Los Angeles is going to get more expensive next year thanks to a half-cent sales tax hike approved by voters last week, but city officials say the benefit will be a stronger fire department and faster response times.
Measure FD will generate about $345 million annually for the city Fire Department by raising the city’s retail sales tax from 10.25% to 10.75%, which is about 5 cents more for every $10 spent.
That means filling up the gas tank, eating out and shopping for clothes will all get more expensive — to the tune of roughly $86 per person on average, according to the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., which opposed the measure.
The ordinance requires a 110-day waiting period after the votes are certified on Nov. 27, and won’t kick in until the first day of the next calendar quarter, so the earliest people could see the increase would be April 1.
The sales tax hike was spearheaded by the city’s firefighters union and Councilmember Traci Park, whose district includes the Pacific Palisades community devastated by fire in January 2025.
The measure passed by roughly a 54% to 46% margin, according to the latest tally, although some mail-in ballots are still being counted.
L.A. firefighters had warned their department was in crisis long before the Palisades fire and the Eaton fire in Altadena cast a brighter light on the issue, Park said.
“These matters were urgent before, but the Palisades fire laid bare how urgent it was that this investment be made,” Park said. “The reality that it was not going to be solved inside the four walls of the city budget or by politicians inside City Hall.”
The sales tax is an unprecedented move by the city, and vital for the department to hire more personnel, open more stations and lower the department’s response times, said Doug Coates, the fire union president.
The Fire Department says its response time averages just under eight minutes — nearly double the national standards set by the National Fire Protection Assn., an international nonprofit that creates and maintains fire safety standards.
The number of firefighters in the department has stayed largely stagnant since the 1960s, according to the fire department, even as the city’s population grew. City officials say some fire stations have leaky roofs and broken HVAC systems. Broken rigs have sat unused because there was no money to fix them, Park said.
Coates said the union pushed for the sales tax as a last resort, following years of pleas to the City Council for more money, even though it would be the third sales tax hike affecting Los Angeles since 2024 (the other two sales tax hikes were countywide).
“When they call, we show up,” Coates said. “Now it appears that, really, they’ve answered our call for help.”
The Police Protective League, the union representing L.A. police officers, opposed Measure FD, objecting to the permanency of the tax and that the revenue is limited to one department. The PPL expressed concern that the extra funding would be used to spike firefighter pensions. Voters were misled into believing the tax would focus on revamping the fire department’s infrastructure, said Sgt. Chris Wecker, the union’s vice president.
The union pointed to a motion written by Councilmember Heather Hutt and Councilmember Park in May, which sought to explore giving firefighters extra pension credit for mandatory overtime.
“We would support the exploration of a tax repeal measure on a future ballot that would allow enough time for voters to be educated about this bait-and-switch pension spiking scheme and give them an opportunity to cut their taxes,” Wecker said.
Coates said that motion had nothing to do with Measure FD and asked only for a study into what additional costs the city would undertake if extra shifts firefighters are forced to take on were pensionable.
“The attacks on this motion and Measure FD were misguided and just flat out incorrect,” Coates said. “It will not spike pension benefits in any way, shape or form.”
The sales tax revenue from Measure FD will be in addition to the money the department already receives from the city’s general fund, which Coates said was a crucial factor in winning voter support. The sales tax will continue unless it’s repealed by voters, according to the ordinance.
The fire union hopes city residents will notice a change in the department within a year, Coates said.
L.A. Fire Chief Jaime Moore said the department will prioritize recruiting and hiring more firefighters, repairing existing equipment — a task that could exceed $9 million — and undergoing critical station repairs. The new pool of money will also be used to expand dispatch centers and eventually build more fire stations, Moore said in a presentation to the City Council last month.
Another critical issue the department hopes to address is hiring more personnel to reduce delays in hiring and training new firefighters, Moore said.
The department will also begin a process to identify where new stations are needed. With the 106 active stations, firefighters can reach just under half the city within four minutes. The department will utilize operational data to determine where new stations fit best.
The funds must be used for eligible core fire department services. The department will separately track Measure FD revenue, create dashboards to monitor all expenditures and provide quarterly reports to the City Council to ensure transparency, Moore said.
The measure also requires a citizen oversight committee that will review the department’s spending of this money.
“This is the biggest deal in the Los Angeles Fire Department. We couldn’t be more grateful to the citizens of L.A. for helping us pass this,” Coates said. “The men and women in the field are ecstatic that change is coming, and we’re going to be able to better respond to the residents of L.A.”
Measure FD was one of eight measures on the Nov. 3 Los Angeles city ballot, all of which were approved by voters. Other measures will allow the City Council to meet once a week and allow it to disband the Board of Public Works, and allocate more money to the Department of Recreation and Parks.
Voters also approved a measure that exempts Palisades fire victims from paying the so-called mansion tax if they sell their properties within five years of the disaster.
WANT to know where’s hot (not literally) this winter? Expedia has just revealed its top trending destinations.
From far-flung islands in The Bahamas to famous UK university cities, all of these spots have seen a surge in interest, and for good reason.
The Bahamas is the top trending spot according to ExpediaSource: getty Another destination at the top of Expedia’s trending list is Malmo in SwedenSource: Getty
Expedia has used data from lodging searches made on its websitebetween July and October 2026 for travel this winter, compared to the same period in 2025, to find the rising spots.
The top trending international destination this winter is Exuma in The Bahamas, which is up 115 per cent from last year.
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Exuma is made up of over 365 islands and cays – the largest being Great Exuma, which is only 37 miles long.
The islands which sit at around 25C in winter, are surrounded by bright blue waters and are well-known for having spots where you can swim with pigs.
In second spot is Quebec City in Canada, where interest is up 75 per cent.
The French-speaking destination is much cooler in the winter months with average highs during the day of around -5C.
But there’s plenty to do including wrapping up warm to explore its enormous castle called Fairmont Le Château Frontenac.
Or take a walk through historic Old Quebec which makes for a pretty picture spot thanks to its cobbled streets and historic buildings.
In third spot is the city of Malmo in Sweden which is up 45 per cent.
It’s considered a quieter alternative to Stockholm and has an enormous Turning Torso skyscraper as well as pretty castles.
Quebec City in Canada is home to huge castles and has river toursSource: Getty Images/iStockphoto
Thanks to its Lebanese and Palestinian immigration history, Malmo has a thriving falafel street food scene too giving it the nickname ‘Falafel City’.
It’s not just far-flung destinations either, there’s plenty of close cities for Brits to visit that have seen a surge in interest.
At the very top of the list of trending places in the UK is Cardiff, which is up 45 per cent.
The capital of Wales is regularly voted the UK’s best city and has a thriving restaurant and nightlife scene.
There are lots of independent eateries, or head to Cardiff Market filled with stalls selling fresh Welsh cakes and cheeses.
The second on the list is Oxford which is up 35 per cent.
The city is steeped in history and one popular activity is to take a tour of Oxford University – after all, it’s one of the most prestigious in the world.
Riverboat cruises are popular, and for any Harry Potter fans, check out the tours which go behind the scenes of some of the locations you’ll recognise from the films.
Also on the list are Harrogate, the Cotswolds and Torquay.
Oxford is the second-most trending city in the UK according to ExpediaSource: Getty
Here’s the full list of Expedia’s trending destinations this winter…
York is widely considered one of the most beautiful cities thanks to its Medieval streets and Gothic architecture. At Christmas time, it becomes even more magical as visitors can shop, sightsee and enjoy seasonal treats.
York Christmas Market sees 75 stalls line the city streets selling independent gifts, food and drink. Alpine chalets showcase the products, with over 80% of traders coming from Yorkshire.
Where is York Christmas Market?
The market is on Parliament Street and St Sampson’s Square in the centre of York. The area has been filled with local traders, and is close by to shops and restaurants which will be decorated for the season.
York residents can get a 10% discount at all traders when presenting a valid York Card or ID that proves York residency.
What are the opening times?
York Christmas Market opens on Thursday, November 12 and will run until December 21. It is open Wednesday to Monday, 10:30am until 7pm, with a rest day on Tuesdays.
If you are visiting York on a Tuesday, the rest of the city will offer a festive experience. You can explore York’s shops and historic streets as well as looking out for other festive events across the city.
On the final day, the market will close slightly earlier at 5pm on December 21.
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How to get there
The market is accessible by train as York Station is around a 14 minute walk away. Visit York recommends using York Park and Ride with travel for an adult being £4 and up to three children travel free. There will be more buses put on throughout the festive season.
What traders are at the market?
Food and drink:
Beth Bakes Cakes
Blueberry Hill Preserves
Brew York
Brown & Blond Brownies
Bullion Chocolate
Caroline’s Fudge & Sweets
Casa Mia
Charlie & Ivy’s
Chilli Jam Man
Cooper King Distillery
Crumbles Desserts
Cryer & Stott Cheesemongers
Deborah Bakes
Fairfax Distillery & Chocolatiers
Filey Bay Yorkshire Single Malt Whiskey
Florian Poirot
Herbie’s
Johnson’s Toffees
Kettlesing Distilling Company and Farrah’s Harrogate
BRITISH Airways has announced its line-up for summer 2027 including flights to a breathtaking destination with towering mountains.
The airline has announced that it will be launching flights to the ‘City of Seven Mountains’ – Bergen in Norway – as part of its summer 2027 schedule.
British Airways has announced new flight routes for next summerSource: Getty
The flight – which takes just under two hours – will head off from London Heathrow five times a week to the destination, between April 15 and October 30, 2027.
Bergen earns its nickname from the seven mountains that frame the city and it is the ideal base for exploring coastal fjords such as the Hardangerfjord and Sognefjord.
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While it is known as one of Europe’s rainiest cities, it means that lush greenery surrounds the city.
For example, there is Mount Fløyen and Mount Ulriken, which are reached via the Fløibanen Funicular or hiking trails with panoramic views of the city below.
Also check out Bryggen Wharf – a UNESCO World Heritage Site – where there are brightly painted wooden Hanseatic buildings, lining the edges of the harbour.
British Airways offers a fly-drive holiday package to Bergen from £349 per person between May 1 and 31, 2027, including return flights.
The airline is also moving around a couple of its flights.
Flights to Perugia, Italy will be moved from London Heathrow Airport to London City Airport and will operate five times a week between May 1 and September 28, 2027.
