The Thorn West

Thorn West: Issue No. 227

City Politics

• The Charter Reform Commission, which is expected to consider municipal reforms including a potential increase to the size of city council, has not been able to begin meeting, because Mayor Bass has not yet appointed anyone to the four seats designated to the mayor to fill. This week, after the delay received media coverage, applications for the positions were posted to the public.

• Recent reports on the city budget from both the City Controller and Chief Administrative Officer have projected a larger than expected budget gap.

• Two weeks ago, Mayor Karen Bass fired LAFD Chief Kristin Crowley. Crowley appealed the decision to the City Council, but the termination was upheld by a vote of 13–2. An after-action report on the city’s preparedness for and reaction to the wildfires is still being drafted.

• As the mayor faces sustained criticism over her handling of the wildfires, a group of right wing opponents, including RFK Jr’s running-mate, Nicole Shanahan, has initiated a recall effort.

Labor

• It’s been one year since California law raised the minimum wage for fast food workers and created the Fast Food Council to oversee labor conditions in large chains. CalMatters summarizes year one of the council. Capital & Main has more, including a recent study indicating that so far, the wage increase has had a minimal effect on either the number of jobs, or the price of fast food.

• A package of protections for fast food workers, authored by Councilmembers Hugo Soto-Martinez and Katy Yaroslavksy, passed unanimously out of the city’s Economic Development committee.

• The Original Pantry Cafe has survived as an institution for over a century, but new owners, the heirs of former mayor Richard Riordan, are closing the restaurant for good after its workforce refused to negotiate its union contract.

• Governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order requiring that most state employees work from the office at least four days a week – echoing a similar effort from the Trump administration. SEIU Local 1000, which represents 100,000 state workers, has filed an Unfair Practice Charge with the Public Employment Relations Board.

Housing Rights

• An audit has concluded that the city and county’s homelessness response programs are disorganized and lack adequate financial oversight. At both the city and county level, plans to restructure homelessness around newly created organizations have already been proposed..

• In Pacific Palisades, plans to use the opportunity of the rebuilding effort to increase affordable housing stock have met with pushback from local homeowners.

Local Media

• This week, Patrick Soon-Shiong, the Los Angeles Times’ billionaire owner, announced “Insight,” a new AI program that will chart the paper’s opinion columns on a left-right spectrum, while automatically generating the “opposing view.” Within a day of its launch, the program drew controversy by offering a defense of the KKK.

• Governor Newsom has launched a podcast. His first guest was hard right podcaster and political operative Charlie Kirk, to whom Newsom capitulated on a variety of issues. Newsom drew the most criticism for agreeing with Kirk that Democrats were too supportive of trans rights. Statement from Equality California here.

Environmental Justice

• The cities of Pasadena and Sierra Madre, along with LA County, are suing Southern California Edison, alleging that the utility company’s equipment is responsible for starting the Eaton fire.

Thorn West: Issue No. 226

City Politics

• As many criticize the city’s lack of wildfire preparedness in advance of the Santa Ana winds, Mayor Karen Bass has today fired LAFD chief Kristin Crowley. The LA Times covers the firing in the context of a “sense of disarray that has enveloped City Hall.”

• Children’s Hospital Los Angeles stopped offering several forms of gender-affirming care, in response to a Trump administration executive order threatening the funding of any medical institution that provided this care to transgendered youths. The hospital has now partially reversed that decision, following weekly protests.

Housing Rights

• The LA City Council postponed voting on a motion that would offer eviction protections to Angelenos economically impacted by the wildfires. It will revisit the issue in March. A similar measure did pass at the County Board of Supervisors. That motion applies countywide, but only protects those who specifically lost work. Tenants in Maui, devastated by wildfires in 2023, suffered a variety of cascading displacements, despite the passage of stronger tenant protections than LA is considering.

