Month: March 2025

Thorn West: Issue No. 228

State Politics

• Former Orange County congress member Katie Porter is the most recent candidate to announce their candidacy for California governor. Current governor Gavin Newsom will be unable to run in 2026 due to term limits.

• Governor Newsom interviewed Steve Bannon on his newly launched podcast. It is the third episode to feature a friendly interview with a member of the far right.

City Politics

Los Angeles chief administrative officer Matt Szabo predicted a $1 billion budget shortfall in the next fiscal year in a presentation before city council, projecting the need for “thousands” of layoffs of city employees. The current fiscal crisis was precipitated by raises for LAPD officers, and is exacerbated by police liability claims. Mayor Karen Bass, released a statement warning that her draft budget for the upcoming fiscal year, due to be released within a month, will represent a “fundamental change in the way the City operates.”

Health Care

• As Republicans discuss cutting billions of dollars in Medicaid funding over the next ten years. Capital & Main projects the devastating cascading effect this will have on health care in California.

• Medi-Cal, California’s implementation of Medicaid, is $6.2 billion over budget, a result of rising pharmacy costs, and increased participation in the program. The state has borrowed from its reserve fund to partially make up the shortfall.

• There was a diagnosed case of measles in LA County last week, in a patient who had just flown into LAX. Press release from the LA County Department of Public Health here.

Police Violence and Community Resistance

• Recordings made by an LAPD officer in the department’s Recruiting Division captured a stream of racist, sexist and homophobic comments from multiple officers across dozens of conversations. A probe is underway.

• [CW: police violence] LAPD officers shot and killed an unarmed driver during a traffic stop last week.

• Amid a budgetary crisis, advocates worry about the future of a successful pilot program that diverts emergency mental health calls to an unarmed crisis response team. LA Forward is hosting a zoom call to organize a defense of the program, here.

• Sheriff Robert Luna is suing the Los Angeles County’s Civilian Oversight Commission, seeking to withhold documents related to deputy misconduct that the commission has subpoenaed.

Housing Rights

• Funding for a federal emergency rental voucher program, which provides assistance to tenants facing homelessness, is projected to run out in the upcoming fiscal year.

• An audit has revealed that LAHSA, the organization which currently provides homelessness services across LA County, has been lax in tracking its use of funds. LA Public Press provides further details on plans at the city and county level to restructure how homelessness services are provided.

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.