of MacArthur Park, although the county has a role too in the areas of housing, public health and addiction services. I made two visits to the area in the last week, and while there are signs of progress and slightly less of a sense of chaos — the children’s playground hit last year by an arsonist has been fully rebuilt — there’s a long way to go.
In a story about the fence by my colleague Nathan Solis, one service provider said it would further criminalize homelessness and another said the money “could be better used by funding … services to the people in the park, rather than just moving them out.”
The vast majority of people who spoke at the Oct. 16 meeting of the Recreation and Parks Commission, which voted unanimously to move forward with the fence, were adamantly opposed despite claims that enclosing the space would be a step toward upgrading and making the park more welcoming.
“Nothing is more unwelcoming than a fence around a public space,” one critic said.
“A fence can not solve homelessness,” another said.
The LAPD underwater dive unit investigates activity in MacArthur Park Lake.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
Others argued that locking up the park, which is surrounded by a predominantly immigrant community, recalls the ridiculous stunt that played out in June, when President Trump’s uniformed posse showed up in armored vehicles and on horseback in what looked like an all-out invasion of Westlake.
But another speaker, Raul Claros — who is running against Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez in the 1st District — said he’d spoken to residents and merchants who support the fence, as long as it’s part of a greater effort to address the community’s needs.
Claros said he has three questions: “What’s the plan? What’s the timeline? Who’s in charge?”
Hernandez, by the way, is not opposed to the fence. A staffer told me there’s a fence around nearby Lafayette Park. Other fenced parks in Los Angeles include Robert Burns Park, adjacent to Hancock Park, and the L.A. State Historic Park on the edge of Chinatown, which is locked at sunset.
As for the long-range plan, the Hernandez staffer said the councilwoman has secured and is investing millions of dollars in what she calls a care-first approach that aims to address drug addiction and homelessness in and around the park.
Eduardo Aguirre, who lives a couple of blocks from the park and serves on the West Pico Neighborhood Council, told me he’s OK with the fence but worried about the possible consequences. If the people who use the park at night or sleep there are forced out, he said, where will they go?
“To the streets? To the alleys? You know what’s going to happen. It’s a game,” Aguirre said.
Last fall I walked with Aguirre and his wife as they led their daughter to her elementary school. They often have to step around homeless people and past areas where dealing and drug use, along with violence, are anything but infrequent.
Families and others should be able to feel safe in the park and the neighborhood, said Norm Langer, owner of the iconic Langer’s deli on the edge of the park.
A visitor takes in the view at MacArthur Park.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
“I completely understand why you’re skeptical,” Langer told me, but he said he’s seen improvements in the last year, particularly after fences were installed along Alvarado Street and vendors were shut down. Police say some of the vendors were involved in the drug trade and the resale of stolen merchandise.
“The point isn’t to limit access,” Langer said. “The fence is intended to improve safety and quality of life for the people who live, work, and spend time here. It gives park staff a fighting chance to maintain and restore the place, especially at night, when they can finally clean and repair without the constant chaos that made upkeep nearly impossible before.”
LAPD Capt. Ben Fernandes of the Rampart division told me police are “trying to make it not OK” to buy and use drugs along the Alvarado corridor. Drug users often gather in the northeast corner of the park, Fernandes said, and he thinks putting up a fence and keeping the park off limits at night will help “deflect” some of “the open-air usage.”
The park has a nice soccer field and a lovely bandstand, among other popular attractions, but many parents told me they’re reluctant to visit with their children because of safety concerns. If a fence helps bring back families, many of whom live in apartments and have no yards, that’s a good thing.
But as the city goes to work on design issues, questions about enforcement, opening and closing times and other details, it needs to keep in mind that all of that is the easy part.
It took an unforgivably long time for L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and other elected officials to acknowledge a social, economic and humanitarian crisis in a place that’s home to thousands of low-income working people.
After a year of embarrassing sex allegations related to Jeffrey Epstein, Prince Andrew on Thursday was stripped of his title by Buckingham Palace.
“Prince Andrew will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor,” a statement said. “These censures are deemed necessary, not withstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him. Their majesties wish to make clear that their thoughts and utmost sympathies have been, and will remain with, the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse.”
The move comes amid years of outrage over connections between Andrew and Epstein. Andrew has denied any wrongdoing but has been stripped of positions for several years.
Andrew stepped away from the spotlight after he was linked to the notorious late billionaire financier. This month Andrew publicly announced he would not use his title or honours, distancing himself even further from the royal family.
“With His Majesty’s agreement, we feel I must now go a step further,” he said in an Oct. 17 statement released by Buckingham Palace. “In discussion with The King, and my immediate and wider family, we have concluded the continued accusations about me distract from the work of His Majesty and the Royal Family.”
Andrew continued to deny the accusations. But the royal family’s decision to strip him of his titles, after emails emerged that he remained in contact with Epstein longer than he previously admitted, is a grave consequence for King Charles III’s younger brother, who has faced questions about his relationship to Epstein.
Andrew faced accusations that he had sex with Virginia Giuffre, who said she was trafficked by Epstein, when she was 17. Giuffre sued Andrew and the two reached an out-of-court settlement in 2022, but Andrew did not admit any wrongdoing.
Guiffre died this year at the age of 41. After her death, her book, “Nobody’s Girl,” was published, in which she alleged that Andrew acted as if “having sex with me was his birthright.”
She also alleged in the book that Andrew’s team hired internet trolls to harass her.
On an overcast morning in September, Hector Alessandro Negrete left his beloved Los Angeles — the city he was brought to at 3 months old — and headed down Interstate 5 to Mexico, the only country where he held a passport.
It was a place that, to him, had “always felt like both a wound and a possibility.”
Negrete, 43, sat in the passenger seat as a friend steered the car south and two more friends in another car followed. He had condensed his life to three full suitcases and his dachshund mix, Lorca.
They pulled over at the beach in San Clemente. Angel Martinez, his soon-to-be former roommate, is deeply spiritual, and his favorite prayer spot is the ocean, so he prayed that Negrete would be blessed and protected — and Lorca too — as they began a new stage in their lives.
On the near-empty beach, the friends embraced and wiped away tears. Martinez handed Negrete a small watermelon.
As instructed, Negrete walked to the edge of the water, said his own prayer and, as a gift of thanks to the cosmos, plopped it into a crashing wave.
Negrete, holding a drink, embraces his friend Angel Martinez as they visit a drag club in Tijuana after leaving Los Angeles a day earlier.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Negrete doesn’t call it self-deportation.
“Self-repatriation,” he said. “I refuse to use this administration’s language.”
President Trump had been in office just over a month when Negrete decided he would return to Mexico. Methodical by nature, he approached the decision like any other — by researching, organizing and planning.
He registered Lorca as an emotional support animal, paid for a vaccine card and a certificate of good health, and crate-trained her in a TSA-approved carrier.
He announced his decision to leave in June on his Substack newsletter: “If you’re thinking, ‘Alessandro’s giving up,’ look deeper. I am choosing freedom. For the first time, I feel unshackled from the expectations of waiting.”
Negrete walks the streets of Boyle Heights while shopping for moving supplies after deciding he would leave the U.S. on his own terms.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Negrete had grown tired of wishing for immigration reform. He had built his career advocating for immigrants such as himself, including stints as statewide coordinator for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, or MALDEF, and as executive director for the California Immigrant Youth Justice Alliance.
He said his work had helped legalize street vending in Los Angeles and he assisted the office of then-California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris in securing the release of a young woman from immigration detention. He was the first openly undocumented and LGBTQ+ person on the Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council.
Under previous administrations, Negrete’s political work had felt like a shield against deportation. Even during Trump’s first term, Negrete had marched at rallies denouncing his immigration policies.
But that was before the new Immigration and Customs Enforcement patrols that tore into Southern California during Trump’s second term. On June 6, as anti-ICE protesters took to the streets, Negrete rushed to downtown Los Angeles when fellow activists told him street medics were needed.
“One of my homies said, ‘Hey fool, what are you doing here?’” he recalled. Seeing Los Angeles police officers advancing on the crowd, he realized that no amount of public support could protect him.
He fled. “Thank God I left.”
Negrete, in red, with his friends and colleagues at a farewell party and yard sale in August.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
In mid-August, Negrete hosted a yard sale and going away party. The flier was tongue-in-cheek: “Everything must go! Including me!”
His red T-shirt stated plainly, “I AM UNDOCUMENTED,” and his aviator sunglasses hid the occasional tears. Tattoos dotted his extremities, including an anchor on his right leg with the words “I refuse to sink.”
“I think it hit me when I started packing my stuff today,” he told a former colleague, Shruti Garg, who had arrived early.
“But the way you’ve invited everyone to join you is so beautiful,” she replied.
One table held American pop-culture knickknacks — sippy cups with Ghostface from the movie “Scream,” collectible Mickey Mouse ears, a Detective Batman purse shaped like a comic book, another purse shaped like the locker from the ‘90s cartoon “Daria.”
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Negrete said the items reminded him of his youth and represented the gothic, quirky aspects of his personality.
“I was born in Mexico, but I don’t know Mexico,” he said. “So I’m leaving the American parts of me that are no longer going to serve me.”
The back yard slowly filled with loved ones from Negrete’s various social circles. There was his mostly queer softball team — the Peacocks — his running group, his chosen family and his blood family.
Negrete’s close friend Joel Menjivar looked solemn.
“I’m scared it’s going to start a movement,” he said. “Undocumented or DACA friends who are talented and integral to the fabric of L.A. might get ideas to leave.”
Another friend, Mario Mariscal, said he took Negrete’s decision the hardest, though at first he didn’t believe Negrete was serious. More than once he asked, “You really want to give up everything you’ve built here for a new start in Mexico?”
Eventually, Negrete had to tell Mariscal that his questions weren’t helpful. During a deeper conversation about his decision, Negrete shared that he was tired of living with the constant fear of getting picked up, herded into an unmarked van and taken away.
“I just kept telling him, ‘That’s not going to happen to you,’” Mariscal said. “But the more this administration keeps doing it, the more it’s in our face, the more we’re seeing every horror story about that, it became clear that, you know what, you do have a point. You do have to do what’s right for you.”
Negrete continues packing for his move to Mexico as roommate Martinez works at their Boyle Heights home.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Negrete is cognizant of the privilege that makes his departure different from that of many other immigrants. He is white-passing, fluent in Spanish and English, and moved with $10,000 in savings.
In June, he was hired as executive director of a U.S.-based nonprofit, Old School Hub, that works to combat ageism around the world. The role allowed him to live wherever he wanted.
He decided to settle in Guadalajara, a growing technology hub, with historic buildings featuring Gothic architecture that he found beautiful. It also helped that Guadalajara has one of the country’s most vibrant LGBTQ+ scenes and is a four-hour drive from Puerto Vallarta, a renowned queer resort destination.
As Negrete began his new job while still in L.A., he picked a moving date — Sept. 4 — and booked a two-week Airbnb near the baseball stadium.
That Guadalajara’s team, the Charros de Jalisco, wore Dodger blue felt like a good omen.
On the day he left the United States, Negrete and Martinez hold a prayer at the beach in San Clemente in which Negrete offers thanks to the universe with an offering of a watermelon.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
On the drive toward the border, messages poured into Negrete’s phone.
“I’m sending you all my love Alessandro,” one read. “Cuídate. [Take care.] Know that even though you’re far away from home, you carry us with you.”
“Todo te va a salir bien,” read another. Everything will go well for you, it said. “Spread your wings and flyyyyy.”
Afraid of being stopped and detained at the airport, as has happened to other immigrants attempting to leave the country, Negrete preferred to drive to Tijuana and then fly to Guadalajara.
Negrete’s driver, his friend Jorge Leonardo, turned into a parking lot at the sign reading “LAST USA EXIT.”
Negrete put on his black felt tejana hat and called Iris Rodriguez, who was in the companion car. He asked her to cross on foot with him.
Negrete walks his last few steps on American soil as he enters Mexico en route to Guadalajara, his new home.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
“I don’t want to go alone,” he said.
“We’re still on American soil,” Leonardo said. “You can still change your mind.”
Negrete ignored him.
“See y’all on the other side,” he said as he hopped out of the car.
