The race for L.A. city attorney delivered a shock this spring when incumbent Hydee Feldstein Soto was ousted, an upset the likes of which hadn’t happened in nearly a century. The pair of candidates who remain have since laid out their widely differing visions of the job.
Here’s what you need to know.
The candidates
John McKinney is an L.A. County deputy district attorney with nearly 30 years of legal experience. He vows to clean up what he calls a blighted downtown and work closely with his boss and backer, Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman, to reduce crime in the city.
Marissa Roy is a deputy attorney general in the California Department of Justice. She plans to use the office to fight for tenant and wage workers. Her vision of the city attorney is to be the “people’s lawyer” for L.A.
In their own words
Here are the Q&As with each of the candidates.
State of the race
Roy is leading in the race to become the next Los Angeles city attorney. She was ahead by 10 percentage points in the most recent poll conducted by UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies and co-sponsored by The Times.
Still, some local voters don’t know the candidates by name.
Issues
Criminal justice
McKinney is focusing his campaign on tamping down quality-of-life crimes in the city such as organized retail theft, drug dealing and street racing. McKinney would prioritize public safety and vows to go after demonstrators who block freeways or engage in conduct similar to the 2024 pro-Palestine encampments on UCLA’s campus.
Roy wants to funnel nonviolent offenders to diversion programs such as mental health treatment or vocational training.
Hefty legal payouts
McKinney said he’d lean on his long experience as a trial attorney to quickly decide which incoming lawsuits against the city should be fought and which should be settled in order to reduce the city’s legal costs.
Roy wants to bring civil litigation back in-house to rein in the millions spent on outside counsel. She also argues for beefing up the claims process so legitimate suits are settled effectively and frivolous ones are fought.
How each candidate would handle Trump
McKinney would work to balance respecting federal authority as required by law against protecting the constitutional rights of city residents and defending local resources if threatened by federal overreach.
Roy has made fighting the Trump administration a centerpiece in her campaign.
Homelessness
McKinney wants to use the court system as a “last resort” to leverage people into accepting services or shelter.
Roy says renter protections will be vital to stemming the city’s homeless crisis.
Voters will elect two new Los Angeles City Council members on Tuesday, one representing the San Fernando Valley, the other South Los Angeles.
In the 3rd District, businessman Tim Gaspar and longtime local government employee Barri Worth Girvan are vying to replace Bob Blumenfield, who is termed out. The district includes Canoga Park, Reseda, Tarzana, Winnetka, and Woodland Hills.
In Council District 9, residents are preparing for a historic shift: No matter who wins, the district will elect a Latino council member for the first time since 1963.
The South L.A. district has long been represented by a Black council member, but over the last few decades it has undergone a demographic shift and today is about 80% Latino. Councilmember Curren Price also has termed out. Estuardo Mazariegos, co-director of the L.A. chapter of Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, and Jose Ugarte, who previously served as a deputy chief of staff to Price, are vying for the seat.
District 3
Gaspar led the June primary with 46.1% of the vote compared to Worth Girvan, who secured 42.5%. Both candidates have spent the last few weeks of the campaign knocking on doors and making their case to voters, saying major issues like public safety and cleanliness are common concerns.
Gaspar, who founded an insurance agency in the Valley that he sold in 2021, would bring a pro-business perspective to City Hall, and among his top priorities would be eliminating “red tape” to stimulate small businesses in the region.
“We need somebody who’s going to come to the table with different ideas,” Gaspar said. “If we keep doing the same thing as before, we’re going to keep getting the same results.”
Worth Girvan, who worked as L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath’s district director for three years before running, would use her experience in the public sector to advocate for the West Valley.
“I am fortunate to have experience at every level of government,” she said. “That’s going to allow me to leverage relationships and know how to work together across jurisdictions to get things done.”
The race has been filled with accusations. Two weeks ago, Worth Girvan’s campaign published an ad featuring Christina Rackohn, a former employee whose family company merged with Gaspar’s insurance company, who alleged he created a hostile work environment.
Worth Girvan also filed an ethics complaint against Gaspar with the City Ethics Commission in October, alleging he failed to report more than $150,000 in personal and business expenditures related to his campaign and violated the city’s matching fund rules.
Gaspar called the allegations about creating a hostile working environment and violating campaign finance violations “lies.” He said he is focused on campaigning in the final week before the election.
Gaspar said Worth Girvan is a career politician who will only maintain the status quo.
“If she ends up getting elected, she’s going to have the same ideas and the same ways of addressing these issues as what got us into this mess in the first place,” he said.
On homelessness, Gaspar has criticized the city’s Inside Safe program and said a housing-first approach doesn’t work. He praised the anticamping zone law but believes the city should be tougher against encampments.
Worth Girvan supports Inside Safe but wants more permanent housing built instead of relying on interim housing. She would expand the city’s CIRCLE program, which provides 24/7 unarmed mobile response for nonviolent calls involving homeless individuals, to the West Valley.
In fundraising, Gaspar reported bringing in nearly $600,000 during the runoff campaign including matching funds, compared with about $287,000 for Worth Girvan.
District 9
Both Mazariegos and Ugarte share many similarities, including having arrived to the U.S. from Latin America as children and growing up undocumented. Both spent years working as community organizers, but now they diverge on issues such as policing and homeless policies.
Mazariegos and Ugarte were nearly evenly matched in fundraising, with both raising about $350,000 for the runoff in contributions and matching funds. Ugarte placed first in the June primary in a crowded field against five others, winning 39% of the vote. Mazariegos, who has been endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America‘s L.A. chapter, came in second with about 26%.
Ugarte’s campaign has received more than $1 million in support from independent expenditures, committees that can receive unlimited donations but cannot coordinate with a candidate’s campaign. Airbnb, Uber and the California Apartment Assn. are among the groups supporting Ugarte.
Mazariegos has criticized the companies supporting Ugarte’s candidacy, accusing them of attempting to displace low-income residents by pouring money into the election.
“They’re trying to displace our community. That’s what this fight is all about,” Mazariegos said. “I know this is a righteous campaign and a righteous cause with the people, alongside the people. Solo el pueblo salva al pueblo.” Only the people can save the people.
Ugarte said he has never met with Airbnb officials but would take a call from any group to figure out what is going to best benefit South L.A., including prioritizing protecting renters.
“I’d open my eyes and see what’s going to benefit South L.A.,” he said. “I want to focus on making South Central clean, safe and affordable.”
While both would defend immigrants, they diverge on issues such as the police budget. Ugarte supports Mayor Karen Bass’ goal of restoring the L.A. Police Department to 9,500 officers, while Mazariegos supports increasing oversight of the department’s budget and reducing its budget to fund other departments, including Recreation and Parks and the Bureau of Street Services.
Ugarte supports enforcing Municipal Ordinance 41.18, which prohibits camps near schools, daycare centers and other “sensitive” areas as a tool to clear homeless encampments. Mazariegos has said all the ordinance does is shuffle people around, and instead the focus should be on addressing addiction and mental health issues.
Mazariegos has been endorsed by Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, City Controller Kenneth Mejia, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), United Teachers Los Angeles, L.A. Forward and several labor unions.
Ugarte has been endorsed by the L.A. County Democratic Party, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights Action Fund, Rep. Sydney Kamlager Dove, the late Dolores Huerta and Councilmember Tim McOsker.
The war over California’s elections intensified late this week after three Los Angeles County officials were slapped with criminal grand jury subpoenas related to their handling of thousands of state ballots, which the Justice Department has demanded be set aside amid claims they could be cast by noncitizens.
Labor unions and voting rights groups hit back, sending a fresh wave of action into the tempest of federal lawsuits already swirling around the ballot clawback order. The storm surged back through the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday morning and appeared on a path to the U.S. Supreme Court, which would decide whether to hear the case.
Voting by noncitizens is exceedingly rare, law enforcement experts and elections officials say. Yet the Trump administration has doggedly pursued claims to the contrary. Under the subpoenas, L.A. County officials are being ordered to hand over troves of internal documents — emails, text messages and other material — related to their handling of the administration’s demand to sequester 20,000 contested ballots.
The subpoenas also order them to produce any evidence they may have collected “which tends to indicate an alien has voted.”
Prosecutors charge that widespread noncitizen voting disenfranchises Americans by diluting their lawful votes.
Meanwhile, Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters Dean Logan and hundreds of workers who report to him are heading into Tuesday’s election under the cloud of criminal investigation, with department bureaucrats ordered to appear in federal court in Santa Ana on Wednesday morning.
“Threats and intimidation have no place in elections,” Logan said.
Who has been subpoenaed and what do the orders seek?
So far, at least three workers from the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder’s Office have been summoned as part of the probe, though the Associated Press reported that prosecutors in all four of California’s federal districts were sending out similar orders.
The Justice Department already subpoenaed thousands of voter records from state and local officials related to claims that noncitizens were voting en masse in California. Now, prosecutors are seeking virtually any written communication from within local election offices about how they responded to those demands to identify and remove such voters, including lists of employees who were told of the directive.
Courts have questioned the reliability of the Justice Department‘s list of potential noncitize voters.
Additionally, the workers must hand over any communications — including self-deleting texts from apps such as Signal — related to the office’s efforts to block noncitizen voting.
The subpoena also demands any evidence the city might have collected indicating even a single noncitizen has voted in an election, as well as details about anyone who might have “aided and/or abetted” them.
“When California has actual knowledge of noncitizens in their voter rolls, if they help them vote, they are now aiding and abetting a criminal offense,” California Central District First Assistant U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli told Fox News this month.
He doubled down with a post on social media this week, saying his office “will hold accountable anyone who unlawfully participates in our elections and those who aid them.”
Is the Los Angeles County registrar of voters under criminal investigation?
Maybe.
Logan has not been subpoenaed, but the subject of a criminal investigation typically is not subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury because the Constitution’s 5th Amendment protects people from having to testify against themselves.
The Justice Department declined to comment on whether or not Logan might be prosecuted.
“While DOJ maintains that a civil remedy is still available, all agree that noncitizen voting is properly addressed through criminal law,” a spokesperson said.
Instead, the threat of prosecution hangs over virtually any worker who processes ballots the Justice Department might seek to contest.
“They will all go to jail for a long period of time!!!” President Trump posted on social media as the fight ramped up this month.
A lawsuit filed Thursday on behalf of workers by the Service Employees International Union and its partners called the subpoenas part of “a coordinated campaign to intimidate, threaten, and coerce state and local officials and employees who are engaged in the hard and important work of administering the ongoing midterm 2026 election.”
The union’s suit also alleged that thousands of California voters could be disenfranchised if courts don’t block the federal government’s efforts “to coerce them into halting the processing and counting of ballots.”
“Threatening these election workers with criminal prosecution for faithfully executing their responsibilities in accordance with federal and state law is plainly illegal and, unless enjoined, risks disenfranchising tens of thousands of lawfully registered voters,” the suit said.
Elected officials also rushed to condemn the move.
“The Trump Administration’s escalating attacks on our hardworking elections officials in California are unacceptable,” California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta wrote on social media.
Can the subpoenas be blocked?
That depends.
An expected order from the Supreme Court could neuter much of the Justice Department’s demand, as the bulk of what officials have been asked to hand over relates to the 20,000 contested ballots whose fate will be decided in Washington, D.C.
The union suit also asks the court to shield election officials from prosecution for counting ballots, which effectively could block the underlying criminal investigation.
Will my vote be counted?
State and local officials have vowed to run the election as usual. The courts have so far supported their effort, with a panel of 9th Circuit judges writing Friday that they “decline the United States’ invitation to contravene the Elections Clause by undermining the Constitution’s plain text.”
The judges — two Trump appointees and one nominated to the bench by President Biden — ruled 2-1 in favor of California.
“If the United States believes different procedures are necessary for vote-by-mail ballots, we believe it should take that suggestion to Congress, not the courts,” the panel held.
That decision, handed down just before noon Friday, all but ensures the issue will reach the Supreme Court and be decided there before polls close Tuesday.
But with hundreds of thousands of ballots already returned and hundreds of thousands more moving through the mail over the weekend, the legal fight still could cause delays. And a ruling for the Justice Department from the Supreme Court could snarl the process further.
“Major concerns remain that granting the United States’ requested relief might result in immense hardship to Defendants and harm the public interest by risking the disenfranchisement of eligible voters and putting the entire tabulation process in jeopardy,” the 9th Circuit panel wrote.
The Los Angeles Community College District is the largest community college district in the nation, serving 200,000 students with a budget of $10 million.
Voters will elect three members to the board.
Seat 2
Steven F. Veres
Veres is a member of the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees and works as a state political adviser. He says he has worked to strengthen job training programs and improve graduation rates and wants to make college as affordable as possible.
Robert Payne
Payne taught at L.A. Mission College, worked on movie crews and ran an import business. He would focus on low enrollment growth. He also wants to make community colleges “cheaper, faster, better” in part by offering students more training for specific jobs and less expensive online textbooks.
Kristina Irwin
Irwin serves on the general advisory board at Santa Monica College. She previously served on the board of trustees at Palisades Charter High School. She wants to offer students more tools to succeed in college and to establish “preentry” programs in every local high school to better prepare students for community college.