Destinations BA will fly to include Bergen in Norway, Nice in France and Split in CroatiaSource: Getty
Skiathos, Greece, flights will move from London City Airport to London Heathrow Terminal 5 and will operate three times a week between May 20 and September 11, 2027.
BA Cityflyer will also launch new weekly services from Glasgow to Nice, France and Edinburgh to Split, Croatia.
Flights between Glasgow and Nice will take off once a week between May 15 and October 3, 2027.
And flights from Edinburgh to Split in Croatia, will operate once a week between May 15 and June 19, 2027 and then again from September 4 to October 2, 2027.
Neil Chernoff, British Airways’ Chief Planning and Strategy Officer, said: “We’re delighted to be expanding our European network with new routes and convenient airport moves, offering customers even more ways to explore some of Europe’s most exciting destinations.
“From Norway’s spectacular fjords and the beaches of Skiathos to the rolling countryside of Umbria, the glamour of the French Riviera and Croatia’s stunning Adriatic coast, these additions provide greater choice and connectivity for customers planning their next summer trip.”
It’s only 15 minutes away from the Dutch capital by train, but Haarlem feels a million miles from Amsterdam, and perhaps provides a more typical glimpse of the Netherlands than trailing around the well-worn tourist trail of Van Gogh, coffee shops and red lights. An attractive city of cobbled streets, gabled houses and canals, Haarlem is, as the Dutch would say, a gezellig sort of place – cosy, convivial, and full of intriguing nooks and corners. I’ve been coming here for years, and it seems odd that Haarlem is not better known, at least to UK visitors.
This winter there’s the added draw of an exhibition devoted to the works of a local boy, the 17th-century painter Frans Hals, and his better-known contemporary Rembrandt in the city’s Frans Hals Museum(until 28 February 2027). No one really knows whether these two titans of the Dutch Golden Age of the 16th and 17th centuries ever met, but seeing their work hung together like this is powerful and compelling. The museum used to be the Oudemannenhuis (Old Men’s House), a retirement and care home where Hals lived out his final penniless years.
The Banquet of the Officers of the St George Civic Guard Company at the Frans Hals Museum. Photograph: ANP/Alamy
The Hals-Rembrandt exhibition is perfectly in tune with Haarlem itself, in both its (relatively small) size and the historical insights it provides into the Golden Age. There are commissioned portraits of 17th-century merchant bigwigs, all beards, black gowns and ruffs, so-called tronies (portraits of ordinary people, including Hals’ informal paintings of fisherfolk, and Rembrandt’s sensitive, affecting study of his young son Titus) and both artists’ remarkable group portraits. A final room shows Rembrandt’s dynamic De Staalmeesters (The Wardens of the Amsterdam Clothmakers’ Guild) from the Rijksmuseum, alongside Hals’ depiction of the trustees of the Oudemannenhuis itself.
Like many of the works in the rest of the museum, the faces in these paintings stare powerfully out at us from the 17th-century gloom. Above all, don’t miss Hals’ stirring and evocative Haarlem civil guard portraits of local militias, and a couple of 17th-century depictions of the city showing streets virtually indistinguishable from those you can explore today.
The Frans Hals Museum is on historic Groot Heiligland. Photograph: Stefan Rustenburg
Start exploring with a stroll to Peuzelaarsteeg, a nondescript street in itself, but where Hals is said to have had a studio, though there’s nothing here now apart from a graffitied image of one of his paintings. Afterwards, take a peek into the former home of the Cloveniers, the citizen militia or schutterij that Hals painted, on nearby Gasthuisstraat. Look for the two crossed muskets above the gate (part of it is now a municipal library). Walk from there through the pretty, ivy-draped streets of the Vijfhoek neighbourhood to the Proveniershuis, where an otherwise ordinary door opens on to perhaps the grandest of Haarlem’s many hidden courtyards – once the base of another schutterij. A crossbow over one of the doors gives it away.
Hals was buried in the city’s magnificent Grote Kerk (Big Church). It’s like stepping into a 17th-century Dutch painting of a church interior: a vast, unadorned gothic space focused on a magnificent baroque organ at the western end: one of the largest in the world, and said to have been played by Handel and Mozart.
The Grote Kerk is on the attractive Grote Markt (Big Square), flanked by cafes and restaurants, and the perfect point from which to launch yourself into Haarlem’s web of streets. Two minutes away is the Corrie Ten Boomhuis, where a family of Dutch Christians hid Jews and resistance fighters during the Nazi occupation – an alternative to Amsterdam’s Anne Frank House without the queues. Among several other museums worth seeing is Teylers Museum down by the river, a treasure chest of fossils, crystals, scientific instruments and late 19th-century Dutch paintings. It claims to be the country’s oldest museum, and its galleried, wood-panelled interior is alone worth the admission price.
The Grote Kerk on Grote Markt. Photograph: Amith Nag Photography/Getty Images
Perhaps the best thing to do is just amble and get lost: many of Haarlem’s historic streets look similar, with secret doors into sheltered courtyards or hofjes, and the streets are refreshingly free of global chains. There’s an excellent market on Grote Markt on Saturdays, and any number of stylish indie stores to browse in nearby, whether you’re looking for vintage clothes (Yenvi) or new ones (Stitch), chocolates at Pierre or Dutch liquorice at Dropje van Haarlem.
Cyclists vastly outnumber cars in this city. Rent a bike (try Green Bikes by the train station) and head out to the Zuid Kennemerland national park, west of the city centre, a protected area of dunes, forests and lakes that gives way to the glorious sandy beaches of the North Sea coast.
There’s no shortage of choice for great places to eat and drink. For breakfast or lunch, La Maru on Koningstraat is a great bakery, or try the sandwiches, salads and flammkuchen (sort of Dutch pizzas), at Meneer Frans in the historic centre. Alternatively, enjoy a pickled herring at the fish stall on Grote Markt.
Another Haarlem pleasure is to stop off for a pils at one of its many cosy bars. Lively In den Uiver on Riviervismarkt – a typically Dutch “brown cafe”, housed in a former fish shop – offers a choice of 35 gins and 35 speciality beers. Or the Jopenkerk brewery tap, in a former church, is a five-minute walk from the Grote Markt. For dinner, there can be no more bizarre place than DeDakkas, in a greenhouse-like structure on the top of a multistorey car park near the river. It serves a sustainable, locally sourced menu, with superb views.
The Jopenkerk brewery taproom inside a former church. Photograph: Image Broker/Alamy
There are plenty of places on Grote Markt to watch the world go by. Among the best is historic Grand Café Brinkmann. Or walk five minutes down Koningstraat to Botermarkt, on the edge of the Vijfhoek quarter, where Café De Roemer is one of a number of bar-restaurants with a covered terrace.
Finally, there can be no better place to wake up in Haarlem than in one of the corner dual-aspect room at the 17-room ML hotel (doubles from about €119 room-only), right by the Grote Kerk, which has two good restaurants and a sleek bar. Across the road, the Amrâth Grand Hotel Frans Hals is a large, slightly cheaper alternative, while the Staats Hotel, on a quiet street two minutes from the station, offers cool, spacious and contemporary boutique rooms from €165 room-only, and also has its own bar and restaurant.
The trip was provided by Netherlands Board of Tourism. Martin Dunford is one of the founders of the Rough Guides travel guide series and wrote the first editions of the Rough Guide to the Netherlands
The election of Nithya Raman, a democratic socialist, as the next mayor of Los Angeles promises to have a profound impact on the city’s police force — although perhaps not right away.
Among the most important and widely watched decisions facing the city’s next mayor is about what to do with LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell. Raman repeatedly said prior to her election that she would replace him as chief.
Raman frequently criticized McDonnell throughout her campaign, particularly over how he handled the LAPD’s response to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement blitz last year.
She has taken issue with the LAPD’s aggressive tactics under McDonnell toward demonstrators, which have included firing tear gas and less-lethal weapons into crowds, officers mounted on horseback swinging batons and accusations of journalists being targeted.
She has questioned whether the LAPD should continue to work closely with the Trump administration on non-immigration matters that require data-sharing, potentially affecting investigations into cargo theft and human trafficking, which involve local collaboration with federal law enforcement.
The events of the last year, she said, have shattered public trust.
In a since-deleted video with a progressive influencer that went viral, Raman said she would work to ensure the LAPD “is actually protecting people, instead of protecting ICE on our streets as we saw happen.”
“I think that starts with a culture shift at the top and new leadership in the department. I don’t believe that Chief McDonnell has met the moment,” she said in the video.
Asked about her plans for the LAPD chief at her inaugural news conference Thursday night, Raman said she had already spoken to McDonnell and believed that public safety was the “most important service” the city can provide. She did not directly say whether his days leading the department are numbered.
“I wanna make sure that whatever happens over this transition that we are prepared to deliver that service at the levels that Angelenos expect,” she told reporters. “And I know Chief McDonnell’s committed to that, I’m committed to that and we’ll continue those discussions.”
During one sit-down with CNN, she was asked to name a police chief whom she admires or respects. “I don’t know … I don’t know,” she stammered in reply.
Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell speaks at a news conference in August.
(Arwen Clemans / Los Angeles Times)
In a brief statement, McDonnell said he respected the outcome of the election and congratulated Raman on her victory. He added that while politicians change, the LAPD’s mission public safety “remains constant.”
“As Chief of Police, I remain committed to leading a department that delivers professional, constitutional, and compassionate policing to all Angelenos,” the statement read.
McDonnell has called Raman’s comments disappointing in news interviews, but has otherwise steered clear of directly criticizing Raman in public. The department has released a series of public service announcements featuring the chief on its official Instagram account in recent days to address what officials said was “misinformation” about the LAPD’s operations — saying that the department is barred by Special Order 40 and state and city laws from assisting federal immigration agencies.
If Raman were to replace the chief, when and how it would happen are unclear.
L.A.’s mayor cannot unilaterally fire the police chief. Only the City Council and the Board of Police Commissioners, whose five civilian members are handpicked by the mayor, have that authority. Under the city charter, the council can initiate removal proceedings, but only by a two-thirds vote. It’s unclear whether Raman could muster enough support to make a change right away, since none of the City Council members endorsed her candidacy.
New mayors typically replace current police commissioners with their own appointees — sometimes, leaving one or two in place for continuity — but the process can take weeks since each commissioner has to be confirmed by the council.
A spokesperson for Raman’s mayoral campaign did not respond to a request for an interview about her plans for the LAPD.