He and Rodriguez stopped for photos in front of a sign with an arrow pointing “To Mexico.” Around a corner, the border came into full view — a metal turnstile with layers of concertina wire above it.
The line for Mexicanos was unceremoniously quick. The immigration agent barely glanced at Negrete’s passport before waving him through.
On the other side, a busker sang “Piano Man” by Billy Joel in perfect English.
“Welcome to the motherland,” Rodriguez told him. Negrete let out a deep breath.
Negrete tours downtown Guadalajara, where he now lives.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Negrete’s immediate family members, and almost all of his extended family, live in the U.S.
He was born in Manzanillo, Colima, in 1982. Three months later, the family relocated to Los Angeles, where his parents had two more children.
At 17, Negrete was one of two students in his graduating class at Roosevelt High School to get into UC Berkeley. That’s when he found out he didn’t have papers.
His parents had divorced and his father married a U.S. citizen, obtaining a green card when Negrete was at Roosevelt. They began the legalization process for Negrete in 1999, he said, but two years later he came out to his family as gay.
His father was unsupportive and refused to continue seeking to adjust his immigration status. By the time they mended their relationship, it was too late. Negrete had aged out of the pathway at 21.
In 2008, Negrete said, he was arrested for driving while under the influence of alcohol. Four years later, President Obama established the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program to protect immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children. Negrete failed to qualify because of the DUI.
He said he got his record expunged in 2016, but — again — it was too late.
Negrete waited until his last night in the U.S. to tell his mother, who now lives in Colorado, that he was leaving. He had grown tired of friends and other family members begging him to change his mind.
He had partially hinged his decision on the fact that his mom was in remission from her third bout with cancer and had just obtained legal residency. With life more stable for her, he could finally seek stability for himself.
“You taught me to dream,” Negrete recalled telling her. “This is me dreaming. I want to see the world.”
She cried and scolded him, promising to visit and repeating what she had said when he came out to her all those years before: “I wish you told me sooner.”
At a hotel in Tijuana, Negrete’s emotions finally caught up with him.
The day after Negrete and his three friends left L.A., three more friends surprised him by arriving in Tijuana for a final Friday night out together. One of them presented a gift he had put together with help from Negrete’s entire social circle — a video with loved ones sharing messages of encouragement.
In Negrete’s hotel room, as he and his friends watched, the mood grew sentimental.
“You’re basically the one that formed the family friend tree,” one friend said in her clip. “Friendships do not die out in distance.”
Negrete sobbed. “Yes! Friendships don’t have borders,” he said.
“Every single one of you has said this hasn’t hit y’all, like it’s a mini vacation,” he said. “I want to think of it as an extended vacation.”
“This isn’t goodbye, this is we’ll see each other soon,” he continued.
Off his soapbox, Negrete then chided his friends for making him cry before heading to a drag show.
Negrete had a habit of leaving social gatherings abruptly. His friends joked that they would refer to him as “catch me on the 101” because every time he disappeared during a night out, they would open Apple’s Find My app and see him on the freeway heading home.
“We’re not gonna catch him on the 101 no more,” Martinez said.
The last few flights of stairs lead Iris Rodriguez and Negrete to his Airbnb apartment in Guadalajara.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
On the flight to Guadalajara, Negrete’s heart raced and he began to hyperventilate. The anxiety attack caught him off guard.
Negrete had worked hard to show his friends and family that he was happy, because he didn’t want them to think he had doubts — and he had none. But he began to worry about the unknown and to mourn his former dreams of gaining legal status and running for public office.
“It hit me all at once,” he recounted. “I am three hours away from a whole new life that I don’t know. I left everything and I don’t know what’s next.”
Many deep breaths by Negrete later, the plane descended through the clouds, revealing vibrant green fields and a cantaloupe-hued sunset.
Negrete tests the bed at his temporary home in Guadalajara.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Inside the Airbnb, he was surprised to find a clothesline instead of a dryer. Noticing the blue 5-gallon jug of water in the kitchen, he remarked that he would have to remember tap water wasn’t safe to cook with. But alongside the new was something familiar: The view from his 11–story apartment showed off a sprawling metropolis dotted with trees, some of them palms.
The next day started off like any Sunday, with a trip to Walmart and drag brunch.
Negrete marveled at the cost of a large carton of egg whites ($1) and was shocked to see eggs stored at room temperature, liquid laundry detergent in bags and only single-ply toilet paper. He treated himself to a Darth Vader coffee mug and a teapot featuring characters from “The Nightmare Before Christmas.”
After brunch, it was time to play tourist. Negrete was accompanied by Rodriguez, who stayed with him for the first two weeks, and a new friend, Alejandro Preciado, whom he had met at Coachella in April and happened to be a Guadajalara local.
Negrete tours downtown Guadalajara. He was drawn to the city, in part, by its Gothic architecture.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Their first stop was the city’s Spanish Renaissance cathedral, where Negrete said a quick prayer to the Virgin Mary at his mother’s request. Negrete treated his friends to an electric carriage ride around the historic buildings, where he excitedly pointed out the Gothic architecture, then they bought aguas frescas and walked through an open-air market, chatting in an English-heavy Spanglish.
“I’m trying to look at how people dress,” Negrete said, suddenly self-conscious about his short shorts. “I’m pretty sure I stand out.”
After dinner, Negrete was booking an Uber back to his Airbnb when a message popped up: “We’ve detected unusual activity.”
The app didn’t know he had moved.
Before he arrived in Guadalajara, Negrete had already joined an intramural baseball team and a running club. Practices began days after his arrival.
Negrete enjoys a view of the sprawling hills of Guadalajara.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Within a month, he moved into an apartment, visited Mexico City and reconnected with aunts in Mexico City and Guadalajara he hadn’t seen in decades.
He reflected on the small joys of greeting neighborhood señoras on morning dog walks, discovering the depths of Mexican cuisine and the peace of mind that came with no longer feeling like a target — though he’ll still freeze at the sight of police lights.
Still, Negrete remained glued to U.S. politics. In late September, the federal government detailed plans to begin processing initial DACA applications for the first time in four years. Had Negrete stayed in the U.S., he would have finally qualified for a reprieve.
He isn’t regretful.
Lorca greets Negrete as he arrives home after touring Guadalajara.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
His new dreams are wide-ranging. He wants to buy a house in Rosarito, where friends and family from L.A. could visit him. He wants to travel the world, starting with a trip to Spain. And he wants to help U.S. organizations build resources for other immigrants who are considering repatriating.
The goal isn’t to encourage people to leave, he said, but to show them they have agency.
“I actually did it,” he said. “I did it, and I’m OK.”
Now, he said, Mexico feels like an estranged relative that he’s getting to know again.
A Nov. 4 statewide ballot measure pushed by California Democrats to help the party’s efforts to win control of the U.S. House of Representatives and stifle President Trump’s agenda has a substantial lead in a new poll released on Thursday.
Notable in an off-year special election about the arcane and complicated process of redistricting, 71% of likely voters said they had heard a significant amount of information about the ballot measure, according to the poll.
“That’s extraordinary,” said Mark DiCamillo, director of the IGS poll. “Even though it’s kind of an esoteric topic that doesn’t affect their daily lives, it’s something voters are paying attention to.”
That may be because roughly $158 million has been donated in less than three months to the main campaign committees supporting and opposing the measure, according to campaign fundraising reports filed with the state last week. Voters in the state have been flooded with political ads.
Californians watching Tuesday night’s World Series game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Toronto Blue Jays saw that firsthand.
In the first minutes of the game, former President Obama, Newsom, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and other prominent Democrats spoke in favor of Proposition 50 in an ad that probably cost at least $250,000 to air, according to a Democratic media buyer who is not associated with the campaign.
According to the survey, the breakdown among voters was highly partisan, with more than 9 out of 10 Democrats supporting Proposition 50 and a similar proportion of Republicans opposing it. Among voters who belong to other parties, or identify as “no party preference,” 57% favored the ballot measure, while 39% opposed it.
Only 2% of the likely voters surveyed said they were undecided, which DiCamillo said was highly unusual.
Historically, undecided voters, particularly independents, often end up opposing ballot measures they are uncertain about, preferring to stick with the status quo, he said.
“Usually there was always a rule — look at the undecideds in late-breaking polls, and assume most would vote no,” he said. “But this poll shows there are very few of them out there. Voters have a bead on this one.”
In the voter-rich urban areas of Los Angeles County and the San Francisco Bay area, Proposition 50 led by wide margins, the poll found. Voters in Orange County, the Inland Empire and the Central Valley were pretty evenly divided.
Redistricting battles are underway in states across the nation, but California’s Proposition 50 has received a major share of national attention and donations. The Newsom committee supporting Proposition 50 has raised far more money than the two main committees opposing it, so much so that the governor this week told supporters to stop sending checks.
The U.S. House of Representatives is controlled by the GOP but is narrowly divided. The party that wins control of Congress in the 2026 midterm elections will determine whether Trump can continue enacting his agenda or whether he is the subject of investigations and possibly another impeachment effort.
California’s 52 congressional districts — the most of any state — currently are drawn by a voter-approved independent commission once every decade following the U.S. census.
But after Trump urged GOP leaders in Texas this summer to redraw their districts to bolster the number of Republicans in Congress, Newsom and other California Democrats decided in August to ask voters to allow a rare mid-decade partisan redrawing of the state’s district boundaries. If passed, Proposition 50 could potentially add five more Democrats to the state’s congressional delegation.
Supporters of Proposition 50 have painted their effort as a proxy fight against Trump and his policies that have overwhelmingly affected Californians, such as immigration raids and the deployment of the National Guard on the streets of Los Angeles.
Opponents of the proposition have focused on the mechanics of redistricting, arguing the ballot measure subverts the will of California voters who enacted the independent redistricting commission more than a decade ago.
“The results suggest that Democrats have succeeded in framing the debate surrounding the proposition around support or opposition to President Trump and national Republicans, rather than about voters’ more general preference for nonpartisan redistricting,” Eric Schickler, co-director of IGS, said in a statement.
Early voting data suggest the pro-Proposition 50 message has been successful.
As of Tuesday, nearly 5 million Californians — about 21% of the state’s 23 million registered voters — had cast ballots, according to trackers run by Democratic and Republican strategists.
Democrats greatly outnumber Republicans among the state’s registered voters, and they have outpaced them in returning ballots, 52% to 27%. Voters who do not have a party preference or who support other political parties have returned 21% of the ballots.
The Berkeley/L.A. Times poll findings mirrored recent surveys by the Public Policy Institute of California, CBS News/YouGov and Emerson College.
Among voters surveyed by the Berkeley/L.A. Times poll, 67% of Californians who had already voted supported Proposition 50, while 33% said they had weighed in against the ballot measure.
The proposition also had an edge among those who planned to vote but had not yet cast their ballots, with 57% saying they planned to support the effort and 40% saying they planned to oppose it.
However, 70% of voters who plan to cast ballots in person on Nov. 4, election day, said they would vote against Proposition 50, according to the poll. Less than 3 in 10 who said they would vote at their local polling place said they would support the rare mid-decade redistricting.
These numbers highlight a recent shift in how Americans vote. Historically, Republicans voted by mail early, while Democrats cast ballots on election day. But this dynamic was upended in recent years after Trump questioned the security of early voting and mail voting, including just recently when he criticized Proposition 50.
“No mail-in or ‘Early’ Voting, Yes to Voter ID! Watch how totally dishonest the California Prop Vote is! Millions of Ballots being ‘shipped,’” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social. “GET SMART REPUBLICANS, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!!!”
GOP leaders across the state have pushed back at such messaging without calling out the president. Urging Republicans to vote early, they argue that waiting to cast ballots only gives Democrats a greater advantage in California elections.
Among the arguments promoted by the campaigns, likely voters agreed with every one posited by the supporters of Proposition 50, notably that the ballot measure would help Democrats win control of the House, while standing up to Trump and his attempts to rig the 2026 election, according to the poll. But they also agreed that the ballot measure would further diminish the power of the GOP in California, and that they didn’t trust partisan state lawmakers to draw congressional districts.
The Berkeley IGS/Times poll surveyed 8,141 California registered voters online in English and Spanish from Oct. 20 to 27. The results are estimated to have a margin of error of 2 percentage points in either direction in the overall sample, and larger numbers for subgroups.
