Board

A travel expert has revealed why she bides her time before approaching the check-in desk – while this can be effective, her methods are pretty controversial

Anyone who has flown with a budget carrier knows the drill. You either cough up a hefty fee to sit with your friends, or you resign yourself to being shoved into a dreaded middle seat at the back of the cabin.

Budget airlines have been accused of deliberately allocating their least desirable spots first, banking on the fact that frustrated holidaymakers will eventually snap and pay for an upgrade.

But a seasoned travel expert has shared a brilliant workaround to help you secure a premium seat for absolutely nothing – all you have to do is hold your nerve.

Chelsea, a budget travel creator with over 5.5 million likes on TikTok, claims that procrastination is the key to beating the airline’s algorithm.

Dubbing her method ‘check-in chicken’, she advises passengers to hold off on checking in until the absolute last minute.

Because the system fills the worst seats early on, the only spots left as the check-in window closes are usually the pricier ones at the front of the aircraft or those with extra legroom.

Ensure our latest travel headlines always appear at the top of your Google Search by making us a Preferred Source. Click here to activate or add us as Preferred Source in your Google search settings

Sharing a recent success story with Wizz Air, Chelsea explained that she waited until just five hours before departure to hit the button.

“I have not checked in yet, as essentially what they do is palm off middle seats or the back of the plane in the hope that you will then pay to change your seat,” she told her followers.

The gamble was a massive success, with the creator automatically landing two highly sought-after extra legroom seats for free. Frequent flyers claim the exact same trick works for Ryanair journeys, too.

But there’s a catch

While it sounds like a foolproof way to save money, playing check-in chicken comes with some serious risks. If flights are overbooked, you run the very real risk of being bumped from the flight entirely.

To lower the risk, Chelsea recommends actively monitoring the live seating plan on the airline’s app throughout the day, and checking in the moment only premium seats are left.

You also need to consider your luggage. Checking in late guarantees you will be in the final boarding group.

By the time you step onto the plane, the overhead lockers will be completely jammed, meaning staff will likely confiscate your hand luggage at the gate and put it in the hold—leaving you with an annoying wait at the baggage carousel when you land.

Despite the downsides, the controversial tactic sparked a fierce debate online, with savvy tourists begging Chelsea to keep the hack quiet.

“Stop telling everyone,” one user pleaded, while another boasted: “No don’t wreck this hack – I got 29E on Sunday by checking in an hour before it shut.”

However, others warned that the algorithm is entirely unpredictable. One lucky traveller revealed: “I had the exact opposite experience, checked in the minute the flight opened and they put me in the exit row for free.”

Meanwhile, another issued a stark warning for anyone feeling brave: “Definitely not worth it. I know someone who tried this and was left with no seat and had to wait until the next flight the next day.”

DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,

Chip giants stock price falls more than 8 percent amid speculation over co-founder’s position.

Chip giant Nvidia’s stock price has tumbled amid reports that its board of directors is meeting to consider the future of CEO Jensen Huang.

Nvidia shares fell more than 8 percent in after-hours trading on Wednesday as questions swirled over Huang’s position at the top of the $4.2 trillion company.

The plunge comes after The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times reported that Nvidia’s board of directors would discuss Huang’s position amid controversy over his personal life.

Nvidia did not immediately respond to Al Jazeera’s requests for comment.

The reported meeting comes amid reports that Huang engaged in an extramarital relationship with an Nvidia employee, in addition to an affair with a woman accused of working the Chinese intelligence services.

This is a developing story.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a motion Tuesday aimed at improving the county’s restraining order system in order to better support and protect victims of domestic violence and stalking.

The measure, which was co-authored by Supervisors Lindsey Horvath and Hilda Solis, also begins the process of officially making gender-based violence and intimate partner violence a “Board-directed priority” and calls on county agencies to identify millions of dollars of funding to help bolster the efforts.

The motion cited an investigation published by The Times in September that examined L.A. County’s restraining order system and the ways it often fails to support people who seek protection through the courts.

“These are signs that systems aren’t doing enough to help people,” Horvath said Tuesday. “A survivor should never have to fight the system while fighting to survive.”

The motion calls on the county’s chief executive officer to identify millions of dollars in new funding for self-help legal centers, courthouse domestic violence clinics, and the launch of a hotline to help connect the public with services.

The motion also calls on the county’s chief executive, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, and other agencies to assess their current efforts, plans for improvement and opportunities for additional funding and present their findings to the board.

Sheriff Robert Luna told The Times in an interview last month that he thinks his department is “going to be able to figure out” how to improve how it handles serving restraining orders and responds to reported violations. The Times reported in September that in 2025, sheriff’s deputies failed to locate targets of restraining orders 49% of the time.

“This motion,” Luna said, “is causing my entire staff and different parts of the department to really look in the mirror and say, ‘What are we doing, and what could we do to improve?’”

Supervisor Janice Hahn said she supported the motion because it’s critical that “survivors are able to get the help they need without hitting any additional barriers.” Like Horvath and Solis, Hahn thanked The Times during the meeting for exposing problems with the restraining order system and for compiling and publishing data that quantified the difficulties people face when trying to obtain protection from abusers and stalkers.

The September investigation found that only 21% of restraining orders requested in L.A. County are granted. The Times also found that in 2025, the county’s courts dismissed 57% of the nearly 15,000 petitions for domestic violence restraining orders they received, nearly double the 29% statewide dismissal rate in the same types of cases.

The Times reported that at least 63 homicides in L.A. County in 2024 and 2025 involved a woman with a former partner or close relative who was arrested or charged in connection with their killing. At least 10 of the slain women had filed for restraining orders.

The reporting highlighted the experiences of Nora Villanueva Campanor, who was killed by her estranged husband in Lancaster in 2024 after she struggled for months to get L.A. County Sheriff’s deputies, prosecutors and other stakeholders to take her fears seriously.

Her sister, Jazmin Villanueva, addressed the board on Tuesday to advocate on behalf of the motion, which she said will address issues with the county’s system — implementing changes that could have benefited Nora and potentially helped keep her alive.

“We need funding for navigators inside the courts to help victims directly with paperwork and the process,” she said. “I have young daughters and I don’t want them standing here 30 years from now asking for the same changes. This needs to change now.”

The motion directs county officials to develop a plan for peer navigators to support domestic violence victims and recommend ways to help them navigate restraining order service and court delays. It also calls for an assessment of the resources needed to provide emergency housing to all people fleeing gender-based violence who seek it.

An earlier version of the motion came before the board on Oct. 6. Since then, the Board of Supervisors collected input about how to improve the measure.

One key change since October was the addition of language directing county officials to recommend ways “to better support survivors seeking civil protection restraining orders due to physical or attempted violence, stalking, a credible fear of violence, or a pattern of behavior that seriously alarms, annoys, or harasses and causes substantial emotional distress,” broadening the scope beyond cases of domestic violence and stalking.

A key goal of the motion and the board’s efforts is to “acknowledge where failures exist and where we need to do better,” Horvath said Tuesday.

“Often we are asking our survivors to go to multiple different places to get the resources and support they should get through one unified response … Public safety means more than responding after violence occurs.”

Randall Winston has declared victory in his campaign for Seat 6 on the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees, in what was the closest of three races in last week’s election for the seven-member board.

Second-place finisher Gabriel Buelna has conceded.