Outgoing Mayor Karen Bass has publicly backed the chief she hired two years ago, saying the LAPD could be thrown into disarray if McDonnell is removed before the 2028 Olympic Games.
The question of who might replace McDonnell has been the subject of feverish speculation. One of the most talked about candidates for the top job is Emada Tingirides, an assistant chief who was a finalist in the last chief search, which ended with Bass’ selection of McDonnell. Although questions were previously raised about her perceived lack of leadership experience, Tingirides has been in charge of the department’s Office of Operations, which oversees virtually all patrol personnel, for more than a year.
Other names have been bandied around — including top former LAPD official Bill Scott, the chief of the new Metro police force, and former Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón.
But department insiders have dismissed certain reports — namely any mentioning Gascón — as nothing more than rumors. Gascón told The Times that he has not communicated with the Raman campaign, and said he does not want to be chief. Scott did not respond to a message seeking comment.
LAPD insiders have also discussed Art Acevedo, who has served as police chief in Houston and Miami, and Robert Arcos, a former LAPD assistant chief who works for the county Probation Department, as potential candidates for the job. Both also interviewed for the job during the last chief search; Arcos was a finalist.
Arcos said he has had no conversations with Raman’s team. Asked whether he has been approached about working with Raman, Acevedo replied, “No, absolutely not.”
The guessing game about who will lead the department in the near future has been fueled at least in part by Raman’s seeming indecisiveness on the matter. In interviews and debates, she has struggled to offer a clear vision of where she wants to take the LAPD.
Members of Raman’s progressive base expect major changes from Day 1 — and without swift action, she risks angering them, some political experts say.
Black Lives Matter-Los Angeles co-founder Melina Abdullah, who endorsed Raman in the final days of the campaign, said in a text message with The Times that she is counting on the new mayor to follow through on her “commitment to remove Chief McDonnell.”
Beyond that, though, she said Raman needs to increase funding for violence prevention and intervention groups and to “block the mass surveillance of Angelenos” by companies such as Flock Safety and Axon.
Picking a new chief is considered one of the most important decisions any mayor will make, with legacy-defining implications. The conventional wisdom holds that a new mayor means a change of leadership at the LAPD, and potentially new policies.
But that hasn’t always been the case. At least not recently.
Bass oversaw the reappointment of McDonnell’s predecessor, Michel Moore, shortly after her election and stood by him for a year through numerous controversies before Moore’s abrupt resignation in early 2024. Bass’ predecessor, Eric Garcetti, stuck with Charlie Beck, the chief he inherited when he was elected in 2013; Beck was then reappointed to a second five-year term, also under Garcetti. In the early 2000s, then-Mayor James Hahn — with the support of the police union — infamously opposed Police Chief Bernard Parks’ bid for reappointment.
Beyond replacing the chief, a mayor can influence the LAPD’s operations and policies in other ways, including through executive directives. Raman’s election could, for instance, prompt the City Council to take a second look at Special Order 40, a 1979 policy that prohibits officers from stopping people for the sole purpose of determining their immigration status. Critics say the policy — aimed at reassuring the city’s immigrants that they could safely report a crime or serve as a witness without fear of deportation — doesn’t prevent the LAPD from working with federal immigration agencies.
As part of her agenda for her first 100 days, Raman has said she will seek an audit of the LAPD’s efforts to follow L.A.’s sanctuary city law, which requires that city agencies treat information that can be used to trace a person’s citizenship or immigration status as confidential.
Even McDonnell’s critics acknowledge the difficulty of replacing him. Doing so would probably involve a national search, outside consultants and pitched debates about whether to appoint an experienced outsider with top leadership experience — or promote an insider with a firm grasp of where the LAPD has come from historically and an understanding of the political and labor landscape.
McDonnell is popular with the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union for rank-and-file officers, which remains a powerful force in city politics — although its influence has waned in recent elections, with mayoral candidates who have received the union’s endorsement failing to win in the last two election cycles. The union poured millions of dollars into attack ads against Raman.
As it became clear that Raman would win the race, longtime police union director Jamie McBride was quoted in a news story saying that her mayorship would spell “Armageddon” for the city.
Ruben Lopez, a former LAPD lieutenant, said he has read or heard similarly alarmist comments by plenty of other current and former LAPD officers. But the reality is, he said, he expects Raman and LAPD officials to eventually find common ground — and in the meantime most officers will keep working.
“The true professionals, they’ll keep doing their job just like we saw in New York when [Zohran] Mamdani got elected, said Lopez, who was in charge of SWAT before leaving the department.
Near record-low crime numbers could provide Raman with enough political cover to begin pushing through LAPD reforms while juggling the myriad other issues confronting the city, such as homelessness, housing affordability and crumbling infrastructure.
As mayor, Raman may also be called on to solve the problem of the LAPD’s dwindling ranks.
As of this week, the department had 8,504 sworn personnel — the lowest total since October 1995 — roughly a tenth of whom are not on full duty status, officials say. Even after efforts under Bass to streamline hiring and boost recruitment, some officials are concerned there won’t be enough new officers to replace those projected to leave or retire in the coming years.
Also on her to-do list will be overseeing the negotiations of the next police contract.
The mayor-elect has denounced the raises for rank-and-file officers negotiated by Bass in 2023, which Raman said has deepened the city’s financial problems. Sold as a way to boost recruitment, the pay increases are among the reasons the police union endorsed Bass’ reelection.
Some political experts say Raman enters office unburdened by an indebtedness to the police union. At the same time, she has said she doesn’t want to see the LAPD get any smaller and will need to work with the union to hammer out a new contract, after the current one expires in December.
In a statement released after her election victory, the Police Protective League’s board of directors said it shares a common goal with Raman of shoring up the department’s recruitment of new officers.
“Los Angeles police officers and others are filled with uncertainty and angst at the prospect of major cuts to the LAPD that will reverse the progress made in reducing crime,” the statement said. “Mayor-elect Raman has stated that she does not want staffing levels to decrease from current levels, we share that goal and are committed to ensuring enough officers remain to keep our residents, the Olympics, and our officers safe.”
Negotiations for the next contract are expected to ramp up in January.
Times staff writers David Zahniser and James Queally contributed to this report.
Rui Pinto is ‘in talks’ with UK authorities to help uncover more crime in exchange for police protection, reports say.
Football whistleblower Rui Pinto, whose leaks triggered an investigation into Manchester City’s financial misconduct, has held discussions with authorities in the United Kingdom over a new role in helping uncover financial and sporting crime in the country, reports in British media say.
Pinto’s lawyers have been contacted by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) after he stated he would be willing to assist UK authorities with investigations in exchange for police protection, British newspaper The Guardian reported on Wednesday.
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Al Jazeera sought confirmation of Pinto’s reported contact with the authorities, but the SFO did not confirm whether the whistleblower was in talks.
“In line with long-established practice to avoid prejudice to law enforcement activity, we can neither confirm nor deny any investigation into this matter,” the SFO said in an emailed statement to Al Jazeera.
The 38-year-old is the founder of the website Football Leaks, which obtained private documents that showed City broke league rules from 2009 to 2018, leading to a probe by the Premier League’s independent commission.
City were found guilty of all but one of 115 charges brought against them over breaches of Premier League financial rules.
Pinto’s lawyer, William Bourdon, who has represented other high-profile whistleblowers including Julian Assange and Edward Snowden, was quoted by the Guardian as saying: “I can confirm that the process is under way.”
Pinto said last month that he feared for his life after being told his witness protection programme would end on October 10 and launched a crowdfunding initiative to help him establish an anonymous new life.
“The Commission responsible for Portugal’s witness protection programme informed me of its decision to terminate my participation in the programme and withdraw my police protection, thereby knowingly placing me in a life-threatening situation,” he wrote in a social media post.
“Given these circumstances, I have no alternative but to relocate, within the next few days, to an undisclosed location for an indefinite period of time, due to the multiple death threats I have received and the serious risk of an assassination attempt against me.
“For this reason, I have just set up a GoFundMe campaign and I am asking for everyone’s support to help me survive this serious situation created by the Portuguese State, which, as I have already stated, has knowingly decided to place my life at risk.”
‘Football Leaks’ whistleblower Rui Pinto is escorted by judicial officers as he arrives at the Metropolitan Court in Budapest, Hungary, for a trial on March 5, 2019 [Ferenc Isza/AFP]
Reports last month said Pinto had reached out to UK authorities to offer cooperation in ongoing investigations in exchange for security measures being placed around him.
Pinto said at the start of his trial in April 2020 that he was “proud” to be a whistleblower on European football clubs’ big-money dealings.
The former history student and self-taught computer expert faced 90 charges – from unauthorised access to data and violation of correspondence to attempted extortion – in the case heard at Lisbon’s Central Criminal Court.
“I don’t consider myself a hacker. I am a whistleblower,” he said at the time. “The revelations are serious and I’m proud; there’s no shame. I haven’t done anything for money,” added Pinto, who acknowledges releasing 70 million documents on football’s backroom workings.
He was given a four-year suspended sentence in September 2023 for illegally obtaining documents, committing other cybercrimes and attempted extortion. He was later acquitted on 241 separate counts in a second trial in April 2026 after the court ruled the charges were “invalid”.
Pinto has been a protected witness since August 2020 after agreeing to grant Portuguese authorities access to millions of files gathered before his arrest. His first trial in Portugal began a month later.
There is arguably no better way to end a meal than with a sticky toffee pudding. The soft and tender sponge cake, made from a batter with softened dates, arrives hot and drowned in a rich, glossy toffee sauce. It is often crowned with a scoop of ice cream for a glorious interplay of temperatures. It’s not difficult to see why it’s one of Britain’s favorite desserts. And luckily for Angelenos, you can now find great sticky toffee pudding on the menu at several restaurants across the city.
The rise of sticky toffee pudding makes a lot of sense. There is a growing interest in British cooking in Los Angeles recently — particularly among restaurants that reinterpret dishes through a Californian lens, such as Tomat and Wilde’s. The dessert’s enthusiastic use of dates also makes it a very Southern Californian dessert, given the abundance of date trees that grow in the region.
Chef Brian Bornemann, who added sticky toffee pudding to the dessert menu at his new pasta-focused restaurant Bar Fortuna in Santa Monica, says the dessert’s recent surge in popularity is also likely due to the fact that it is not overly complicated to make. “In a world where most restaurants in Los Angeles cannot afford pastry chefs anymore, this is a dessert that is easy to execute with a small margin of error.”