Police are investigating the death of an infant found not far from the USC campus on Monday morning.
About 1:30 a.m. Los Angeles police were dispatched to the 3100 block of McClintock Avenue, said Officer Jeff Lee.
When they arrived, officers found a “deceased, full-term infant,” Lee said.
The child’s cause of death has not yet been determined by the county medical examiner and the investigation is ongoing, Lee said.
Details on where the infant was found on McClintock Avenue were not immediately available.
USC students were seen going in and out of student building F in the 3100 block of McClintock Avenue, according to KABC.
“It was really scary actually for everybody because we didn’t know what was happening and then we did find out it was happening right next to where we lived,” student Sofia Matin told the station. “It was very unsettling.”
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is initiating a leadership shakeup at a dozen or so offices of Immigration and Customs Enforcement to bring more aggressive enforcement operations across the U.S.
Some of the outgoing field office directors at ICE are anticipated to be replaced with leaders from Customs and Border Protection, according to news reports. Among the leaders targeted for replacement are Los Angeles Field Office Director Ernesto Santacruz and San Diego Field Office Director Patrick Divver, the Washington Examiner reported Monday.
The stepped up role of Border Patrol leaders in interior enforcement — which has historically been ICE territory — marks an evolution of tactics that originated in California.
In late December, Gregory Bovino, who heads the Border Patrol’s El Centro region, led a three-day raid in rural Kern County, nabbing day laborers more than 300 miles from his typical territory. Former Biden administration officials said Bovino had gone “rogue” and that no agency leaders knew about the operation beforehand.
Bovino leveraged the spectacle to become the on-the-ground point person for the Trump Administration’s signature issue.
The three-decade veteran of Border Patrol, who has used slick social media videos to promote the agency’s heavy-handed tactics, brought militarized operations once primarily used at the border into America’s largest cities.
In Los Angeles this summer, contingents of heavily armed, masked agents began chasing down and arresting day laborers, street vendors and car wash workers. Tensions grew as the administration ordered in the National Guard.
The efforts seem to have become more aggressive after a Supreme Court order allowed authorities to stop people based on factors such as race or ethnicity, employment and speaking Spanish.
Bovino moved operations to Chicago and escalated his approach. Immigration agents launched an overnight raid in a crowded apartment, shot gas into crowds of protesters and fatally shot one man.
Now Bovino is expected to hand-pick some of the replacements at ICE field offices, according to Fox News.
Tom Wong, who directs the U.S. Immigration Policy Center at UC San Diego, said the leadership changes are unsurprising, given Bovino’s strategies in Los Angeles and Chicago.
“The Trump administration is blurring the distinction between Border Patrol and ICE,” he said. “The border is no longer just the external boundaries of the United States, but the border is everywhere.”
Former Homeland Security officials said the large-scale replacement of executives from one agency with those from another agency is unprecedented.
The two agencies have similar authorities but very different approaches, said Daniel Altman, former head of internal oversight investigations at U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
ICE officers operate largely inside the country, lean heavily on investigations and typically know when they set out for the day who they are targeting.
Border Patrol, on the other hand, patrols the borderlands for anyone they encounter and suspect of entering illegally. Amid the rugged terrain and isolation, Border Patrol built a do-it-yourself ethos within the century-old organization, Altman said.
“Culturally, the Border Patrol prides itself on solving problems, and that means that whatever the current administration needs or wants with respect to immigration enforcement, they’re usually very willing and able to do that,” said Altman.
White House leadership has not been happy with arrest numbers. Stephen Miller, President Trump’s deputy chief of staff who is heading his immigration initiatives, set a goal of 3,000 immigration arrests per day, which the agency has not been able to meet.
DHS says it expects to deport 600,000 people by January, a figure that includes people who were turned back at the border or at airports.
Tricia McLaughlin, assistant public affairs secretary for the Homeland Security department, didn’t confirm or deny the changes but described immigration officials as united.
“Talk about sensationalism,” she said. “Only the media would describe standard agency personnel changes as a ‘massive shakeup.’ If and when we have specific personnel moves to announce, we’ll do that.”
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said, “The President’s entire team is working in lockstep to implement the President’s policy agenda, and the tremendous results from securing the border to deporting criminal illegal aliens speak for themselves.”
On Fox News on Tuesday, Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said the administration is dedicated to achieving record deportations of primarily immigrants with criminal records.
“As far as personnel changes, that’s under the purview of the Secretary of Homeland Security,” he said. “I’m at the White House working with people like Stephen Miller, one of the most brilliant people I’ve ever met, to come up with strategic policies and plans — how to get success, how to maintain success, and how to get the numbers ever higher.”
Deborah Fleischaker, a former ICE and DHS official under the Biden administration, said the personnel moves appear to be an “attempt to migrate a Border Patrol ethos over to ICE.”
“ICE’s job has historically focused on targeting and enforcing against public safety threats,” she said. “Border Patrol has a much more highly militarized job of securing the border, protecting against transnational crime and drug trafficking and smuggling. That sort of approach doesn’t belong in our cities and is quite dangerous.”
Fleischaker said it would be difficult to increase deportations, even with Border Patrol leaders at the helm, because of the complexities around securing travel documents and negotiating with countries that are reticent to accept deportees.
In the meantime, she said, shunting well-liked leaders will sink morale.
“For the folks who are still there, everybody knows you comply or you risk losing your job,” she said. “Dissent, failure to meet targets or even ask questions aren’t really tolerated.”
On Tuesday, DHS posted a video montage of Bovino on its Instagram page set to Coldplay’s song “Viva la vida.” The caption read, “WE WILL NOT BE STOPPED.”
Staff writer Brittny Mejia contributed to this report.
Dr. Roy Meals, a longtime hand surgeon, likes to move his feet. He has climbed mountains and he has run three marathons.
But when he shared his latest scheme with his wife a couple of years ago, she had a quick take.
“You’re nuts,” she said.
Maybe so. He was closing in on 80, and his plan was to grab his trekking poles and take a solo hike along the 342-mile perimeter of Los Angeles. His wife found the idea less insane, somewhat, after Meals agreed to hook up with hiking companions here and there.
Dr. Roy Meals with his book, “Walking the Line: Discoveries Along the Los Angeles City Limits.”
But you may be wondering the obvious:
Why would someone hike around a massive, car-choked, pedestrian-unfriendly metropolis of roughly 500 square miles?
Meals had his reasons. Curiosity and restlessness, for starters. Also, a belief that you can’t really get to know a city through a windshield, and a conviction that staying fit, physically and mentally, is the best way to stall the work of Father Time.
One more thing: Meals’ patients over the years have come from every corner of the city, and the Kansas City native considered it a personal shortcoming that he was unfamiliar with much of L.A. despite having called it home for half his life.
To plot his course, Meals unfolded an accordion style map for an overview, then went to navigatela.lacity.org to chart the precise outline of the city limits. The border frames an oddly shaped expanse that resembles a shredded kite, with San Pedro and Wilmington dangling from a string at the southern extremities.
Dr. Roy Meals takes a break from his walk to talk with Louis Lee, owner of JD Hobbies Store, along West 6th Street in downtown San Pedro.
Meals divided his trek into 10-mile segments, 34 in all, and set out to walk two segments each week for four months, traveling counterclockwise from the 5,075-foot summit of Mt. Lukens in the city’s northern reaches.
Day One began with a bang, in a manner of speaking.
Meals slipped on loose rocks near the summit of Mt. Lukens and tumbled, scuffing elbows and knees, and snapping the aluminum shaft of one of his walking sticks.
But Meals is not one to wave a white flag or call for a helicopter evacuation.
“Later, at home, I employed my orthopedic skills to repair the broken pole,” Meals writes in “Walking the Line: Discoveries Along the Los Angeles City Limits,” his just-published book about his travels.
Dr. Roy Meals walks along West 6th Street in San Pedro.
Meals, now 80 and still seeing patients once weekly at a UCLA clinic, remained upright most of the rest of the way, adhering to his self-imposed rule of venturing no farther than one mile in from the city limits. To get back to his starting point each day, he often took buses and found that although it was slow going, riders often exited with a thanks to the driver, which struck him as “wonderful grace notes of acknowledgment.”
The doctor ambled about with the two trekking poles, a cross-country skier on a vast sea of pavement. He carried a small backpack, wore a “Los Angeles” ballcap and a shirt with the city limits outline on the front, and handed out business cards with a link to his book project.
Those who clicked on the link were advised to escape their own neighborhoods and follow Meals’ prescription for life: “Venture forth on foot, and make interesting, life-enriching discoveries. Wherever you live, be neighborly, curious, fit, and engaged!”
Meals was all those things, and as his surname suggests, he was never shy about sampling L.A.’s abundant offerings.
He tried skewered pig intestines at Big Mouth Pinoy in Wilmington, went for tongue and lips offerings at the Tacos y Birria taco truck in Boyle Heights, thoroughly enjoyed a cheeseburger and peach cobbler at Hawkins House of Burgers in Watts, and ventured into Ranch Side Cafe in Sylmar, curious about the sign advertising American, Mexican and Ethiopian food.
Meals tried hang-gliding at Dockweiler Beach, fencing on the Santa Monica border, rock climbing in Chatsworth, boxing and go-kart racing in Sylmar, weightlifting at Muscle Beach in Venice.
Dr. Roy Meals stops to take in the American Merchant Marine Veterans Memorial Wall of Honor while walking one of many paths he wrote about in his book.
In each sector, Meals sought out statues and plaques and explored points of history dating back to the Gabrielinos and Chumash, and to the days of Mexican and Spanish rule. He also examined the history of those peculiar twists and turns on the city perimeter, mucking through L.A.’s long-simmering stew of real estate grabs, water politics and annexation schemes.
What remains of the foundation of Campo de Cahuenga in Studio City was one of several locations that “stirred my emotions,” Meals writes in “Walking the Line.” There, in 1847, Andres Pico and John C. Frémont signed the treaty that ceded part of Mexico to the U.S., altering the shape of both countries.
In Venice, Meals was equally moved when he accidentally came upon an obelisk marking the spot where, in April 1942, more than a thousand Japanese Americans boarded buses for Manzanar.
“May this monument … remind us to be forever vigilant about defending our constitutional rights,” it read. “The powers of government must never again perpetrate an injustice against any group based solely on ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, race or religion.”
At firehouse museums, Meals learned of times when “Black firefighters were met with extreme hostility in the mixed-race firehouses, including being forced to eat separately. … Little did I know that visiting fire museums would be a lesson in the history of racism in Los Angeles,” he writes.
Dr. Roy Meals walks past a display of an armor-piercing projectile in San Pedro.
Although Meals visited well-known destinations such as the Watts Towers and Getty Villa, some of his most enjoyable experiences were what he called “by the way” discoveries that were not on his initial list of points of interest, such as the obelisk in Venice.
“Among those that I stumbled across,” Meals writes, “were the Platinum Prop House, Sims House of Poetry, and warehouses stuffed with spices, buttons, candy, Christmas decorations, or caskets. These proprietors, along with museum docents and those caring for disadvantaged children, bees, rescued guinea pigs, and injured marine mammals genuinely love what they do; and their level of commitment is inspiring and infectious.”
His book is infectious, too. In a city with miles of crumbling sidewalks and countless tent villages, among other obvious failings, we can all find a thousand things to complain about. But Meals put his stethoscope to the heartbeat of Los Angeles and found a thousand things to cheer.
When I asked the good doctor if he’d be willing to revisit part of his trek with me, he suggested we meet in the area to which he awarded his gold medal for its many points of interest — San Pedro and Wilmington. There, he had visited the Banning Mansion, the Drum Barracks, the Point Fermin Lighthouse, the Friendship Bell gifted to L.A. by Korea, the varied architecture of Vinegar Hill, the World War II bunker, the sunken city, the Maritime Museum, etc., etc., etc.
Meals was in his full get-up when we met at 6th and Gaffey in San Pedro. The trekking sticks, the T-shirt with the jigsaw map of L.A., the modest “Los Angeles” hat.
“Let’s go,” he said, and we headed toward the waterfront, but didn’t get far.