According to the count released Monday, Winston had 38.7% of the vote and Buelna had 31.7%, followed by community college professor Roberto David LaCarra in third place and realtor Tonia Arey in fourth.

To win a seat on the seven-member board, candidates need only a plurality of votes, not a majority.

Winston declared victory in an email to supporters over the weekend.

“You voted and told your friends and family why this race mattered,” Winston told supporters on Saturday. “Because of you, the Los Angeles Community College District will have a trustee who believes our colleges are where this city builds opportunity.”

In a brief interview Monday, Buelna said he called Winston to concede and wished him the best in his new role.

Seat 6 turned out to be the most contentious of the races for the Board of Trustees, which oversees the largest community college district in the country with some 200,000 students, most of whom are low-income.

During the campaign, Buelna and Arey accused Winston of misleading the public by describing himself as an architect and an educator, when his full-time job is deputy mayor of infrastructure and climate resilience under Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.

Winston responded by saying his first professional degree is in architecture, he is licensed in the field and he will be teaching a leadership class at West L.A. College this fall.

Helping boost him to victory was a key endorsement from the community college district’s faculty union, which put significant financial resources behind his candidacy.

Between Sept. 20 and Oct. 17, the union contributed $800,000 to a committee supporting Winston and the two other winning candidates, helping produce slate mailers that hit the doors of voters, according to campaign filings.

James McKeever, president of the faculty union, AFT Local 1521, declined to discuss many details of the union’s decision, but told The Times that the executive board wanted to go “in a different direction” and saw Winston as the best candidate.

In the race for Seat 2, incumbent Steve Veres held a 40.91% to 33.48% lead over educator Adriana Cabrera, who was in second.

Cabrera did not return emails seeking comment, and Veres said she had not called to concede. As of Monday afternoon, Veres had nearly 97,000 more votes than Cabrera with an estimated 44,000 more ballots to be counted county-wide, according to the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk.

In Seat 4, Darryn Harris, a government and community affairs officer for St. John’s Community Health, has the biggest lead of all.

According to the latest numbers, Harris had 57.3% of the vote in a seven-person race. Healthcare workforce specialist Elaine Alaniz was in second place with 14.4%.

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has briefed top lawmakers on a growing national security crisis around the world’s leading chipmaker, Nvidia, after its chief executive, Jensen Huang, admitted over the weekend to an extramarital affair with a suspected Chinese spy.

Senior U.S. intelligence officials briefed the Gang of Eight — congressional leaders from both parties, and the chairs and vice chairs of the House and Senate intelligence committees — on the matter, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on Monday.

Congressional Republicans have called on Huang himself to provide an update, warning the incident raised “significant national security concerns” that could have compromised cutting-edge American technology at a critical moment in the race with China for supremacy in artificial intelligence.

Huang admitted Sunday to having an affair with Alice Huang, who was identified as a Chinese intelligence asset by U.S. authorities, after the New York Times reported that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had raised concerns within the administration about his potential compromise.

President Trump is scheduled to visit China next week.

“I was unfaithful to my wife. My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry,” Jensen Huang said in a statement Sunday.

“Regarding the national security concerns raised in news reports,” he added, “NVIDIA’s Board of Directors has initiated an independent investigation. I support the investigation and will cooperate fully. I love our country and our company, and I am committed to protecting NVIDIA and supporting America’s national security. I am proud and grateful to be an American.”

Debate over export controls for the world’s most advanced semiconductor chips, produced by Nvidia, has raged over the last eight years in Washington, with lawmakers across party lines expressing concern that Chinese access to the chips could strengthen their hand in the development of the most powerful AI models.

Huang has been one of the most vocal opponents of the U.S. export controls, calling them a “mistake” and saying they were hurting American businesses more than they were constricting Chinese government efforts.

The executive was successful in lobbying the Trump administration to ease export restrictions on some of Nvidia’s most advanced chips over the past year.

Jeffries said he would be calling for greater export controls on chips after the incident. The New York congressman is expected to become the next speaker of the House after Democrats swept into power in this month’s midterm elections.

“We’re going to need a full briefing specifically as it relates to the Nvidia issue,” Jeffries said, adding that “real concerns” have arisen from the case that will need to be addressed.

U.S. intelligence unmasked the Chinese intelligence operation after intercepting the communications of Alice Huang, a former journalist with Chinese state media who later became a senior executive at Megaspeed International. The Singaporean data center firm was already under the microscope for allegedly funneling restricted AI chips to Beijing.

Trump was reportedly made aware of the Chinese espionage effort targeting Huang, but chose not to act, according to the New York Times.

Nvidia’s stock dropped more than 4% Monday, after the board said it would open an investigation into its chief executive being the “target of a foreign intelligence effort.”

The company “prioritizes U.S. national and economic security, which is paramount to the interests of NVIDIA and its shareholders,” it said in the statement.

“While the Board has no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised, the Board’s inquiry will examine all available information,” it continued. “The Board has confidence in Jensen and his leadership team and will provide further updates as appropriate.”

Rubio declined to address questions from reporters on the matter Monday.

“It’s an internal corporate matter for them, so I’m just not going to comment on that topic,” the secretary of State and national security advisor said.

But the administration could face increased calls to investigate Jensen Huang, a Trump ally, who traveled with Trump to Beijing in May and attended a state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping in September held at the White House.

Republicans have also formally requested Huang appear before the House on Nov. 18 — when Trump will be in China — to brief them on what happened.

Rep. Brian Mast of Florida, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Rick Crawford of Arkansas, head of the House Intelligence Committee, and Rep. John Moolenaar of Michigan, who leads the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, said the issue of Chinese infiltration and access to cutting-edge U.S. technology “is core to the investigative work of our three committees this Congress.”

“It is vital that Congress determines the extent to which U.S. national security has been placed at risk,” they wrote.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, leader of one of the world’s hottest chipmakers, is under immense scrutiny after he admitted to an extramarital affair, and the company’s board said it plans to investigate him in light of recent reporting that he was the target of a foreign intelligence effort.

The stunning admission follows a series of reports that Nvidia’s leader was targeted by former Megaspeed International executive Alice Huang, who the U.S. government suspects was recruited by a Chinese spy agency. The CEO previously denied having anything but a “normal” relationship with the woman.

Analysts say this will prompt calls for closer examination of tech companies’ dealings with China.

“This is a black eye moment for Jensen and will spark multiple congressional inquiries at a minimum and will create an overhang on the stock for a myriad of reasons,” said Daniel Ives, partner and senior managing director at merchant bank Yorkville Ives & Co. in an equity research note. “This will also increase major scrutiny regarding selling chips to China, which remains a key battleground issue in DC,” wrote Ives, who has an “outperform” rating on the stock.

Nvidia’s board said in a statement on Sunday that it has confidence in Huang and his leadership team. On Sunday in after-hours trading, Nvidia’s stock was $188.70 a share, up about 1%.

“While the Board has no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets were compromised, the Board’s inquiry will examine all available information,” Nvidia’s board said.

In a staff memo, Huang apologized to his family and Nvidia employees.

“I was unfaithful to my wife,” Huang wrote. “My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did. I am deeply sorry.”

Huang wrote that he is committed to protecting Nvidia and supporting America’s national security, adding that he is “proud and grateful to be an American” and supports the investigation.