• The California FAIR Plan, a state-administered fund that provides fire insurance to property owners in high-risk areas, has run out of money in the aftermath of the wildfires. This triggers a condition that allows the fund to collect an additional $1 billion from insurers. Half of this cost may be passed onto consumers, with the state’s approval.

Education

• This week, a Los Angeles Unified School District policy went into effect that bans student phone use during school hours.

• The Trump administration’s terrorization of immigrant communities is depressing school attendance, per CalMatters.

Police Violence and Community Resistance

• A member of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department Civilian Oversight Commission has resigned, amid a conflict pitting the oversight body against county attorneys, LASD, and the State Attorney General’s office.

• In San Francisco, an effort to bolster recruitment to the Police Department has failed, as a growing percentage of cadets are dropping out of the police academy.

Transportation

• A long-awaited discussion about how Los Angeles will implement Measure HLA was delayed; the City Council’s Transportation Committee has been drawn into the efforts to block an affordable housing development, and ran out of time.

• The Trump administration has signaled that it will sabotage a California high speed rail project. At Union Station, a press conference by the U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy was shouted down by project advocates.

Thorn West: Issue No. 224

State Politics

• Amid fears that his administration will withhold federal aid, Governor Newsom met with President Trump in Washington DC.

• Newsom announced that Casey Wasserman, currently serving as chair of the Olympics Committee, will also lead a private-sector wildfire recovery program, known as “LA Rises,” along with Magic Johnson and Dodgers owner Kevin Walter. In Los Angeles, Mayor Karen Bass appointed Steve Soboroff, former chair of the police commission, to lead the recovery effort in Pacific Palisades. It isn’t yet clear how the multiple city and state efforts will be coordinated.

City Politics

• At a press conference with Mayor Bass and other local leaders, President Trump demanded that Pacific Palisades residents who had lost their homes be immediately allowed to begin the process of rebuilding, before they could be safely cleared of toxic debris. His subsequent executive order implemented an “unprecedented” short time frame for debris removal.

Health Care

• Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles to demand that the hospital reverse its recent decision to stop offering gender-affirming care to transgender youth. The hospital’s decision was a capitulation to an executive order from President Trump threatening to derail federal funding to medical institutions that provide this form of health care.

Immigration

• A week of protests at City Hall, as well as student walkouts, all in opposition to the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant policies, gained media attention after protestors briefly shut down the 101 freeway.

• A leaked document obtained by the LA Times indicates that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is planning a “large scale” flood of “immigration enforcement actions” this February in Los Angeles.

Environmental Justice

• Video evidence strongly implicates Southern California Edison equipment as the cause of the Eaton fire. Spokespeople for the private utility company initially denied responsibility, and even attempted to shift blame to a nearby encampment, but have now acknowledged irregularities with their equipment at the time of the fire.

• Rain earlier in the week caused debris flows in the burn scar of the Palisades fire, triggering a weeklong shut down of a stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway. Heavier rain is expected this week.

Thorn West: Issue No. 223

Last week, several explosive and destructive wildfires erupted across LA County. Over 25 casualties have been reported, and many thousands of homes have been destroyed in and around the communities of Altadena and Palisades Park. DSA-LA has put together this evolving emergency resource guide, containing news and organizing opportunities.

State Politics

• In response to the devastation of the ongoing wildfires in LA County, Governor Newsom has proposed a 2.5 billion aid package. Newsom also called for the suspension of some environmental laws that he argued would impede rebuilding.
• Newsom also published an open letter inviting incoming president Trump to tour the areas devastated by wildfires. Trump has incoherently blamed environmental conservation policy for causing the fires, and threatened to withhold disaster relief.
• On Friday, the Governor released an early draft of the proposed budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year. Though drafted before the wildfires, the budget forecasts a small and unexpected surplus after two years of heavy shortfalls.