Dr. Roy Meals takes a break from his walk to visit with famed San Pedro resident John Papadakis, 75, former owner of the now-closed Greek Taverna in the neighborhood.
A gentleman was exiting an office and we traded rounds of “good morning.” He identified himself as John Papadakis, owner of the now-closed Greek Taverna restaurant, a longtime local institution. He invited us back into his office, a museum of photos, Greek statues and sports memorabilia (he and son Petros, the popular radio talk show host, were gridiron grinders at USC).
San Pedro “is the city’s seaside soul,” Papadakis proclaimed.
And we were on our way, eyes wide open to the wonders of a limitless city that reveals more of itself each time you turn a corner, say hello, and hear the first line of a never-ending story.
Down the street, we peeked in on renovations at the art deco Warner Grand Theater, which is approaching its 100th birthday. We checked out vintage copies of Life magazine at Louis Lee’s JD Hobbies, talked to Adrian Garcia about the “specializing in senior dogs” aspect of his “Dog Groomer” shop, and got the lowdown on 50 private schools whose uniforms come from Norman’s Clothing, circa 1937.
At the post office, we checked out the 1938 Fletcher Martin mural of mail delivery. Back outside, with a view of the port and the sunlit open sea, we met a merchant seaman, relaxing on a bench, who told us his son worked for the New York Times. I later found a moving story by that reporter on his long search for the man we’d just met.
“Traveling on foot allowed me to reflect on and grow to respect LA as never before,” Meals wrote in his book.
On our walk, while discussing what next, Meals said he’s thinking of exploring San Francisco in the same manner.
We were approaching Point Fermin, where Meals pointed out the serene magnificence of a Moreton Bay fig tree that threw an acre of shade and cooled a refreshing salt-air breeze.
Dr. Roy Meals walks along the L.A. Harbor West Path, one of many paths he wrote about in his book, in San Pedro.
“If anything,” Meals told me, “I’m quicker to look at small things. You know, stop and appreciate a flower, or even just an interesting pattern of shadows on the street.”
The message of his book, he said, is a simple one.
With the fate of President’s Trump’s right-wing agenda at stake, the California ballot measure crafted to tilt Congress to Democratic control has turned into a fight among millionaires and billionaires, a former president, a past movie-star governor and the nation’s top partisans.
Californians have been inundated with political ads popping up on every screen — no cellphone, computer or living-room television is spared — trying to sway them about Proposition 50, which will reconfigure the districts of the largest state congressional delegation in the union.
Unions representing California school teachers, carpenters, state workers and nurses have plowed more than $23 million into efforts to pass Proposition 50, according to an analysis of campaign finance disclosure reports about donations exceeding $100,000. That’s nearly one-third of the six-figure donations reported through Thursday.
Not only do these groups have major interests in the state capitol, including charter school reform, minimum wage hikes and preserving government healthcare programs, they also are deeply aligned with efforts by Gov. Gavin Newsom and his fellow Democrats to put their party in control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2026 election. “There are real issues here that are at stake,” said veteran Democratic strategist Gale Kaufman, who has represented several unions that have contributed to Newsom’s committee supporting Proposition 50.
“There’s always a risk when making sizable donations, that you’re putting yourself out there,” Kaufman said. “But the truth is on Proposition 50, I think it’s much less calculated than normal contributions. It really is about the issue, not about currying favor with members of the Legislature, or the congressional delegation, or the governor. Even though, of course, it benefits them if we win.”
High stakes brings in big money from across the nation
Newsom’s pro-Proposition 50 committee has raised more than $116 million, according to campaign disclosure filings through Thursday afternoon, though that number is sure to increase once additional donations are disclosed in the latest fundraising reports that are due by midnight Thursday.
The multimillion-dollar donations provide the best evidence of what’s at stake, and how Proposition 50 could determine control of the House during the final two years of Trump’s presidency. If the Democrats take control of the House, not only could that derail major parts of Trumps agenda, it probably would lead to a slew of congressional hearings on Trump’s immigration crackdown, use of the military in American cities, accepting a $400-million luxury airliner from Qatari’s royal family, the cutting of research funding to universities and the president’s ties to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, among many others.
The House Majority PAC — the Democrats’ congressional fundraising arm — has donated at least $15 million to the pro-Proposition 50 campaign, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) was in Los Angeles to campaign for the ballot measure last weekend. Obama joined Newsom on a livestream promoting the proposition Wednesday, and Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin hosted a bilingual phone bank in Los Angeles on Thursday.
“Make no mistake about what they’re trying to do and why it’s so important that we fight back,” Martin said. “We’re not going to be the only party with one hand tied behind our back. If they want a showdown, we’re going to give them a showdown and in just a little under two weeks it starts right here with Prop. 50 in California.”
Billionaire financier George Soros — a generous donor to liberal causes and a bogeyman to Republicans — has contributed $10 million. Others have chosen to fund separate entities campaigning in favor of Proposition 50, notably billionaire hedge-fund founder Tom Steyer, who chipped in $12 million.
On the opposition side, the largest donor is Charles Munger Jr., the son of the longtime investment partner of billionaire Warren Buffett, who has contributed $32.8 million to one of the two main committees opposing Proposition 50. The Congressional Leadership Fund — the GOP’s political arm in the House — has donated $5 million to the other main anti-Proposition 50 committee and $8 million to the California Republican Party.
Although Republicans may control the White House and Congress, the California GOP wields no real power in Sacramento, so it’s not surprising that Republican efforts opposing Proposition 50 have not received major donations from entities with business before the state.
The California Chamber of Commerce opted to remain neutral on Proposition 50. Chevron and the California Resources Corp., petroleum companies that have given to California Republicans in the past, also remain on the sidelines.
In contrast, Democrats control every statewide office and hold supermajorities in both houses of the California Legislature. The pro-Proposition 50 campaign has been showered with donations from groups aligned with Sacramento’s legislative leaders — with labor organizations chief among them.
Among the labor donors, the powerful carpenters unions have donated at least $4 million. Newsom hailed them in July when he signed legislation altering a landmark environmental law for urban apartment developments to boost the supply of housing. The California Conference of Carpenters union has become one of the most pro-housing voices in the state.
“This is the third of the last four years we’ve been together signing landmark housing reforms, and it simply would not have happened without the Carpenters,” Newsom said at the time.
Daniel M. Curtin, director of the California Conference of Carpenters, pointed to a letter he wrote to legislators in August urging them to put redistricting on the ballot because of the effect of Trump’s policies on the state’s workers.
“These are not normal times, and this isn’t politics as usual. Not only has the Trump administration denied disaster assistance to victims of California’s devastating forest fires, he’s damaging our CA economy with mass arrests of law-abiding workers without warrants,” wrote Curtin, whose union has 70,000 members in the state. “The Trump administration is now unilaterally withdrawing from legally binding union collective bargaining agreements with federal workforce unions. The President has made it clear that this is just the beginning.”
Proposition 50 was prompted by Trump urging Republican leaders in Texas to redraw their congressional districts to boost the number of GOP members in the House and keep the party in control after the 2026 election. Newsom sought to counter the move by altering California’s congressional boundaries in a rare mid-decade redistricting.
With 52 members in the House, the state has the largest congressional delegation in the nation. But unlike many states, California’s districts are drawn by an independent commission created by voters in 2010 in an effort to end partisan gerrymandering and incumbent protection.
The state’s districts would not have been redrawn until after the 2030 U.S. census, but the Legislature and Newsom agreed in August to put Proposition 50, which would give Democrats the potential to pick up five seats, on the November ballot.
Money from California unions pours in
Although much of the money supporting the efforts comes from wealth Democratic donors and partisan groups aimed at helping Democrats take control of Congress, a significant portion comes from labor unions.
The Service Employees International Union, which represents more than 700,000 healthcare workers, social workers, in-home caregivers and school employees and other state and local government workers, has contributed more than $5.5 million to the committee.
On Oct. 12, the union celebrated Newsom signing bills ensuring that workers, regardless of immigration status, are informed about their civil and labor rights under state and federal law as well as updating legal guidance to state and local agencies about protecting private information, such as court records and medical data, from being misused by federal authorities.
“Thank you to Governor Newsom for … standing up to federal overreach and indiscriminate, violent attacks on our communities,” David Huerta, president of SEIU California, said in a statement.
Huerta was arrested during the first day of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Los Angeles in June and charged with a felony. But federal prosecutors are instead pursuing a misdemeanor case against him, according to a Friday court filing.
An SEIU representative did not respond to requests for comment.
The California Teachers Assn., another potent force in state politics, has contributed more than $3.3 million, along with millions more from other education unions such as the National Education Assn., the California Federation of Teachers and the American Federation of Teachers.
CTA had a mixed record in this year’s legislative session.
Newsom vetoed a bill to crack down on charter school fraud, Senate Bill 414. The CTA opposed the bill, arguing that it didn’t go far enough to target fraud in some of the schools, and had urged the governor to reject it.
Newsom signed CTA-backed bills that placed strict limits on ICE agents’ access to school grounds. But he also vetoed union-backed bill that would have required the state Board of Education to adopt health education instructional materials by July 1, 2028.
CTA President David Goldberg said their donations are driven not only by issues important to the union’s members, but also the students they serve who are dependent on federally funded assistance programs and impacted by policies such as immigration.
“It’s about our livelihood but it really is about fundamental issues … for people who serve students who are just incredibly under attack right now,” Goldberg said.
“The governor’s support for labor would be exactly the same with or without Proposition 50 on the ballot. But he would acknowledge this year is more urgent than ever for labor and working people,” said Newsom spokesperson Bob Salladay. “Trump is taking a wrecking ball to collective bargaining, to fair wages and safe working conditions. He would be backing them up under any circumstances, but especially now.”
Critics of Proposition 50 argue that these contributions are among the reasons voters should oppose the ballot measure.
“The independent redistricting commission exists to prevent conflicts of interest and money from influencing line drawing,” said Amy Thoma, a spokesperson for the Voters First Coalition, the committee backed by Munger Jr., who bankrolled the 2010 ballot measure to create the independent commission. “That’s why we want to preserve its independence.”
Other labor leaders argued that although they are not always in lockstep with Newsom, they need to support Proposition 50 because of the importance of Democrats winning the congressional majority next year.
Lorena Gonzalez, the head of the powerful California Labor Federation, said the timing of the member unions’ donations of millions of dollars to Newsom’s ballot measure committee for an election taking place shortly after the bill-signing period was “unfortunate” and “weird.”
“Because we have so many bills in front of him, we were gun-shy,” she said, noting that the federation has sparred with the governor over issues such as the effect of artificial intelligence in the workplace. “Never be too close to your elected officials. Because we see the good, the bad, the ugly.”
Times staff writers Andrea Flores and Brittny Mejia contributed to this report.
STOCKTON — Four of California’s gubernatorial candidates tangled over climate change and wildfire preparedness at an economic forum Thursday in Stockton, though they all acknowledged the stark problems facing the state.
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, a Republican, stood apart from the three other candidates — all Democrats — at the California Economic Summit by challenging whether the spate of devastating wildfires in California is linked to climate change, and labeling some environmental activists “terrorists.”
After a few audience members shouted at Bianco over his “terrorists” comment, the Democratic candidates seized on the moment to reaffirm their own beliefs about the warming planet.
“The impacts of climate change are proven and undeniable,” said Tony Thurmond, a Democrat and California superintendent of public instruction. “You can call them what you want. That’s our new normal.”
The fires “do have a relationship with climate change,” said former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
Besides environmental issues, the hour-and-a-half forum at the business-centric California Forward’s Economic Summit focused primarily on “checkbook” topics as the candidates, which also included former state Controller Betty Yee, offered gloomy statistics about poverty and homelessness in California.
Given the forum’s location in the Central Valley, the agricultural industry and rural issues were front and center.
Bianco harped on the state and the Democratic leaders for California’s handling of water management and gasoline prices. At one point, he told the audience that he felt like he was in the “Twilight Zone” after the Democrats on stage pitched ways to raise revenue.
Other candidates in California‘s 2026 governor’s race, including former Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra and former Rep. Katie Porter, were not present at Thursday’s debate. Former Assembly Majority Leader Ian Calderon planned to come, but his flight from Los Angeles was delayed, audience members were told.