The transgression blemishes Huang’s leadership, which has been admired by many people in Silicon Valley. Huang, a former microprocessor designer and Denny’s dishwasher, discussed the idea behind Nvidia inside a Denny’s in San Jose with fellow entrepreneurs Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem. They co-founded the Santa Clara-based chipmaker in 1993.

Since then, Huang’s profile has risen to the status of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, with thousands of people gathering to hear his keynotes.

The company’s valuation has risen dramatically in recent years alongside AI’s boom. The company reached a record market capitalization of nearly $5.8 trillion in October. That has slipped below $5 trillion, however, weighed down by concern about the sustainability of AI infrastructure build-out.

“It certainly is going to put a cloud over Jensen and Nvidia for a while,” said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at advisory services firm Enderle Group, adding that Nvidia sells products to the U.S. Department of Defense. “If it turns out that he was intimate with the Chinese spy, Nvidia could face some pullback from the U.S. government.”

The company has no public succession plan, and Huang has no obvious heir apparent. He has repeatedly said he wants to continue in his role for decades and has created an informal organizational structure around him that eschews a conventional hierarchy. Instead, his direct reports are tasked with rapidly implementing his decisions.

Huang has said that this system gives his company the flexibility to react to rapid changes in technology and remain agile. But it has also created a situation where there’s no replacement ready to step in and take over Huang’s relentless schedule.

Concerns that sensitive information might leak through Nvidia’s contacts with China have fueled calls for investigations and greater scrutiny of Huang and the company, ratcheting pressure in what has already been a difficult geopolitical balancing act.

“The big issue is China is all out in everything they can do to try to compromise U.S. security, whether it’s running a honeypot scheme or whether it’s blackmailing or extorting existing employees across U.S. firms,” said Ray Wang, principal analyst at Constellation Research. “The issue here is if the extortion resulted in Nvidia making policies or the CEO making policies that would compromise national security. That’s what’s at stake.”

Legislators, including Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), said Congress will look into these relationships.

“The more I learn about the insane relationship between the Trump Administration, Chinese spies, and AI billionaires, the more I’m convinced there is nothing this administration does that isn’t corrupt,” Coons wrote on X on Saturday. “Congress will investigate and get answers.”

The White House did not immediately return a request for comment on Coons’ statement or Nvidia’s board investigation.

While Nvidia is allowed to ship a limited range of products to China under a licensing program granted by the current Trump administration, Beijing has restricted imports of the chips — an impasse that continues to curb the chipmaker’s sales in the world’s second-largest economy.

Megaspeed, based in Singapore, has been accused of breaking U.S. export restrictions and smuggling Nvidia chips to China. Huang had told Bloomberg that his contacts with Megaspeed employees were typical of business relationships he has with many Chinese customers and executives.

Bloomberg contributed to this report.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — A U.S. cruise ship that forced all its passengers to disembark in Cambodia after suspending its operations last week has departed the Southeast Asian nation with only crew aboard, Cambodian officials said Wednesday.

The MV Odyssey, owned by Florida-based Villa Vie Residences, had been on an around-the-world cruise when it suspended its planned three-year voyage due to the sharp rise in fuel costs.

It had been docked for a scheduled stop at the Cambodian port of Sihanoukville on the Gulf of Thailand, when on Oct. 28 its 203 passengers were suddenly told they had to disembark within a few hours.

The ship left Sihanoukville late Tuesday with only crew and other personnel on board, said Tang Sochetkresna, director of the Tourism Department of Preah Sihanouk province. He said he didn’t know the ship’s next destination.

He said that nearly 100 passengers remained in Sihanoukville, while others were visiting other parts of Cambodia or had traveled on to other countries. Most of the ship’s passengers were Americans.

The ship, with its 650-passenger capacity, had 156 crew members on board, but it was not clear how many departed with the ship.

There has been no official announcement of future plans for the cruise ship. Media reports suggested that a creditor had taken over its management and was having it sailed to Singapore, Southeast Asia’s main maritime hub.

The abrupt end to the ship’s voyage has drawn widespread attention because it had touted itself as a floating home, combining long-term living at sea with global travel.

Several passengers said they had paid more than $300,000 for a suite for the lifetime of the vessel.

Villa Vie Residences said monthly fuel expenses per cabin that historically averaged $1,800 have reached an estimated $6,000 to $8,000 in parts of Asia due to the war in Iran.

The company said it sought to reduce fuel consumption by slowing the itinerary and spending more time in port, but was unable to offset the surging costs.

Traffic has been curtailed in the Strait of Hormuz since the war in Iran began, squeezing supplies of all kinds of petroleum-based fuels, especially in Southeast Asia, and sharply increasing prices.

Passengers had said the company had been asking them for several months for contributions to keep the ship operating, and there has been an active debate on social media over whether its operation was ever financially viable.

Built in 1993 and operated under different names by several cruise lines over the years before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Odyssey was bought by Villa Vie Residences in 2023.

Its current cruise began in October 2024 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where the ship had been refitted. A second cruise, along with the purchase of a second ship to operate in a similar capacity, had already been planned.

Cheang writes for the Associated Press.

The 22-time Grand Slam winner is to be ratified onto club’s board of directors.

Real Madrid are set to add a champion from another ⁠sporting arena to ⁠their boardroom as 22-time tennis Grand Slam winner Rafael Nadal’s appointment as a director is to be put to members for ⁠ratification, the club says.

The board agreed to submit the appointment to the General Assembly of ⁠Delegated Members. Nadal is already an honorary member of the club.

“It is a source of immense pride for Real Madrid and for all our supporters that a figure of his sporting and personal stature … is to join ‌our Board of Directors,” Real said in a statement on Wednesday.

The club highlighted Nadal’s sporting achievements, including 92 singles titles, two Olympic gold medals, five Davis Cup triumphs with Spain and the world number one ranking.

The club said his qualities beyond those honours – including humility, respect for opponents and commitment to charity – mirrored the club’s own.

“All ⁠these values form part of Real Madrid’s identity, and ⁠Rafael Nadal has embodied and championed them throughout his sporting career,” said the statement announcing his appointment at a board meeting on Tuesday.

Nadal welcomed the invitation.

“I would like to thank President Florentino Perez and the Board for ⁠inviting me to join the Board of Directors of Real Madrid,” he wrote on social media.

“I have ⁠accepted this invitation with great enthusiasm, keen to ⁠learn and to contribute as much as I can.”

Nadal, who retired from tennis in November 2024, has long been touted as a potential successor to Perez, ‌although he has played down the prospect.

Perez, 79, secured another four-year term in June after Real’s first contested presidential election in two decades.

More ‌than ‌a third of voting members backed challenger Enrique Riquelme, who opposed plans to bring outside investment into the member-owned club.

Nov. 3, 2026 10:52 AM PT

We are tracking all races across Los Angeles County, in dozens of cities, communities and school districts.

Of note in this year’s elections are a neck-and-neck Los Angeles mayoral race, a rematch for the L.A. County sheriff and nearly 100 city council seats (two of which are in L.A.). Less prominent races cover water district boards, school district trustees and the judge’s bench. Angelenos were asked to vote on propositions, measures and charter amendments — many of which involve funding programs with bonds or new taxes — at both the county and city levels.

With a few exceptions, the Associated Press does not call local city and county races. The county has 30 days to submit certified results to the secretary of state.

Countywide

Only three races are on the ballot for all of L.A. County.