Adriana Cabrera
Cabrera served as president of the Central Alameda Neighborhood Council and co-founded Empowering Youth in South Central. She wants to make student services easier to navigate and to strengthen financial aid and other support, including for food, housing, child care and mental health.
Roy Payan
Payan has suspended his campaign.
Seat 4
Nancy Pearlman
Pearlman is an environmentalist who served on the LACC Board of Trustees from 2001 to 2017 and taught part time at all nine colleges. She would focus on improving low enrollment while ensuring students are given the necessary support and resources to succeed. She also cites the need to make sure faculty receive equal pay.
Darryn Harris
Harris is a government and community affairs officer for St. John’s Community Health and teaches at Santa Monica College. Harris wants to tackle the affordability crisis blocking student achievement by building more low-cost housing on district land and making it “easier for students to get help with food, transportation, child care, and other basic needs.”
Adam Bruno
Bruno has worked as a therapist helping children and been a community college student. His main goals are to increase enrollment and make it easier for students to afford college. He’d explore student stipends as a way to make community college more affordable.
Elaine Alaniz
Alaniz serves as a public affairs specialist with the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Disaster Recovery and Resilience. She wants to better prepare students for a changing workforce and ensure classroom instruction “keeps pace with a rapidly changing workforce” in the age of artificial intelligence and other technologies.
Isidro J. Armenta
Armenta did not reply to The Times’ survey.
Priscilla Umana
Umana works as an American Sign Language interpreter. She says the district’s biggest challenge “is the high percentage of students experiencing housing insecurity, homelessness, and food insecurity.” She would work with the district to expand affordable housing, work-study opportunities and food aid.
Jason R. Aula
Aula has worked as a political campaign consultant and in the world of mobile apps. He considers fraud a major issue including people posing as community college students to steal financial aid. He proposed a moratorium on noncitizens attending district schools and a focus on pandemic learning loss.
Seat 6
Gabriel Buelna
Buelna serves on the board of trustees. He also is an attorney and teaches history and political science at Cal State Northridge. He said a key issue is making college more affordable to students and ensuring that they graduate. He also said the board must conduct strong fiscal oversight of the billions in voter-approved bond funds.
Tonia Arey
Arey has worked in real estate, public advocacy and community engagement. Arey would work to implement campus safety plans, support additional academic advising and career education and more closely “examine spending, contracts, program outcomes and administrative costs to ensure resources reach classrooms and directly support students.”
Randall Winston
Winston works as a licensed architect and attorney and serves as Los Angeles’ deputy mayor of infrastructure and climate resilience under Mayor Karen Bass. Winston’s priorities for the district include ensuring colleges are a pathway to opportunity and good jobs, that students can afford basic needs and people historically shut out of higher education are let in.
Your ballot is overflowing with decisions you need to make. Some you’ve probably heard about — Karen Bass vs. Nithya Raman for L.A. mayor, Xavier Becerra vs. Steve Hilton for California governor, the controversial billionaire tax.
But there are also some more obscure races on the L.A. County ballot that are important as well. Here are seven to keep an eye out for.
Los Angeles County sheriff
This is a rematch between rivals for the job of running the Sheriff’s Department, which also oversees county jails.
Robert Luna is the sitting sheriff. The former Long Beach police chief, Luna came out of retirement to run for sheriff in 2022, arguing that incumbent Alex Villanueva had taken the department in the wrong direction. Luna points out that violent crime has fallen every year since he took office. Between 2023, his first full year in office, and 2025, homicides fell by more than 25%.
Alex Villanueva was elected sheriff in 2018 in an upset victory. His tenure was marked by controversy and scandal, and he became a fixture on Fox News, where he appeared repeatedly to vilify “woke” culture and criticize Democrats. He faults Luna, claiming the department has issues with recruitment and retention. He also says the department does not have the resources it needs.
L.A. County Charter Amendment A
This measure deals with labor negotiations for key public safety personnel in L.A. County.
Basics
Measure A is a charter amendment that would require binding arbitration between county government and negotiators representing sheriff’s deputies, firefighters, lifeguards and other public safety workers if contract talks reach an impasse and no compromise can be reached. It would alter the current last step, in which county supervisors can impose a final offer that these employees must accept — by law, public safety personnel cannot strike.
Impact
The initial phase of contract talks still would have union and county representatives seeking to hammer out a mutually beneficial deal, with a presumption that both sides would negotiate in good faith. But if a gap remains and an impasse ultimately is declared, the supervisors no longer would dictate the final offer. Instead, a three-member arbitration panel would be formed. The county and union each would select one member, with the sides together choosing the third person, who would serve as chair. If they can’t agree on the final panelist, a state entity could provide a list of qualified arbitrators to choose from. The arbitrators would focus on key employment elements such as wages and hours and would hold hearings and receive evidence from the parties. At the end of the process, a binding result would be issued and made public.
Read more:
L.A. County Charter Amendment E
This is a highly complicated measure that involves jail financing and seeks to clean up some bureaucratic muddles.
Basics
Jails: In 2020, 57% of county voters approved Measure J. This mandated that at least 10% of locally generated, unrestricted revenue be allocated to incarceration alternatives. The problem? Voters later approved the county reform effort Measure G, which had the unintended effect of repealing Measure J. Measure E would ensure that Measure J remains in effect.
Governance: Measure G also created, among other things, a county ethics commission and an ethics compliance office. Officials determined that for true independence, the commission and the compliance office must be permanently enshrined in the county charter.
Impact
Backers say Measure E would clean up those messy governmental issues.
L.A. County Superior Court judges
Voters will decide runoffs for four open judge seats:
Maria Ghobadi and Rhonda Haymon are competing for the Superior Court Judge Office 64 seat.
Justin Allen Clayton and Anna Slotky Reitano are competing for the Superior Court Judge Office 65 seat.
Anthony “A.J.” Bayne and David DeJute are competing for the Superior Court Judge Office 87 seat.
Donna Tryfman and David Ross are competing for the Superior Court Judge Office 131 seat.
Voters decide four runoff contests for Superior Court seats on Nov. 3, choosing who will preside over criminal and civil cases across the region.
Seat 131
The candidates
Donna Tryfman, a deputy public defender, serves in the major cases unit, where she handles homicide and other high-profile defendants. She also has extensive experience in juvenile cases.
David Ross is an alternate in the Torrance branch of the public defender’s office and also works in Bellflower and Long Beach. He claims to have represented more than 10,000 clients at hearings and in trials.
Dive deeper
The Los Angeles County Bar Assn. rates both attorneys as “qualified” for office. Ross said his mix of legal and life experience and his time as a journalist, when he “listened to real people, gathered the facts and told objective stories,” provide a unique perspective. Tryfman has served as a Superior Court judge pro tem, handling traffic and small claims cases. She has proctored teen courts at Dorsey and Hamilton high schools.
Seat 64
The candidates
Maria Ghobadi is an L.A. County deputy district attorney. As a child, Ghobadi fled Iran with her family during the Islamic Revolution and settled in Southern California. She joined the L.A. County district attorney’s office in 2015 and has handled misdemeanors, felonies and domestic violence cases. She’s spent seven years in the gang homicide division.
Rhonda Haymon is an L.A. County deputy public defender. She grew up in Southern California and became an attorney in 2001. She started in the Orange County public defender’s office before moving to L.A. County, where she’s spent 23 years as a deputy public defender. She has been assigned to a restorative justice drug court and consulted on police misconduct cases.
Dive deeper
The Los Angeles County Bar Assn. ranked Ghobadi as “well qualified” and Haymon as “qualified.”
Seat 87
The candidates
David DeJute, who defended President Obama against the so-called birther claims, spent a decade as vice president of litigation at Sony Pictures Entertainment. He now works in litigation at a private firm. An adjunct professor at Pepperdine’s Caruso School of Law, he’s taught ethics, antitrust, copyright and patent law. After last year’s wildfires, he returned as director of the disaster relief clinic, where he instructed students who provided pro bono legal services to victims of the Palisades and Eaton fires.
Anthony “A.J.” Bayne’s background includes nearly two decades serving in the Compton Courthouse, where he for a time served as deputy in charge. He’s now handling serious felony cases at the Torrance branch. Bayne is an inventor, with patent-pending applications for artificial intelligence tools that automate legal workflows. One helps with closing arguments; another uses court reporter transcripts to generate cross-examination questions.
Dive deeper
DeJute is rated “qualified” to serve by the Los Angeles County Bar Assn. Bayne is rated a notch higher, “well qualified.”
Seat 65
The candidates
Justin Allen Clayton is in charge of the Inglewood branch of the public defender’s office and has defended three cases with life sentences. Clayton said a priority is improving court efficiency through pretrial preparation and “firm but fair enforcement of deadlines.” Clayton said running a public defender branch office gives him a “comprehensive understanding” of the courtroom.
Anna Slotky Reitano represented juvenile and adult clients, many of them accused of felonies, before joining the county counsel’s office. Reitano focused on mental health diversion and treatment, aiming to support rehabilitation when possible. A former child actor, she volunteers with local schools and, according to her website, mentors “future lawyers” through moot court competitions.
Dive deeper
The Los Angeles County Bar Assn. considers both qualified to serve.
Steak au poivre is a bistro classic that’s as timeless as French fries or a certain Gruyère-topped onion soup. Its intense, savory flavors strike a balance of richness and heat — the ideal comforting and hearty bite on a crisp fall evening. But across Los Angeles, the peppery dish is getting a second life and its bold flavors are spicing up everything from burgers to ice cream and cocktails. And, of course, its signature sauce is still being poured over plenty of steaks too.
“Au poivre is a flavor people already know and love. It feels classic and a little indulgent, and right now people want food that’s comforting and familiar,” says chef Patrick Costa, who recently added an au poivre cheeseburger at his new restaurant Sous Sous in Silver Lake. “It’s the steakhouse nostalgia people are craving, but approachable, with no white tablecloth required.”
At Compass Rose, a cafe and bar in West Adams, beverage director Danny Rubenstein crafted a cocktail that celebrates France with au poivre flavors. “I found it a fun challenge to try to turn a creamy au poivre sauce into a cocktail,” he says. “The pepper infusion plays nicely with all the flavors, and it’s an unexpected pairing that doesn’t clash. We also sneak a little bit of lactic acid into the cocktail to mimic a creamier, rounder mouthfeel.”
While steak au poivre likely originated in 19th-century late-night bistros in Normandy, France, various Parisian restaurants have laid claim to its invention dating back to the 1920s. The classic recipe was introduced to American audiences in 1961, when Julia Child featured it in her “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” cookbook, and the dish quickly became standard on steakhouse menus. Hand-crushed peppercorns are pressed directly into a cut of boneless beef to form a flavorful crust, and then the dish is finished with a silky, rich sauce made with more peppercorns, a reduction of cognac, heavy cream, beef stock, Dijon mustard and various aromatics like shallots or thyme. It’s spicy, savory, creamy and comforting all at once.
Around L.A. lately, French bistros happen to be exploding. Over the past year, we’ve seen revamps of classics like the 40-year-old Mistral in Sherman Oaks and a menu update at Pasjoli in Santa Monica, plus debuts like Mar Vista’s Electric Bleu, Sous Sous in Silver Lake and Pico-Robertson’s Marée, all of which play around with traditional French techniques and flavors while pulling local and global influences.
Here are 12 of the most notable au poivre dishes around L.A. right now, including a few creative, non-steak items:
Judy Reyes was nursing a severe case of homesickness when she arrived in Los Angeles nearly 25 years ago.
“Every month we’d have a hiatus on ‘Scrubs’ and every month, I’d head back east,” says Reyes, who plays head nurse Carla Espinosa on the ABC medical dramedy. The Bronx-born Dominican actor missed her family, friends and the theater company she helped start in 1992. She also feared she would forget her New York roots and wanted to “keep it real,” she quips. “I was so worried about being fake and not keeping it real.”
In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.
Over time, her trips back home became less frequent, especially after she got pregnant with her now teenage son and her New York family relocated down South. She’s since settled into the place she’s called home for the last three decades.
Earlier this year, Reyes reprised her breakthrough TV role on “Scrubs,” which initially ended in 2010 after a nine-season run. Meanwhile, she’s been splitting her time on set with another ABC workplace drama, “High Potential.” She plays Lt. Selena Soto, who leads a team of LAPD crime solvers. Off screen, Reyes is also the executive producer of “Freestyle: A Love Story,” a stage production that follows two lovers who meet at a freestyle show.
Just weeks before the production debuts on Nov. 6 at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre, Reyes shared a jam-packed Sunday Funday, which primarily takes place in Studio City. On the agenda are New York-style bagels (as a New Yorker, we trust her), getting a massage in the back of a sushi restaurant and enjoying sushi night with her husband and son as they’ve done since he was a baby.
“Before the kid, I was a Hollywood girl, but I’m annoyed when I have to go to Hollywood now,” she says. “I like to say we’ve contributed to the evolution of Studio City.”
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for length and clarity.