All are vying to lead a state facing ongoing budget deficits caused by overspending. A state Legislative Analyst’s Office report released this month cited projected annual operating deficits ranging from roughly $15 billion to $25 billion through 2029. At the same time, federal cutbacks by the Trump administration to programs for needy Californians, including the state’s Medi-Cal healthcare program, will put more pressure on the state’s resources.
All of the candidates had different pitches during the afternoon event. Asked by moderator Jeanne Kuang, a CalMatters reporter, about ways to help rural communities, Thurmond cited his plan to build housing on surplus property owned by the state. He also repeatedly talked about extending tax credits or other subsidies to groups, including day-care providers.
Yee, discussing the wildfires, spoke on hardening homes and creating an industry around fire-proofing the state. Yee received applause when she questioned why there wasn’t more discussion about education in the governor’s race.
Villaraigosa cited his work finding federal funds to build rail and subway lines across Los Angeles and suggested that he would focus on growing the state’s power grid and transportation infrastructure.
Both the former mayor and Yee at points sided with Bianco when they complained about the “over-regulation” by the state, including restrictions on developers, builders and small businesses.
Few voters are probably paying much attention to the contest, with the battle over Proposition 50 dominating headlines and campaign spending.
Voters on Nov. 4 will decide whether to support the proposition, which is a Democratic-led effort to gerrymander California’s congressional districts to try and blunt President Trump’s attempt to rig districts in GOP-led states to retain control of the House of Representatives.
“Frankly, nobody’s focused on the governor’s race right now,” Yee said at an event last week.
Melanie Winter, who dedicated much of her life to reimagining the Los Angeles River as a natural asset, has died. She was 67.
Winter worked persistently for nearly three decades to spread her alternative vision for the river and its watershed, calling for “unbuilding” where feasible, removing concrete and reactivating stretches of natural floodplains where the river could spread out.
Leading her nonprofit group the River Project, she championed efforts to embrace nature along the river, saying that allowing space for a meandering waterway lined with riparian forests would help recharge groundwater, reduce flood risks and allow a green oasis to flourish in the heart of Los Angeles.
She developed ambitious plans for rewilding parts of the river channel and nearby areas, and helped spearhead new riverfront parks as well as neighborhood “urban acupuncture” projects that replaced asphalt with permeable paving, allowing rainwater to percolate underground instead of running in concrete channels to the ocean.
Melanie Winter and her dog, Maisie, look over the L.A. River near the Sepulveda Basin.
“She was a voice for nature and a voice for the river,” said Rita Kampalath, L.A. County’s chief sustainability officer and a longtime friend of Winter’s. “She had such strength of her convictions, and she was so clear-eyed in the vision that she wanted to push forward. And I think that inspired a lot of people.”
Winter had lung cancer but continued working and attending local water meetings even as her health declined. She died Tuesday night at a Los Angeles hospital where friends had been visiting to spend a little last time together.
“I think what always drove her was the sense of, it was a river that had been contained in concrete … and that nature-based solutions could do a better job,” said Conner Everts, a friend and leader of the Southern California Watershed Alliance. “Her goal was to re-create a natural meandering river, with the ability to recharge into the [San Fernando] Valley and restore nature, as much as possible.”
Winter was born in 1958 and grew up in the Valley.
She was a talented dancer, and at 17 moved to New York City to start a career as a dancer and actor. She performed in Broadway shows and several Hollywood films, and also found work as a photographer, making black-and-white portraits of actors including Bruce Willis, Helen Hunt and Val Kilmer.
She left the city in 1991 and moved back to L.A., where she gravitated toward other art forms and social activism.
Melanie Winter admires the lush surroundings during a canoe trip on the L.A. River in the Sepulveda Basin in 2024.
She organized a river cleanup for the group Friends of the Los Angeles River, and then a pivotal moment came in 1996 when she attended a meeting where she heard activist Dorothy Green eloquently describe how concrete channels had starved the life from waterways, and how the city could make room for the river once again. Green became her mentor.
She sued developers and the city to challenge a planned development by the river, and organized a community coalition to push for a new state park. In 2007, she and others celebrated the opening of Rio de Los Angeles State Park.
Winter spoke passionately about the need for a network of parks “along the backbone system of our waterways,” saying this can boost ecosystems, improve air quality and protect public health. The lush, shady vegetation along restored stretches of river, she said, can provide natural cooling, helping the city become more resilient to climate change.
“I want to reverse-engineer us to a better future,” Winter said in an interview in 2024. “It would be a living river instead of a concrete river.”
At Rio de Los Angeles State Park, Melanie Winter sits on a bench designed by local artists to commemorate the park’s founding.
Winter was steadfast and uncompromising as she faced resistance from engineers and local officials who preferred traditional hard-infrastructure approaches.
“Engineers just can’t wrap their heads around the idea that nature can do it cheaper, better, easier than they can,” she said. “If you want a livable Los Angeles, then I fully believe that flipping the script on how we treat our waterways is central to it all.”
Three years ago, her group published a study outlining a proposal to restore the river and its tributaries in the Sepulveda Basin and transform the area into the “green heart” of the Valley, reducing the size of three golf courses and opening wide corridors where the river and creeks would spread out in the floodplains.
Winter was disappointed when the city released a plan for the area that she said failed to prioritize restoration.
“Even though she met with so much resistance over the years, she didn’t lose her optimism and her strong desire to make positive change,” said Melissa von Mayrhauser, a doctoral student at UC Berkeley who interviewed Winter for her research and became a friend. “I’m inspired by her vision, and I have brought that into my research, and I plan to continue working on a career in river restoration.”
She said Winter’s legacy includes not only the parks and neighborhood projects she completed, but also vital plans and concepts that can still be adopted throughout the watershed, and along other rivers.
“Thanks to Melanie, there are so many more people imagining a living L.A. River than ever before,” she said.
Melanie Winter leaves the site of a shuttered quarry with her dog, Maisie, in 2024. She supported a proposal to converttwoold gravel quarry pits into giant reservoirs where storm runoff could be routed to recharge the aquifer and reduce flood dangers downstream.
Near Winter’s home in Studio City sits a small riverside park shaded by cottonwood trees, where the native plants attract hummingbirds. There is a bench shaped like a butterfly, a retaining wall with a snake sculpture, and a green metal gate with an arch in the form of a giant toad.
In the early 2000s, Winter started envisioning the park, called Valleyheart Greenway, and invited a group of fourth- and fifth-grade students to design the garden landscape.
When the park opened in 2004, Winter said it wasn’t just about planting the garden, but also about instilling in the children a connection to their river.
Learning about the river, she said, created a group of “children with a fierce sense of place and a fierce determination to protect what’s left and to bring back as much as we can.”
Banc of California will raise its profile in downtown Los Angeles by putting its name on top of a skyscraper and nearly doubling the size of its offices.
The Los Angeles bank’s expansion comes at a time when downtown office landlords have been struggling with high vacancies since the COVID-19 pandemic prompted a shift to remote work for many businesses.
Banc of California has leased 40,000 square feet at 865 S. Figueroa St. and secured the rights to emblazon its name atop the 35-story tower just north of L.A. Live, the bank recently announced.
“We moved our headquarters to Los Angeles two years ago because we believe in this city and in the power of the entrepreneurs and businesses that call it home,” Chief Executive Jared Wolff said.
The bank used to be based in Santa Ana and is now headquartered in Brentwood.
Its downtown offices are currently nearby in the Figueroa at Wilshire building, where the bank rents nearly 23,000 square feet, according to real estate data provider CoStar.
The bank plans to move to its new offices downtown by the end of summer. The financial terms of its 11-year lease there were not disclosed.
Banc of California’s growth in downtown Los Angeles follows recent expansions in Beverly Hills and New York City.
In June, the bank moved its corporate office in New York to a prominent location on Park Avenue. In March, it expanded its corporate office in Beverly Hills with signage atop a 12-story building at 9701 Wilshire Blvd. on the corner of Roxbury Drive.
The bank also has its name on a building next to the 405 Freeway on Olympic Boulevard.
Prominent signs on its office buildings are important to the bank, a representative said, in part because the downtown tower will be visible during the 2028 Olympics and perhaps be part of skyline backdrops during coverage of the event.
Many institutional investors, such as pension funds and insurance companies, have often been reluctant in recent years to make big bets on L.A. because the rapidly changing rules make it impossible to predict profits.
Among investors’ concerns are public policies such as the United to House Los Angeles (Measure ULA) transfer tax on large real estate sales, and also temporary limits on evicting tenants that were enacted during the pandemic.
Banc of California said it is now the largest independent bank headquartered in Los Angeles and the third-largest bank headquartered in California.
“Expanding our presence in downtown demonstrates how committed we are to serving the Greater L.A. market,” Wolff said.
The bank announced its results for the three months through September on Wednesday. It said its revenue climbed 5% to $288 million. It flipped to a net profit during the third quarter compared with a net loss a year earlier.
“Given our attractive footprint and strong position in key markets, we believe we are uniquely positioned to continue this momentum,” Wolff said in a prepared statement with the earnings announcement. “Looking ahead, we see a good pipeline for the fourth quarter and remain confident that our disciplined approach positions us well to drive profitable, long-term growth.”
The U.S. military exercise that shot live-fire artillery rounds over Interstate 5 on Saturday dropped metal shrapnel onto a California Highway Patrol protective services detail for Vice President JD Vance, agency officials said Sunday.
The incident occurred shortly after the detail had escorted Vance to the Marine Corps event at Camp Pendleton. The CHP said that the shrapnel was from an explosive ordnance that was fired over Interstate 5 and “detonated overhead prematurely, striking and damaging a CHP patrol vehicle.” A CHP motorcycle with the detail also was struck.
The shrapnel fell in an area where CHP officers were gathered to close traffic along the I-5 in northern San Diego County, which cuts through Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton.
State officials decided to order the closure of the freeway during the live-fire exercise, conducted for the Marine Corps’ 250th anniversary celebration featuring Vance.
A chunk of shrapnel is seen on the hood of a California Highway Patrol vehicle amid a live-fire demonstration at Camp Pendleton.
(California Highway Patrol)
The shrapnel that struck the CHP patrol vehicle was about 2 inches by 2½ inches, according to a CHP incident report obtained by the Los Angeles Times. No one was in the vehicle when it was struck. The shrapnel left what was described as a “small dent/scratch” on the vehicle’s hood.
Small bits of shrapnel struck the CHP motorcycle. An officer assigned to the protective services detail said he heard what sounded like “pebbles” falling on his motorcycle and three feet around him. A metal piece of shrapnel, about one inch in length and half an inch wide, was found near the motorcycle, which was not damaged.
No injuries were reported, the CHP said. State officers immediately contacted the Marines, which then “canceled firing additional live ordnance over the freeway, and the area was swept for further evaluation.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom called the live-ammunition event over one of California’s busiest freeways “reckless.” The section of freeway that was closed for the live-fire demonstration is the only route connecting coastal Orange County to the beach cities of northern San Diego County.
“We love our Marines and owe a debt of gratitude to Camp Pendleton,” Newsom said in a statement posted on X, “but next time, the Vice President and the White House shouldn’t be so reckless with people’s lives for their vanity projects.”
A map shows the direction of ordnance that the CHP says detonated prematurely, dropping shrapnel on the I-5.
(California Highway Patrol)
The artillery was planned to be fired at 1:46 p.m., about half an hour after the CHP had stopped traffic around 1 p.m. along a 17-mile stretch of Interstate 5. The exercise had been expected to last until 1:51 p.m., with about 60 rounds being fired, the CHP said in its report.
The artillery rounds were shot from White’s Beach and were aimed northward, according to the CHP. The report said that one artillery round “failed to clear the roadway and detonated midflight near Interstate 5 southbound. After the failed round, the exercise was terminated and no additional munitions were fired.”
Administration officials, meanwhile, had insisted that the Pendleton event was safe and that a freeway closure was unneeded.
Newsom’s office said Thursday it was told no live fire would go over the freeway. On Friday, however, military event organizers asked the California Department of Transportation for a sign along the I-5 that read “Overhead fire in progress.”