Alex Villanueva is seeking to reclaim his position leading the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department. He is running against the incumbent, Robert Luna, who unseated him in 2022.

Measure A would require binding arbitration if talks between county officials and unions representing sheriff’s deputies, firefighters, lifeguards and other public safety groups reach an impasse.

A “Yes” on Measure E would do two things: enshrine previously approved Board of Supervisors ethics reforms into the county charter, and fix a problem created by a 2024 measure that invalidated a previously approved jail alternatives funding proposal.

Back to top

Cities and communities

Six of L.A. County’s 88 cities have mayoral races, including Los Angeles, Compton, El Monte, Inglewood, Lawndale and Monrovia.

Also on the ballot are city council races and measures that would issue bonds or create taxes to fund a variety of government services.

Back to top

School districts

Across L.A. County, dozens of school and community college districts have board seats and bond measures on the ballot.

Superior Court judges

Angelenos have four Superior Court judges on their ballots.

Back to top

Water districts

Multiple water district board members will be decided by voters in Los Angeles. In several districts where voters could select multiple candidates, the two with the most votes win.

Back to top

Other races

Back to top

Los Angeles voters will head to the polls Tuesday to vote on a slew of ballot measures, including a half-cent sales tax that would beef up the city’s Fire Department — but which also would cost Angelenos more to fill up their gas tanks, buy clothes and dine out.

Another measure would allow the City Council to meet just once a week, instead of three times as required by the City Charter.

In all, there are eight ballot measures before L.A. voters that could have a significant impact on how the city government functions, and which take just a simple majority to pass.

Here’s a roundup:

Measure FD: Sales tax hike for the Fire Department

Voters will consider a half-cent increase to the city’s retail sales tax, bumping it from 10.25 cents per dollar spent to 10.75 cents per dollar spent. The tax hike is expected to raise an estimated $345 million annually and would be funneled into a separate fund specifically for the Fire Department.

The sales tax increase was spearheaded by the union representing rank-and-file firefighters, who have long complained the department is underfunded.

The city still would be required to fund the department at the same average percentage out of the general fund, ensuring extra revenue generated by the tax would add to its regular budget.

Opponents say this would be the third sales tax hike since 2024, costing an average of $86 per person and $345 for a family of four in additional sales taxes each year.

The firefighters union said the tax fund is essential to increase the number of firefighters and lower response times across the city.

Charter Amendment EE: Fewer City Council meetings

Amendment EE would allow the Council to meet once a week instead of three times, as required under the City Charter.

The Council voted 12-0 to put the measure on the ballot, with three council members absent. Council members in support of the measure said the three meetings are costly and ineffective, and noted their time is better spent working in their district.

Councilmember Monica Rodriguez opposed the measure, saying it would reduce the time available for L.A. residents to engage with their representatives in a public forum and could lead to council members rushing through deliberations on important matters.

The amendment also would approve changes to how the city governs. If passed, independent inspectors for the L.A. Police and Fire Departments would have more power to conduct audits, and it would increase the penalties for campaign finance violations. The changes also include raising the number of signatures needed for a ballot referendum and would bar ethics commissioners from running for City Council or the Los Angeles Board of Education for five years after they leave office.

Proposition TE: An exception to the ‘mansion tax’

Proposition TE would grant a one-time exemption to Palisades fire victims from paying the so-called “mansion tax” if they sell their home within five years of the disaster.

The “mansion tax,” or Measure ULA, took effect in 2023 and imposed an additional 4% transfer tax on all L.A. property sales above $5.4 million and a 5.5% tax on sales above $10.9 million. Despite its nickname, the tax also falls on more modest multifamily residences like apartment buildings that exceed the sales price benchmarks.

The proposition would exempt Pacific Palisades homeowners from paying the tax, regardless of whether they lived at the property or not. It also would refund any resident who already sold their property and paid the tax.

The proposition was spearheaded by Councilmember Traci Park, who represents the region. Supporters say fire victims have been through enough and should have more flexibility as they navigate expensive rebuilding costs.

Opponents argue the proposition is too broad and should have included only victims whose primary residence was destroyed.

Charter Amendment LA: Restructuring how the city administers public works

Amendment LA is intended to more efficiently deliver basic city services for infrastructure in need of repair, including streets in need of repaving, dangerous sidewalks and broken streetlights. It also would leverage existing resources to open up sources of revenue.

The measure would reduce the sway of the Board of Public Works or pave the way to eliminate it, while also increasing the power of the director of public works. Critics oppose the elimination of the board, saying it would weaken accountability and increase public scrutiny.

Charter Amendment PL: Streamlining the Planning Department

L.A. residents have for years complained that navigating the Planning Department to build or open businesses is complicated and confusing.

Amendment PL includes five proposals that would increase efficiency and streamline certain parts of the Planning Department, which controls land use and approves construction and renovation projects.

The changes would consolidate seven Area Planning Commissions into one, partly to lower costs and ensure that all appeals and applications are governed by the same logic. It also would give the City Council more flexibility in approving taller buildings and set deadlines to speed up rulings from the City Planning Commission.

Charter Amendment PRK: Doubling the money for recreation and parks

Amendment PRK would double the minimum amount of money set aside for the Department of Recreation and Parks by reworking the parameters of the city budget.

The department is in charge of maintaining green spaces, playing fields and senior centers in the city. The City Charter mandates the department receive .0325% of the total assessed value of taxable properties, which is about $303 million for the park system this year and would be around $493 million in 10 years.

If the measure passes, that would double, meaning the park system would get a minimum of $986 million by 2036.

Supporters say the existing city allocation isn’t enough and has led to deteriorating recreation centers, swimming pools and restrooms. Critics warn it would force city officials to cut other services to make room for this additional funding.

Charter Amendment PRT: Changes to airports, harbor and water and power departments

Charter Amendment PRT is part of a package of proposed changes to the City Charter to increase transparency, build public trust and streamline operations. It would change how airports, harbors and the Department of Water and Power are managed.

The amendment would require that two of the seven members of the Los Angeles World Airport’s board of commissioners, who oversee Van Nuys and Los Angeles International airports, live in Van Nuys and three live around LAX.

It also would require the L.A. Board of Harbor Commissioners allocate a portion of its operating income from the Port of Los Angeles to investments in waterfront public access projects. The harbor is one of the busiest in the country and generates revenue from the operators at its terminals. PRT also would broaden public insight into how lease agreements with the port affect the local workforce.

Supporters say people overseeing Van Nuys and LAX should have a firsthand understanding of living near the airports.

No ballot argument against PRT was submitted, although the L.A. Area Chamber of Commerce said it opposes the measure, citing concern over the additional requirements it would impose on businesses and the potential impact on port operations.

Charter Amendment SC: Altering LAUSD’s campaign finance rules

Amendment SC wouldn’t make major changes, but would clarify rules on campaign finance for candidates running for a seat on the Board of Education, which oversees LAUSD.

Language would be simplified to clarify that the same rules apply for mayoral candidates and Board of Education candidates, except in certain instances. Some of those rules include governing campaign contribution limits, filing deadlines, public disclosures and fundraising windows.

Supporters say it won’t make any substantive changes, but instead make the rules easier to understand by deleting duplicated language. No argument was provided against the amendment.

Voters in the city of Los Angeles will consider eight ballot measures covering everything from taxes and fire resources to governance of airports and the port and the quality of parks.