Across Los Angeles, restaurants of all kinds are putting their own spin on the dessert. Some are giving it a cultural reinterpretation: a Persian restaurant in Century City adds candied orange and walnuts, while a West African-inspired spot in Inglewood makes a version with both dates and plantains. Some chefs are using unexpected ingredients like fish sauce or aged vanilla jaggery powder, while others are serving more traditional takes. There has never been a better time to be a sticky toffee pudding-lover in Los Angeles. Here are 11 versions worth ending your meal with:
The Los Angeles City Council moved Tuesday to drastically increase the cost of appealing development and other land-use decisions, despite opposition from homeowner groups who said it will make it much harder for residents to challenge city actions.
The proposal raises the fee for appeals on city development decisions from a flat rate of $229 to $1,145 for residents living in the project’s vicinity.
For those who don’t live near the project, the fee nearly doubles to $2,289, an almost 900% increase from the previous rate. The system also tacks on a various surcharges that would take the non-neighbor rate for appeal applications to over $2,800, advocates said.
The City Council voted 13-0 without discussion to instruct the City Attorney to draft an ordinance for the fee hike, which will require council approval.
“To take away essentially the right of the community to have an opportunity to raise their voice about their concerns…is really an indication of how this is just a punitive measure on the part of the City Council to shut the people up,” Doug Haines, a representative for the East Hollywood Neighborhood Council, said to The Times before the vote.
City Council members didn’t defend the planned fee hike at Tuesday’s meeting, but supporters have said previously that the higher fee would put Los Angeles on par with what other cities are charging and would discourage frivolous challenges that raise the cost of developing housing.
The Housing Action Coalition, a nonprofit that advocates for building more housing in California, called the proposed increase is a small and meaningful step toward deterring unnecessary delays.
“We need to pull housing out of this doom loop,” said Victoria Gomez, the coalition’s political organizer for Southern California. “As long as appeals stay this cheap and heavily subsidized, they’ll keep being used to slow down homes Los Angeles can’t afford to wait for.”
The council did agree, on the motion of Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez, to consider keeping the fee at $229 in the cases of tenants who would be displaced by a development. That proposal was referred to committee for study.
The L.A. City Planning Department manages the city’s land use and makes key decisions on development projects and zoning regulations. Residents who disagree with projects that are green lit by the department can go through an appeals process.
Residents can appeal a variety of city planning decisions, ranging from zoning exemptions granted by the department to fire safety violations and roadway or parking concerns regarding new project builds.
Residents were for years able to file appeals against these decisions for a minimal fee that represented 1% of what the city estimated it cost to process the appeal, while the rest is subsidized through the city’s general fund. That amounted to $229 since February, which has only increased slightly every year to adjust for inflation. The proposed change would bump the price to 5% of the expected cost for neighbors and 10% for anyone else choosing to file an appeal.
Appeal applications have steadily decreased from 217 in 2020 to 91 in 2025. The city department has received 90 applications this year so far, the department told The Times.
The Planning and Land Use Committee instructed the city Planning Department in October 2025 to explore alternative price points for appeals that would decrease the amount of money the city’s general fund would have to subsidize.
Neighboring residents would include people who live within the noticing radius of a development project, which can vary but is typically around a 500-feet radius. Only about 30% of appeals submitted in the past came from residents living within that radius, according to the city planning department.
The appeals process is only chance for city residents to challenge development decisions that impact their neighborhoods, and it’s a required step for an issue to reach the courtroom.
The proposed change was hidden in a procedural City Council item to deceive residents and lacked transparency, said Mark Kenyon, who lives in Mount Washington, in written opposition to fee hike.
“I see it as a way of blocking public participation,” Kenyon told The Times. “If they can’t come up with the money, the appeals aren’t going to happen.”
The proposed change could save the city about $254,086 in subsidies, according to the city planning department’s report, what Kenyon said amounts to pocket change for the city.
“People will simply not be able to appeal,” Kenyon said. “The process is already technically complicated.”
The city planning department estimated that processing an appeal application costs about $22,894.
“The Department brought on an independent consultant to evaluate the cost of all department processes,” a spokesperson for the department said. “It is important to note that determining the cost is separate from determining the fee. A number of planning functions have costs that are subsidized by the city, including appeals.”
Angelenos for Historic Preservation, an independent advocacy group, petitioned the California Department of Justice and the state’s deputy attorney general to defer Tuesday’s vote. The department didn’t immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment.
The fee change will bring L.A. in line with other cities across California, Councilmember Bob Blumenfield said during a Planning and Land Use Commission meeting in August.
Appeals to Los Angeles County cost over $1,000. Santa Monica charges around $750 and San Diego charges $1,000, while appeal fees in Berkeley can cost up to $3,000, according to the city planning department’s report.
“I don’t think there’s a magic number, but our appeal fees, I think, are clearly far below our peer cities,” Blumenfield said. “They need to go up because…there’s no free money. All the money that we have does come at the expense of other critical programs.”
The city’s convoluted building and development process is unique to the city of L.A. and can’t be compared to other cities in the state, said Haines of the East Hollywood Neighborhood Council. An affordable appeals process is necessary for residents to fight against dangerous builds in their neighborhoods, he said.
“It’s basically a corrupt process from beginning to end,” Haines said.
Last week’s midterm elections made history across the country, and Los Angeles was no exception: Asian Americans will now hold all three citywide elective offices — mayor, city attorney and controller — for the first time.
Mayor-elect Nithya Raman came to the U.S. from India as a child. City Atty.-elect Marissa Roy’s mother also emigrated from India. And City Controller Kenneth Mejia, who is Filipino, won reelection to a second four-year term in June.
“This is a historic moment for the nation and certainly for our city and state, and for [Asian American and Pacific Islander] communities,” said Manjusha P. Kulkarni, executive director of the AAPI Equity Alliance, which advocates for resources and funding for the coalition of community organizations it represents. “We feel that the work that we’ve done across many decades has come to fruition in seeing progressive Asian American representation in our city.”
Kulkarni noted that Asian American voters have trended more progressive over the decades, after years of being pigeonholed as largely conservative. Raman and Roy were both endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America, and Mejia was recommended by the leftist group.
Across the country, voters made history at the ballot box: California voted in its first Latino governor, Texas elected its first Latina governor and Georgia will have its first Black female governor. Michigan elected Abdul El-Sayed, who will become the first Muslim in the U.S. Senate.
The two largest U.S. cities will now be headed by South Asian Americans: New York City’s Zohran Mamdani, born to Indian parents, and Raman, who arrived from India to the U.S. at the age of 6. Raman became the first Asian American woman and the first South Asian elected to the City Council when she won her seat in 2020.
In her first address as mayor-elect last week, Raman acknowledged the significance of voters putting their faith in her at a time when the Trump administration has terrified immigrant communities with mass deportations.
“This city has opened its arms to people to come and build their dreams here, and the idea that Angelenos voted for an immigrant to be their next mayor at this moment in American history is so deeply moving to me,” she said.
Roy frequently invoked her mother’s immigrant story and her Indian heritage on the campaign trail. As a founding board member of the Asian Democrats of Los Angeles County, she had key Asian American backers, including California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta and San Francisco City Atty. David Chiu.
Roy, whose campaign was infused with Bollywood needle drops on Instagram, is also the co-creator of a “Raman Rager” Bollywood dance mix for a South Asian-themed fundraiser that has since taken on a life of its own.
Roy said in an interview that her win in last week’s election represents a moment for the city’s broader immigrant community. When she won, she received Whatsapp messages from family members in India who were watching closely and was featured in an India Weekly article.
“I think this is really a significant moment, not just for the Asian American community, but for the immigrant community to have an immigrant mayor, to have a city attorney who is the daughter of an immigrant,” Roy said. “This is Los Angeles sending a message about who it is.”
Asians are the fastest growing population in the U.S., outpacing Black, Latino and white populations, according to the Pew Research Center. Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders represent about 12% of the city’s population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
And they constitute more than 1 million eligible voters in L.A. County, according to an analysis of census data by Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California.
“Our communities have helped build Los Angeles, and it’s time our political leadership reflects the enormous role we play in shaping its future,” Dahni Tsuboi, chief executive of the organization, said in a statement.
On election night last week, Zahra Hajee, president of Asian Democrats of L.A. County, hopped from Roy’s election night party — which featured a henna station and a victorious Roy who flashed glittering bangles — to Raman’s, where Mejia gave an impassioned speech as a Raman win looked likely. After Raman took the lead by early Wednesday morning, Hajee, who is Pakistani American and Muslim, became emotional.
“To be able to see two South Asian women leaders — I didn’t think I’d see this in my lifetime,” Hajee said. “Being able to have those shared experiences with our next city attorney and next mayor is just such a surreal feeling and a connection I thought I’d never have.”
The group, which has about a thousand members, was among the first to endorse Roy’s campaign and supported Raman early on. The organization also has a working relationship with Mejia, who is a member of the Green Party. It also helped introduce Raman to key constituencies; she set up an event with small business owners in L.A.’s Little Bangladesh neighborhood near Koreatown, for example.
Nina Long, policy manager for AAPI Force, a progressive statewide coalition, said the candidates’ outreach reflected the nuances of the community, reaching groups including Chinese, Korean and Filipino voters.
“They did not treat AAPIs as a voter bloc to be taken for granted,” she said. “Each of the candidates was really savvy about the diversity of AAPI communities in Los Angeles.”
The dominance of Asian Americans in this election is also a display of the growing political influence of Asian American and Pacific Islander voters.
“For a very long time, the AAPI community was considered a quote unquote margin of victory in Democratic politics,” Hajee said. “We have shown our community is not just a margin of victory but a true base of voters.”
Mejia acknowledged the moment as a “huge feat” for progressive values being championed by Asian Americans.
“Representation is great, but it’s also showing that we have people running on great values centered on people, not special interests,” he said in an interview. “The fact that we are all AAPI is amazing, but the credit is what we stand for and what we believe in.”
He said his views were shaped by having parents who worked hard but were exposed to more conservative values and were expected to keep their heads down and not ask questions. But as life has become harder, more Asian Americans, especially young people, want better, he said.
“I believe what you’re seeing right now, this movement in politics, is that so many people are paying attention, especially those from immigrant communities,” he said.
There are currently three Asian Americans on the L.A. City Council, including Raman, who represents District 4. The other two are Ysabel Jurado of District 14 and John Lee of District 12.