On Saturday morning, the state was told that live rounds were set to be shot over the freeway around 1:30 p.m. CHP officials then urged the freeway closure due to safety risk and the likelihood that it would distract drivers.
“This was an unusual and concerning situation,” CHP Border Division Chief Tony Coronado said in a statement released Sunday.
“It is highly uncommon for any live-fire or explosive training activity to occur over an active freeway,” Coronado said. “As a Marine myself, I have tremendous respect for our military partners, but my foremost responsibility is ensuring the safety of the people of California and the officers who protect them.”
Police on Saturday evening declared an unlawful assembly and issued a dispersal order for a small portion of downtown Los Angeles next to the Metropolitan Detention Center where demonstrators from “No Kings Day” protests had converged.
Tense standoffs took place between police and the crowd in the area of Alameda Street and Aliso Street, with demonstrators accusing law enforcement of escalating tensions amid the carryover from peaceful daytime rallies.
“A dispersal order for the area of Alameda between Aliso and Temple has been ordered … All persons in the area of Alameda and Aliso/Commercial must leave the area,” the LAPD posted on social media at 6:55 p.m. “All persons in the area have 15 minutes to comply. If you remain in the area you may be subject to arrest or other police action.”
The day’s protests, which drew throngs of crowds in Southern California and across the nation, made pointed critiques of President Trump’s actions on transgender rights, foreign policy, the federal government shutdown, university funding and other matters. Protesters also took on the the the White House’s push to deport immigrants without legal authorization to be in the U.S. by undertaking raids in U.S. cities including Los Angeles. The Metropolitan Detention Center, a federal facility, has become a focal point over anti-ICE sentiment.
On Saturday, tensions grew around 7 p.m., after LAPD declared the unlawful assembly and began to press a line of protesters outside the facility. Police shot multiple nonlethal rounds, used tear gas and brought in a fleet of horses in an attempt to push back crowds.
By 8:30 p.m., protesters had largely abandoned their stand near the detention center while police tried to reestablish a line on the street in front of federal building.
In June, millions of demonstrators took to the streets across the nation for the first “No Kings” protests as the Trump administration’s agenda began coming into focus. At that time, the Department of Homeland Security had begun carrying out large-scale immigration raids across Southern California, and Trump deployed military troops to Los Angeles in response to mass protests.
Since then, many Americans believe that Trump’s actions — doubling down on immigration raids in major cities, deploying National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., and embarking on an aggressive campaign against political opponents — have only become more severe.
Trump pushed back against the underlying premise of the protest in an interview with Fox News on Friday.
“They’re referring to me as a king,” he said. “I’m not a king.”
More than 2,700 “No Kings” demonstrations are scheduled across the country, roughly 600 more events than in June, in which more than 5 million people participated. Demonstrations are already underway in New York, Chicago, Atlanta and Boston, drawing massive crowds.
In an attempt to broaden the scope of “No Kings,” organizers are appealing to Americans upset over the rising cost of living, gutting of environmental protections, sweeping overhauls of federal agencies, and the government shutdown over looming healthcare cuts.
The protest in Los Angeles’ Grand Park is expected to begin by 2 p.m. In Orange County, demonstrators are expected to arrive at Centennial Park in Santa Ana on Saturday afternoon to protest not only Trump’s immigration actions, but also his policies on healthcare, environmental protections and education.
“We the People have had enough of the illegal actions being carried out by this sham administration,” Amy Stevens, one of the Orange County demonstration’s organizers, said in a statement. “Change starts from the bottom up.”
Organizers say the goal of “No Kings” goes beyond just getting Americans out on the streets, hoping to connect people who are upset and frustrated with the Trump administration to local organizing groups.
“Getting involved in those groups, making those face to face connections and joining them will have a much larger impact over the next few days, the next few weeks, next few months, the next few years, than just one day of protest,” said Hunter Dunn, a spokesman for 50501, one of the “No Kings” coalition’s core organizing partners.
Saturday’s rallies are happening amid a major disruption to one of Southern California’s major freeways.
The state announced Saturday morning that it would close a 17-mile stretch of Interstate 5 for several hours after military officials confirmed that live-fire artillery rounds will be shot over the freeway during a Marine Corps event at Camp Pendleton.
The unprecedented closure is expected to cause massive gridlock, but it is not clear what impact, if any, it will have on the day’s demonstrations.
“Using our military to intimidate people you disagree with isn’t strength — it’s reckless, it’s disrespectful, and it’s beneath the office he holds,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement. “Law and order? This is chaos and confusion.”
Staff writers Jenny Jarvie and Nathan Solis contributed to this report.
When millions of demonstrators took to the streets in June for “No Kings Day” — depicting President Trump as a wannabe monarch intent on violating American democratic norms — it was still fairly early in his administration.
The immigration raids in Los Angeles were just getting under way and Trump had deployed military troops to the city to clamp down on protests.
But four months later, many Americans feel Trump’s threats and norm-shattering actions have only gotten more intense as protesters prepare to take part Saturday in more than 2,700 “No Kings” demonstrations scheduled across the country.
In that period, the Trump administration has ramped up immigration raids across L.A. and Chicago and deployed National Guard troops to Washington D.C. It has also pressured universities to comply with his agenda or lose funding, fired government officials he deems insufficiently loyal and embarked on an aggressive sweep of prosecutions of political opponents.
“We’re seeing an escalation, right?,” said Hunter Dunn, a spokesman for 50501, one of the “No Kings” coalition’s core organizing partners. “We are watching as ICE’s mass deportation program is speeding up and becoming even more aggressive than it was. What happened in Los Angeles is now happening in Memphis, in D.C., in Chicago.”
But the second “No Kings” protest comes with some existential questions for organizers who trying to mount a sustained protest movement. What is the most effective way to challenge Trump? And how do you make noise without playing into the president’s hands?
Saturday’s revival of the massive series of demonstrations — organized around the slogan “No Thrones. No Crowns. No Kings” — will voice left-wing concerns that the Trump administration is embracing authoritarian tactics and unraveling U.S. democracy. But it will also include a broader range of issues, including rising prices and rollbacks of environmental protections.
For Dunn, a 22-year-old organizer in Los Angeles County who is part of a coalition of thousands of groups, the threat Trump poses goes beyond immigration. Trump, he noted, had used the Federal Communications Commission to try to silence broadcasters he does not like, brought “spurious” charges against protesters and demonstrators outside of ICE facilities and signed a so-called “big, beautiful bill” that Dunn said had funneled trillions of dollars from the average American to billionaires who supported the Trump regime.
“We’re seeing the Trump administration repeatedly try and fail to shake the pillars of democracy, and in doing so, escalate the threat level,” Dunn said.
The June 14 event inspired more than five million people to rally against Trump. One test will be whether they can increase that number on Saturday.
In both Los Angeles and Chicago, Trump has tried to use protests — many of them peaceful — to claim that the streets are unsafe and in need of military troops. Trump pushed back against the underlying premise of the protest in an interview with Fox News Friday.
“They’re referring to me as a king,” he said. “I’m not a king.”
Protesters also face increasing attacks from Trump’s allies on the right, some of whom are branding their demonstrations as anti-American.
“We call it the ‘hate America’ rally,” U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson said Wednesday at a news conference. “Let’s see who shows up for that. I bet you you’ll see Hamas supporters, I bet you’ll see Antifa types, I bet you’ll see the Marxists on full display, the people who don’t want to stand and defend the foundational truths of this republic.”
Organizers expect a broad and diverse group of Americans to attend Saturday’s “No Kings” demonstrations. About 600 more events are scheduled than the 2,100 demonstrations that took place in June, and slightly more people have signed up, even though the organization is discouraging registrations.
David S. Meyer, a professor of sociology at UC Irvine who studies social movements, said that people’s opinions about the Trump administration have not changed too much since June. Rather, he argued, people felt a higher level of urgency about the danger of the Trump administration.
“What’s increased is the willingness of people to take more action, to do something,” he said. “I think there’s a hunger for action.”
Meyer said he was surprised to see key GOP leaders falling into line with Trump and pushing the idea that “No Kings” is anti-American.
“There are plenty of presidents who’ve encountered protests against their policies,” Meyer said. “That’s part of what America is all about. And usually presidents say, ‘I have to represent everybody and do what I think is best for the country. And I understand that there are other Americans who disagree with me.’”
In an attempt to broaden the scope of “No Kings,” Meyer noted, organizers are appealing to Americans upset over the rising cost of living, gutting of environmental protections, sweeping overhauls of federal agencies and the government shutdown over looming healthcare cuts. These issues, Meyer argued, are connected to the theme of American democracy.
“Trump doesn’t consult with people who disagree with him … and the people surrounding him, and this is by design, are explicitly chosen because of their loyalty rather than their specific competencies,” Meyer said. “The strategy of the ‘No Kings’ organizers is to provide a kind of large and inclusive bucket for all the grievances to fit into and for people with all kinds of different gripes to show up.”
Another reason “No Kings” touches on so many issues, Dunn said, is in response to the Republican tactic — articulated by Trump’s former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon as “flooding the zone” — of overwhelming the public with a barrage of information, disinformation and controversy.
“Republicans’ strategy is to worsen the economy for everyone, to worsen the cost of living for the average American… to try to weaken the American people and make it harder for them to stand up against this administration’s abuses,” Dunn said. “So that’s why we’re standing up on all those fronts, because we have to meet them at every front that they’re using to harm the American people.”
The goal of “No Kings” goes beyond just getting Americans out on the streets together in solidarity against Trump. They want to connect people who are upset and frustrated with the Trump administration to local organizing groups.
“Getting involved in those groups, making those face to face connections and joining them will have a much larger impact over the next few days, the next few weeks, next few months, the next few years, than just one day of protest,” Dunn said.
Going forward, Dunn said, one of the key questions facing the Trump resistance movement is how to pressure leading Democratic elected officials to get on board.
While legislators such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie Sanders and Chris Van Hollen had done a lot to resist the Trump administration, he said, he wanted to put more pressure on mainstream Democrats across the country.
“How do we get support from what is supposed to be the opposition party?”
Dunn said he was not worried about the prospect of violence Saturday when millions take to the streets. The rallies and demonstrations that took place on the June demonstrations were overwhelmingly peaceful, he noted. Organizers put a major emphasis on de-escalation and protest safety, bringing in community and faith leaders and training tens of thousands of volunteers across the country in de-escalation. He scoffed at the idea extremists might hijack any of the demonstrations.
“The biggest threat to safety at every protest I’ve ever been at — unless law enforcement gets involved — is always dehydration and heat exhaustion,” Dunn said.
Olivia Negron, 73, an organizer with Studio City Rising who has protested in that L.A. neighborhood every weekend since April, said she was alarmed not just by the president’s rhetoric, but by the Trump administration’s actions against immigrants through the courts and in the streets.
“The president doesn’t know what it is to be American,” said Negron, a Latina and the child of a U.S. Navy officer. “The American dream is about inclusivity and making sure that immigrants are welcomed into the United States.”
Negron, who marched against the war in Vietnam, said she felt the people in power have taken away what it means to be American and made it difficult to fly the American flag. But she said she was hopeful that the Trump administration’s actions since the last “No Kings” day would push more people to protest.
“We need to turn the ship of state around and get this democracy heading in the right direction,” Negron said. “Absolutely more inclusion, more equity, more diversity. Diversity is our strength and empathy is our superpower.”
Building on the “No Kings” protests in June, organizations across the United States, including those in Southern California, are once again rallying and marching Saturday to protest against the Trump administration.
On June 14, more than 50 million people across all 50 states joined in one of the largest single-day protests against “President Trump’s authoritarianism,” according to Studio City Rising, a local event organizer.
The latest “No Kings” rallies and marches will take place in dozens of Los Angeles County locations.
“Our community is peacefully coming together to push back against President Trump’s violent, authoritarian actions,” said Studio City Rising. “We’re standing with our neighbors and residents from all over our city to share a simple resolved message: We don’t do dictators or kings in America. Our diversity is our strength and empathy is our superpower.”
The national event is backed by groups that include the American Civil Liberties Union, American Federation of Teachers, Common Defense, 50501 Movement, Human Rights Campaign, Indivisible, League of Conservation Voters, MoveOn, National Nurses United, Public Citizen and Service Employees International Union.
