Alissa, David, and Carla sweat it out during LA’s first major heat wave of the summer and wonder if the city is any better prepared for catastrophic fires. Former LAFD chief Kristin Crowley files a defamation claim against LA Mayor Karen Bass. The Trump administration is trying to extort $1 billion dollars from UCLA. Plus, the latest state transit-upzoning bill, SB 79, makes its way through the California legislature.

“Kristin Crowley and her lawyers accuse Bass of ousting her, and repeatedly defaming Crowley as Bass sought to shift blame for the way the city handled the catastrophic Palisades fire ‘while concealing the extent to which she undermined public safety’ with cuts to the fire department’s budget,” reports the Los Angeles Times

Read Crowley’s full claim

Will she sue the city? As LA City Controller Kenneth Mejia reminds us, LA’s liability suit problem is getting worse

“Trump’s claim of fighting antisemitism at UCLA is a dangerous charade,” argue David N. Myers, Aaron Greenberg, and Kate Pynoos in a Los Angeles Times op-ed

New York Times: “How Universities Became So Dependent on the Federal Government”

“What worries me the most is the country is highly dependent on using these training programs as sources of highly skilled individuals, and that seems to be shrinking massively,” one researcher told LAist

Some of the new Jewish groups mentioned by David that are pushing back against weaponization of antisemitism allegations include Diaspora Alliance, Nexus Project, and Jewish Partnership for Los Angeles

LA’s City Council voted 8-5 to oppose SB 79, the new transit-upzoning bill authored by State Senator Scott Wiener

“If I thought that this body was acting in good faith to address our housing crisis, I would support this resolution.” Watch Councilmember Nithya Raman’s comments on the council floor

A large statewide equity coalition, including ACT-LA, is calling for SB 79 amendments to reduce displacement and create more affordability.

Speaking of housing production, LA County’s new housing authority, LACAHSA, is making some foundational decisions, reports Ryan Fonseca for Think Forward

Over 200 environmental organizations are calling for Gavin Newsom to “immediately fix major problems” SB 131, the new law that exempts advanced manufacturing projects from CEQA review

Here’s the letter urging cleanup on SB 131

The last day to give public comment on the Sepulveda Transit Corridor project is August 30! Share Godfrey’s video, made by Alex Michel. Check out LA Forward Institute’s action toolkit for everything you need to make a comment.

This week’s episode is produced by Olive Greenspan

Support for LA Podcast is provided by LA Forward and by listeners like you. The reporting and analysis you hear in the show is put together by our rotating cast of producers and co-hosts every week. If you want to help us bring more independent voices to California media, start a paid subscription today at thinkforward.la!

All opinions expressed on the show are solely those of co-hosts and may not represent the views of LA Forward

Alissa, Mike, and Rachel talk about how LAUSD plans to protect students from their federal government. ICE crashes Gavin Newsom’s redistricting press conference. DC is invaded by Trump, just like LA leaders warned would happen. Then: DIY crosswalk battles and why you should support a subway beneath the Sepulveda Pass. (Just say no to Fred Rosen’s monorail!)

The first day of school included training teachers and volunteers on how to patrol campuses 

A 15-year-old disabled LAUSD student was detained outside Arleta High School by ICE at gunpoint and, thanks to the intervention of the principal, later released

LA Daily News: “Amid ICE raids, LAUSD implementing new safety measures aimed at ‘safe passage’ for students”

“Wake up, America,” Gavin Newsom warns the rest of the country at his redistricting press conference as ICE swarms outside — listen to last week’s episode for more on Newsom’s redistricting plan

The statement from the Japanese American National Museum is, of course, iconic

An astonishing photo by LA Taco’s Lexis Olivier-Ray shows Border Patrol Sector Chief Gregory Bovino standing before Barbara Kruger’s mural in Little Tokyo that reads “Who is beyond the law?”

Washington Post: “Pentagon plan would create military ‘reaction force’ for civil unrest”

“A senior administration official, as well as other officials, told Rolling Stone that it is a priority of Trump that these kinds of military deployments -- in times of relative calm -- become normalized in American political culture, according to Rolling Stone

“Some fear that when Los Angeles hosts the Olympics in 2028, Trump will put homeless people in detention camps,” the LA Times writes

Streetsblog LA on the Stoner Park DIY crosswalk battles:  “So, if you want to get a crosswalk installed in your neighborhood, the city's fast-track process seems to be: get your neighbors to paint it unofficially (with the help of the LA Crosswalks Collective), then the city will scrape it away and install it officially.”