Jurado became the first Filipina elected to the City Council when she won in 2024. In a statement, she said, seeing three Asian American leaders elected to citywide office felt deeply personal.
“It reflects generations of organizing by communities who fought to be heard and opened doors for those who would follow,” she said, adding that she looked forward to pushing for policies that would make living in L.A. more affordable. “We have an opportunity to show what greater representation can mean in people’s everyday lives.”
Times staff writers Noah Haggerty and Sonja Sharp contributed to this report.
During LA28, the official competitions will be just one part of the massive summer extravaganza happening in Los Angeles.
A kaleidoscope of international hubs will rise throughout the county, each hosting events such as watch parties, concerts, regional meals, immersive installations and meet-and-greets with newly crowned medalists. Known as hospitality houses, these temporary gathering places give traveling fans a home away from home beyond the competition venues, while offering Angelenos a chance to experience the cultural thrills of the Olympics, even if they weren’t able to snag tickets to the Games.
“You can go to 20 countries at the Olympic Games without ever leaving the host city,” said Tiffany Assman, founder of House Party Blog, which covers Olympic hospitality houses.
The Los Angeles Times is your guide to the 2028 Olympics and Paralympics. Follow us for expert coverage of every aspect of the LA28 Games.
At the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics, the hospitality houses were as diverse as the countries themselves: The China House opened with traditional Chinese fan and sword performances while Ireland staked its claim at a pub, hosting night-after-night parties with live music and céilí dance lessons. Los Angeles hopes to welcome about 60 to 70 hospitality houses for LA28, up from roughly 40 houses in Paris, according to Dilpreet Sidhu, the city’s deputy mayor of international affairs. At the same time, Team USA fan events will take place across the region.
The partnerships between countries and local host cities can be mutually beneficial. Paul Krekorian, Los Angeles’ executive director of major events, said hospitality houses can help generate “meaningful economic opportunities for our city by supporting nearby local businesses and investing in the workforce that makes these events possible.” In Santa Monica, Switzerland’s planned use of the Camera Obscura building has “helped us to reimagine the future” of the landmark, said Jennifer Taylor, the city’s economic development manager. In Venice, where Australia will make the venue 57 Windward its LA28 home, Councilmember Traci Park said she wants the Games to “accelerate meaningful improvements in accessibility, public spaces and neighborhood infrastructure that residents and visitors will enjoy for generations.” And in San Pedro, Councilmember Tim McOsker wants Croatia’s presence to draw visitors into the historic downtown, arts district and surrounding businesses.
In choosing a location, countries look for more than a scenic backdrop. Factors include neighborhood demographics, transportation and proximity to hotels and Olympic venues. Funding varies by house: Some countries rely on government or Olympic committee resources, others on private support and sponsorships.
While many countries are still scouting venues and negotiating agreements, several have already confirmed where their houses will be. Here’s a look at where you’ll find some of these cultural hubs in the summer of 2028. Details on programming — both free and fee-based experiences — will be announced at a later date.
NFL legend Tom Brady has ended his association with top-of-the-table Championship side Birmingham City.
The record seven-time Super Bowl champion became a minority owner in the St Andrew’s club in August 2023 when he “entered a partnership” with club owners Knighthead Capital Management LLC.
Part of Brady’s role involved him being chairman of an advisory board at Birmingham, with the club saying he would be “both investing [as well as] committing his time and extensive expertise” following his arrival.
They added: “Birmingham City Football Club expresses its sincere gratitude to Tom Brady for his involvement with and unwavering support for the club over the last three years.
“It was truly amazing to have someone with Tom’s experience and passion associated with the club, and the club looks forward to continuing to build on that foundation from the training ground to the Birmingham community.”
Former quarterback Brady, a three-time NFL most valuable player, retired in February 2023 after 23 seasons in the NFL, having won six Super Bowl rings with the New England Patriots and one with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The latest episode of BBC drama This City Is Ours left fans on the edge of their seats
The latest episode ended in chaos(Image: BBC)
Viewers of This City Is Ours were left concerned following the latest action packed episode.
The current series of the BBC programme resumed on BBC One on Sunday evening (November 8) with a fresh episode for those who haven’t yet devoured the complete season. Continuing from its launch last year, both audiences and reviewers have showered the Liverpool-set crime drama with acclaim.
*Warning – this article contains spoilers for This City Is Ours series 2, episode 5*.
Its second run follows Michael Kavanagh being pulled back into the Phelan criminal empire, operations, and brutality. The ensemble features performers including Mike Noble, James Nelson-Joyce, Laura Aikman and Hannah Onslow.
In the fifth instalment, Jamie and Melissa threw their engagement celebration while Michael and Diana tried to negotiate peace with the family. Meanwhile, Freddie descends deeper beyond Michael’s grasp and the Phelans negotiate an arrangement with Ozzie Thompson, reports the Liverpool Echo.
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However, audiences could sense that something truly terrible was imminent as the celebration drew to an end. Shortly after Michael arranged an accord between the groups, Freddie was observed tearing across the city, evidently on a mission.
Michael’s efforts to locate him and intervene before events unfolded proved fruitless. As the Phelans departed the party venue and spilled out onto the street, Freddie emerged from a concealed position opposite and began shooting.
Jamie appeared to be his intended target. However, in an earlier scene, Freddie had tested the weapon and missed spectacularly.
It came as little shock, then, when it emerged he had once again failed to hit his mark. Amid the chaos, Rachel discovered she had been shot in the leg.
Michael swiftly arrived to assist her husband Bobby in rushing her to hospital, with the rest of the family close behind. As she was brought into the emergency department, Rachel flatlined, and her prospects looked deeply troubling. Meanwhile, outside, Michael persuaded the Phelans to make a run for it as he gave himself up to police.
Viewers watching at home were left utterly devastated as the dramatic scenes unfolded. Many had sensed chaos was imminent, with one person posting on social media: “I’m getting definite The Godfather vibes from watching the engagement party scenes.”
Another added: “Sobbing here. They can’t kill off Rachel.”
Several fans warned that another character’s fate also looked precarious. As one viewer asked: “Freddie’s in trouble! Do the others know it was him?”
Another wondered: “Omg Freddie. What have you done?” While one admitted: “I fear for Freddie’s future.”
However, another viewer remarked: “For a bad shot Freddie got the right spot on that leg. Fatal surely?”.
Meanwhile, one viewer believed they had noticed a blunder in one character’s behaviour, commenting: “Whyyyyy didn’t Michael just level with Freddy and say “your auld fella’s playing dead but he’s fine” Sometimes you’ve just got to be blunt”.
SEATTLE — Albert Rusnak scored in the first minute, then notched an assist and the Seattle Sounders clinched a postseason spot with a 2-1 victory over LAFC on Saturday.
Seattle (12-12-10) began the day on the outside looking in, but finished eighth in the Western Conference and will host Real Salt Lake in the wild-card match with the top-seeded Vancouver Whitecaps awaiting the winner in the best-of-three first round.
LAFC (12-11-11) finished sixth in the West and will not have the home-field advantage in a first-round matchup with No. 3-seed St. Louis City.
Seattle grabbed the lead 51 seconds into the match when Rusnak took a pass from Cristian Roldan and scored the Sounders’ earliest goal this season. It was the fifth netter for Rusnak and the sixth assist for Roldan.
It was the fourth fastest goal in “Decision Day” history. Former Sounders midfielder Nico Lodeiro holds the record for a regular-season finale, scoring in 24 seconds for Seattle in 2022.
Rusnak added an assist when he set up rookie forward Sebastian Gomez in the 31st minute for his third netter and a two-goal lead. It was the seventh start and 20th appearance for the 20-year-old Gomez.
LAFC made things interesting when defender Eddie Segura used his head to score in the 82nd minute. Segura’s first goal of the season came with assists from defender Ryan Porteous — the second of his career — and Leo Walta — his first in his fifth league appearance.
Andrew Thomas turned away seven shots for Seattle — none better than one on a point-blank shot by Son Heung-min to keep it 2-0 in the 54th minute.
Rookie Cabral Carter had one save for LAFC in his second start and third appearance of the season..
Seattle’s Jordan Morris left in the 24th minute with a quadriceps injury.
The Sounders have missed the postseason just once since joining the league in 2009. It was only the second time the club had to wait until “Decision Day” to decide its playoff fate.
The first volunteers gathered in the back house of Nithya Raman’s Silver Lake home with little besides a whiteboard counting down the number of days until the June 2 primary election.
Raman had jumped into the Los Angeles mayor’s race the day before, right at the Feb. 7 filing deadline. Her campaign didn’t have an office, a bank account, a campaign treasurer, or even a proper website.
It lacked, put simply, “the most basic things,” said Ian Manheimer, Raman’s campaign manager, who joined the team after a 10 p.m. call from Raman the night before the filing deadline. There would be a meeting the next day in Raman’s backyard accessory dwelling unit to get things rolling.
“For anyone who suspected Nithya had designs on this for a long time, you could just come to the ADU and that would dispel those notions,” Manheimer said.
Those unassuming beginnings in Raman’s backyard, with her parents and her husband’s parents taking turns cooking vegetarian Indian lunches for the small staff, evolved into a disciplined campaign that overcame initial struggles to unseat incumbent Mayor Karen Bass, a veteran politician who had racked up endorsements from most of L.A.’s traditional power brokers.
Nithya Raman speaks at a campaign phone bank event at UCLA on May 31.
(Jonathan Alcorn/For The Times)
Raman did it on a hyper-abbreviated timeline by turning out and expanding her base of younger renters, pitching herself successfully to Latino voters, securing late but key endorsements from groups and officials that gave massive support to her campaign’s ground game and by running on a hopeful message about restoring city services against a deeply unpopular mayor.
From the moment she got into the race, there was an evident, yet narrow lane for the progressive, second-term council member to rise to the city’s highest office, but it was far from clear that she would be able to make it through.
For much of the primary, Raman and her campaign were all alone. She had few endorsements, and almost none from elected officials.
Because of her late entry into the race and some past disagreements, she failed to secure the backing of the Los Angeles chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America for the June 2 primary, even though the left-wing organization endorsed her in both of her council campaigns. Raman got almost no supportive outside spending in the primary, while millions of dollars were spent opposing her.
But Raman had made a name for herself on the City Council as an advocate for tenant rights, and her campaign focused on turning out L.A.’s legions of renters to secure enough of the vote to make the runoff.