City Politics

• LA Public Press breaks down the controversy surrounding recent budget cuts to the Los Angeles Fire Department. Many departments experienced cuts after hundreds of millions of dollars were committed to raises for LAPD officers. More granular breakdown here.
• Former mayoral candidate and real estate billionaire Rick Caruso, who has been outspoken in his criticism of Mayor Karen Bass’ handling of the fires, hired private firefighters to protect his Palisades mall while local public hydrants ran out of water.
• In response to the wildfires, Los Angeles has extended the filing period to register as a candidate for Neighborhood Council elections, and also made it for Neighborhood Councils to issue monetary grants to local nonprofits.

Housing Rights

• The wildfires have been followed by rampant price gouging on rent, as landlords attempt to profit from the devastation. While citizens have responded by collaborating on a rent-gouging spreadsheet (here), the State Attorney General has vowed to investigate and prosecute landlords in violation of the price gouging laws; violations can also be reported here.
• A motion from Councilmembers Hugo Soto-Martinez and Eunisses Hernandez would reintroduce COVID policies mandating a blanket temporary rent freeze, as well a moratorium on evicting tenants affected by the fires, but the city council postponed voting on it.
• LA Public Press documents the work of unhoused communities and advocates in developing networks of mutual aid during the wildfires.
• Grist puts the recent fires in the context of the rapidly rising cost of homeowner insurance in California, and the recent state attempts to regulate and reform the market. Meanwhile, The New Republic debunks the myth that insurance companies are being “forced” to raise rates, rather than using disasters as an opportunity to maintain and increase profits.

Immigration

• In neighboring Kern County, Border Patrol agents conducted a massive raid, targeting agricultural workers for detainment and deportation – a return to the practice of frequent workplace raids carried out during the first Trump administration.
• Capital & Main explores how immigrant communities mobilized local relief efforts to help navigate the wildfires.

Local Media

• As false information about the wildfires is proliferating, The Institute for Nonprofit News is offering grants for local independent news sources covering the wildfires.

Environmental Justice

• Climate protesters with Sunrise Movement LA rallied outside a facility operated by oil company Phillips 66, and 16 demonstrators stormed the facility’s office building. The protestors demanded that the oil industry accept financial responsibility for the damages caused by current wildfires.
• Why does climate change lead to more dangerous wildfire seasons? Not only because of the longer dry seasons, but also because of the wild swings between drought and heavy rain.
• KCRW conducted a panel discussion (available in English and Spanish) on the impact of the wildfires on air quality in Los Angeles.

Thorn West: Issue No. 222

City Politics

• LAist talks with incoming (DSA-LA-endorsed councilmember Ysabel Jurado about her vision for CD 14. Conversely, Streetsblog LA covers the last day of outgoing CD14 councilmember Kevin de León. 

• The office of City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto has elected to press charges against several dozen activists who were arrested while blocking traffic on the 110 Freeway, to demand an end to the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

• A report from the CAO updates the city’s worsening budget problem.

Health Care

• The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health launched the Medical Debt Relief Program. The program enables the county to purchase $500 million of qualifying county residents’ medical debt, at a fraction of its cost. The debt is then automatically forgiven.
• Governor Newsom has declared a state of emergency to combat the spread of bird flu, following several confirmed cases across the state.

Labor

• LAUSD school principals have voted to join the Teamsters union. The result of the election is seen as a rebuke of Superintendent Alberto Carvalho who has pushed to cut administrative jobs and increase principal workloads.

Housing Rights

• LA Public Press projects the various ways that an incoming Trump administration could disrupt housing and homelessness policy in Los Angeles.

• The city’s Board of Transportation Commissioners has voted not to transfer a city parking lot in Venice, which is planned for use by a low income housing project. City Council can vote to override the decision. A lawsuit against the city alleges that officials, including City Attorney Feldstein Soto and Councilmember Traci Park, have colluded to sabotage the project.

Transportation

• The incoming Trump administration has threatened to cut federal funding to the long-planned high speed rail project connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Incarceration

• CalMatters places Proposition 36, which will result in more people being incarcerated in the California prison system, in the context of the state’s obscenely high number of inmate deaths.