L.A. City Measure FD

The basics

Measure FD would increase sales taxes by 0.5% to provide additional funding for the city Fire Department. The measure would raise an estimated $345 million annually. Under the plan, the city’s retail sales tax would increase from 10.25 cents per dollar spent to 10.75 cents per dollar spent.

Impact

The ballot initiative was spearheaded by the United Firefighters of Los Angeles City Local 112, the union representing rank-and-file firefighters, which has long argued that the department is underfunded. It claims decades of neglect have left the department understaffed and under-resourced.

Critics point out that this would be the third sales tax hike since 2024, following L.A. County hikes for homelessness (Measure A in 2024) and healthcare (Measure ER in the June 2 primary). The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. estimates that Measure FD will cost an average of $86 per person and $345 for a family of four in additional sales taxes each year.

Read more:

Proposition TE

The basics

Proposition TE would carve out a five-year exemption from L.A.’s “mansion tax” for Pacific Palisades homes damaged or destroyed in the 2025 wildfire, sparing sellers six-figure transfer bills on high-end properties. The mansion tax levies a 4% transfer tax on all L.A. property sales above $5.4 million and a 5.5% tax on sales above $10.9 million. At the current level, if a Pacific Palisades resident who lost their home in the fire sold the vacant lot for, say, $6 million, they would owe $240,000 in transfer taxes.

The impact

Supporters say fire survivors shouldn’t owe hefty taxes when selling burned-out lots, arguing the break offers basic fairness for families facing insurance shortfalls and steep rebuilding costs. Opponents warn the exemption covers wealthy landlords and investors as well as homeowners, creating a “loophole for the ultrawealthy” and stripping millions annually from the mansion tax’s homeless and affordable housing programs.

Charter Amendment LA

The basics:

Charter Amendment LA would change the way public works are administered in Los Angeles, allow the city to lease its underused land to tenants and open the door to greater city involvement in business enterprises. It also would ease some competitive bidding rules.

The impact

The proposed changes to the Los Angeles City Charter are intended to more efficiently deliver basic city services and speed repairs to deteriorating infrastructure such as streets in need of repaving, unsafe sidewalks and broken streetlights.

Charter Amendment PL

The basics

Charter Amendment PL would tweak L.A.’s Planning Department, promising faster decisions, clearer rules and more consistent oversight of development citywide. Seven volunteer Area Planning Commissions would be replaced by a single Neighborhood Appeals Board, cutting costs and standardizing rulings on liquor licenses, hillside homes and small-business projects.

The measure would let the City Council raise building height limits, set strict timelines on planning votes and automatically approve some amendments, opening the door to taller towers and speedier permitting.

The impact

Homeowners, developers and businesses have complained that navigating the Planning Department can be complicated and confusing. These changes aim to streamline how permits and projects move through the department.

Charter Amendment EE

The basics

Charter Amendment EE would cut the number of required L.A. City Council meetings from three to one weekly while reshaping ethics rules, watchdog powers and referendum signature thresholds.

The impact

Supporters call three weekly meetings inefficient and costly, arguing fewer full sessions would free council members to work in their districts and steer more detailed public debate into committee hearings. Opponents warn EE would shrink public access, rush deliberations and effectively neuter referendums, casting the ethics and oversight tweaks as modest cover for a deeper retreat from transparency.

Charter Amendment PRK

The basics

Charter Amendment PRK would double the minimum budget allocation set aside for the Department of Recreation and Parks, which oversees the upkeep of green spaces, playing fields and senior centers. It is not a new tax or bond.

The impact

Supporters say that the change will allow the city to give Angelenos the park and recreation services they deserve. Critics contend it will tie the hands of the city’s elected officials, forcing them to cut other services to make room for additional park funding.

Charter Amendment PRT

The basics

Charter Amendment PRT would change the composition of the Los Angeles World Airport’s board of commissioners, which oversees Van Nuys and Los Angeles International airports. It would require that two of the seven board members live in Van Nuys and three live around LAX — a footprint that the amendment does not define. As for the Port of Los Angeles, the amendment would require the Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners to annually allocate a portion of the harbor’s operating income to investments in waterfront public access projects. It also would broaden public insight into how lease agreements with the port affect the local workforce by adding employment reporting requirements for any leaseholder extending a lease or any lease applicant.

The impact

The measure was developed through a reform effort started after a series of scandals. Backers say it will boost public accountability. There was initial pushback among some terminal leaseholders at the Port of Los Angeles.

Charter Amendment SC

The basics

Charter Amendment SC aims to clarify campaign finance rules for candidates running for a seat on the L.A. Unified Board of Education, which overseas the school district and around 350,000 students.

The impact

Repetitive language in the Los Angeles City Charter would be deleted and the charter would make clear that the same campaign finance rules apply to both mayoral candidates and Board of Education candidates, except in certain instances, the measure says. Among those requirements are rules governing campaign contribution limits, filing deadlines, public disclosures and fundraising windows.

The Los Angeles Community College District is the largest community college district in the nation, serving 200,000 students with a budget of $10 million.

Voters will elect three members to the board.

Seat 2

Steven F. Veres

Veres is a member of the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees and works as a state political adviser. He says he has worked to strengthen job training programs and improve graduation rates and wants to make college as affordable as possible.

Robert Payne

Payne taught at L.A. Mission College, worked on movie crews and ran an import business. He would focus on low enrollment growth. He also wants to make community colleges “cheaper, faster, better” in part by offering students more training for specific jobs and less expensive online textbooks.

Kristina Irwin

Irwin serves on the general advisory board at Santa Monica College. She previously served on the board of trustees at Palisades Charter High School. She wants to offer students more tools to succeed in college and to establish “preentry” programs in every local high school to better prepare students for community college.

Adriana Cabrera

Cabrera served as president of the Central Alameda Neighborhood Council and co-founded Empowering Youth in South Central. She wants to make student services easier to navigate and to strengthen financial aid and other support, including for food, housing, child care and mental health.

Roy Payan

Payan has suspended his campaign.

Seat 4

Nancy Pearlman

Pearlman is an environmentalist who served on the LACC Board of Trustees from 2001 to 2017 and taught part time at all nine colleges. She would focus on improving low enrollment while ensuring students are given the necessary support and resources to succeed. She also cites the need to make sure faculty receive equal pay.

Darryn Harris

Harris is a government and community affairs officer for St. John’s Community Health and teaches at Santa Monica College. Harris wants to tackle the affordability crisis blocking student achievement by building more low-cost housing on district land and making it “easier for students to get help with food, transportation, child care, and other basic needs.”

Adam Bruno

Bruno has worked as a therapist helping children and been a community college student. His main goals are to increase enrollment and make it easier for students to afford college. He’d explore student stipends as a way to make community college more affordable.

Elaine Alaniz

Alaniz serves as a public affairs specialist with the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Disaster Recovery and Resilience. She wants to better prepare students for a changing workforce and ensure classroom instruction “keeps pace with a rapidly changing workforce” in the age of artificial intelligence and other technologies.

Isidro J. Armenta

Armenta did not reply to The Times’ survey.

Priscilla Umana

Umana works as an American Sign Language interpreter. She says the district’s biggest challenge “is the high percentage of students experiencing housing insecurity, homelessness, and food insecurity.” She would work with the district to expand affordable housing, work-study opportunities and food aid.