5:15 a.m.: Admire the sunrise
I’m an early riser. I get up at like 5:15 or 5:30 a.m. I have a Breville machine, so I’ll make a cappuccino. I’ll take my supplements and I’ll pull up the shade on my terrace and watch the sunrise. I take photos and I send them to my besties on the East Coast. My bestie who lives in a high-rise on 43rd Street also has a terrace and sends me photos of her sunset. My husband’s an early riser too. He has business in the U.K., so he’s always up before me. If I’m not up by like 5:30 a.m., he’s like, ‘Babe, are you OK?’ So I’ll watch the sunrise, catch up on the news and do a little bit of doomscrolling to my detriment.
8 a.m.: Have L.A.’s most New York bagels
Everything opens late on Sundays, so we’ll wait. We’ll either go to Sam’s Bagels, which has the best bagels — the most New York bagels. We’ll either get a half dozen of the mini ones or four of the regular-sized ones with the seeds on them, and we’ll get cream cheese, of course, and lox. Or we’ll go to Belle Bakery Cafe on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City. We’ll have either a full breakfast like bacon, eggs and toast or an omelet. They have the best fresh bread. You can get the bread during breakfast, but they won’t sell you the baguettes until after 11 a.m. You can’t make them give you anything earlier. You get there at 11 a.m. and you’re lucky if you get some. They sell out quickly.
10 a.m.: Pick up the best tuna from Erewhon
We’ll go to an Erewhon or Bristol Farms to get prepared foods for at least the first half of the week. Sometimes we’ll go to the farmers market on Fairfax, but that gets to be a little bit too busy. It’s too hot and there’s too much to do, and for my menopause, it’s not safe for the environment for me to be there. Erewhon has the best tuna fish, so we’ll pick that up that goes well with the bread that I told you about. I’ll add some capers or a pickle or two, then you have a sandwich for the rest of the day or into the next morning.
11 a.m.: A quick workout sesh at home
We’ll come back home and I’ll do some weights in the garage and my husband will do some stairs in the back of our house, or we’ll just do a walk in the hills near our house. I used to walk the hills a lot more before my dog passed away. I find it very sad, so I probably get a weekly walk in now, but I like to do my weights. It makes me feel good and prepared for the rest of the day.
1 p.m.: Get a massage in the back of a sushi restaurant
Sunday is nail day. My favorite place is Mod Nailson Ventura [Boulevard]. My girl Hannah, who runs the place, hooks my nails up, and we have nice, long talks. We rage talk about everything that’s wrong with the world and in our lives, and I get the coolest pedicure. I don’t have tips this time around because I have to keep going back between ‘Scrubs’ and ‘High Potential.’ Nurses can’t wear them long, so maybe next month I’ll get my gel fills, which is what she’s an expert at. Hannah does my nails better than anybody I’ve ever had. They run an acupuncture studio in the back. Her husband does acupuncture. It’s a really reasonably priced, wonderful experience.
Then on that street, I might go to Jonathan, who’s been my masseuse for 10 years, and get a nice beatdown. Interestingly, he works out of the back of a sushi restaurant called Iroha Sushi. He’s got his own little room back there that I’ve been going to for years. Best massage I’ve ever had. He keeps me in line especially when I have to travel. I had double hip replacement, so I’ve been dealing with a lot of pain. I also may go to my acupuncturist Dr. Yi if she’s available. She’s out in Culver City at Yi Qiao.
2:30 p.m.: Watch the L.A. Watford Women FC team practice at LACC
My husband and I co-own a women’s soccer team called L.A. Watford Women FC. We’ll go watch the girls practice at LACC. My husband is very active, as am I, in supporting these women. We were able to win a regional championship last year, so now we’re kind of devoted to going and rooting the girls on in practice, and encouraging them because it’s also an activist thing where you come for the game, but you stay for the activism.
4 p.m.: Go to rehearsals for my upcoming show
Now we’ll go to rehearsals at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre because we have a show, “Freestyle: A Love Story” coming up. We’ll meet with our dancers, actors and our DJ and the staging [team]. It’s not a terribly complicated show so we’re there for a couple of hours. The show is going to premiere on Nov. 6, so we’re running out of time. We do a lot of the social media and promotion because it’s a labor of love, faith, solidarity and community.
6 p.m.: Sushi Sunday with the fam
I’ve been doing Sushi Sunday with my husband and my son since he was 5 months old. We used to go with all these other couples, but people have outgrown us or moved on or gotten jobs in other states. It’s at Kiwami. We stuff our faces like it’s a job. I think we’ve been going there longer than the entire wait staff has been there. We sit at the same table, table number six right behind the sushi bar.
If we don’t go to Kiwami, we’ll go across the street to Black Market Liquor Bar. It’s also a place we’ve been going to for years. They have an appetizer-style, Southern, saucy-inspired menu where they have things breaded and fried. Oh, they have the greatest oysters and amazing pasta. If I’m not with the family and I’m just by myself or with a girlfriend, I’ll go to Laurel Tavern, which is a pub that has the greatest little menu.
7:30 p.m.: Read 10 pages before bed
Then we’ll come home. If there’s football, we’ll watch football. We go for the Jets. Poor Jets. I’m a New York fan so the Jets or the Giants are fine with me, but my husband is addicted to suffering. After football, we’ll both get in bed with our laptops and we’ll either watch something together and I’ll rub his head until he falls asleep. Or I’ll go back to doomscrolling and watching news until my feelings are hurt or I’ll read a book that I have. Because I’m on screen so much, I’m forcing myself to read at least 10 pages a night. I’m currently reading ”Communion” by bell hooks. It’s very heavy. Then I’ll do a little bit of journaling and I’m asleep by 9:30 p.m.
With less than a week until Nov. 3, it seems like the Los Angeles mayor’s race is Karen Bass’ to lose.
After a bad debate against challenger Nithya Raman over the summer and the fiasco that was City Hall’s response to the Lineage fire, the incumbent had no other way forward but attack, attack, attack.
Councilmember Nithya Raman, right, speaks during an Oct. 13 debate with Mayor Karen Bass, left, moderated by Conan Nolan, Colleen Williams and Alejandra Ortiz.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
Bass barely improved on her abysmal favorability ratings. But some Angelenos seem willing to shrug and cast a ballot for her, because they just don’t trust the more liberal alternative. Raman, a democratic socialist who has served on the City Council since 2020, saw her unfavorability rating jump to 50%, as more people got to know her and didn’t like what they saw.
This isn’t the first time voters have swung like this in a mayoral race involving an unpopular incumbent and an upstart representing a new L.A.
In 1969, the candidate with six years on the City Council was Tom Bradley. The mayor, who, like Bass, had served in the California state Assembly and Congress was Sam Yorty, four years removed from a disastrous response to the Watts riots.
Bradley placed first in the primary and seemed a shoo-in to become L.A.’s first Black mayor in an era when cities across the country were also electing Black mayors.
Councilman Tom Bradley, right, and Mayor Sam Yorty debate in Tarzana in May 1973.
(Los Angeles Times)
So Yorty — a former New Dealer turned conservative Democrat — chose the only path to victory. He claimed that “left-wing radicals” who supported the arriviste were salivating to “take over your city.” The nattering negativity worked: He easily beat Bradley.
History doesn’t repeat itself, the adage goes, but it always rhymes.
One factor boosting Bass’ fortunes: Backers of conservative reality TV star Spencer Pratt, who finished third in the June primary, are trending toward the mayor they loathe, apparently because they hate Raman even more.
Part of Raman’s fall is self-inflicted. She lost her momentum with an October of unforced errors, from awkward television interviews to inadvertently praising the late LAPD Chief Daryl Gates, whose name is still synonymous with Lucifer across swaths of the city.
You know you’re having a bad month when you think it’s wise to yell, “Only you can stop fascist liars!” in unison with a progressive influencer, only to walk it back after realizing the influencer had superimposed an image of your opponent on his video.
Councilmember Nithya Raman celebrates advancing to the general election with mayoral campaign volunteers and supporters at Lawless Brewing Co. on June 13.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
But don’t discount how Bass’ camp decided to frame the race. Facing voters who just don’t like their candidate, they long ago stopped focusing on how she would govern the city better in a second term and doubled down on attacking Raman anywhere and everywhere. That strategy owes as much to Yorty’s win as the Beats did to Walt Whitman.
Raman’s colleagues on the City Council have trashed her like bullies out of a boarding school novel.Videos and fliers of homeless encampments blooming across L.A. under a Raman regime are reminiscent of Yorty campaign ads featuring Bradley and the caption, “Will Your City Be Safe With This Man?”
Bass — whose usual sunny disposition I’ve always found a tonic in the toxic world of politics — lashed into Raman during their final debate, offering no real platform and little defense of her record, preferring instead to paint an L.A. collapsing without her in charge.
“Now is not the time,” she said at one point, “to turn the city over to Nithya Raman.”
Then when, Karen?
L.A. Mayor Sam Yorty in 1971.
(Los Angeles Times)
The comparison to 1969 isn’t apples to apples, of course. The city’s demographics are vastly different, its politics nowhere near as conservative. L.A.’s first female Black mayor would never throw racist slurs at Raman, although Bass and her team continue to point out that the India-born council member has lived in L.A. for only 13 years and thus doesn’t understand the place — a page from Yorty’s troll-tastic playbook.
I don’t like Bass’ tactics, but I get it. When you have nothing to run on but your failures, you have to go nasty against a rival who offers a different vision for the city — because fearmongering works when Angelenos know change is on the way but are skittish about what’s next. It happened in 1969, it happened in 2001 when James Hahn beat Antonio Villaraigosa, and it seems to be happening this time around.
We’ll see what election day brings, but Raman can take solace in history if she loses.
Bradley lost his first mayoral campaign but easily won his rematch against Yorty in 1973, after voters realized the status quo was going to remain the status quo. Villaraigosa, too, eventually became mayor.
“Nothing is as powerful as an idea whose time has come,” goes another cliché of history.
Bass might very well cling to her position, but Angelenos still yearn for a visionary to pick them back up from four years of despair under her. They know she’s not it.
Let’s hope she doesn’t become like Yorty in his last term, complaining about haters being unfair and fending off the rebels she can only keep away for so long.
And no Angeleno with an L.A.-centric social media algorithm could forget Jason Radovan and Hannah Webb, who reigned as “The Mother & Father of the 110” on Halloween 2023. Radovan, an artist and actor, said the idea came to him after driving past the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra mural countless times on his commute, and then Webb, also an artist, suggested adding a freeway and cars, which “really cemented the concept.” Finding inspiration while in traffic? Now that feels like L.A.
This Halloween, if you’ll be debuting a costume inspired by weird and wonderful Los Angeles, we’d love to see it. Upload a photo below, along with a few words about it, and we may feature it in an upcoming story.
How would the late Anthony Bourdain have responded to our political climate in the United States with less than a week before the midterm elections of Donald Trump’s second term?
This speculative thought bubble emerged for me as I watched the last of two Los Angeles episodes Bourdain did through 12 seasons of his CNN food and travel series “Parts Unknown.” It aired just over a year before his death by suicide in France on June 8, 2018.
Set in our Pacific immigrant metropolis, the program predicts Season 2 of Trumpism, if you will. In another way, Bourdain’s ode to L.A. suggests a framework on how to think about the state of our nation as we head to the polls on Tuesday.
The universal glee of getting tacos
Customers line up at Ave 26 Tacos stand in a parking lot next to the Little Tokyo Galleria in 2024.
(Silvia Razgova)
Picture the moment when a taquero hands you a warm paper plate heaping with warm tortillas and meats on a street in Los Angeles. Do you also get that giddy, kid-like feeling for half a second? There’s nothing like it, right?
Halfway through the Season 9 opener of “Parts Unknown,” Bourdain experiences just that. In a moment you might miss without looking closely, that familiar look flashes on his face, an unbridled glee, as a taquero in downtown L.A. hands him tacos. In that moment he’s not some mythical man known to his best friends as “Tony.” He’s just a guy getting tacos. It’s super cute.
I came upon this episode recently, and it struck me as potently relevant for today, just before the midterm elections. Bourdain’s taco happiness reminded me that even when some sectors of U.S. society are calling for an effective de-browning of this country, everyone everywhere still really loves Mexican food.
Daniel Hernandez digs into the stickiest questions around food and culture in Los Angeles and the California borderlands.
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It’s worth pointing out that I’m not a Bourdain superfan. I’ve not seen every episode of TV he made. I didn’t read “Kitchen Confidential” until this year. But lately I’ve been studying him. In the past month I finally watched the biopic “Tony” about his coming of age, and I’ve started reading the entertaining memoir “Care and Feeding” by Laurie Woolever, Bourdain’s former long-term assistant and co-author.
I’m catching up on Bourdain because I’ve noticed that as we pass eight years since his death, the author’s cultural influence upon chefs, cooks and food lovers in general does not seem to be waning. It might even be growing.
“He taught me that being a rebel lets you enjoy life,” said Evil Cooks chef and co-owner Alex Garcia, who has an image of Anthony Bourdain tattooed on his leg.