She was still a largely unknown entity early on in the race, with 51% of likely voters in a March poll saying they didn’t know enough about Raman to form an opinion of her.
On top of that, Raman was quickly upstaged by Spencer Pratt, the Republican former reality television personality, whose slash-and-burn campaign on social media attacking L.A.’s liberal political establishment dominated news coverage.
While Raman’s camp hadn’t initially worried too much about Pratt, thinking he and entrepreneur Adam Miller would split the more conservative vote in the city, it became clear as the primary went on that Pratt could emerge over Raman as the second candidate in the runoff.
Spencer Pratt, from left, Karen Bass and Nithya Raman take part in a televised debate at the Skirball Cultural Center May 6 during the primary race.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
To dent Pratt’s appeal, the Raman campaign worked to brand him as the MAGA Republican in the nonpartisan race, knowing it would hurt his chances in a deep-blue city like Los Angeles. They chose to try out the line at the only televised mayoral debate.
Raman didn’t miss her chance.
“This is a MAGA Republican’s idea of what Los Angeles looks like,” she said during the NBC4 debate on May 6, referring to Pratt’s sometimes dystopian depiction of L.A. “This is really not the city that I love so much.”
Though Raman’s debate performance was widely panned — and Pratt’s was praised — her team felt she had gotten the point across to Angelenos: With the unpopular Bass almost certain not to win the primary outright, the runoff could either be a contest between two progressive Democrats, or Bass versus a candidate whose views echoed those of President Trump.
That debate was a learning moment for Raman and her campaign.
“She’s up against an extremely seasoned politician and a television star. She’s just a normal person who hasn’t been on stage like that,” Manheimer said.
But defining Pratt as MAGA, the campaign believed, would pull some voters to Raman from lower-performing candidates on the left and in the middle with the hopes of keeping Pratt out of the runoff.
Raman was able to eke out a win against Pratt in the primary, getting 29% of the vote compared to his 26%, with Bass taking first place at 34%.
The sole goal of the primary for Raman’s campaign was, self-evidently, to make it out of the primary.
If her team could move on to the runoff, it would be able to reset — fundraising would restart, it could build a bigger team and it would have a longer runway to increase Raman’s name recognition and build out her base.
While Bass dominated labor and elected official endorsements throughout the race, Raman began to pick up key supporters in the runoff.
In August, the Western States Regional Council of Carpenters endorsed her, sponsoring an independent expenditure group for her called Estamos con Nithya for Mayor 2026.
That was followed by the endorsement from the union Unite Here Local 11, a major player in city politics, which represents hospitality workers at airports and in hotels.
Raman also got major endorsements in the runoff from City Controller Kenneth Mejia and L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath.
Mejia especially became a pit bull for Raman at events and on social media.
“Kenneth would call every day and say, ‘Let me know what myths I can bust today,’ ” said Tessa Wick, the communications director for Raman’s campaign.
“We didn’t have time to feel particularly lonely in the primary, but once we saw what it felt like to have all these groups and people behind us, each press conference we would do was injecting more force into this movement we were building,” Wick said.
Raman’s bid also got a serious infusion of cash from Aaron Sosnick, a hedge fund manager and bike lane advocate who poured $8 million into two independent expenditure groups to support Raman, making him the single biggest spender in the mayoral campaign.
“He is a cyclist. He just wants to not die riding the streets in L.A.,” said Michael Schneider, who runs Streets for All, a transportation advocacy group that ran one of the independent expenditure groups that Sosnick funded.
Nithya Raman, right, reviews notes in Spanish with Lauren Perez-Rangel before an interview at Univision on Oct. 22.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
“Many Latinos saw themselves in the Boyle Heights residents,” said Lauren Perez-Rangel, senior director of Latino outreach for the Raman campaign.
Bass had prevailed in more Latino neighborhoods than any other candidate in the primary. The Raman campaign worked to change that in the runoff, Perez-Rangel said, focusing especially on Latino voters. Raman brushed up on her Spanish and used it frequently at events.
The campaign also teamed up with Latino and Spanish-language content creators to spread Raman’s message of affordability, building more housing and solving the homeless crisis. The result: Raman led Bass among Latino likely voters throughout the runoff campaign, according to polls by UC Berkeley IGS and the L.A. Times.
Despite that growing support, Bass and her allies’ negative portrayal of Raman in attack ads had an effect, as Raman’s unfavorable ratings rose month by month. They framed the council member as too far left, allowing homeless encampments in front of schools and failing to show up for thousands of City Council votes.
“It was a race to define Nithya,” said Jeff Millman, an advisor and spokesperson for Raman’s campaign. “Their strategy was to tear down Nithya. Our job was to make sure that people knew Nithya’s strengths and record of success as a council member.”
As the campaign drew to a climax, Raman improved as a candidate and came off as more confident during the two runoff debates. Her team said she spent many hours improving her debate skills.
“There was no secret weapon, just a person really committed to practicing,” said Wick.
Still, she opened herself up to attacks from Bass’ side during the final debate Oct. 13, after she said the city used to be the “gold standard” of noncooperation with immigration authorities under controversial former LAPD Chief Daryl Gates. Bass hammered Raman over the remark, accusing the council member of romanticizing Gates’ tenure.
Despite that and othermissteps during the closing days of the campaign, her team said it was Raman’s insistence on running a largely positive campaign about an optimistic vision of L.A.’s future that pushed her over the finish line.
“She was really dogged that it was a campaign that was hopeful, not nasty and cynical. She wanted the campaign to be a love letter to L.A.,” said Wick.
Nithya Raman embraces her husband, TV writer Vali Chandrasekaran, left, on election night at the Greek Theatre plaza.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
In her election night speech, still trailing Bass by a few percentage points that she would quickly make up, Raman spoke to that vision.
She called it a vision where the people who made L.A. extraordinary could afford to live in the city and where government is responsive and takes responsibility.
“We believed that Angelenos were hungry for that city,” she said. “And it turns out that we were right.”
The “blue tsunami” in the 2026 midterm elections flipped control of both the House and the Senate last week, bringing a wave of Democrats, some with backgrounds in the arts.
The influx of newly elected officials — artists, musicians, dancers and even a former Prada model among them — comes just weeks before Congress will take another look at the Trump administration’s proposed 2027 budget, which requests $1.5 trillion in defense spending and, once again, seeks to nix funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, as well as the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Last year, Congress intervened against some of the arts cuts, but that didn’t stop the administration from terminating hundreds of NEA grants worth more than $27 million nationwide.
Next year’s massive reconfiguration of power, however, brings with it a number of elected officials with creative backgrounds, some of whom even incorporated music, dance and art into their campaigns and promises to constituents.
U.S. Representative-elect Claire Valdez, says art is the first language she knew. “It is a language that crosses all kinds of divides and gives voice to something that is otherwise inexpressible and has tremendous power to change,” she said. “I think that transformation is needed now more than ever.”
Here’s a look at some of the elected officials who have a little razzle-dazzle on their resumes.
Iowa Governor-elect Rob Sand
Then-model Rob Sand walks the runway in the Prada menswear spring 2003 ready to wear runway show in Milan, Italy.
(Davide Maestri / Penske Media via Getty Images)
It’s been 20 years since Iowa chose a Democrat to govern the state, but Iowans just elected a former Prada model to strut into office next year. The New York Times profiled Sand in 2019, noting that the Brown University and University of Iowa College of Law graduate doesn’t like to talk about his days modeling in Paris and Milan. Back then, he worked his way through college and ultimately earned a J.D. degree.
The cat’s out of the bag, though, and Sand seems to have surrendered to the social media attention and even leaned in. “I’m disappointed to learn images of me modeling for Prada are circulating,” he wrote alongside a grayscale fashion editorial. “Because this shot from Italian Vogue is much better.” He also launched a “My Model Governor” tee, featuring a chic twenty-something Sand showing off his sought-after bone structure.
It’s been about two decades since Sand, repped by IMG Models at the time, graced the catwalk for Giuliano Fujiwara and other high fashion designers. After college, he traded the runway for a courtroom, and in 2018, was elected state auditor as a Democrat, serving two terms. The now 44-year-old governor-elect appealed to Iowan voters using a campaign centered on public education, affordable living, anti-corruption and bipartisanship. His campaign slogan is: “Not redder or bluer, but better and truer.” He’s a Jesus-loving hunting enthusiast whose first job was catching chickens, and he insists that he’s more interested in public service than two-party politics.
Texas’ new Attorney General-elect Nathan Johnson
Texas state Sen. Nathan Johnson speaks against a bill that would add new abortion restrictions in Austin, Texas.
(Eric Gay / Associated Press)
From the top of the ballot to the bottom, Republicans lost their long-held grip on Texas last week. Democrat Nathan Johnson was elected Texas attorney general, an office held by Republicans for 28 years. This isn’t the first time Johnson flipped Texas either. Back in 2018, he was elected to the Texas state Senate, and while he’s impressed Texans with promises to root out corruption, restore traditional consumer protection and shift away from the high-profile culture wars of prior officeholders, he claims glory for something else:
“In the 2000s, I wrote the musical scores wall-to-wall of 67 episodes of ‘Dragon Ball Z’ and five of the movies,” he told Texas Sen. Taylor Rehmet in a video posted to Facebook. “It was a lot of fun … And even then, it got me street cred with my kids’ friends, and it gave me a creative outlet and a cultural connection that very few people had the opportunity to have.”
The Texas Attorney General-elect worked on “Dragon Ball Z: The World’s Strongest,” “Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might,” “Dragon Ball Z: Broly — Second Coming,” “Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn” and “Dragon Ball Z: Wrath of the Dragon.” He also ran a music production company and composed classical stage music.
Speaking to Texas Standard after the midterm results were in, Johnson chalked up the blue wave to a “national revolt against meanness, against hateful speech and divisiveness.”
“People indulge in those sorts of things when everything else is feeling great,” he said. “But at a time when corruption is confronting us in the face and people are super anxious about their economic future, there was a whole-scale rejection of Republican leadership.”
U.S. Representative-elect Bobby Pulido
Bobby Pulido, a Latin Grammy winner, sings during his last concert, La Última Desvelada, at the Bert Ogden Arena.
(Gabriel V. Cardenas/For The Times)
Another Democrat elected in the Lone Star state is the Latin Grammy-winning Tejano music star Bobby Pulido, who will represent Texas’ 15th Congressional District. Pulido said he’s willing to trade his three-decade stage career and take a hefty pay cut to step into public service. He won 62% of the total vote of Texans across the Rio Grande Valley and central Texas on a platform of affordability, healthcare access, immigration reform and reconnecting with working-class Latino voters.