An interactive map of “No Kings” events across the U.S. can be found online.
Here is an alphabetical list of 30 of the “No Kings” rallies in Los Angeles County, the times and locations, along with notes for attendees.
Alhambra When: 10 a.m. to noon Where: Alhambra Park, 500 N. Palm Ave. Event notes: Attendees will gather at the park on the corner of Alhambra Road and North Palm Avenue. There will be access to restrooms.
Beverly Hills When: 2 to 4 p.m. Where: Along Olympic Boulevard at Roxbury Park, 471 South Roxbury Drive Event notes: Nearby on-street parking is available. Organizers encourage attendees to carpool to avoid any parking problems.
Burbank When: 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. Where: Abraham Lincoln Park, 300 N. Buena Vista St. Event notes: Attendees will have access to restrooms. The event will take place mainly on flat ground.
Covina When: 4 to 7 p.m. Where: Heritage Plaza Park, 400 N. Citrus Ave. Event notes: Attendees will have access to bathrooms and the rally will take place mainly on flat ground.
El Segundo When: 10 a.m. to noon Where: Main Street and East Imperial Avenue Event notes: Organizers say this rally is slated to be a family-friendly, dog-friendly and nonviolent community event. Attendees are asked to stay on the grassy areas and off of the roads.
Glendale When: noon to 2 p.m. Where: Public plaza outside the Social Security Office, 225 W. Broadway Event notes: The event will take place mainly on flat ground.
La Habra When: 10 a.m. to noon Where: The corner of South Beach Boulevard and Imperial Highway Event notes: Attendees will have access to bathrooms and dedicated parking spots.
Lakewood When: noon to 2 p.m. Where: Lakewood City Hall, 5050 Clark Ave. Event notes: Attendees are asked to meet in front of Lakewood City Hall at noon for a quick introduction speech along with a reading of the poem, “Bread and Roses” by James Oppenheim. Accommodations such as water and earplugs will be available at the first aid table.
Long Beach When: noon to 3:45 p.m. Where: The corner of East Ocean Boulevard and Junipero Avenue Event notes: Attendees are encouraged to bring signs, water, lawn chairs and walking shoes.
Los Angeles When: noon to 2 p.m. Where: Los Angeles Unified School District Headquarters, 333 S. Beaudry Ave. Event notes:Education Workers including school custodians, teachers, special education assistants, food service workers, principals, school maintenance workers, child care providers and others will rally and march from the headquarters of the Los Angeles Unified School District to join the massive “No Kings” rally in downtown Los Angeles.
Los Angeles, downtown When: 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Where: In the larger park, up the hill from the main crowd where the park intersects North Hill Street Event notes: No Kings Silver Lake suggests protesters join the event dressed as a taco. Anyone with an extra taco costume is encouraged to bring it for other attendees.
Los Angeles, Pico Robertson When: 4 to 5:30 p.m. Where: The corner of La Cienega and West Pico boulevards Event notes: The event will take place mainly on flat ground.
Los Angeles, Historic Filipinotown When: 10 a.m. to noon Where: Unidad Park and Community Garden, 1644 Beverly Blvd. Event notes: The rally will be hosted by the Indivisible – Historic Filipinotown / Echo Park and the Filipino American Lakas Alliance. It will be held mainly on flat ground.
East Los Angeles When: 8:45 a.m. to noon Where: Salazar Park, 3864 Whittier Blvd. Event notes:Organizers encourage attendees to wear face masks as a flu and COVID-19 precaution.
Southeast L.A., Lynwood When: noon to 2:30 p.m. Where: The corner of Atlantic Avenue and Imperial Highway Event notes: The rally will take place mainly on flat ground.
Pasadena When: 1 to 3 p.m. Where: Pasadena City Hall, 100 Garfield Ave. Event notes: The event will include seven speakers including Rep. Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park) and Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez (D-Pasadena). Music will be provided by the Nextdoors band and the All Saints drum circle. A long banner-style petition will be available for attendees to sign.
Rancho Palos Verdes When: 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Where: 1 Trump National Drive Event notes: The No Kings Harbor of Hope Rally will include parking access for attendees and will take place mainly on flat ground.
San Dimas When: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Where: The corner of West Arrow Highway and West Bonita Avenue Event notes: The rally will take place on flat ground.
San Pedro When: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Where: The address will be shared upon submitting an online RSVP. Event notes: Organizers anticipate a large showing of demonstrators as a car show is taking place the same weekend. The rally will take place mainly on flat ground and there will be bathrooms nearby.
Santa Monica When: 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Where: Palisades Park on Ocean Avenue Event notes: Event hosts say parking is available at the beach parking lots and attendees can walk over the Montana Avenue or Idaho Avenue bridge to the rally. Attendees are encouraged to spread across Palisades Park from the California Incline to San Vicente Boulevard while staying on the grass. Santa Monica police officers will be in attendance to keep the event peaceful.
Sherman Oaks When: 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Where: 15233 Ventura Blvd. Event notes: The rally will take place across from the Sherman Oaks Galleria. Attendees will have access to restrooms and dedicated parking spots.
Sierra Madre When: 10 a.m. to noon Where: 1 Kersting Court Event notes: An Indivisible group, Rooted in Resistance SGV, is sponsoring the event.
Studio City When: 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Where: The corner of Laurel Canyon and Ventura boulevards in Studio City Event notes: Attendees should line up on Ventura Boulevard.
Torrance When: 10 a.m. to noon Where: El Prado Park, 2201 W. Carson St. Event notes: The march will begin at El Prado Park, which is directly across from Torrance High School, and end at Torrance City Hall. Participants are asked to keep sidewalks clear, stay on the grass and avoid blocking entrances and driveways. Attendees are encouraged to bring their own signs, flags, water, snacks, sunscreen as well as comfortable hats and shoes. Protest hosts, Indivisible South Bay LA, have provided the chants online so that participants can print them ahead of the event.
Venice Beach When: Noon to 3 p.m. Where: The corner of Abbot Kinney and Venice boulevards Event Notes: Attendees are encouraged to bring water, signs and comfortable shoes.
Westchester/Playa When: 4 to 5 p.m. Where: The corner of South Sepulveda and South La Tijera boulevards Event notes: The rally will take place mainly on flat ground.
Whittier When: 4 to 5:30 p.m. Where: Whittier City Hall, 13230 Penn St. Event notes: The Whittier Indivisible Chapter is hosting the rally and march which will begin at the Whittier City Hall. Attendees are encouraged to wear patriotic clothing and bring handcrafted signs and flags.
Whittier When: 8 to 9 a.m. Where: 605 Freeway overpass on Obregon Street Event notes: Attendees will rally on the 605 Freeway overpass.
Wilmington When: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Where: The corner of Pacific Coast Highway and Avalon Boulevard Event notes: Attendees are encouraged to create their own signs and help clean up when the rally is over.
His lawyers filed an emergency appeal urging the court to set aside rulings of judges in Chicago and hold that National Guard troops are needed to protect U.S. immigration agents from hostile protesters.
The case escalates the clash between Trump and Democratic state officials over immigration enforcement and raises again the question of using military-style force in American cities. Trump’s lawyers have repeatedly gone to the Supreme Court and won quick rulings when lower-court judges have blocked his actions.
Federal law authorizes the president to call into service the National Guard if he cannot “execute the laws of the United States” or faces “a rebellion or danger of rebellion against the authority” of the U.S. government.
“Both conditions are satisfied here,” Trump’s lawyer said.
Judges in Chicago came to the opposite conclusion. U.S. District Judge April Perry saw no “danger of rebellion” and said the laws were being enforced. She accused Trump’s lawyers of exaggerating claims of violence and equating “protests with riots.”
She handed down a restraining order on Oct. 9, and the 7th Circuit Court agreed to keep it in force.
But Trump’s lawyers insisted that protesters and demonstrators were targeting U.S. immigration agents and preventing them from doing their work.
“Confronted with intolerable risks of harm to federal agents and coordinated, violent opposition to the enforcement of federal law, the President lawfully determines that he is unable to enforce the laws of the United States with the regular forces and calls up the National Guard to defend federal personnel, property, and functions in the face of ongoing violence,” Solicitor Gen. D. John Sauer wrote in a 40-page appeal.
He argued that historically the president has had the full authority to decide on whether to call up the militia. Judges may not second-guess the president’s decision, he said.
“Any such review [by judges] must be highly deferential, as the 9th Circuit has concluded in the Newsom litigation,” referring to the ruling that upheld Trump’s deployment of the National Guard in Los Angeles.
Trump’s lawyer said the troop deployment to Los Angeles had succeeded in reducing violence.
“Notwithstanding the Governor of California’s claim that deployment of the National Guard to Los Angeles would ‘escalat[e]’ the ongoing violence that California itself had failed to prevent … the President’s action had the opposite, intended effect. In the face of federal military force, violence in Los Angeles decreased and the situation substantially improved,” he told the court.
But in recent weeks, “Chicago has been the site of organized and often violent protests directed at ICE officers and other federal personnel engaged in the execution of federal immigration laws,” he wrote. “On multiple occasions, federal officers have also been hit and punched by protesters. … Rioters have targeted federal officers with fireworks and have thrown bottles, rocks, and tear gas at them.”
“More than 30 [DHS] officers have been injured during the assaults on federal law enforcement” at the Broadview facility alone, resulting in multiple hospitalizations, he wrote.
Officials in Illinois blamed aggressive enforcement actions of ICE agents for triggering the protests.
Sauer also urged the court to hand down an immediate order that would freeze Perry’s rulings.
The court asked for a response from Illinois officials by Monday.
Federal authorities are now pursuing a misdemeanor charge against David Huerta, president of Service Employees International Union California, who was arrested during the first day of a series of immigration raids that swept the region.
Prosecutors originally brought a felony charge of conspiracy to impede an officer against Huerta, accusing him of obstructing federal authorities from serving a search warrant at a Los Angeles workplace and arresting dozens of undocumented immigrants on June 6.
On Friday, court filings show federal prosecutors filed a lesser charge against Huerta of “obstruction resistance or opposition of a federal officer,” which carries a punishment of up to a year in federal prison. The felony he was charged with previously could have put him behind bars for up to six years.
The U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles declined to comment.
In a statement, Huerta’s attorneys, Abbe David Lowell and Marilyn Bednarski, said they would “seek the speediest trial to vindicate David.” The lawyers said that “in the four months that have passed since David’s arrest, it has become even clearer there were no grounds for charging him and certainly none for the way he was treated.”
“It’s clear that David Huerta is being singled out not for anything he did but for who he is — a life-long workers’ advocate who has been an outspoken critic of its immigration policies. These charges are a clear attempt to silence a leading voice who dared to challenge a cruel, politically driven campaign of fear,” the statement read.
The labor union previously stated that Huerta was detained “while exercising his First Amendment right to observe and document law enforcement activity.” Huerta is one of more than 60 people charged federally in the Central District of California tied to immigration protests and enforcement actions.
Two recent misdemeanor trials against protesters charged with assaulting a federal officer both ended in acquittals. Some protesters have taken plea deals.
In a statement Friday, Huerta said he is “being targeted for exercising my constitutional rights for standing up against an administration that has declared open war on working families, immigrants, and basic human dignity.”
“The baseless charges brought against me are not just about me, they are meant to intimidate anyone who dares to speak out, organize, or demand justice. I will not be silenced,” he said.
Huerta was held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles for days, prompting thousands of union members, activists and supporters to rally for his release. California Democratic Sens. Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla also sent a letter to the Homeland Security and Justice departments demanding a review of Huerta’s arrest.
A judge ordered Huerta released in June on a $50,000 bond.
The case against Huerta centers on a June 6 workplace immigration raid at Ambiance Apparel. According to the original criminal complaint filed, Huerta arrived at the site around noon Friday, joining several other protesters.
Huerta and other protesters “appeared to be communicating with each other in a concerted effort to disrupt the law enforcement operations,” a federal agent wrote in the complaint.
The agent wrote that Huerta was yelling at and taunting officers and later sat cross-legged in front of a vehicle gate to the location where law enforcement authorities were serving a search warrant.
Huerta also “at various times stood up and paced in front of the gate, effectively preventing law enforcement vehicles from entering or exiting the premises through the gate to execute the search warrant,” the agent wrote in the affidavit.