(Daniel Hernandez / Los Angeles Times)
A multitude of chefs or cooks in L.A. have a depiction of Bourdain hanging somewhere in their restaurants, kitchens or homes. Some even on their skin. At least six portraits of Bourdain are on display along the black-clad walls of restaurant Evil Cooks in El Sereno, for example. Chef Alex Garcia has a Bourdain tattoo on his lower leg.
“I love Anthony Bourdain for his rebellious way of being, but also for his love for Mexicanos because he worked for many years with people from Puebla,” Garcia told me after I had dinner there Tuesday night. “He taught me that being a rebel lets you enjoy life, because the end of the day, being yourself, being happy, is the purpose of this journey that we call life.”
This enduring passion for Bourdain also springs from what so much of his television and writing do: Demonstrate an unflagging empathy for almost anyone he met anywhere in the world. Well, almost anyone — he said pretty clearly he’d never share a meal with Donald Trump.
His 2017 episode “Los Angeles” (currently streaming on HBO Max) proves it more than most. It was filmed in 2016, just before the election that took Trump to the White House. It is worth a rewatch before you cast your ballot anywhere.
The program delves into cultural identity, racism, police abuse and corruption and gentrification. Its whole thesis points to the fallacy of being anti-immigrant or anti-Mexican in 21st century America. “Los Angeles, like much of California, used to be part of Mexico,” Bourdain says in the intro. “Now, Mexico, or a whole lot of Mexicans, are a vital part of … us.”
“This show will air long after the election,” Bourdain tells Hinojosa-Ojeda at Gish Bac. “There is actually a national conversation now, unthinkable in my lifetime, where the notion of rounding up however many millions of undocumented workers in this country all at once … and then kicking them out. I mean, it seems unthinkable. But, you know, they said that in Europe in the ‘30s.”
In his characteristic tone, grumpy yet hopeful, Bourdain showed he believed in a shared human dignity that superceded all ethnic, national, religious or ideological boundaries.
Listening to him, the prospect of total MAGA Republican rule in all branches of government becomes something like a nightmare that we’ve seen play out in real life. It is a long list of gross constitutional violations targeting immigrants and brown-skinned people, and their supporters like slain U.S. citizens Renée Good and Alex Pretti of Minneapolis, on a daily basis in this country.
People gather at a memorial for Alex Pretti and Renée Good, both shot and killed by ICE agents in Minneapolis.
(Stephen Maturen / Getty Images)
Loving immigrants
On Tuesday, voters nationwide are expected to be thinking first of their pocketbooks and of corruption in Washington when they vote. On another level, this election along with the 2016 and 2024 results are also about litigating by the ballot box what it means to “be” an American.
Sandra Zweig, one of the executive producers on the show, told me Bourdain set out to highlight Latino Los Angeles from the very beginning in 2016. In March of that year, she recalled in an interview, he sent producers the initial list of the cities he was thinking of for Season 9, to start the production conversation.
From that first brainstorming session, Zweig found these notes about a second episode in L.A.: “All-Mexico edition.”
“This time we pretend nobody lives in L.A. who isn’t Latino,” the notes continued. “We live, play in that world without leaving it, we will explore Mexican and Central American immigration, how vital this population is to the SoCal economy.”
Those notes show Bourdain wanted to avoid a recycling of the pastoral mainstream modern narrative on L.A., which isn’t inaccurate but can sometimes feel stale: hyping its multicultural, polycentric, polyethnic etcetera identity. No. This time would be all brown.
“He worked in kitchens and restaurants for so long, he knew as well as anyone that a huge portion of that work staff were immigrants from Mexico and Central America,” Zweig told me. “He also knew that being an immigrant wasn’t a bad thing, to use the word pejoratively was just anathema to him.”
Pop figures like Bourdain and Trejo, despite his recent stumble (he was cast in a film by alt-right extremist Ben Shapiro’s film company), have arguably done a lot more to shape Americans’ perceptions of immigrants and Mexicans than any political leader.
“He would always say, ‘Travel allows you to see people, where they live, and understand where they’re coming from, and reducing that fear for the other.’ For the audience, you’re opening up a world that they may not be able to travel to yourself,” Zweig said. “In 2016, there were things being said about immigrants and immigration that he felt strongly about, and this was one way to discuss that.”
Zweig added: “I can’t predict exactly what he’d say, but it’s clear to me that’d be appalled by the whole sort of immigration enforcement and ICE tactics that’s happening now. That’s not a leap to assume that.”
When I look at the audacity and cruelty of the MAGA right’s stance on immigration, the killings of citizens and immigrants at the hands of ICE agents, I always turn back and remind myself how out-of-step with the nation it is to be anti-immigrant.
Alfonso Lira, 61, a dishwasher and busser from Michoacan, Mexico, sweeps the entrance at Chapter One restaurant in downtown Santa Ana during a double shift in 2024.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
Gallup polling is a reliable benchmark on weighing Americans’ views on immigration. At its highest point just last year, the trend line showed 79% of Americans believe immigration is a good thing overall to the country by far. Currently that figure is 73%. Only 21% of Americans believe immigration is a bad thing, its second lowest point since 2002.
Polls and sentiments vary widely from there on how to reform and manage the immigration system — although certainly most people in the U.S. are against current ICE raids, roughly by 2-to-1 — but the basic truth is sitting there before us: The country loves and appreciates immigrants. For most of us, it’s always been about welcoming the stranger, honoring hard work, and contributing to the pursuit of social harmony.
Most of us believe anyone can join the party. There just has to be a better process for it. Political leaders therefore must offer a clear plan not for “mass deportations” but for normalizing people who are here and contributing to society, the economy and the tax base. And more than anything, offer as many people as possible a pathway to citizenship.
If anyone ever tells you they are opposed to any version of this notion, remind them that they are in the minority. Americans favor immigrants by 7-out-of-10, Gallup says. And remind them that as his last love letter to L.A. shows, Anthony Bourdain would have tried to snap them out of it if he’d ever gotten the chance.
It’s a bit early for holiday music, but I’ve been unable to stop myself from singing a tune.
“It’s the most wonderful time of the year!”
Although I love every season of hiking in Southern California, the fall and winter are my favorite times to explore massive swaths of our local deserts and the warmer parts of L.A. County, near Santa Clarita, Castaic and more.
It was with that joyful spirit, I wrote this week’s edition of The Wild, our weekly outdoors newsletter. Below, I will detail three great desert hikes within a two-hour drive of L.A. that are great for cool, crisp fall days. Let’s celebrate the end of this year’s heat waves!
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A segment of Three Sisters Rock near the Agua Dulce and Acton area of L.A. County.
(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)
1. Three Sisters Rock via the Pacific Crest Trail
Distance: 7.5 miles Elevation gained: About 1,700 feet Difficulty: Moderate Dogs allowed: Yes Nearest to: Agua Dulce and Acton Accessible alternative: Acton Park Loop
This 7.5(ish)-mile moderate hike to Three Sisters Rock, a massive rock formation perched on the hillside, includes a stretch along the Pacific Crest Trail through a high desert-esque landscape with stunning monoliths of conglomerate and more. It’s hikes like these that remind us of how small we are as we pass by these giant rock formations.
This hike has minimal shade, and what appears to be the only water source, which you must filter to drink, is at the beginning. Pack plenty of water — more than you think you’ll need — and make sure to hike this trail on a cool day to prevent heat exhaustion. Additionally, I recommend wearing pants, as the trail has some overgrown segments and spots where you’ll encounter tumbleweeds. Lastly, my friend who hiked with me used a hiking umbrella and found that really helped with the intensity of the sun.
To begin your hike, you’ll park either at the Indian Canyon Trailhead parking lot or on the shoulder of Soledad Canyon Road next to the trail’s starting point.
From Soledad Canyon Road, you will head north over the Santa Clara River. This short stretch is a bit overgrown and can be buggy, but it’s also five minutes of your hike.
The beginning of the hike crosses through a riparian area along the Santa Clara River.
(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)
As my friend Astraia and I turned out of the wetlands, we passed through dense vegetation, including what looked like rubber rabbitbrush with bright yellow blooms. Astraia cried out. She’d been stung by a bee that’d gotten stuck in her hair as we crossed through the blooms. Likely because of the proximity to water, this was an especially busy spot for the bees, so take good care as you move through here.
A bit of ice and first aid for Astraia’s hand, and we were back on track. We were headed over the train tracks — be careful here! — and continued onward along the Pacific Crest Trail, a 2,650-mile journey that spans from Mexico to Canada. You’ll immediately start gaining elevation as you crunch over the sandy dirt. Don’t forget to breathe and take in the views. You can see Mt. Gleason and Messenger Peak poking out from the San Gabriel Mountains.
The view from the Pacific Crest Trail of the canyons and foothills in the Agua Dulce and Acton area with the San Gabriel Mountains in the distance.
(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)
About a mile in, you’ll spot a giant multilayered stone. Friends, this is a bonus rock! You have almost three miles to go before you reach Three Sisters.
Astraia and I stared in wonder at this ancient specimen, and I entertained her with a story about the one time I tried to simplify local geology in The Wild and thought I might lose my mind because of how complicated it all was. That’s to say, I think this is a type of conglomerate, but I am far from an expert. (Experts: Please email me and tell me what you think.)
Regardless, it’s amazing to look at the layers of these giant rocks and think of the stories they tell about the way these lands have weathered many storms.
The first massive rock formation you pass as you take the Pacific Crest Trail toward Three Sisters Rock.
(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)
For the next mile after this, be mindful of where you walk, as I found a few spots on the trail with patches of soft soil where I could have tripped as my feet sank down. Thankfully, I was going slow, in awe of the landscape around me (including a formation to the east that resembles knuckles in the hillside).
At 2 miles in, you will turn off the Pacific Crest Trail onto a wide dirt fire road. I thought it would be a fairly straightforward hike to Three Sisters Rock from here, but the road ahead has multiple intersections where you can easily make a wrong turn. That said, on your return, keep your eyes peeled for where you rejoin the Pacific Crest Trail, as your local outdoors journalist completely missed it!
The first intersection comes shortly after you start the fire road, where you’ll bear right (or northeast). You’ll know you made a wrong turn if you end up at the base of a transmission tower. Shortly thereafter, you’ll bear right-ish again to avoid another dead end to a transmission tower.
Another one of the layered rock outcroppings you’ll pass as you take the Pacific Crest Trail toward Three Sisters Rock.
(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)
About 2.8 miles in, you’ll see an option to turn left. Continue west on the fire road, following it south around a bend and then up, past another turnoff to a transmission tower about 3.1 miles in where you will bear left, continuing on the fire road. You are almost to Three Sisters Rock!
You’ll turn at about 3.4 miles onto a narrow well-trodden dirt trail down to the rocks. You’ll find three massive rock formations near other smaller heaps of geological history. There’s a nice flat area near the base of the rocks where you can have a snack or lunch break. You should use serious caution if planning to climb up the rock face, as it is not a simple scramble and poses some serious risks if you fall.
Astraia and I were pleased with how we spent the day. She repeatedly commented that, despite the occasional traffic noise from the roadway, it was near silent on the trail. We spotted multiple red-tailed hawks and whiptail lizards and were awed as we watched a raven (or maybe a crow) fly upside down, which we agreed was a skill we’d like to have.
We hiked the trail on a Sunday and saw only two other people with a friendly Brittany spaniel named Boss. They were surprised to see us until we explained we were headed to Three Sisters Rock. I hope you find a similar serenity out in this gorgeous high desert landscape!
The Devil’s Chair is one of the best lookout points in L.A. County. It is located in the Devil’s Punchbowl Natural Area near Pearblossom.
(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)
2. The Devil’s Chair Trail
Distance: 7.4 miles Elevation gain: About 1,500 feet Difficulty: Moderate Dogs allowed? Yes Accessible alternative: Prime Desert Woodland Preserve walking trail in Lancaster
The Devil’s Chair Trail is a 7.4-mile out-and-back hike that takes visitors through ancient sandstone formations of every imaginable shape and size. It’s a great all-day adventure for adults, teenagers and older kids. The trail leads to one of the most epic lookout spots in L.A. County: The Devil’s Chair! (Less spooky than it sounds, though.)
About an hour-and-a-half drive from L.A. near Pearblossom, the hike starts in the Devil’s Punchbowl Natural Area, a 1,310-acre L.A. County park with massive sandstone rock formations and a healthy desert landscape of juniper and Joshua trees, along with native wildlife, including bighorn sheep.
Upon arriving in the large parking lot, you’ll find vault toilets and a visitor check-in area. The nature center is a great stop with live snakes, bugs and other crawly creepers inside. The rosy boa and tarantula are among my favorites to view.
The Devil’s Chair Trail was previously closed because of storm damage, but reopened thanks to the diligent work of county staff.
Its trailhead is in the southeast corner of the parking lot. The first mile of this hike is arguably the hardest part because you gain 500 feet in just under a mile.
The Devil’s Punchbowl Natural Area sits near the San Gabriel Mountains.
(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)
After catching your breath, you’ll turn left (or east), cross a seasonal creek and hike for just over 2½ miles on a gentle path.