• Last week, the LA County Probation Department announced that it will not comply with a state order to close the understaffed and unsafe Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall. This week the Board of Supervisors later voted 4–1 to declare a state of emergency in a last-ditch effort to keep the dysfunctional facility open.

Environmental Justice

• The Supreme Court has declined to hear a challenge to California’s vehicle emission standards – which are more strict than the federal standard – leaving them in place for now.

• Demands to close the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility have thundered since it was the site of the largest methane leak in U.S. history, nine years ago. Despite public outrage, today the California Public Utilities Commission voted to delay the closure indefinitely, until such time as the demand for natural gas has dropped.

Thorn West: Issue No. 221

State Politics

• A new state legislative session has begun. Both houses have adopted new rules that reduce the amount of bills a member may introduce: from from 50 to 35 in the Assembly and from 40 to 35 in the Senate.

• Though Republicans gained a few seats in the state legislature, Democrats have maintained their supermajority in both houses.

• Several close House races across California have finally been called, with the results favoring Democratic Party candidates. The final split in the House of Representatives will be 220-215 in favor of Republicans.

• The special legislative session called for by Governor Newsom to “Trump-proof” California met for the first time this week. So far, it has introduced legislation to set aside $25 million for potential legislation against the Trump administration (a move which does not require that the legislature be called).

City Politics

• This Saturday, several of DSA-LA’s successfully endorsed candidates for local office will sit with DSA-LA members running for organizational leadership in 2025 for a panel discussion on “what our roadmap to a Los Angeles for the working class looks like in the year ahead.” Click here to find out more or to RSVP (note that this event is only open to DSA-LA members in good standing).

Labor

• Starbucks Workers United is entering a critical phase in contract negotiations, and is organizing solidarity flyering events nationwide. In Los Angeles, DSA-LA is organizing a flyering event on Sunday, December 15, at 2 pm, at the Starbucks at 3785 Wilshire Boulevard. (For more info, email:  labor@dsa-la.org)

Immigration

• StreetsblogLA goes into depth on LA’s new “sanctuary city” ordinance, placing it in the context of the attempts to implement such a law, which have run into the LAPD’s unwillingness to be democratically controlled. The final version of the ordinance was put into effect by a unanimous City Council vote this week.

• Though both the city and state have announced intentions to fight the Trump administration’s stated intention to conduct dystopian levels of deportations, there may be no way to stop the planned construction of a new detention facility that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement wants to build in the state.

NOlympics

• Outgoing City Council President Paul Krekorian has been appointed to lead LA’s newly created “Office of Major Events,” which will oversee, among other things, the Olympic Games in 2028. More from Torched.

• The LA Metro Board has sent a letter to incoming President Trump, asking him to set aside $3.2 billion to fund transportation projects, specifically in support of the Olympics.

Local Media

• A former editorial writer for the Los Angeles Times explains the motive for his recent resignation: the ongoing heavy-handed interference of the paper’s billionaire owner, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, on behalf of the hard right Trump coalition.

Environmental Justice

• LA Public Press spoke with several local experts on the potential impact of a Trump administration on the city and state’s climate policy.

Thorn West: Issue No. 217

State Politics

• AB X2 – 1, which requires oil companies to maintain higher reserves with the goal of preventing gasoline price spikes, was approved by the State Senate today in a special legislative session. All that remains now is for the Assembly to approve the Senate’s amendments. Governor Newsom promoted the legislation and called for the special session.

City Politics

• DSA-LA has released its voter guide for this November! Read and share!

• Across California, ballots are in the mail. Here is how to register to vote.

• A quarter of the way through the current fiscal year, the city has already spent the entire $100 million budgeted to settle liability claims against the city. The Controller’s office had previously broken down which city departments are most responsible, with the LAPD responsible for over half of the city’s liability.