Jason R. Aula

Aula has worked as a political campaign consultant and in the world of mobile apps. He considers fraud a major issue including people posing as community college students to steal financial aid. He proposed a moratorium on noncitizens attending district schools and a focus on pandemic learning loss.

Seat 6

Gabriel Buelna

Buelna serves on the board of trustees. He also is an attorney and teaches history and political science at Cal State Northridge. He said a key issue is making college more affordable to students and ensuring that they graduate. He also said the board must conduct strong fiscal oversight of the billions in voter-approved bond funds.

Tonia Arey

Arey has worked in real estate, public advocacy and community engagement. Arey would work to implement campus safety plans, support additional academic advising and career education and more closely “examine spending, contracts, program outcomes and administrative costs to ensure resources reach classrooms and directly support students.”

Randall Winston

Winston works as a licensed architect and attorney and serves as Los Angeles’ deputy mayor of infrastructure and climate resilience under Mayor Karen Bass. Winston’s priorities for the district include ensuring colleges are a pathway to opportunity and good jobs, that students can afford basic needs and people historically shut out of higher education are let in.

The Los Angeles Board of Public Works has been overseeing work on streets, sidewalks and sewers since 1905. But if voters approve Measure LA on Tuesday’s ballot, it might not be around much longer.

The charter amendment enacts a half-dozen changes, and the most divisive is a provision that would “allow for the elimination of or changes to the Board of Public Works.”

Proponents assert that passage would lead to better city services and quicker repairs of deteriorating infrastructure. They also say the five-member board wouldn’t just disappear, and disbanding it actually would require a two-thirds vote of the 15-member City Council.

Opponents say the board plays a crucial role in managing billions of dollars of infrastructure projects while maintaining public accessibility and handling matters that don’t merit council attention (such as tree removal votes). They fear that eliminating the five-member oversight panel, and putting a single person in charge, would open the door to graft, with some citing San Francisco’s former director of public works being sentenced in 2022 to seven years in federal prison for his role in a kickback and bribery scheme.

“If the Board of Public Works was eliminated and concentrated within the authority of one person, I think that gives way to more corruption than transparency,” Councilmember Monica Rodriguez said.

Storm drains and sidewalk repairs

The board generally convenes Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in an ornate, high-ceilinged room on the fourth floor of City Hall.

One recent 2½-hour meeting kicked off with a lengthy celebration of Latino Heritage Month, and then the four members present moved through a series of agenda items tied to low-profile infrastructure projects, including:

• A reveal of seven bids for a package of sidewalk repairs, with Acting Executive Officer TJ Knight reading aloud the name of each applicant, and the bid amount, sometimes down to the penny. They ranged from a high of $2.47 million to a low of $1.9 million
• A Bureau of Engineering representative requested authority to boost the budget of a storm drain project in the Pacific Palisades in advance of El Niño storms.
• A Bureau of Street Services staffer broke down a request to remove protected trees (with plans for replacement) on a project on Mulholland Drive.

Each discussion item drew questions from the commissioners. All items were unanimously approved.

Paid positions

The five board members are all full-time city employees who earn slightly less than $200,000 a year. The members, including the board president, are appointed by the mayor and together oversee more than 5,500 people who work for city bureaus and offices that handle sanitation, street lighting, engineering, graffiti removal and more. Each bureau also has its own head.

A Board of Public Works meeting at City Hall.

(Jonathan Alcorn/For The Times)

The board members aren’t commenting on Measure LA. Former members, however, say the five-member board is an effective way to manage and coordinate a wealth of projects.

Rodriguez, who served on the board from 2013-16, said that during her tenure she focused on overhauling the procurement process to allow small, women-owned and minority-owned businesses to better compete for city contracts. She also learned the inner workings of the panel that approves more than 85% of the city’s construction contracts.

Diffusing the workload, former members say, allows for regular interaction with elected officials and the private sector.

Valerie Lynne Shaw, who served on the board from 1996 to 2013, said the board plays an important role in serving as a “coordinating mechanism” for infrastructure projects, and that commissioners regularly assist in solving problems raised by the public. She echoed the benefits of a larger panel.

“Power in the hands of many better serves the city as opposed to power in the hands of one,” she stated.

One former board member, who asked not to be identified to preserve professional relationships, said the existing system yields frequent public interaction, whether it’s people speaking during meetings or via other channels.

“I regularly went to neighborhood council meetings, homeowners association meetings, town halls, county board of supervisors meetings, to the state legislature,” the former member said. “A director can do some of that, but not all of that.”

Who’s in charge?

Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky begs to differ. From her vantage point, the current system is fragmented with no clear authority.

Yaroslavsky has been frustrated in getting information on a long-running intersection repair project on La Cienega Boulevard in her Fairfax area district.

“I can’t get any information from anybody, and I’m the councilperson,” she says.

Yaroslavsky contrasts the city setup with that of Los Angeles County, which she says has a well-known leader in Director of Public Works Mark Pestrella. She believes the city system of five board members serving as a collective general manager is a vestige of another era that never would be created today.

“When you have one person in charge, you know who you can hold accountable,” she says.

Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, another Measure LA supporter, agrees that accountability and efficiency could be bolstered under a revamped system. He believes that when certain projects require the participation of multiple bureaus, there can be a silo effect that slows progress.

“For years we’ve talked about, how do we better coordinate the bureaus? There have been advances, but it’s still fundamentally been a challenge,” he says.

In June, when the full council discussed changes to the board, during a marathon meeting about what would go on Tuesday’s ballot, panel President Marqueece Harris-Dawson also indicated that the current setup can cause confusion.

He said that, when discussing a project, “I have someone from Street Lighting saying to me, ‘Well, yeah, I can fix that light, but you also have to talk to Engineering.’ And Engineering says, ‘Well, that isn’t on our list to do.’ So it just feels like it’s bounced around, and there isn’t any one person that can say, ‘Here’s how the problem gets solved.’”

At the meeting, Rodriguez countered that having a single person in charge would not necessarily change that.

“A director isn’t going to be the omnipotent one that knows everything about what’s being coordinated between the different bureaus,” she said. Instead, she added, “If we want to talk about the real problems, we’ve got to talk about the resources and staffing support of each of these bureaus.”

Hiding the poison?

According to a City Ethics Commission database, no money has been spent by groups either supporting or opposing Measure LA. But for some political observers, the measure remains multifaceted and the debate heated.

Opponents of Measure LA question why something so significant and controversial as the potential eradication of a board that has been in existence for more than 150 years is on a ballot measure with more palatable proposals, such as adopting a two-year budget cycle and establishing a capital infrastructure plan.

Some have compared it with city Measure EE, the November charter amendment that includes good-governance elements such as boosting penalties for campaign finance violations and a more consequential proposal to allow the full council to meet at least once a week, rather than the current requirement of three times a week.

The former Board of Public Works member suggested that altering the five-member panel should have been its own item, saying, “The longer the paragraphs are, the fewer words the public will read.”

Rodriguez was even more direct, saying, “I think those are all tethered together to make you swallow the poison.”

Yaroslavsky described some of the board members as “very talented,” including its president, Steve Kang, and she acknowledges that separating aspects in the measure would have allowed a more focused conversation on public works. But she believes putting everything together is part of addressing “common-sense, obvious stuff” that will help the city function better.

Blumenfield also understands the objection but points out that the ballot already is overwhelming, and that everything in Measure LA addresses a change in governance and efficiency.