As you hike along the trail, you’ll likely spot chipmunks and gray squirrels. I frequently hear a variety of birds when I hike in the park, including hawks, ravens, white-crowned sparrows and dark-eyed juncos (which are very cute).
You also get incredible views of the desert below and mountains in the distance, including nearby Table Mountain in Angeles National Forest and the Tehachapi Mountains in Kern County.
To reach the trail’s namesake, you will walk down a narrow fenced path to a small boulder, surrounded by a short fence, that overlooks the valley below. This is the aforementioned devil’s chair. It’s a great spot to take a family selfie, share snacks and reminisce. And if you’re lucky, you might spot bighorn sheep in the valley below.
A hiker celebrates from a peak at Vasquez Rocks Natural Area in Agua Dulce. The rocks were used in many television shows and movies. Vasquez Rocks are named for the outlaw Tiburcio Vásquez, who used the rocky hills as his hideout.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
3. PCT and Apwinga Loop Trail at Vasquez Rocks Natural Area
Distance: 3.4 miles Elevation gain: 600 feet Difficulty: Moderate
The first time I visited Vasquez Rocks Natural Area, I drove up, explored its famous rocks that jut from the ground like massive flying saucers, and then left. But this park has more to offer than spots to reenact Captain Kirk’s fight with the Gorn in the original “Star Trek.”
To begin the loop, you can start at the gate after parking near the nature center (which features fun movie memorabilia of films made at Vasquez).
Follow the Pacific Crest Trail clockwise and you’ll soon find yourself with your first great view of the park, including its iconic slabs of earth. You’ll follow the trail as it passes next to large rocks — including one that resembles a T. rex — before entering an open area with a green picnic table beneath a pepper tree. Continue following the PCT.
The formations at Vasquez Rocks are diverse in shape and color.
(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)
Soon, you’ll notice trail signs noting that you’re on both the PCT and the Apwinga Loop Trail. The PCT will eventually jag southeast. You will continue following the Apwinga Loop. Here you’ll see so much more than those big famous rocks: sweeping vistas, purple-red rocks to scramble along, native desert plants, like buckwheat and yucca, and — depending on when you visit — plenty of solitude.
I enjoyed looking at the numerous rock formations and, like a high desert Rorschach test, deciding what I thought they looked like: a bolt screwed into the ground, stacks of vinyl records and pancakes. (Maybe I was getting hungry at that point.)
A section of the Pacific Crest Trail runs through Vasquez Rocks Natural Area in Agua Dulce.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
In terms of difficulty, this trail is firmly moderate. Parts of it are flat or gently sloping, but you will run into a few stretches where you will briefly huff your way up. You will walk near the 14 Freeway for a bit, but unlike the drivers, you’ll have a close-up view of these remarkable rocks, formed an estimated 25 million years ago, when their “sediment was spread across alluvial fans — cone-shaped deposits that develop as fast-moving streams empty onto relatively flat plains,” according to NASA.
Vasquez Rocks has different hours depending on the season. From Nov. 1 to Feb. 28, it’s open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Its spring and summer hours, which run from March 1 to Oct. 31, are 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.
3 things to do
A big brown bat is one of many bat species that call L.A. County home.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
1. Behold bats in San Dimas The San Dimas Canyon Nature Center will host Bats of the Angeles National Forest from 6 to 7 p.m. Friday in San Dimas. Visitors will learn about multiple species of bats that flap about our mountains. Learn more at the nature center’s Instagram page.
2. Hike to the sound of ghost stories in L.A. Naturalist and outdoors educator Jason Wise will host Curse of Griffith Park Hike at 6 p.m. Thursday along the park’s trails. Wise will lead hikers on a 2-mile jaunt as he points out spiders, bats and owls, and shares about local lore and legend. Kids and dogs welcome. Suggested donation of $25. Register at eventbrite.com.
3. Hunt for treasure in Long Beach Real estate agent David Sanchez, a longtime organizer of paddling events in the South Bay, will host a Halloween scavenger hunt from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday in Long Beach. Participants will join the spooky hunt for hidden treasures on the water using their own (or rented) stand-up paddleboards, kayaks or other vessels. Register at eventbrite.com.
The must-read
Some of the infrastructure for the Mt. Waterman ski resort.
(Chris Erskine / Los Angeles Times)
The Mt. Waterman ski resort is for sale — again. In 2024, hikers collectively cringed when the news broke that an investment firm was angling to turn Mt. Waterman into an exclusive ski club with pricey memberships, which included chartered helicopters up the mountain. That plan shockingly didn’t work out. Times staff writer Lisa Boone wrote recently about how the ski resort has been relisted, this time for $3.275 million. “We have the steepest skiing in Southern California,” said listing agent Marc Ramirez of Pacific West Business Properties, referring to the black diamond slopes. “We offer advanced skiing you can’t find unless you drive to Mammoth.” He said he’s received about 25 calls a day since the listing went live and is in serious talks with two potential buyers.
May the next buyers understand the spirit of public lands.
Happy adventuring,
P.S.
Quickly, a bit of trunk-cated news: State and local officials secured $1 million to acquire private property in the Elephant Hill area of El Sereno. This will allow the public land known as Elephant Hill Open Space to grow more, providing even more green space for a community that’s fought long and hard for it. You can hike through Elephant Hill’s new trail using the route I developed that connects multiple green spaces in Northeast L.A. Enjoy!
For more insider tips on Southern California’s beaches, trails and parks, check out past editions of The Wild. And to view this newsletter in your browser, click here.
California Deputy Atty. Gen. Marissa Roy has nearly doubled her lead in the race to replace Los Angeles City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto, even as the mayor’s race has narrowed dramatically since September, new polling showed.
Both Roy and her rival, Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. John McKinney, made significant inroads among likely Los Angeles voters in October, winnowing the number of undecideds down to 45% from 70% last month, according to a poll released this week by UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies and co-sponsored by The Times.
But while the race for mayor is now a dead heat, the contest for the city’s second-most-powerful elected position has widened, with Roy leading McKinney by 17 points in the final days of voting ahead of the Nov. 3 election.
Some 36% of likely voters say they’ve marked their ballot for Roy or will soon, versus 19% who say they’ve bubbled in for McKinney or plan to. About 45% remain undecided — far more than are still mulling the mayor’s race, but far fewer than were on the fence a month ago.
Experts said it’s not uncommon for voters to have uncertainty about city attorney races, since few people realize the question of who should fill the office will be on their ballot and many elect not to answer. About 15% fewer Angelenos voted in the last city attorney’s contest than voted for mayor, data show. Other cities saw a similar slump in returns.
The Los Angeles city attorney controls a budget of nearly $200 million and a staff of 1,000, serving as lawyer for L.A.’s City Council and general counsel for its myriad municipal agencies.
Increasingly, city attorneys around the state also pursue so-called “affirmative litigation” against exploitative corporations or punitive federal policy — a role Los Angeles pioneered, but which Feldstein Soto largely eschewed during her tenure at City Hall.
Roy has built her career on affirmative litigation, making it a centerpiece of her campaign. McKinney has characterized it as grandstanding and “out of alignment” with voters.
The two have also knocked heads over how the city attorney should charge and prosecute misdemeanors, work that accounts for about a third of the job.
Polls show voters split on who is best to address what 43% named as their top issue: street homelessness. Both McKinney and Roy have vowed to use the office to stem encampments — Roy by keeping more Angelenos housed through attacks on wage theft and renter harassment, McKinney by inducing more chronically homeless residents into treatment through individual prosecutions.
On runner-up concerns — building more affordable housing and ensuring public safety — similar percentages of likely voters trust Roy and McKinney, respectively.
McKinney, who has taken pains to highlight himself as a Democrat, retains a commanding lead among registered Republicans and self-identified MAGA voters, as well as the much-sought-after supporters of former mayoral hopeful Spencer Pratt, who will likely decide the contest between Mayor Karen Bass and Councilmember Nithya Raman.
Roy was way ahead among renters, who make up nearly two-thirds of the electorate, as well as progressives and self-described Democratic Socialists.
Independent expenditure groups behind both continue to pump money into the race, with Roy’s supporters seeking to paint McKinney as closely aligned with President Trump, and McKinney’s boosters looking to tar Roy as the second coming of former Los Angeles Dist. Atty. George Gascón.
Nithya Raman slowly recited the start of her handwritten message to Angelenos.
Llegué de la India con mi madre a los seis años. Sé lo que cuesta empezar de nuevo.
I came from India with my mother when I was 6. I know what it takes to start over.
The mayoral hopeful was in the green room of Univision’s Westchester studios on Thursday, waiting for an interview with anchor Guad Venegas. He would ask each question in both English and Spanish, and Raman could respond in English.
But she hoped to do better than that.
Since the start of her campaign, Raman has sprinkled Spanglish into her speeches and sometimes offered whole sentences in softly accented, lightly stilted Spanish. It’s part of an effort to win over Latinos, nearly half the city’s population and a crucial swing vote , with less than a week to go before election day.
“Can you say the whole thing for me?” Raman asked Lauren Perez-Rangel, her Latino outreach senior director, who read the full message in effortless Spanish. Raman repeated it word for word, accent for accent, with no flubs or pauses.
“You got it!” Perez-Rangel told her boss.
“I hope,” Raman replied.
It was showtime.
Raman, who serves on the L.A. City Council, grinned when someone said “me vale madre” — I don’t give a damn — on the walk to the studio. She cracked in English, “I doubt that’s true!” when I told an Univision producer in Spanish that no one likes my work.
A cameraman proclaimed “¡Muy bien!” when Raman rattled off an “uno, dos, tres” mic check. Venegas responded in English, “It’s always like that” to Raman’s comment in Spanish that her pronunciation is better than her comprehension.
During the interview, Raman raised her eyebrows when Venegas talked about streets filled with “basura,” the word for “trash” that became an insulting pun on Bass’ name hurled by then-candidate Spencer Pratt during the primary. Raman answered questions in English even when Venegas only asked them in Spanish, fully understanding what he said. And she kept saying “sí” to acknowledge Venegas’ points, as a native speaker would.
She never got a chance to read her Spanish-language statement, but that was OK. I saw enough to know that while she isn’t going to write the next “Don Quixote,” she isn’t limited to ordering at Casa Vega.
Supporters have praised her efforts en español. Critics dismiss them as pandering. I see something more interesting at work.
Raman spoke Tamil and Malayalam in India before moving to the U.S. as a child. If she wins, she would be the first immigrant mayor since Canadian-born Frank Shaw in the 1930s. She’d also be the first mayor whose native tongue wasn’t English since Bernard Cohn, who grew up speaking German in Prussia and served as mayor for two weeks in 1878.
Having a non-native English speaker in charge of a world capital such as L.A. — and one who wants to express herself in the city’s second tongue — wouldn’t just be symbolic. A person who’s earnest about learning a language is forever trying to decipher something new, failing far more often than succeeding in the early going — yet always working to master the task.
Isn’t that what we want from any politician, especially in a city where 56% of residents live in a household that speaks a language other than English?
Los Angeles mayoral candidate and city councilmember Nithya Raman prepares to speak at a “Latinos Con Raman” rally at La Cita Bar in downtown Los Angeles on Sept. 18.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
Familiarity with Spanish has become a prerequisite for L.A. mayors. Antonio Villaraigosa famously took classes to improve his assimilated Spanish. Eric Garcetti described his fluency as “good community meeting Spanish” and often delivered remarks in Spanish. Bass, who was married to a Chicano and treats her ex-husband’s children as her own, isn’t fluent but has a robust Spanish-language outreach for her campaign, complete with ads, mailers and websites.
For Raman, though, learning Spanish isn’t just a way to reach out to constituents. It’s a reminder of “what it means to grapple with a bureaucracy that wasn’t intended for you.”
We spoke outside Univision’s studios after her interview. I asked to speak about her experience with Spanish as a way to show a private side of her to Angelenos. (I had asked Bass to sit down with me and talk about food. The interview was initially scheduled, then campaign spokesperson Alex Stack said it was canceled so Bass could attend a news conference assailing Raman for saying that former LAPD Police Chief Daryl Gates was a “gold standard” in protecting immigrants. Bass’ campaign didn’t reschedule the interview and didn’t provide comment on her Spanish skills in time for publication.)
In 2022, Raman co-authored a motion that introduced live Spanish translation services at city council committee meetings. She wants the city to research whether it can provide the information that’s being lost as the Trump administration increasingly deletes Spanish-language versions of federal websites.
“You have to show them that you’re trying,” Raman told me. “And even if you go out there, and you speak broken Spanish, and you mess it up, and you don’t conjugate it properly, and you get all the endings wrong — ‘a’ versus ‘o’ — the fact that you show up and you say it, and you try it in Spanish, means something to the people that I’ve been talking to.”
Her Spanish journey began with four years of classes at a suburban Boston high school. She chose Spanish instead of French because she felt it “would be more useful for me in the world.”
Raman forgot most of it while attending Harvard and MIT but started practicing with her brother, a Spanish major at UCLA, when she moved to L.A. 13 years ago. She read bilingual books for beginners and streamed shows such asNetflix’s dark comedy “La Casa de las Flores” (“The House of Flowers”) and podcasts such as “Chill Spanish.”