• Following the latest round of settlement payouts, the city’s reserve fund is now below 4% of the total general fund, and is likely to dip further. Per the Controller’s office, dropping below 2.75% triggers an official “fiscal emergency.”

Police Violence and Community Resistance

• Amid a budget crisis, Charter Amendment FF would spend 23 million to give certain police officers and park rangers better pensions. The LA Times (and DSA-LA) endorses a no vote.

• Non-stop fear-mongering from media, politicians, and law enforcement about a non-existent crime wave appears to have made an impact on voters. Nathan Hochman, considered the most right-wing primary challenger of incumbent LA County District Attorney George Gascón, leads him in the general by high double digits, according to a recent poll. Similarly, Prop 36, which rolls back criminal justice reforms voters approved in 2014, also shows broad support in polls.

Labor

• 2,400 Kaiser Permanente behavioral health workers in Southern California, represented by the National Union of Healthcare Workers, have announced that they will go on indefinite strike beginning on October 21 if their demands are not met. At issue are several concessions won by a similar strike of Kaiser workers in Northern California, in 2022.

Transportation

• AB 761, which further enables California municipalities to take advantage of federal loans to fund critical infrastructure projects, has officially passed. The new funding opportunity has been suggested as a way to expedite the planned extension of the Metro K Line from LAX to West Hollywood.
• This Sunday from 9am – 4pm, CicLAvia will hold one of its biggest car-free open streets events of the year, closing a route sprawling from Echo Park to East LA to all auto traffic.

Climate Justice

• The California Air Resource Board will soon consider whether to amend the Low Carbon Fuel Standard to require that gasoline manufactured in California produce less carbon-intense emissions. Meanwhile, the media has focused on the likelihood that this would likely raise the price of gas.

Thorn West: Issue No. 216

State Politics

• The deadline for Governor Newsom to sign or veto state legislation passed on Monday. Prominent legislation vetoed by the governor include SB 1047, an AI safety bill, SB 961, a bill that mandated new cars sold California warn drivers when they’re speeding, and AB 3129, which would have allowed the state to block private equity purchases of health care facilities. Further roundup here. 

• Newsom approved several bills that derived from the work of the California Reparations Task Force, including one that required the state to acknowledge and formally apologize for the its role in American chattel slavery. However, Newsom vetoed SB 1050, which facilitated restitution for those who had property taken through racially motivated eminent domain, because it relied on a separate bill to establish a Freedmen Affairs Agency, which was stalled just before the legislative deadline.

• It’s rarely noted in media coverage of vetoed legislation, but of the 189 bills Newsom vetoed, 170 passed with veto-proof majorities in both chambers. However, the legislature has not overridden a governor’s veto since 1979.

City Politics

• Newly appointed City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson sat for an interview with LA Public Press

• Leaked documents revealed that the state attorney general wants Los Angeles to redraw council districts ahead of the 2026 election, after the most recent redistricting process in 2020 was discredited by scandal.

• Mayor Bass has appointed former Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell to serve as chief of the LAPD. Next, City Council will vote on the appointment.

• Two candidates from DSA-LA’s 2024 endorsement slate have received endorsements from the LA Times: Karla Griego for School Board District 5 and Ysabel Jurado for CD 14. To help get DSA-LA’s endorsed candidates elected, see our event calendar, or sign up for a working group here.

Housing Rights

• DSA-LA was part of a coalition that organized a tenants and workers solidarity march on Saturday to demand affordable rent and liveable wages. This year, the city will reconsider the formula that determines how much  rent on the city’s rent-stabilized units can be raised each year. DSA-LA is organizing to ensure that the adjustments favor tenants; see here for more.

• The city of Los Angeles must increase its zoning capacity by 250,000 residential units to comply with state housing law. The LA Times notes that almost all of this added capacity is currently being planned for already dense areas. This makes it more likely that building the new units will come at the expense of tenants, and will require demolishing existing rent controlled units.