He also points out that voter approval would only set the stage for a later discussion. If a future council opts to change or eliminate the board, it would require 10 votes — or 12 if the mayor vetoed such a move.

“It’s a question that is worth asking, but nobody wants to take the time to go deep on how could we be better if we can’t even have the authority?” Blumenfield said.

Rep. Jimmy Gomez’s reelection bid, once helped by his high-profile fight against President Trump’s immigration policies, is in peril as he tries to recover from allegations of sexual misconduct.

The accusations, which Gomez denies, have left the 51-year-old Eagle Rock Democrat vulnerable to an upstart challenger from Highland Park who earned a reputation for antagonism while serving on the area’s neighborhood council.

Angela Gonzales-Torres, 31, is seizing on Gomez’s issues in the race to represent California’s 34th Congressional District, a Latino-majority territory spanning Koreatown, Boyle Heights, East Los Angeles, Glassell Park and adjacent neighborhoods.

Gonzales-Torres, who has worked part-time jobs as an academic counselor for formerly incarcerated students and at an affordable housing development, is backed by the Democratic Socialists of America and counts support from other national progressive organizations.

Over the last week, she campaigned at UC Berkeley alongside fellow progressive Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Fremont), appeared on left-wing streamer Hasan Piker’s show and rallied in Los Angeles with Parkland, Fla., school shooting survivor and activist David Hogg.

Gonzales-Torres has linked the accusation against Gomez to the politician’s onetime ally former Rep. Eric Swalwell, a Bay Area Democrat who saw his campaign for governor derailed when several women came forward with allegations of impropriety. Swalwell has also denied wrongdoing.

“We’re going to take on this apparent culture in Congress in which men appear to abuse their positions of power and abuse women and younger staffers,” she said on Piker’s show.

In August, attorneys representing a woman released a statement accusing Gomez of sexual assault. Days earlier, the House Ethics Committee had announced an inquiry into Gomez, elected in 2017, over alleged “inappropriate sexual contact with a House staffer.”

Gomez denied wrongdoing while acknowledging mistakes outside his marriage — a sharp contrast with his image as the lawmaker who founded the Congressional Dads Caucus to champion family-friendly policies and famously carried his infant son in a baby carrier during the protracted votes for House speaker in 2023.

Gomez has avoided the public eye since the accusations surfaced, declining media interviews and campaign appearances, giving further momentum to his opponent.

“They’re trying to fly so far under the radar to not bring attention to the [allegations] or to me,” Gonzales-Torres said during a get-out-the-vote event in Eagle Rock.

Gonzales-Torres’ history in Highland Park

Gonzales-Torres, who graduated from UCLA, has described a childhood in Highland Park, where she was raised by her mother after her father was deported to Mexico following a domestic violence charge.

Reflecting the anxieties of thirtysomethings like herself, she’s talked about going without health insurance, working multiple low-wage jobs and questioning whether she can afford children.

In 2023, she was elected to the Historic Highland Park Neighborhood Council, on which she served two years advising City Hall on issues and policy matters. She opposed new liquor licenses and took stances against gentrification, a hot-button issue in Highland Park, where some longtime business owners and residents feel squeezed by rising rents.

Her year as president on the area council proved contentious, prompting several former colleagues to issue a statement Saturday criticizing her congressional bid.

Jens Jonasson, a member of the neighborhood council’s board of directors, characterized her tenure as chaotic, arguing that her unwillingness to compromise derailed board initiatives, including a proposed resolution supporting the Gaza Strip.

“She is not ready for the office she is asking voters to entrust to her,” Jonasson and three other board members said in the joint statement.

Darren Gold, who succeeded Gonzales-Torres as board president, alleged that she falsely accused him of shaking her. Gold was briefly removed from the board during an inquiry but reinstated after a city investigation.

In a 2024 podcast interview with Hear in L.A., Gonzales-Torres referred to Gold as a “very Zionist gentrifier man, a white man” and a “threat to my community.”

Gold told The Times he had never publicly staked out a position on Israel or Gaza.

“If she assigned me that label because I’m Jewish, that is antisemitic,” Gold said. “My concern is less about what she called me than whether she can turn her rhetoric into results and treat people respectfully when they disagree with her.”

Another board member, Caroline Aguirre, filed a police report in 2024 accusing Gonzales-Torres of aggressively pointing a finger at her during a meeting. The report did not result in an arrest or charges.

Gonzales-Torres declined to comment on the incidents involving Aguirre and Gold.

In 2025, Gonzales-Torres mounted a bid for one of 13 at-large neighborhood council seats, finishing last in a field of 23.

Her supporters pointed to her dedication to Highland Park and the work she’d done to help previously incarcerated youths.

Jesse Rosas, a Figueroa corridor business leader, echoed her concerns about neighborhood displacement and wants a representative more involved in the area.

“She’s a young lady who can bring change to the community for the better,” Rosas said. “I’ve seen her trying to do the best that she can.”

State Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez, a Pasadena-area Democrat who met Gonzales-Torres through her work as an academic counselor, said she’s impressed with her interest in challenging federal immigration laws.

“She’s had a firsthand account into some of the way that the immigration raids are directly impacting our students,” Pérez said.

Gomez runs on anti-Trump record

Despite the abuse allegations, Gomez has the power of incumbency and name recognition in a vast and diverse district.

A spokesperson pointed to his lawsuit challenging the Trump administration over access to immigrant detention centers as well as his advocacy for tenant protections and affordable housing.

If reelected, Gomez said in a statement, he aims to reverse federal healthcare cuts, lower living costs for working families and push for an end to the Iran war.

“Anyone can promise to stand up to Donald Trump, but I’ve proven I can take him on and win, whether it’s in Congress, on the picket lines, or in the courts,” Gomez said.

Both candidates back progressive priorities such as a Green New Deal and Medicare for all. Gomez advocates redirecting funding away from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, while Gonzales-Torres calls for abolishing ICE.

Gonzales-Torres is also criticizing Gomez for receiving financial support from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. An AIPAC-affiliated political action committee spent more than $1.7 million supporting his 2024 campaign, and the group helped direct donations this cycle.

For some voters in the district, neither candidate is ideal.

Ray Rios, president of the Hillside Homeowners Assn. in El Sereno, wants to see more from Gomez when it comes to federal funding for the district. He also voiced skepticism over the DSA’s anti-policing platform and questioned whether Gonzales-Torres can build the institutional relationships needed to deliver federal resources.

“Her lack of experience is a consideration, a big consideration,” said Rios, who intends to vote for Gomez.

While Gomez beat back progressive challengers in recent election cycles, the local DSA chapter has built momentum across the district, winning City Council seats, noted Fernando Guerra, director of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University.

“Even without the allegations, this would be a competitive race,” Guerra said. “Then you add that, and that really hurts him.”

The 16 candidates vying for three seats on the board that overseas the Los Angeles Community College District have diverse backgrounds and varying ideas — and near unanimous agreement that district leaders need to do more to meet the basic needs of students struggling to pursue their higher education goals.

The candidates include those with experience both within and outside the district, with many citing the need to better connect students in the largest community college district in the nation with good paying jobs after they graduate. The seven-member Board of Trustees are managing a 2022 voter-approved $5.3 billion bond-funded construction boom to revitalize aging campuses and build student housing and at the same time are grasping to find ways to meet the basic needs of students, the majority of whom are low-income, juggling school with jobs.