Those lessons have happened “pretty regularly” since she joined the city council in 2020, Raman said, although she scaled back once the mayoral campaign intensified.
I wondered what languages are spoken in her household. Her husband, whose Tamil-speaking parents are immigrants from India, only speaks English. Her twin 10-year-olds “can kind of follow along” when she speaks to her parents in Tamil, but she is no longer fluent in Malayalam.
“I have friends like who speak a different language, and they’re, like, religious about speaking it to their children,” Raman said. While she would love for her children to learn other languages, “life is too stressful trying to make every moment of your time with your family into almost a chore.”
I asked about the pandering charge. Throwing out Spanish phrases in an effort to appeal to Latinos is a political cliché as weak salsa as eating tacos in East L.A. or cruising in a lowrider.
Raman shook her head.
“To try and communicate to people in the language that they speak doesn’t feel like pandering. It feels like what the city should do,” she said. “Why shouldn’t elected representatives here also speak Spanish, or do their best to communicate to people in their language?
“If there was a lot of Tamil speakers here,” Raman continued, “I would appreciate that for me and for my family and for my grandparents.”
Mayor Karen Bass speaks during the “Latinos Con Bass” campaign at Ernest E. Debs Regional Park on Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026 in Los Angeles.
(Kayla Bartkowski/Los Angeles Times)
Then I tested her Spanish.
Had she heard of one of my favorite words: convenenciero? Someone who goes with what will help them and doesn’t stand for anything but themselves. Haters have never outright called Raman a convenenciera, I said, but that’s what they’re insinuating in almost every other sentence.
In fairness, most politicians have a bit of convenenciero in them.
“People say, ‘She doesn’t stand for anything,’ but people also criticize me for being ideological, so which is it?” Raman calmly responded. “I try and learn. And I don’t come and say, ‘I know what you want.’ I say, ‘I’m trying to learn what you want, and I want to make the city work for you. How can I make it work?’”
So you’re not a convenenciera?
“I don’t feel that,” Raman said, repeating the phrase two more times.
I told her I’d ask three questions in Spanish. First: how was she doing?
“Bien. Un poco nervioso.”
“Poca nerviosa,” I corrected. A bit nervous. She thanked me for correcting her and said, “Sí, sí, nerviosa.”
What was she doing to try and relax during this campaign?
“Yo quiero estar con mi familia. Mis hijos …” I want to be with my family. My children …
She thought about the right phrase.
“… son mi vida.” Are my life.
What’s a word she loves in Spanish?
Perez-Rangel suggested chisme — gossip.
“I do like chisme!” Raman said with a laugh. But that wasn’t it.
“I like the word tomar [to take] and how many different meanings it has,” she said in English, then rattled off definitions and tenses in Spanish. Tomar bebidas. Tomar su tiempo.
“Tomar City Hall?” I asked.
She laughed again and said something that needs no translation: “Yes.”
To stage the largest Olympics in history, LA28 is looking toward the cosmos for inspiration.
The committee in charge of bringing the Games back to L.A. for the first time in 44 years announced its slogan for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games on Wednesday, hoping to rally athletes, volunteers and fans behind a simple call: “Stars align.”
“‘Stars align’ is when preparation meets opportunity,” LA28 chief marketing officer Alex Merchán said. “So together that creates something extraordinary, and that’s what we seek to do here.”
The slogan that will set the stage for the next 21 months developed organically within the organizing committee over several years, Merchán said. Only during the past 12 or 13 months did the team really start imagining ways to bring the phrase to life.
“Stars align” is a nod to the “stars in motion” emblem for the 1984 Olympics. It takes inspiration from the 50 stars on the U.S. flag. It speaks to L.A.’s Hollywood reputation.
But it also captures how the largest sporting event in history came to L.A. By the time the Olympics open on July 14, 2028, it will have been 11 years since the city won the original bid. More than a decade of planning and a lifetime of training for competitors align during the once-in-a-generation sporting event.
“Athletes commit so much and dedicate so much and sacrifice so much to get [to the Games] that we ground the idea in that effort, in that alignment,” Merchán said. “Alignment is teamwork, coordination, hard work and commitment.”
Along with the International Olympic Committee’s official motto of “Faster, Higher, Stronger — Together,” each organizing committee uses a slogan to share its vision for the Games. The 1984 Games in L.A. pioneered the marketing tactic with “Play a Part in History.” Those Games then turned into the most financially successful in history, relying largely on private sponsorship to produce a $235 million profit that has sponsored youth sports in L.A. for decades. Now official slogans are as ubiquitous as the Olympic rings when walking around the Games.
LA28 looked at translations of the slogan in the next 14 most-popular languages within the Olympic and Paralympic movement, finding equivalent messages. Some were exact translations. Others needed a different collection of words. The message always stayed the same.
“The simple idea of stars and constellations have, in recorded history, been a part of every group around the world,” Merchán said. “Every country, every tribe if you will, have looked upon stars as something filled with optimism.”
The Games return to L.A. at a high point. The popular Paris Games, which used the motto “Games wide open” to set the tone for a resurgent post-pandemic movement, reinvigorated the Olympics with international broadcast records and 12 million tickets sold across the Olympics and Paralympics.
LA28 is on pace to exceed some of those marks. With more than 6 million Olympic tickets already sold, the private organizing committee will open first-come, first-served Olympic ticket sales next year. Tickets for the first Paralympics in L.A. will go on sale in 2027. The Olympic torch relay will begin in spring 2028, uniting all 50 states en route to the opening ceremony. Wednesday’s slogan is only the starting point of LA28’s constellation of events, Merchán said.
“If we get this right,” Merchán said, “we like to think that we can bring the world together and connect people under this banner.”
The City Council passed two film-friendly measures, one that creates free permits for so-called micro-shoot productions and another that limits parking fees on city-owned lots, yards and civic properties and staging areas to $1 a day, regardless of the size of the project.
The city currently charges $450 a day for base camp parking at city-owned parks and $100 to $300 a day for crew parking, according to FilmLA.
“Both efforts advanced today aim to support independent shoots and attract aspiring storytellers to our city,” Councilmember Adrin Nazarian, who introduced the initiatives, said in a statement. “As we work to protect established productions, we must also uphold Los Angeles’ reputation as a hub for the next generation of filmmakers. People need to believe that this is still the town to turn their filmmaking dreams into reality.”
Micro-shoot permits refer to sets with up to 10 filmmakers on site that have a minimal community impact. Under this new ordinance, student filmmakers, documentary crews and ultra-low-budget projects will be able to obtain free permits. City departments soon will report back to the Council on how they plan to implement this.
The idea behind the $1 permits is to turn more areas of L.A. into homes for all kinds of productions.
Nazarian is chairman of the Council’s recently formed Ad Hoc Committee on Film, Entertainment and the Creative Industry, aimed at making filming in L.A. more accessible.
“The stark reality is that California is on the brink of losing its position as the nation’s premier destination for production spending,” Nazarian said during a City Council meeting this month. “While we retain the Hollywood name, the data makes it urgently clear, crisis-level clear, that Los Angeles is fast losing its footing as the center of film and television production.”
A federal judge on Tuesday seemed skeptical of a Trump administration request to immediately block California officials from counting about 20,000 ballots from voters whose citizenship the administration questions, but said he would not issue a ruling until Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge David O. Carter questioned how the administration had derived its list of suspect voters, worried about disenfranchising eligible voters, said the demands would represent a “monumental change” to California elections and suggested federal prosecutors bringing the case had other means of holding illegal voters accountable.
But just one day after a federal appeals court rejected the same request, Carter said at the conclusion of a 3½-hour hearing in Los Angeles that he needed more time to rule — except on one related issue.
“This court believes it would be wise — that it would be wise — that any threats to state and county elected employees cease immediately,” he said — a clear reference to federal authorities threatening elections officials with criminal penalties if they count any of the flagged ballots.
After the hearing, First Assistant U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles who argued on behalf of the Trump administration, said he had made it “abundantly clear that American voters are being disenfranchised in real time,” and that the administration will wait to see what Carter says Wednesday but was likely to appeal the matter back up to the appellate court.
He also denied threatening state officials, despite the Justice Department having sent formal letters to election officials statewide last week warning them of criminal punishments, and Essayli reiterated that position Tuesday.
Carter’s hearing came after Monday’s decision from the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals — the reverse of what’s normal — because Justice Department attorneys had tried to go over Carter’s head after he didn’t acquiesce to a deadline they’d set for him to rule on their request for a temporary restraining order against the state last week.
However, when the three-judge appellate panel — composed of two appointees of President Trump and one of President Biden — ruled 2-1 Monday that it had no jurisdiction to hear the case given Carter hadn’t yet had the chance, the case returned to Carter’s courtroom.
And there, Carter — an appointee of President Clinton — seemed loath to rush to judgment, despite the Trump administration’s claims of urgency. He said the administration’s method for arriving at its list of potential noncitizen voters was unclear and that he would like to develop the record further, including by bringing in an expert for the court.
“What are these systems? What are the algorithms? How was this derived?” he said.
He also seemed unmoved by the Justice Department’s argument that the ballots must be segregated immediately to prevent noncitizen votes from being counted, and more focused on whether noncitizens who illegally vote can be identified and held accountable while avoiding disenfranchising legitimate voters in the process.
For those who do vote illegally, “you’ve got a remedy, for goodness sakes,” he told Essayli. “Go out and indict.”
The Justice Department sued California, Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean Logan on Oct. 15, two days after Acting Deputy Atty. Gen. Trent McCotter gave Weber and Logan 48 hours to set aside the ballots for the 20,000 flagged voters, whom McCotter described as “likely noncitizens.”
During the hearing, Essayli argued on behalf of the Trump administration that its demands on California and L.A. County were not onerous, could be complied with easily and did not call for ballots to go uncounted. Essayli said the federal government was in court “on a very narrow request for an injunction to separate ballots of those suspected of being noncitizens” only until the state can prove their citizenship.
He argued that the “reliability and credibility” of the federal government process for flagging the 20,000 voters is unquestionable — while also telling Carter, “We’re never going to stand here and tell you that everything is 100%.” He said every vote counts, as some elections “are decided by a handful of votes,” and that the federal government is simply asking California not to break existing federal law barring noncitizens from voting.
“We’re not telling California what they have to do. We’re telling them what they can’t do, which is just count these ballots without doing more to ensure whether they’re citizens or not,” Essayli said.
Essayli — who has aggressively sparred with California officials on social media for weeks — also argued to the court that the federal government has maintained a collaborative “tone” since first asking the state to segregate the ballots, and that he was surprised at how “adversarial” state elections officials have been on the issue.
Attorneys for Weber and the state said the Trump administration’s demand on the state “distorts several legal doctrines beyond recognition” and is clearly illegal, particularly during an ongoing election. They said the administration has provided no evidence that the 20,000 voters aren’t citizens, and has used “data and methods known to be unreliable.”
Michael Cohen, a deputy attorney general for the state, said the Trump administration questions California law that allows voters to attest to their citizenship under penalty of perjury, while ignoring the fact that standard was set not by the state but by Congress.
Anne Bellows, another deputy attorney general, said California has an established framework for running elections, and the Trump administration is trying to “sweep it off the table and replace it with a new, unclear procedure in which the federal government can issue a list and require California to change the way a subset of its voters’ ballots are received, and whether or not they are tabulated,” which she said was illegal and a “recipe for disenfranchisement” of thousands of legitimate voters.
“The stakes here are enormous,” she said.
Attorneys for Logan said the Trump administration has made its demands “without any credible argument” as to how it is legal, that the “proposed remedy” it is demanding from the state is “vague and unworkable,” and that if it wants to question California’s existing processes, “the proper audience for that argument” is Congress — not the federal court.
Several attorneys for voting and civil rights groups also argued against the Trump administration during the hearing, including by arguing that its reliance on third-party data sets — including from Lexis Nexis — was not a trustworthy way of identifying whether voters are citizens.
The litigation is just one part of a much wider battle by the Trump administration to intervene in state-run elections nationwide, and particularly in California, including on the notion that state elections have insufficient guardrails to prevent noncitizens from voting. Elections experts say such fraud occurs, but is exceedingly rare.
While the 9th Circuit panel’s unsigned ruling Monday rejected the Trump administration’s appeal for lack of jurisdiction, both judges in the majority — Mark J. Bennett, a Trump appointee, and Gabriel P. Sanchez, the Biden appointee — wrote independently to make clear that they would have rejected the case on its merits too.
They said it ran afoul of federal law barring interventions in voting in the immediate lead-up to elections, and the U.S. Constitution, which reserves control of elections for the states and oversight for Congress, not the executive branch.
Judge Patrick J. Bumatay, the other Trump appointee on the panel, also wrote independently in dissent — arguing the federal government must “have the power to stop this potential attack on the integrity of our elections.”
Carter previously rejected an administration lawsuit demanding California’s unredacted voter rolls as “unprecedented and illegal” — a decision similar to those made by dozens of other federal judges in other states. Federal prosecutors recently charged 28 lawful permanent residents in California with election-related crimes, including illegally registering to vote. Some of those charged expressed confusion, said they had no recollection of registering or had never voted.