“I give you my word tonight that I will never forget where I came from,” Pulido recently said during an Oct. concert, “La Última Desvelada” (The Last Restless Night), in his hometown of Edinburg, Texas, per TejanoNation. “I did music for me, but I’m running for Congress for you … Because I’m not going to Washington to serve a political party, I’m going to serve you.”
Pulido defeated Republican incumbent Monica De La Cruz, who took jabs at his showbiz background during her campaign. “This election isn’t about who you want performing at your niece’s quinceañera,” she said earlier this year, according to the Texas Tribune.
The Tejano star responded by performing at quinceañeras across the congressional district, which only boosted his popularity in the region. “In south Texas, a quinceañera isn’t just a pachanga. It’s a rite of passage that brings family and neighbors together,” said Pulido in a TikTok clip in March. “And honestly, that’s exactly what this campaign is about. We want to bring people together, not tear them apart.”
U.S. Representative-electClaire Valdez
Congressional candidate Claire Valdez won her race against Brooklyn borough President Antonio Reynoso in the New York 7th District to succeed retiring Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.).
(Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images)
Valdez, a visual artist and union organizer, was elected to represent New York’s 7th Congressional District with a campaign message that espoused the need for artists to “change our political, our economic, and our social order.” Valdez’s political aspirations are personal: She moved to New York to pursue a career as an artist and quickly realized the financial realities of making art under capitalism. Art should never be a luxury for the rich, she argues, but a necessity for all.
“This district represents more artists than almost any other district in the country, and yet we live in a city where it’s almost impossible to have the studio space, the time off, the money, the resources, the healthcare to make the art that we need in our society to shine,” Valdez said in a campaign speech earlier this year.
“I did not come to politics through electoral ambitions … I came to this place via my union. My union taught me that when people come together, we can organize for incredible things. We can move literal mountains, and we can beat back all the other people who make our lives a living hell, who have made this city unaffordable and impossible to thrive in, impossible to be an artist in. We deserve and demand a life of dignity, beauty for every single person, no matter where you are from. That’s what’s on the table, my friends.”
Valdez worked as a program assistant in the visual arts department at Columbia University, where she became a union leader. In 2024, she was elected to the New York State Assembly to represent the 37th District in Queens. Last week, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani backed the candidate, who won 83% of the vote.
Los Angeles Mayor-electNithya Raman
Los Angeles Mayor-elect Nithya Raman arrives with supporters standing nearby to claim victory in the Los Angeles mayoral race.
(Mario Tama / Getty Images)
Los Angeles Mayor-elect Nithya Raman was first elected to the L.A. City Council in 2020, and last week, she became the first challenger to defeat an incumbent Los Angeles mayor in more than two decades. While Raman didn’t turn L.A. blue, the democratic socialist did beat Mayor Karen Bass, a more moderate Democrat, turning the city a deeper, more progressive shade of blue.
Raman campaigned on a platform centered on housing affordability, public transit expansion, street safety, and a major overhaul of how the city approaches homelessness, but she also has a unique inside perspective on issues that plague Angelenos who work in entertainment. Her husband, Vali Chandrasekaran, is a television writer and producer, with a resume stacked with popular shows including “Modern Family” and “30 Rock.” The two met as undergrads at Harvard, where Raman was active in the university’s arts scene, and contributed to student productions as a designer and choreographer. The two broke up but reconnected on the picket line during the 2007-08 Writers Guild Strike.
According to a profile in the Harvard Crimson, Raman studied classical dance with renowned Bharatanatyam dancer Leela Samson in Chennai, India, and toured with her dance company after she graduated in the early aughts. The mayor-elect told the outlet that she still follows dance when her schedule allows.
“I don’t just watch Indian classical dance, I watch all kinds of dance,” Raman said. “I’m a dance aficionado, and when I’m not busy on the campaign trail, I try and attend dance programs and performances.”
Raman took the stage late on election night during her party on the plaza outside the Greek Theatre, and asked the crowd: “Will you all get on the dance floor with me?” In response to the applause, she said, “Yes, we will dance. We will dance!”
NAMED Europe’s best city 2026 by Travel + Leisure earlier this year, Florence’s easy-to-traverse streets make it an ideal weekend away.
You can find world-famous art and fantastic pizza just steps from each other. Here’s why a trip to the beautiful Italian city should be on everyone’s bucket list…
The Italian city of Florence was crowned Europe’s best city 2026 by Travel + Leisure earlier this year,Source: GettyGawp at stunning artworks like Sandro Botticelli’s The Birth Of Venus at the Uffizi GallerySource: Getty
WHY SHOULD I GO?
Florence is now a bit easier to visit, with easyJet expanding its city break package destinations.
Two-hour flights, cheap package holidays and weather that is still warmer than the UK’s are just some of the many reasons it’s great.
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STREETS MADE FOR WALKING?
Florence is incredibly easy to explore on foot, with its biggest attractions and best restaurants just a short stroll apartSource: Getty
Forget taxis and trains — Florence is insanely walkable, with its top attractions and restaurants all within spitting distance of each other.
Perfect if you love a mooch without having to work out how to use a foreign public transport system.
The city is known for its Renaissance art, so most people head straight to the Uffizi Gallery to see Botticelli’s most famous painting, The Birth Of Venus.
But I’d recommend heading over the river to Palazzo Pitti instead. Owned by the Medici family back in the 1500s, the palace was said to have inspired Versailles in France.
Now it is home to five separate museums, with 500 paintings across 28 ornately decorated halls.
The highlight is Italy’s largest Museum of Costume and Fashion, featuring pieces from Chanel, Dior and Schiaparelli. Speaking of fashion, make sure you don’t leave without a leather souvenir, as Florentine leather is world-famous.
There are more market stalls and shops than you can shake a stick at, so you’ll be spoilt for choice for bags, belts and even more leather pieces.
WHERE SHOULD I EAT?
What is a trip to Italy without a little bit of gorging on pizza?Source: Supplied
The city is known for its Renaissance art, so most people head straight to the Uffizi Gallery to see Botticelli’s most famous painting, The Birth Of Venus.
But I’d recommend heading over the river to Palazzo Pitti instead. Owned by the Medici family back in the 1500s, the palace was said to have inspired Versailles in France.
Now it is home to five separate museums, with 500 paintings across 28 ornately decorated halls.
The highlight is Italy’s largest Museum of Costume and Fashion, featuring pieces from Chanel, Dior and Schiaparelli. Speaking of fashion, make sure you don’t leave without a leather souvenir, as Florentine leather is world-famous.
There are more market stalls and shops than you can shake a stick at, so you’ll be spoilt for choice for bags, belts and even more leather pieces.
I FANCY A DRINK
Florence is hardly short of wine bars, but my favourite is Oratio, in a tiny library dedicated to wine books where wines are organised into regions of Italy.
Service is friendly, the menu is affordable, and you can pick up a book or two if you want to learn more about what you are drinking.
There are also Florence’s famous wine windows — 300 portals in the city’s stonework which were used to serve wine and food to people during the plague without risking physical contact.
Glasses of wine are still passed through the windows, and a popular one is part of the restaurant Babae, where you can even keep the plastic souvenir wine glass.
WHERE SHOULD I STAY?
Three nights’ room-only at the 4* Palazzo Monnalisa is from £536pp including flights from Gatwick on February 5Source: Supplied
There’s no better stay than at the 4H Palazzo Monnalisa, a city-centre hotel, but in a quiet street.
The building dates from the 14th century but recently completed a two-year renovation, so rooms are modern and cosy yet arty and chic — think terracotta tiles and textured mural wallpaper showcasing famous Italian skylines.
The rooms surround a private garden courtyard, making it feel worlds away from the busy city.
Breakfast is small but enough to line your stomach for the day, in the form of fresh pastries and fruit, or a hot menu offering dishes such as eggs benedict.
The restaurant is here too, with the bar on the other side to grab a wine to take to the outdoor patio.
The hotel almost feels like a museum in itself, from the painted wooden ceilings to its time-worn stone steps.
GO: Florence
GETTING/STAYING THERE: Three nights’ room-only at the 4H Palazzo Monnalisa is from £536pp including flights from Gatwick on February 5. See easyjet.com/en/holidays. Use code BLKFRIDAY to get money off bookings made before December 1.
Richard Lloyd, the fiery guitarist of the influential New York rock band Television, has died. He was 75.
Lloyd died on Saturday in Chattanooga, Tenn., from cholangiocarcinoma, a bile duct cancer, according to a statement from Lloyd’s family to the New York Times.
Lloyd’s contributions to Television — a proto-punk band with intricate hailstorms of guitar — helped make them one of the city’s most important if briefly tenured bands. In a time when peers such as the New York Dolls and Velvet Underground were upending rock and roll with glamour and arty disaffection, Television fulfilled the genre’s promises of both swaggering virtuosity and restless reinvention.
Lloyd, born Richard John Alt in Pittsburgh, moved to New York City with his mother and grew up in Greenwich Village. He attended Manhattan’s acclaimed Stuyvesant High School, but dropped out to pursue music.
Television formed in 1973 after Lloyd met front man Tom Verlaine, then-bassist Richard Hell and drummer Billy Ficca through Terry Ork, an Andy Warhol scenester who managed the legendary film bookstore and memorabilia shop Cinemabilia, where Verlaine and Hell worked. The band was an outlier at the grimy local country and bluegrass dive bar CBGB (the members had to convince owner Hilly Kristal to book them). Yet the group would help transform that club and Max’s Kansas City into hubs for punk bands and the avant-garde such as Blondie, the Ramones and Talking Heads.
While sharing little in common with dueling-guitar acts such as the Allman Brothers Band or ’70s contemporaries the Eagles and Fleetwood Mac, Television also drew its power from the preternatural rapport between Verlaine and Lloyd’s instruments. With its oblique lyricism and jazz-infused chords, layered over a twitchy rhythm section and 10-minute-long jams, Television was unlikely to be a commercial hit.
Yet the band impressed peers such as Lou Reed and David Bowie, and signed to the major label Elektra. Its 1977 debut LP “Marquee Moon” is universally considered a rock masterpiece, landing at No. 107 on Rolling Stone’s ranking of the top albums of all time. The dramatic trills of “Venus” and moaning peals of “Torn Curtain” showcased Lloyd’s natural guitar language with Verlaine, adding up to an unmistakable and irreplaceable sound.