Thorn West: Issue No. 215

State Politics

• Governor Newson called a special session to pass regulations on the oil industry, with the intention of lowering gas prices. The measure has been further discussed in the State Assembly. While the State Senate has resisted returning for the extra session, Newsom has functionally ignored any legislation on his desk that originated in the Senate.

City Politics

• Today was Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson’s first day as Council President. Former president Paul Krekorian stepped down, as he will be termed out in November.

• A council motion to create protest “bubble zones” around religious institutions and other buildings (meant to curtail Palestinian solidarity protests) was agendized by the Public Safety Committee, and received unanimous opposition from over 100 public commenters. Hearing for the motion was continued to a later date.

Police Violence and Community Resistance

• A University of California regents committee has approved the purchase of “less-lethal” munitions for its campus police forces, following a summer in which they were used against Palestine solidarity protesters. The vote took place in an empty chamber after activists were removed by police.

• The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department unveiled a new policy banning deputy gangs. The policy brings the department into compliance with a 2021 state law and follows sustained activist and media pressure.

Labor

• Across Oregon and Washington, 33,000 machinists represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers have gone on strike against Boeing after contract negotiations stalled. Strike demands include higher wages.

Housing Rights

• Earlier this year, city council requested a report on the current formula used to calculate maximum allowable rent increases on the city’s rent-controlled apartments. LAist obtained the unreleased report via a public records request. The report finds that rental increases have favored landlords, and that across Los Angeles an average of only 35% of rental income is needed to cover landlord operating costs. Report here. DSA-LA Twitter has more.

• LA Public Press debuted a podcast series telling the story of the Hillside Villa Tenants Association, who for years have organized to resist attempts by their landlord to price them out of their homes, becoming leaders of the tenant movement in Los Angeles.

Environmental Justice

• In 2022, the city council passed a ban on oil drilling in the city limits. Last week that ban was overturned by a judge, on the ground that it conflicts with state law. However, a bill currently on the Governor’s desk might resolve that conflict.

• Firefighters have begun to gain the upper hand over several large wildfires that have burned across Southern California in the past weeks.

Thorn West: Issue No. 212

State Politics

• The California State Legislature has returned to session; August 31 is the last day that any of the remaining bills can be passed this year.

City Politics

• Days after withdrawing a motion to spend $2 million on private security to quash Palestinian solidarity protests, Councilmembers Katy Yaroslavsky and Bob Blumenfield have introduced a motion to implement 100 foot radius “protest buffer zones” around “sensitive sites.” A parallel motion was introduced at the county level on Monday. Both of these motions, and most of the media coverage of them, avoid mentioning that the incident that directly motivated this legislation was a protest of the illegal sale of Palestinian land in the West Bank.

• LA Public Press analyzes the 35-page document listing the county level government reforms that LA County will vote on as a package this November.

Housing Rights

• The Housing and Homelessness Committee has advanced a motion guaranteeing a right to counsel for Los Angeles tenants facing eviction. The City Attorney’s office, after being directed to draft “right to counsel” legislation, nevertheless returned language that explicitly refused to use the word “right.” That language was restored at Wednesday’s meeting, which was attended by advocates organized by DSA-LA.
  
• A service provider contracted to be a part of the city’s Inside Safe program is now being investigated for fraud after an audit conducted by the City Controller’s office determined that it was providing “unacceptable meals” to residents.

• Last week, Los Angeles officials pushed back against Governor Newsom’s executive order that state agencies prioritize the displacement of encampments. This week, Newsom threatened to strip funding from cities that refuse to ramp up the criminalization of homelessness. On Thursday, he came to Los Angeles to have himself filmed throwing away personal belongings at an encampment sweep on a local Fox news outlet.

Transportation

• Metro will conduct three hearings next week, beginning Saturday, about three proposed routes for the extension of the K Line. The K Line connects several stops in Inglewood and South Los Angeles and will eventually extend north to Hollywood. Though building is not scheduled to begin until 2041, there is some discussion of accelerating the timeline.