Members of the board are elected to at-large seats and do not represent a specific area. The 900-square-mile district includes the city of Los Angeles and nearby cities, including Culver City, Montebello and Burbank.

Seat 2

In Seat 2, incumbent Steve Veres is being challenged by three candidates: writer Robert Payne, business owner Kristina Irwin and educator Adriana Cabrera. Roy Payan is also on the ballot for Seat 2, but told The Times he has suspended his campaign.

Veres has served on the Board of Trustees for multiple terms and also works as a staff director and policy advisor for state Sen. Maria Elena Durazo, who previously ran the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor and will soon take a seat on the powerful Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

In responses to a Times questionnaire, Veres said during his 13 years on the LACCD Board he’s been able to strengthen job training programs, improve graduation rates and helped push to give students access to free and discounted food and emergency housing shelter.

Veres has the endorsement of the Los Angeles Democratic establishment, including Durazo, Mayor Karen Bass and the county Democratic party. Four members of the board of trustees support him, as does the district’s faculty and staff unions.

Between Sept. 20 and Oct. 17, a campaign committee sponsored by the faculty union has paid for nearly $150,000 worth of slate mailers in support of Veres, according to campaign finance records.

An online database of campaign finance records show the other candidates, Payne, Irwin and Cabrera, have not received campaign contributions. Those candidates did not respond to a request for comment about their fundraising.

Seat 4

Seat 4 is an open race, with seven candidates running. Incumbent Sara Hernandez is stepping down and running for state senate.

The most well-funded Seat 4 candidate is Darryn Harris, a government and community affairs officer for St. John’s Community Health, who recently started teaching a class on student skills at Santa Monica College, which is not an LACCD campus.

Harris has the support of a wide swath of Democratic politicians and organizations, as well as labor unions and six of seven current LACCD trustees.

Others running for Seat 4 include environmentalist and former board member Nancy Pearlman; therapist Adam Bruno; healthcare workforce specialist Elaine Alaniz; sign language educational interpreter Priscilla Umana; fire department employee Isidro Armenta; and business owner Jason Aula, who in response to the Times questionnaire, as well as in a recent press release, included comments about the Chinese Communist party and cannibalism.

Seat 6

Perhaps the most contested race is Seat 6, where incumbent Gabriel Buelna is facing off against Randall Winston, who serves as deputy mayor of infrastructure and climate resilience under Bass.

Buelna failed to gain a key endorsement of the district’s faculty guild, whose executive board endorsed Winston.

James McKeever, president of the faculty union, AFT Local 1521, declined to discuss many details of the union’s decision to endorse Winston, but said the executive board wanted to go “in a different direction” and saw Winston as the best candidate.

AFT 1521A, the guild representing district clerical and technical staff, issued a dual endorsement of both Winston and Buelna and has given money to both campaigns.

“I absolutely really love both,” said Andrea Edwards, president of the staff guild. “I could not choose.”

Others running for Seat 6 are community college professor Roberto David LaCarra and realtor Tonia Arey.

Buelna and Arey have accused Winston of misleading the public by listing architect as his occupation on the ballot, as well as describing himself as an educator and a teacher at West L.A. college during the campaign.

“The public doesn’t understand who he really is,” Buelna said.

Arey, who was endorsed by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., has vowed to ensure there’s more transparency and accountability surrounding the district’s nearly $10-billion annual budget.

Asked in an interview why he didn’t list deputy mayor of infrastructure as his occupation when it’s his day-to-day job, Winston said “architect seemed to resonate the most and architect is my first professional degree and fundamentally part of still how I think and act.” Winston said he is currently licensed to practice architecture but doesn’t practice day to day.

Winston said he will also start teaching a leadership class at West L.A. College later this fall and is currently helping to teach a workshop at the college on climate solutions. He also said he has mentored UCLA students.

“I believe I have met the qualifications of an educator,” he said.

The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk‘s Office disagreed and declined to allow Winston to list educator as his occupation on the ballot, according to an Aug. 27 email from the registrar’s office to Winston.

Winston said that at the time “West LA College was still completing the administrative processing for my adjunct instructor appointment.”

Before becoming deputy mayor, Winston also ran the California Strategic Growth Council, which helps fund sustainable development.

McKeever of the faculty union said he saw Winston’s long experience in development as an architect, deputy mayor and head of the growth council as an asset to the district as trustees deal with the bond-funded building program.

“This will help maintain the integrity of the bond process as the district moves forward with new construction projects,” McKeever said.

Despite not receiving the endorsement of the faculty guild, Buelna retains the support of a number of faculty members, including the president of the academic senate, Angela Echeverri.

Echeverri said Buelna “really cares about students and education” and helped successfully push for state legislation to make it easier for students to take courses in languages other than English.

The law “really opened up community colleges to people who previously couldn’t access education,” she said.

Oct. 14, 2026 10:49 AM PT

WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook’s lawyers say that a committee set up by the White House last week to investigate an accusation against her is “demonstrably biased,” though they did not close the door on the possibility that she would appear before the panel.

Lawyer Abbe Lowell also said in a letter Tuesday that Cook would not be able to participate in a hearing Nov. 5 because she “will be executing her official duties as Governor at financial and monetary policy meetings in Europe.”

The earliest that Cook could appear before a “committee of inquiry” that the White House set up last Friday would be after the Fed’s policy meeting Dec. 8-9, the letter said. The letter was sent to William Scharf, a counsel to President Trump.

Lowell’s comments are the latest turn in the Trump administration’s extended efforts to fire Cook from her position as one of seven members of the Fed’s board of governors. Trump has accused Cook of committing mortgage fraud in 2021, before she joined the board, a claim she has denied. No criminal charges have been filed.

No president has fired a Fed governor before, a reflection of the Fed’s traditional independence from politics. Yet Trump, who has repeatedly demanded that the central bank lower its key interest rate, has taken numerous steps that economists say have threatened that independence. The Justice Department earlier this year sought to investigate then-Chair Jerome Powell over brief testimony he had given about an extensive building renovation, though a judge threw out subpoenas in the case and it was later dropped.

Cook was appointed by former President Biden and is the first Black woman on the Fed’s board.

Trump first tried to fire Cook in August 2025, but the Supreme Court ruled earlier this year she could remain in her position while litigation continued. The court also suggested, in a footnote to the ruling, that Trump could try again to fire her if the administration provided her adequate notice and an opportunity to respond. The committee of inquiry announced by the White House last Friday is an effort to meet those conditions.

Under the law governing the Fed, the president can only fire a Fed governor “for cause,” but the Supreme Court didn’t address whether Cook’s actions met that standard. The committee of inquiry will ultimately recommend whether there is cause to fire Cook, a White House memo last week said.

Lowell also said in the Tuesday letter that “we have significant concerns regarding the objectivity and fitness of the committee for its assigned purpose.”

One of its three members, Kevin Hassett, a top economic adviser to Trump, has already said the president has “cause” to fire Cook, the letter noted. The other two members — Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling and chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Andrea Rich — are also Trump appointees.

“A hearing with demonstrably biased members, unspecified additional allegations, and an unclear schedule for the disclosure of any additional evidence – with no explanation for why it was not previously produced – is not a process that respects the appearance or history of independence,” Lowell’s letter said.

Rugaber writes for the Associated Press.