There are more than 23 million registered voters in California.
Last week, Justice Department officials sent letters to election officials in counties across California demanding they sequester any flagged ballots in their jurisdictions, and warning them that they could face criminal penalties if they don’t. State officials denounced the letters as a legally baseless intimidation tactic.
Federal judges also have slapped back executive orders in which President Trump demanded new nationwide voter ID and citizenship requirements, and blocked a Trump administration plan to empower the U.S. Postal Service to vet mail ballots for the first time.
Beyond the courts, Democrats and voting rights groups have been strategizing for months on how to prevent the Trump administration from interfering in the midterm elections, which will determine control of Congress. The Trump administration has said it is merely trying to enforce the law and ensure that noncitizens do not illegally vote and negate the ballots of U.S. citizen voters.
Tom Jones has postponed two California concerts after coming down with a “bad case of the flu.”
Hours before he was expected to take the stage on Monday at the Greek Theatre, the Welsh crooner announced on Instagram that he was rescheduling his L.A. and San Diego concerts on doctor’s orders.
“I’ve had a great time these last few weeks, completing 20 shows and singing for wonderful audiences across the USA, but unexpectedly I’ve been hit with a bad case of the flu,” Jones wrote. “Following doctor’s advice, I unfortunately have to reschedule tonight’s show in Los Angeles and tomorrow’s show in San Diego.”
Monday’s Greek Theatre show will now happen on Nov. 4. His show at the Rady Shell at Jacobs Park has been postponed until Nov. 3.
According to the Instagram statement, all tickets for the original shows will be honored for the new dates. Those who are unable to attend the rescheduled concerts are advised to request a refund through the original point of purchase.
The 86-year-old “It’s Not Unusual” singer is on the tail end of his “Come Gather Round Tour.” His San Francisco show on Nov. 1 was expected to be the finale, but the tour will now wrap in L.A. Jones is scheduled to perform next at Yaamava’ Theater on Thursday.
“I’m truly sorry for any inconvenience caused,” Jones said. “I look forward to seeing you all soon.”
Voters in the Northern California city of Vallejo passed a ballot measure adopting binding arbitration with its public employee unions more than 50 years ago, following a bitter police strike.
The goal was labor peace. Under binding arbitration, an independent referee is brought in when negotiators hit an impasse. The final decision on wages, benefits and working conditions is taken out of the hands of the local elected officials and placed squarely with the arbitrator.
With Measure A on the Nov. 3 ballot, Los Angeles County voters have a chance to do much the same thing here.
The measure is being pushed by unions representing county firefighters, sheriff’s deputies and other public safety employees who by law cannot go out on strike, and who say binding arbitration adds balance to the negotiation process by taking away the unilateral authority held by the county Board of Supervisors.
No formal opposition to Measure A has been submitted. But in his summary of the potential impact this year, county chief executive Joe Nicchita shared news stories showing how binding arbitration has played out in other jurisdictions, including Vallejo.
In 2007, a mediator determined that despite fiscal travails, Vallejo couldn’t reduce the size of its fire department. Eight months later, with little budgetary wiggle room, the city declared bankruptcy.
Vallejo had been the first California municipality to adopt binding arbitration. In 2010, the voters decided to ditch it.
Supervisor Holly Mitchell voiced concerns about Measure A when the board discussed placing it on the ballot this year.
“Arbitrators aren’t elected,” she said. “They’re not required to weigh countywide trade-offs like homeless services, like healthcare, capital improvements, all those things.”
The board voted 4-0 to place binding arbitration on the Nov. 3 ballot, with Mitchell abstaining. Supporters say there are sufficient protections to prevent the county from experiencing the financial tribulations that Vallejo and other cities suffered in part because of binding arbitration.
“This process opens up the books, allows the parties to come together and base decisions on facts rather than political preferences, and it also shows whether there are actually resources to meet the demands that are coming,” Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, an architect of the measure, said in an interview.
Horvath previously noted that just six of the 21 jurisdictions in California that have instituted binding arbitration, including two counties, have had to resort to it.
If a majority of county voters approves Charter Amendment A, it will cover 14 bargaining units representing some 16,500 county workers, among them lifeguards and deputy medical examiners. It would not apply to bargaining units whose workers can strike.
In the current system, if the sides are unable to reach an agreement, the supervisors can impose a final offer that the unions must accept. While contract negotiations are frequently contentious, historically the supervisors mandating final terms is rare; The Times previously reported that it has happened only twice since 2001.
Under the proposed measure, contract negotiations would begin as they do now, with the presumption that both sides bargain in good faith. However, if agreement proves impossible and an impasse is declared, a three-member arbitration panel would take over.
In that case, the county and the union each would select one member, with the sides together choosing the third person, who would serve as the panel’s chair. The arbitrators would hold hearings and weigh evidence related to employment elements such as wages and hours. In the end, the binding ruling would be made public.
Derek Hsieh, executive director of the Assn. for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, said the current process began with a group of labor unions launching a signature-gathering drive to put binding arbitration before voters. That led to working with the supervisors and the county chief executive, who, Hsieh said, wanted to ensure there were certain safeguards.
Hsieh said binding arbitration would represent an important and balanced change.
“Currently, the employer has near unilateral control over what the contract provisions are,” he said.
He added that the threat of going before arbitrators would spur both county and union negotiators to reach an agreement before someone else takes over, and that it would prevent either side from pushing a “wild proposal” that arbitrators would quickly reject.
Dave Gillotte, president of the International Assn. of Firefighters Local 1014, which represents more than 3,000 L.A. County Fire Department employees, agrees that the very threat of winding up in binding arbitration would encourage negotiating teams to cut a deal.
“Binding arbitration really brings about leverage to move both parties to work hard to get a contract done, where we don’t have that now,” Gillotte said.
The practice of using binding arbitration to resolve union and government disputes has been around for decades.
“These are routine laws that are part of the labor relations framework,” said Justin McBride of the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment.
The strong union support for binding arbitration would seem to suggest that the process favors organized labor over elected local governments. McBride said academic studies don’t support that premise, and that neither side overwhelmingly comes out on top.
He pointed to a 2010 study from Cornell University that examined decades of negotiation outcomes in New York. One finding was that after a few years, the number of cases that wound up in arbitration declined, indicating that the sides learned to work together.
“Everyone gets a deal, and just like in a lot of contracts maybe both parties aren’t 100% with it, but that’s kind of the nature of collective bargaining,” McBride said.
Still, there have been instances in which decisions by independent arbitrators contributed to a municipality’s economic challenges, and elected officials were unable to unwind the rulings.
In her interview with The Times, Horvath said arbitrators would be expected to make decisions that consider the county’s fiscal situation.
“That’s what this is designed to do,” she said.
While no formal opponents to Measure A are listed on the ballot, some progressive groups aren’t on board. The voter guides for community organization L.A. Forward and prison abolition proponents La Defensa both urge a “no” vote. The inclusion of the Sheriff’s Department influenced that decision.
“We believe law enforcement special interest groups should not be treated as labor or given more leverage in negotiations,” La Defensa wrote in its guide. “More money and more power for the Sheriff’s Department is the crux of our opposition. By bundling deputies with firefighters and lifeguards, Measure A weaponizes a process we would otherwise support.”
Labor unions and other supporters are digging deep. The unions representing sheriff’s deputies, firefighters and other employee groups reported raising $7.7 million through mid-October to campaign in favor of Measure A, according to financial disclosure reports.
No campaign funds have been reported in opposition to Measure A.
A man dedicates U2’s “With or Without You” to the ex-boyfriend who ghosted him. A woman sings “I’m Coming Home” from “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” for the late Tim Curry. The room pounds their fists on the tables to the bridge of Metallica’s “One,” a harrowing anthem about the horrors of war.
This is Blue Mondays, a karaoke night dedicated to sad songs that’s become a ritual of catharsis for its regulars. It happens the first Monday of every month at the Fable, where singers compete for what KJ (karaoke jockey) Teri Gamble calls, “the most coveted shirt in all of Eagle Rock”: a blue T-shirt featuring a pajama-clad Garfield (the cat, not the president) with the caption “I hate Mondays.”
Gamble, an actor, musician and podcaster, has sung karaoke since childhood with their babysitter. They host several karaoke events, including a Broadway night at Akbar in Silver Lake, and have helmed Blue Mondays for about two years.
Singers gather at the Fable on the first Monday of the month to belt out their saddest songs.
Gamble doesn’t always choose the best singer to win the Garfield shirt. They consider performers who make a song their own, get everyone singing along, or seem like they need a win.
“There was a girl who … had a cast on her arm. She cried her whole song. I said, ‘you don’t have to tell me what happened, but I love you and I hope everything gets better.’ And then I definitely gave her the shirt that night,” Gamble said.
Thom Sigsby, who owns the Fable with his wife, Monica Katzenell Sigsby, enjoys the low-key performances. “Someone did [Sara Bareilles’ “She Used to Be Mine”] and it was just devastating. There wasn’t a single moment of feeling like she realized there was anyone else in the room,” he said.
You’d expect long faces nursing their drinks, but it’s often the opposite. There’s something freeing about exorcising negativity through song that keeps people coming back. There’s community here, across the dedicated regulars and the staff — Gamble’s an incredible singer, and bartender Megha Wescombe absolutely crushes “Maybe This Time” from “Cabaret.” As Nicole Kidman might say, “Heartbreak feels good in a place like this.”
Patrons cheer after a performance during Blue Mondays. Regulars tell stories of forging new friendships at the event.
Mel Minghelli can perform both parts in “Phantom of the Oprah” thanks to her wide vocal range.
“I think I end up feeling less sad about my own personal sads because we are sharing them together,” Gamble said. “So it feels like the burden is lessened by the end of the night every time.”
Akhil Indurti, a software engineer who also performs musical improv at the Upright Citizens Brigade, won October’s shirt. He sang System of a Down’s “Chop Suey” (frontman Serj Tankian owns Kavat Cafe, two doors down), though his go-to is Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game.”
“I think oftentimes [people] listen to sad songs because they’re sometimes more musically interesting,” he said. “They’re not just a major chord progression. It’s not usually just sadness. There’s nuance and subtlety. There’s some storytelling.”
Soraya Sebghati won September’s shirt with Linda Ronstadt’s “Long Long Time.” She fronts the band Night Talks, and said sometimes people tell her she shouldn’t be allowed to do karaoke because she’s a professional. She still loves it, both as a performer and a spectator, and — despite her seemingly upbeat demeanor — enjoys Blue Mondays as a “safe space for the freaks and the goths and people who want to sing sad stuff.”
Fable owner Thom Sigsby says his karaoke book, with more than 12,000 songs, may feel antiquated compared with digital karaoke platforms, but that’s the point.
“I’m the kind of person, when I’m sad, I like to listen to more sad music. I’m also a big cinephile. Bleak Week at Cinematheque’s [Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair] is my favorite week of programming of the year,” she said.
Fable owner Thom Sigsby says his karaoke book, with more than 12,000 songs, may feel antiquated compared to digital karaoke platforms, but that’s the point.
Dave Child lays it all out on the karaoke stage.
The Fable’s crowd and the songs they choose are eclectic, spanning generations and musical tastes. Some songs you’re guaranteed to hear every time — Radiohead’s “Creep” and Johnny Cash’s cover of “Hurt” are staples — but some performers choose more subversive tracks.
For example, OutKast’s “Hey Ya” sounds happy, but it’s about loveless relationships. Barry Manilow’s high-energy “Copacabana” describes a woman who drank her life away following her lover’s murder. Gamble recalled a performer who writhed on the floor while sob-singing Lou Bega’s “Mambo No. 5,” which could be sad considering the protagonist’s inability to maintain a steady relationship.
Blue Mondays didn’t start at the Fable. Sigsby was already a karaoke enthusiast when he began KJing at Bigfoot Lodge in Atwater Village about 14 years ago. By his own admission, he “got way too into it,” spending his own money to add songs to his book. A former theater kid and commercial actor, karaoke gave Sigsby a new way to express himself on stage and make friends. He and his wife even bonded over karaoke before they married.
Lyrics for “Solitaire,” a Neil Sedaka ballad, plays during a karaoke performance.
Given that Mondays are usually slow, Sigsby and his co-workers began adding shticks: single-artist blocks, nights where KJs chose singers’ songs, and Blue Mondays, which offered a free “Prozac” shot for each depressing tune (a mystery blend with an on-theme hue). Free booze — which singers still receive today — was a motivator, but so was the theme, which seemed to “resonate” more than the others.
Sigsby later founded his own karaoke company, HiHo Karaoke. It operates at bars including Ye Rustic Inn, Glendale’s the Gold Rail and Bigfoot Lodge, whose own Blue Mondays, Sigsby said, draws a younger crowd. Compared with some karaoke outfits, Sigsby admits HiHo may appear “antiquated,” but that’s intentional. “There’s no app, there [are] no [paper] slips. You literally just come talk to us because we want to meet you and talk to you and have a relationship with the singer[s],” he said.