The agent wrote that they told Huerta that if he kept blocking the Ambiance gate, he would be arrested.
According to the complaint, as a white law enforcement van tried to get through the gate, Huerta stood in its path.
Because Huerta “was being uncooperative, the officer put his hands on HUERTA in an attempt to move him out of the path of the vehicle.”
“I saw HUERTA push back, and in response, the officer pushed HUERTA to the ground,” the agent wrote. “The officer and I then handcuffed HUERTA and arrested him.”
According to a statement from SEIU-United Service Workers West, SEIU California State Council, and the Service Employees International Union, “Huerta was thrown to the ground, tackled, pepper sprayed, and detained by federal agents while exercising his constitutional rights at an ICE raid in Los Angeles.” Video of his arrest went viral.
“Despite David’s harsh treatment at the hands of law enforcement, he is now facing an unjust charge,” the statement read. “This administration has turned the military against our own people, terrorizing entire communities, and even detaining U.S. citizens who are exercising their constitutional rights to speak out.”
Acting U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli, posted a photo on the social media site X of Huerta, hands behind his back, after the arrest.
“Let me be clear: I don’t care who you are — if you impede federal agents, you will be arrested and prosecuted,” Essayli wrote. “No one has the right to assault, obstruct, or interfere with federal authorities carrying out their duties.”
In an interview with Sacramento TV news oulet KCRA last month, Essayli referred to Huerta as Gov. Gavin Newsom’s “buddy” and said he “deliberately obstructed a search warrant.”
While speaking with reporters in June, Schiff said Huerta was “exercising his lawful right to be present and observe these immigration raids.”
“It’s obviously a very traumatic thing, and now that it looks like the Justice Department wants to try and make an example out of him, it’s all the more traumatic,” Schiff said. “But this is part of the Trump playbook. They selectively use the Justice Department to go after their adversaries. It’s what they do.”
A proposed mega-development in downtown Los Angeles, which would replace a cold storage facility with a $2-billion residential and commercial complex, cleared a major hurdle last week when the city Planning Commission backed it.
Commissioners unanimously recommended the construction of Fourth & Central in the Skid Row neighborhood.
The 7.6-acre compound along Central Avenue that would contain apartments, offices, shops and restaurants in 10 distinct buildings of various sizes that would change the city skyline. The City Council will consider final approval later this year.
The project, which would be built near the neighborhood’s boundary with the Arts District, is being proposed by property owner Larry Rauch, president of Los Angeles Cold Storage. His family has operated food chilling facilities at Fourth Street and Central Avenue since the 1960s and plans to move the business to a new location.
In its place would be 1,589 rental apartments with 249 affordable units, along with 401,000 square feet of creative office space and 145,748 square feet of retail or restaurant space. The complex was conceived by Long Beach architect Studio One Eleven.
In response to changing market conditions and reactions from community members, a number of revisions have been made to Fourth & Central since the project was initially proposed in 2021.
Rendering of Fourth & Central, a $2-billion mixed-use development planned to replace a cold storage facility in downtown Los Angeles.
(Tomorrow Inc)
The tallest building, an apartment tower, has been reduced to 30 stories from 44. With housing more in demand than lodging, the hotel originally planned for the project has been replaced by additional residential units, including more affordable housing units.
The open space design has been changed to create better pedestrian connections to the Little Tokyo Galleria shopping center north of the complex. The 2 acres of open space in the project will be accessible to the public, Rauch said.
Denver real estate developer Continuum Partners, which initially launched the project with Rauch, is no longer involved, Rauch said.
“Continuum has chosen to focus its resources elsewhere at this time; the Fourth & Central Project will be moving forward with LA Cold Storage at the lead,” he said in a statement.
If approved, it would probably take a year to 18 months to complete final plans for the project before starting work. Fourth & Central is moving through its preliminary stages at a time when many other developers have put residential projects in Los Angeles on hold because it’s difficult to find viable construction financing at current interest rates.
Many equity investors, such as pension funds and insurance companies, are also reluctant to park money in L.A. because the rapidly changing rules make it impossible to predict profits.
Among investors’ concerns are public policies such as the United to House Los Angeles (Measure ULA) transfer tax on large real estate sales, and also temporary limits on evicting tenants that were enacted during the pandemic.
“We’ve spent years working on our plan to transform this industrial property into a mixed-use community, which made it so rewarding to hear city decision-makers agree with our vision,” Rauch said after the Planning Commission vote.
Among the organizations voicing support for the project were the Los Angeles/Orange Counties Building and Construction Trades Council, the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council, the Little Tokyo Business Assn. and the Central City Assn.
“This project represents a significant stride toward addressing the region’s housing challenges,” said Nella McOsker, president of the Central City Assn. “Plus, the new retail and restaurant space will attract business and people to downtown.”
Fourth & Central is not the only mega project being planned on the east side of downtown.
In July, the City Council approved 670 Mequit, a $1.4-billion complex intended to have apartments, offices, a hotel, a charter elementary school, shops and restaurants. It is to replace a cold storage facility on the west side of the Los Angeles River with the mixed-use complex designed by Danish architect Bjarke Ingels Group.
California universities are facing intense backlash for handing over employees’ personal contact information to the Trump administration as it investigates allegations of campus antisemitism, amping up tensions over government incursions into higher education.
At Cal State, a faculty union filed suit Friday in state court after learning the personal phone numbers and email addresses of 2,600 Los Angeles campus employees were turned over to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which is investigating employee complaints of campus antisemitism. In addition, the EEOC is contacting Jewish faculty across the 22-campus system, prompting campus demonstrations against cooperating with Trump.
At UC Berkeley, protesters recently converged on campus after University of California leaders said they released files from their civil rights office and UC police incident reports containing the names and contact information of 160 faculty and staff to the Education Department, which is also investigating alleged campus antisemitism.
UC-wide faculty senate leaders are demanding to know whether there have been other campus disclosures. UC has not publicly announced similar actions outside of Berkeley — but has not denied the possibility.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has intervened. The governor said he received a report last week from UC leadership on the data release that made a “compelling case” that UC was legally required to share information with the government. Newsom said he was still “reviewing” the report. The governor also said he may similarly scrutinize CSU’s actions.
Federal requests for campus data are not unusual in civil rights or employment discrimination investigations, legal experts say. But what is exceptional is the large-scale nature of the demands. CSU was ordered under subpoena to release employee information. UC says it negotiated over government asks to provide employee data — first offering redacted files — before relenting.
The orders come against the backdrop of President Trump’s aggressive campaign to force higher education institutions to align with his conservative agenda. The administration has suspended billions in research grants and has offered to absolve alleged campus violations in exchange for hefty fines and sweeping policy changes.
Broad size and scope
Legal experts said they were not surprised investigations were taking place, citing campus civil rights complaints over the years and Trump administration declarations that prioritize combating antisemitism.
Brian Soucek, UC Davis law professor, worried the antisemitism investigations — which involve nearly every California public university — are “a witch hunt.”
The EEOC has powers to subpoena relevant information needed “to advance some lawful purpose,” said Soucek, who teaches about equality and free speech law. “The question is whether these [actions] are overly broad.”
Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, said “asking for information about individuals and groups of individuals in the course of an investigation is about as unusual as traffic on the 405. But it is entirely appropriate to mistrust the Trump administration.” Mitchell, whose group represents 1,600 campuses, said schools are “between a proverbial rock and hard place.”
Spokespeople for the Education Department and EEOC did not reply to requests for comment.
UC and CSU’s views
Caught between the government and faculty are campus administrators, some who have expressed distrust of Trump’s civil rights investigations. But they fear that resisting would not only be illegal but could result in devastating funding cuts.
In recent faculty meetings, UC President James B. Milliken has declined to say whether other campuses aside from Berkeley have shared personal information of employees or students. Speaking at a UC-wide academic senate meeting Thursday, Milliken said he understood employee concerns and argued that data sharing was routine across presidential administrations.
He said the university was not handing over lists of faculty names but that broader documents shared with the government contained personnel information.
Milliken said UC is also working to fulfill data sharing requirements under a December 2024 agreement with the Biden administration that has carried over to this year.
That agreement resolved civil rights complaints — over antisemitism and bias against Muslim, Arab and pro-Palestinian students — at the Davis, Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz campuses. It required UC to share “an electronic sortable spreadsheet” with details on who reported civil rights complaints and who they were lodged against for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 academic years.
“Failure to comply with government oversight could result in a very significant loss of funding, potentially jeopardizing tens of thousands of jobs, the education of our students, the research careers of thousands of faculty, and the care afforded by our health enterprise,” Milliken recently wrote to campuses.
Administrators at both systems said they tried to resist or minimize government requests and have made strides to protect privacy while complying with the law.
At CSU, officials told the EEOC that the Los Angeles campus would only turn over publicly available data — such as university email addresses. But then the campus was subpoenaed for personal data.
Over the spring, the EEOC also subpoenaed UC for information on hundreds of employees who had signed letters in 2023 and 2024 expressing concern about the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and the campus climate for Jewish people, according to faculty contacted by EEOC investigators who they said informed them about the legal order.
The EEOC’s systemwide CSU investigation has not yet involved a subpoena for other Cal State campuses.
Tensions grow
Faculty, staff, students and unions have pushed back, saying university leaders should have rejected government demands, moves many say weaponize antisemitism charges for ideological goals.
“Rather than taking a stance against an authoritarian regime, CSU leadership has chosen to be complicit,” said the California Faculty Association, which represents 29,000 employees.
The union’s suit in state court asks for a judge to order CSU to avoid disclosing union members’ personal information in response to federal subpoenas without giving notice to affected employees and offering a chance for faculty to reject the request.
Peyrin Kao, a pro-Palestinian electrical engineering and computer science lecturer, was among those who UC Berkeley notified that their names were in files given to the government.
“They didn’t tell me why I was reported,” said Kao, who suspects the move was tied complaints in 2023 over an optional lecture he gave against Israel’s war in Gaza and UC’s investments in weapons companies. After the lecture, the university issued him a warning about potential violation of a policy against “political indoctrination.”
“Showing everyone that you can get reported for pro-Palestine speech does have a chilling effect,” Kao said.
Jewish voices
Ryan Witt, president of the CSU Channel Islands chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, agreed. Witt, who is Jewish and organized a recent protest against the investigation and “repressive” CSU free speech policies, felt that antisemitism was not a “major issue” on campus.
Other Jewish community members elsewhere differed.
Jeffrey Blutinger, director of Jewish Studies at Cal State Long Beach, filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint against the university.
(Gary Coronado/For The Times)
Referring to Trump’s higher education policies and antisemitism, Cal State Long Beach Jewish Studies professor Jeff Blutinger said he “shouldn’t be required to choose which threat I ignore.”
Blutinger made a report last summer to the commission about a February 2024 an incident where police shut down a guest lecture he presented at San Jose State University after protesters demonstrated in the hallway outside the classroom. He laid blame on the university and police for not protecting his right to speak about Israelis and Palestinians.
But he said the EEOC investigator he spoke to last month told him the probe was not tied to that complaint, which was closed for being too old. Instead, it was about a May 2024 public letter to CSU leaders that Blutinger signed, expressing worry over the “well-being of Jewish and Israeli students, staff, and faculty.”
Another signatory the EEOC contacted last month is Arik Davidyan, an assistant professor of physiology at Sacramento State University. Davidyan said he told the investigator that “our administration has worked a lot with the Jewish community to address our concerns.”
Tackling discrimination
Some leaders at UC and CSU have expressed frustration, saying efforts to combat discrimination and anti-Israel sentiment have gone unnoticed by the government.
At UC, protest rules have been revamped with bans on encampments, masking to hide identity while breaking the law, and student government boycotts of Israel. New training programs on antisemitism are underway.
CSU also revamped protest policies and in the last fiscal year spent nearly $16 million to expand systemwide and campus-level civil rights programs. In the coming months, it is rolling out a new case management system to track discrimination complaints.
“We’re working as hard as we possibly can to address antisemitism and to address any of the protected characteristic discrimination issues that may arise,” said Dawn S. Theodora, the system’s interim executive vice chancellor and general counsel. “We take it very seriously.”