The band released one follow-up, 1978’s “Adventure.” But Lloyd, who had long struggled with mental health issues, was also suffering from drug addiction, and conflicts with Verlaine led to the band’s breakup.
Lloyd would go on to have a robust solo career, with nine albums under his own name, and performances on records by Matthew Sweet and John Doe of the punk band X. Television briefly reunited to perform at the 1992 Glastonbury Festival, and released a new self-titled album the same year.
Beyond its own career, Television became a key inspiration for Sonic Youth and Geese, which shared Television’s downtown panache and coils of guitar noise.
Lloyd’s survivors include his wife, Sheila, his brother, Eric and his son, Dylan.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Michelle Cooper converted a penalty kick in extra time to give the Kansas City Current a 1-0 victory over Angel City on Saturday in the quarterfinals of the National Women’s Soccer League playoffs.
The fourth-seeded Current will face the winner of Sunday’s quarterfinal between No. 1 Gotham FC and No. 8 Seattle Reign FC in a semifinal match next weekend.
Kansas City, the only NWSL team to finish the regular season unbeaten at home, extended that run into the playoffs.
Angel City goalkeeper Angelina Anderson made five saves in regulation. Four minutes into extra time, Kansas City defender Izzy Rodriguez sent in a corner kick. Before the ball went over the crossbar, Current defender Kayla Sharples went to the ground near the goal line after contact with Anderson and midfielder Ary Borges. Kansas City was awarded the penalty, and Cooper converted.
Angel City goalkeeper Angelina Anderson dives to make a save attempt during a quarterfinal playoff loss to Kansas City on Saturday.
(Reed Hoffmann / Getty Images)
The teams combined for 25 fouls. Fifth-seeded Angel City drew three yellow cards in regulation, the first in the 13th minute when Sveindís Jónsdóttir slid into Gabrielle Robinson from behind as the Kansas City defender shielded the ball near her end line.
Borges drew the second yellow in the 58th minute when her cleat caught Vanessa DiBernardo’s as they challenged for a ball in the air. In second-half stoppage time, Maiara Niehues clipped Cooper’s heel and knocked off her cleat. Kansas City’s only yellow card went to Temwa Chawinga in the 114th minute.
As a Los Angeles City Council candidate six years ago, Nithya Raman gave a firm “No” when asked if she supported the Olympics coming to Los Angeles.
Responding to a questionnaire from the Democratic Socialists of America, Raman added: “There was no vetting of this process, extremely rushed budgeting outreach, and the residents of our city had no say in any of it.”
Once in office, she joined just one other council member in voting against the prime city contract outlining the city’s partnership with the LA28, the private nonprofit hosting the event. And in August she voted against a deal outlining how LA28 would reimburse the city for the extra trash collection, policing and other services that will be expanded during the 2028 Summer Olympics.
My, how time, fortune and politics can change things.
With her election this week as mayor of Los Angeles, Raman won herself a ticket to sit among the dignitaries for the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics on July 14, 2028. And she will be asked to take center stage at the closing ceremony — handing the Olympic flag to the mayor of Brisbane, Australia, host city for the 2032 Summer Games.
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In the little more than 600 days before the Games begin, Raman will oversee the city’s preparations.
Those looking for signs of friction might note that the mayor-elect has closely allied herself with City Controller Kenneth Mejia, who has been locked in a battle with LA28 over its failure to publicly report some of the details of its finances.
It’s unclear what position Raman will stake out in that conflict and another one dear to several members of the City Council — getting LA28 to agree to set aside a certain percentage of as much as $4 billion in contracts to businesses based in the city of L.A.
During her run for mayor, Raman did what she has done on many other issues — project a more moderate, conciliatory stance on the Olympics.
“Nithya supports a successful Olympics that showcases the best of Los Angeles and delivers the economic boost Angelenos deserve: more customers for local businesses, opportunities for workers, and lasting improvements in our neighborhoods,” a spokesperson for the mayor-elect said in a recent statement. “She wants residents to share in the excitement and the benefits long after the closing ceremony, but not left to cover the bill unfairly.”
Raman’s rep said she also will “enforce the city’s agreements with Olympic organizers, put strict financial safeguards in place, and make taxpayer obligations public before commitments are made.”
She also pledged that the security around the Olympics will “respect every Angeleno’s dignity and rights, especially immigrants and our most vulnerable neighbors.”
Raman also signaled over the summer that she is ready to be a fan. In an Instagram video, she touted the opening of a new cricket grounds in Pomona, practiced her bowling (like pitching in baseball) and enthused: “The second most popular sport in the world coming back to the Olympics, and coming back, right here in L.A., is really exciting.”
LA28 Chairman Casey Wasserman congratulated the new mayor.
“We look forward to working closely with the mayor-elect, her team, and leaders at every level of government to deliver a safe, secure and fiscally responsible Olympic Games,” Wasserman said in a statement. “With less than two years until the LA28 Opening Ceremony, there is much work to be done. We’re confident that, together, we’ll be ready to welcome the world to Los Angeles and showcase the magic of our city.”
Harris-Dawson is running
It’s still a month away, but the City Council is going to have to cast a pivotal vote: Who should serve as its president under a Raman administration.
City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, in a quick interview Friday, said he will seek the council’s top leadership job for another two years. Harris-Dawson, who supported Mayor Karen Bass in Tuesday’s election, said he was unaware of anyone else angling for the job.
“I intend to be president,” said Harris-Dawson, who faces term limits in 2028.
Meanwhile, council members are still processing the Raman victory and what that will mean for the city. Harris-Dawson said the election revealed a divided city, with newer arrivals to L.A. backing Raman and “people who have been here for generations” lining up behind Bass.
“This race, I think, exacerbated the divisions of the city,” he said. “That showed up a lot more than I was expecting, and the divisions were a lot deeper than I expected.”
Raman’s young progressives
Gen Zers crisscrossed the dance floor, Modelos and seltzers in hand, as the DJ bumped her head to the beat.
But this was no Friday night at Zebulon. This was election night in L.A., and Nithya Raman’s campaign had taken over the plaza outside the Greek Theatre in Griffith Park for the occasion.
“We’ve had a mayor that’s failed young people,” Rutik Shinglot, a 26-year-old working in public affairs, shouted over the noise. “I think L.A. is ready for a change.”
Many of the young progressives at Raman’s election night party at the Greek Theatre had knocked on doors or made phone calls for the now mayor-elect. Unionized UCLA and USC student workers sported bright-pink United Auto Workers shirts. Others wore a red pin brandishing the Democratic Socialists of America’s logo.
Their excitement seems to have made it to the ballot box: Partial returns showed young people ages 18-34 had increased their share of the vote compared with the same early returns in 2022.
She garnered the support of niche progressive celebrities young folks trust, including comedians Brennan Lee Mulligan and Rekha Shankar of Dropout (formerly known as CollegeHumor) who emceed Raman’s election night party.
By clinching the endorsements of both DSA-LA and the regional UAW, she unlocked two major pools of young L.A. progressives — eager to build on national momentum — to campaign on her behalf. Rafael Jaime, president of UAW 4811, said the region’s members had contacted 116,000 voters in support of Raman. DSA-LA knocked on more than 110,000 doors with the help of more than 1,600 volunteers.
At DSA-LA, the endorsement created “a mechanism to build up our canvassing infrastructure citywide,” said Keshav Kundassery, 27, a member of both DSA-LA and UAW 4811. “We need to exercise those muscles right now to be ready for the fight that’s waiting for us in 2028.”
State of play
— THE ROAD TO RAMAN: Bass started election night ahead of Raman but the tide quickly changed. By Thursday, the mayor had conceded and Raman was giving her first press briefing at the Original Farmers Market.
— THE NEW AGENDA: What initiatives will Raman pursue once she’s in office? Bike lanes, housing voucher, new apartments, a new police chief and lots of data crunching. “L.A. has been flying blind when it comes to measuring the impacts of the dollars spent. That is going to change,” said former deputy mayor Rick Cole, a Raman advisor.
— WHERE WERE THE VOTES? We’ve got a preliminary map showing how different parts of the city voted in the mayoral election.
— ROY REIGNS: Deputy Atty. Gen. Marissa Roy romped to victory in her race against Deputy Dist. Atty. John McKinney. Council aide Jose Ugartehad a lead that’s been steadily shrinking over community organizer Estuardo Mazariegos in a South L.A. council race. Meanwhile, political aide Barri Worth Girvan was leading business owner Tim Gaspar in the west San Fernando Valley.
— SIGNS OF THE TIMES: On election day, Ugarte’s camp released video that appeared to show Mazariegos supporters stealing an Ugarte lawn sign and replacing it with one for Mazariegos.
— CH-CH-CH-CHANGES: L.A. voters approved all eight of the ballot measures that were on their ballot, hiking taxes to pay for the fire department, sending more city money to public parks and giving the council the power to cut the number of weekly meetings from three down to one.
— SECOND TIME AROUND: In a case of ballot deja vu, Los Angeles County voters reelected Sheriff Robert Luna, rejecting former Sheriff Alex Villanueva by a wide margin once again.
QUICK HITS
Where is Inside Safe? The mayor’s signature program to address homelessness went to Venice, a neighborhood represented by Councilmember Traci Park, and to Sylmar, which is represented by Councilmember Monica Rodriguez.
On the docket next week: The L.A. County Board of Supervisors will take up a motion Tuesday to lay out steps to fix the county’s restraining order system, in response to reporting by The Times on ways the system fails survivors.
Stay in touch
That’s it for this week! Send your questions, comments and gossip to LAontheRecord@latimes.com. Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Saturday morning.
Saturday’s match between Folkestone Invicta and Truro City was abandoned before kick-off after a player collapsed during the warm-up.
Truro City midfielder Yassine En-Neyah was taken ill shortly before the National League South game in Kent.
The 26-year-old joined Truro from Irish side Waterford in February 2023, having previously been on the books at Nottingham Forest.
He has scored one goal in 11 appearances for the Cornish side this season.
“Yassine En-Neyah required medical assistance during the warm-up and was transferred to the William Harvey hospital in Ashford for further treatment,” a Truro statement read.
“We will provide a further update in due course.”
Truro were second in the table before this afternoon’s matches, with Folkestone in 15th place.