The same goes for HiHo’s book. Streaming services may offer 50,000-song catalogs, but HiHo’s 12,000-plus book is curated by its hosts and clientele. Licensing each song ensures musicians and rights holders are paid, and lets people request the songs they’ve been dying to sing, from emo deep cuts to Puccini operas.
Brian Collins performs during Blue Mondays.
In 2019, Sigsby and his wife purchased the Fable (formerly the Old Chalet and before that, the Black Boar) less than six months before the pandemic. It was after stay-at-home orders lifted that Blue Mondays really took off. “I think it really was just this need for everyone to reconnect coming out of COVID and also have a safe space … where they really could emote,” he said.
Through the Eaton fire in nearby Altadena and today’s economic uncertainty — Sigsby notes the first Monday means everyone’s just paid rent — the Fable has continued to offer that space.
Regular Mel Minghelli, whose impressive four-octave range let her nail both the Phantom and Christine in “The Phantom of the Opera,” said, “I think in the way that sad music has helped people as a comfort, it’s really nice to be able to perform it and have other people … hear it or also feel comforted.” Minghelli used to treat her unique talent as a “party trick,” but now wants to record her own music with singer-songwriter Johnny Mace, another regular she met at the Fable.
Mace chose Calum Scott’s cover of Robyn’s “Dancing on My Own” that evening, though he said he often does Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs.” He described the Fable as a “magical” place where he’s found numerous friends and opportunities. “I was in the deepest depression and coming out here got my confidence back and I found my voice again. I [had given up] on my music career. I was really hurting and this place gave me life again so I owe this place a lot,” he said.
He won the shirt once singing the Goo Goo Dolls’ “Iris” but has since given it away, to whom he can’t remember. Why? Unlike Garfield, he likes Mondays.
The next Blue Monday is Nov. 2, 8:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m., at the Fable, 1630 Colorado Blvd. in Eagle Rock.
The 16 candidates vying for three seats on the board that overseas the Los Angeles Community College District have diverse backgrounds and varying ideas — and near unanimous agreement that district leaders need to do more to meet the basic needs of students struggling to pursue their higher education goals.
The candidates include those with experience both within and outside the district, with many citing the need to better connect students in the largest community college district in the nation with good paying jobs after they graduate. The seven-member Board of Trustees are managing a 2022 voter-approved $5.3 billion bond-funded construction boom to revitalize aging campuses and build student housing and at the same time are grasping to find ways to meet the basic needs of students, the majority of whom are low-income, juggling school with jobs.
Members of the board are elected to at-large seats and do not represent a specific area. The 900-square-mile district includes the city of Los Angeles and nearby cities, including Culver City, Montebello and Burbank.
Seat 2
In Seat 2, incumbent Steve Veres is being challenged by three candidates: writer Robert Payne, business owner Kristina Irwin and educator Adriana Cabrera. Roy Payan is also on the ballot for Seat 2, but told The Times he has suspended his campaign.
Veres has served on the Board of Trustees for multiple terms and also works as a staff director and policy advisor for state Sen. Maria Elena Durazo, who previously ran the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor and will soon take a seat on the powerful Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.
In responses to a Times questionnaire, Veres said during his 13 years on the LACCD Board he’s been able to strengthen job training programs, improve graduation rates and helped push to give students access to free and discounted food and emergency housing shelter.
Veres has the endorsement of the Los Angeles Democratic establishment, including Durazo, Mayor Karen Bass and the county Democratic party. Four members of the board of trustees support him, as does the district’s faculty and staff unions.
Between Sept. 20 and Oct. 17, a campaign committee sponsored by the faculty union has paid for nearly $150,000 worth of slate mailers in support of Veres, according to campaign finance records.
An online database of campaign finance records show the other candidates, Payne, Irwin and Cabrera, have not received campaign contributions. Those candidates did not respond to a request for comment about their fundraising.
Seat 4
Seat 4 is an open race, with seven candidates running. Incumbent Sara Hernandez is stepping down and running for state senate.
The most well-funded Seat 4 candidate is Darryn Harris, a government and community affairs officer for St. John’s Community Health, who recently started teaching a class on student skills at Santa Monica College, which is not an LACCD campus.
Harris has the support of a wide swath of Democratic politicians and organizations, as well as labor unions and six of seven current LACCD trustees.
Others running for Seat 4 include environmentalist and former board member Nancy Pearlman; therapist Adam Bruno; healthcare workforce specialist Elaine Alaniz; sign language educational interpreter Priscilla Umana; fire department employee Isidro Armenta; and business owner Jason Aula, who in response to the Times questionnaire, as well as in a recent press release, included comments about the Chinese Communist party and cannibalism.
Seat 6
Perhaps the most contested race is Seat 6, where incumbent Gabriel Buelna is facing off against Randall Winston, who serves as deputy mayor of infrastructure and climate resilience under Bass.
Buelna failed to gain a key endorsement of the district’s faculty guild, whose executive board endorsed Winston.
James McKeever, president of the faculty union, AFT Local 1521, declined to discuss many details of the union’s decision to endorse Winston, but said the executive board wanted to go “in a different direction” and saw Winston as the best candidate.
AFT 1521A, the guild representing district clerical and technical staff, issued a dual endorsement of both Winston and Buelna and has given money to both campaigns.
“I absolutely really love both,” said Andrea Edwards, president of the staff guild. “I could not choose.”
Others running for Seat 6 are community college professor Roberto David LaCarra and realtor Tonia Arey.
Buelna and Arey have accused Winston of misleading the public by listing architect as his occupation on the ballot, as well as describing himself as an educator and a teacher at West L.A. college during the campaign.
“The public doesn’t understand who he really is,” Buelna said.
Arey, who was endorsed by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., has vowed to ensure there’s more transparency and accountability surrounding the district’s nearly $10-billion annual budget.
Asked in an interview why he didn’t list deputy mayor of infrastructure as his occupation when it’s his day-to-day job, Winston said “architect seemed to resonate the most and architect is my first professional degree and fundamentally part of still how I think and act.” Winston said he is currently licensed to practice architecture but doesn’t practice day to day.
Winston said he will also start teaching a leadership class at West L.A. College later this fall and is currently helping to teach a workshop at the college on climate solutions. He also said he has mentored UCLA students.
“I believe I have met the qualifications of an educator,” he said.
The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk‘s Office disagreed and declined to allow Winston to list educator as his occupation on the ballot, according to an Aug. 27 email from the registrar’s office to Winston.
Winston said that at the time “West LA College was still completing the administrative processing for my adjunct instructor appointment.”
Before becoming deputy mayor, Winston also ran the California Strategic Growth Council, which helps fund sustainable development.
McKeever of the faculty union said he saw Winston’s long experience in development as an architect, deputy mayor and head of the growth council as an asset to the district as trustees deal with the bond-funded building program.
“This will help maintain the integrity of the bond process as the district moves forward with new construction projects,” McKeever said.
Despite not receiving the endorsement of the faculty guild, Buelna retains the support of a number of faculty members, including the president of the academic senate, Angela Echeverri.
Echeverri said Buelna “really cares about students and education” and helped successfully push for state legislation to make it easier for students to take courses in languages other than English.
The law “really opened up community colleges to people who previously couldn’t access education,” she said.
With just over a week to go before election day, Nithya Raman’s endorsement for mayor from the Democratic Socialists of America’s Los Angeles chapter is in jeopardy, as members of the local and national branches tussle over the city council member’s bonafides on Palestine.
The local chapter voted to endorse Raman last month, and with that comes teams of eager doorknockers canvassing for her across the city.
The endorsement wasn’t exactly full-throated — the tally was 937 in favor and 484 against — and since then factions within the DSA have argued that she isn’t in compliance with the organization’s stance on Palestine, namely, that she doesn’t support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel.
The DSA’s National Political Committee, or NPC, emailed the local’s leaders saying that they were out of compliance with “R22,” a DSA resolution that requires local chapters to inquire about a politician’s positions on the BDS movement before they are endorsed, DSA-L.A.’s co-chair Leslie Chang told The Times.
Chang acknowledged that the chapter didn’t include a question about BDS on its questionnaire for Raman before it endorsed her.
“This was an oversight,” she and co-chair Sean Wakasa wrote in an email to DSA-LA members. To the group’s national political committee, leadership wrote that Raman “has always supported the right of private citizens to engage in boycotts, including BDS.”
The Raman campaign declined to comment. At a forum last month, Raman called BDS a “legitimate form of peaceful protest” without saying whether she supports the movement.
The DSA’s national political committee, which was originally set to meet on the issue last week, is now expected to meet Monday to mull either suspending the endorsement or asking Raman to clarify her position.
Chang insists the national group has no authority to rescind an endorsement made by the L.A. chapter.
“Our endorsement of Nithya was a democratic decision made by the membership, and the NPC is violating its own bylaws by considering un-endorsement and expulsion without following proper procedure,” she said in a statement to The Times. “So we’re going to continue campaigning for our entire slate and protect our chapter’s vote by all means necessary.”
A spokesperson for the DSA national organization declined to comment.
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‘City of L.A. on steroids’
As voters ready to go to the polls next month, another local race is already looming large in the background: the contest for top dog in Los Angeles County government.
Measure G, approved by a slim margin of voters in November 2024, set in motion the process of creating both a new CEO position with broad executive powers and an independent ethics commission, and it expanded the Board of Supervisors from five members to nine.
But Supervisor Kathryn Barger is now asking her fellow supervisors to take a “pause,” telling the Times in an interview that “haste makes waste” and that she is concerned about that process and the speed of its implementation. She also called into question the ethics of a sitting supervisor running for an office that is expected to pay $558,000 in total compensation.
“This position is going to change the county. We’re going to become the city of L.A. on steroids,” she said Wednesday, a day after the board’s latest meeting devolved into a contentious discussion of the county executive issue and Barger’s intention to slow down the process.
“Once again,” she added, “we are rushing to put something together, I think maybe in the hopes that no one will peel back the curtain and expose what is going on.”
At Tuesday’s board meeting, Barger committed to not run for the CEO position and called on her fellow board members to do the same. Supervisors Holly Mitchell and Hilda Solis have now publicly stated that they too will follow the pledge.
But Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, widely viewed as a potential top contender for the position, has declined to pledge not to run. Instead, she criticized Barger’s approach in an emailed statement to The Times.
“Pressuring others out of an election is political interference, no matter how many times she calls it ethics,” Horvath said, adding that voters “took this power away from politicians like Supervisor Barger because they wanted to make this choice themselves. She doesn’t get to claw it back and dress up a power grab as an ethics crusade.”
Golfing for Gates
Thirty-four years after he left his post, former Police Chief Daryl F. Gates continues to be an unexpected flashpoint in this year’s mayoral contest.
Raman said during an Oct. 13 debate that the LAPD under Gates was “the gold standard” for its noncooperation with federal immigration enforcement. Bass responded by accusing her of romanticizing a chief who presided over the mistreatment of Black and Latino residents.
Raman initially accused Bass of twisting her words. But this week, the council member began issuing apologies, telling CNN she “should not have said it.”
Although Bass has repeatedly denounced Gates’ 14-year tenure on the campaign trail, one of her biggest financial supporters has been keeping his legacy alive.
The Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents rank and file officers and is backing Bass, has been a long-standing host of a memorial golf tournament named after Gates, who died in 2010. This year’s was billed as one of the union’s “premier fundraising events.” According to the union, proceeds go to its Officer Needs Help Fund, which helps officers and their families in times of need.
Bass’ campaign, asked about the tournament, did not immediately offer a comment. Neither did Raman and the police union.
Times staff writer David Zahniser contributed.
State of play
— WILL SHE, WON’T HE: Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvathendorsed Raman on Tuesday, giving the City Council member a powerful boost in the battle for votes on the Westside and in the San Fernando Valley.
Former Los Angeles mayoral candidate Rick Caruso, however, declined once again to endorse either Bass or Raman in the Nov. 3 runoff election, but expressed what he called “extreme concern” about Raman’s plans to remove Police Chief Jim McDonnell.
— VALLEY RAIL: Construction is set to begin this week on a 6.7-mile rail line linking Van Nuys and Pacoima. The nearly $4-billion project, which will run along Van Nuys Boulevard, will include 11 street-level stations and is projected to open in 2032, according to L.A. Metro, the Los Angeles County transit agency.
— TOP COP FLOP: Raman’s police chief woescontinued this week when she was asked by CNN anchor Elex Michaelson to name a police chief she respects. “I don’t know. I don’t know,” she said, before Michaelson continued with another question.
— GHOST OF GASCÓN: In the homestretch of the mayor and city attorney contests, George Gascón has been conjured as a boogeyman by opponents of progressive candidates Marissa Roy and Raman.
— LET THE GAMES BEGIN? The next mayor of Los Angeles will be in the global spotlight in 2028, when L.A. plays host to the Summer Olympic Games. And if Raman prevails over Bass, that mayor will be someone who didn’t even want the Olympics here in the first place.
QUICK HITS
Where is Inside Safe? The mayor’s signature program did not launch any new encampment operations this week.
On the docket next week: The DSA National Political Committee will meet Monday to discuss DSA-LA’s endorsement of Raman.
Stay in touch
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