In 2001, artist Richard Ankrom changed a confusing sign on the 110 freeway and no one noticed for nearly a year. When Caltrans eventually updated the sign, his change was incorporated into the new sign. Watch Ankrom’s documentary Guerrilla Public Service

Streetsblog LA on the new traffic circle construction to start next year at the Koreatown intersection where 9-year-old Nadir Gavarette was killed: “For more than a decade, safe streets advocates have pushed the city to calm traffic to make Fourth Street safer for people who walk and bike.”

Here are the latest renderings for the Sepulveda Transit Corridor project, this Reddit post is really helpful for understanding all the options, and Nick Andert made an excellent video about the difference between subway and monorail

Meet Fred Rosen: “Rosen, who expects his calls and emails to be returned, preferably pronto, decided to make it clear, 'I will not go gently into that good night.' He sent lengthy, hostile missives to Wiggins, with top local officials as well as his moneyed neighbors cc’d: a mix of finance titans, real estate moguls, and plenty of Hollywood heavyweights, including former MGM CEO Harry Sloan, former Disney Media Networks co-chair Anne Sweeney, Mandalay Entertainment chair Peter Guber, and writer-producer Darren Star.”

The 90-day comment period will end on August 30, here’s where you can comment. The last in-person meeting for the Sepulveda Transit Corridor Project will be Monday, August 18, at the Sherman Oaks East Valley Adult Center at 6 p.m. Check out LA Forward Institute’s action toolkit for everything you need to make a comment.

This week’s episode is produced by Olive Greenspan

Support for LA Podcast is provided by LA Forward and by listeners like you. The reporting and analysis you hear in the show is put together by our rotating cast of producers and co-hosts every week. Become a paid subscriber at thinkforward.la so we can keep doing this show every week. 

All opinions expressed on the show are solely those of the individual co-hosts and may not represent the views of LA Forward

Mike and Godfrey are joined by Spectrum 1 News’ Kate Cagle to talk about new “Trojan Horse” immigration raids, Trump launching a new LA28 White House task force while continuing to bash LA, and the escalating war over the potential redistricting of congressional seats in Texas and California. Plus, Kate discusses her recent interview with LA County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath.

Federal agents continued their reign of terror, using a Penske rental truck as a “Trojan Horse” to target day laborers and raid a Home Depot near MacArthur Park. An embedded Fox News reporter accompanied the agents. Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli insisted the raids will continue, despite a federal court order that halted indiscriminate apprehensions in LA 

Kate interviewed Essayli, who said that running from ICE agents is sufficient reason for them to stop someone

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced she was removing age limits for ICE recruits to boost recruiting for the massive expansion of the agency. One of those new recruits is former Superman actor Dean Cain

The Wall Street Journal details how detainees are often shuffled from site to site, vanishing into an opaque ICE detention system

Trump established the LA28 White House task force, and announced that he would be the chair. At a press conference, he bashed LA Mayor Karen Bass as “not very competent,” praised a ban on trans athletes competing in the games, and received a collection of 1984 Olympic medals from LA28’s chair, Casey Wasserman

Bass shared her reaction with Fox 11’s Elex Michaelson, essentially saying “nothing to see here”

LA Times columnist Gustavo Arellano had a more pointed reaction —  as he describes Wasserman: “I haven’t seen such a suck-up since the last time I vacuumed my dad’s pool” — and calls for LA to withdraw from hosting the games

NOlympics LA released the findings of a new poll showing support for hosting the games among Angelenos is waning

At Torched, Alissa talks with civil rights attorney Connie Rice, who recently wrote a letter to city officials warning that hosting the games will have potentially dire fiscal consequences

With Texas Republicans attempting to redraw congressional district maps before the 2026 midterm elections, Gavin Newsom is pushing to redraw California’s map to add Democratic seats. Top Democrats are embracing the plan, while former GOP governor Arnold Schwarzenegger opposes it.  Leading anti-gerrymandering group Common Cause is internally split and searching for a path forward

Newsom’s proposal has an uncertain path, requiring quick legislative action and approval from voters in a special election

Kate’s podcast for LA Times Studios, Rebuilding LA, tracks local fire recovery efforts. On the latest episode, Kate talks with LA County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath

Join LA Forward’s Monthly Meeting on Tuesday, August 19 from 7 to 8 p.m. on Zoom

This week’s episode is produced by Olive Greenspan

Support for LA Podcast is provided by LA Forward and by listeners like you. The reporting and analysis you hear in the show is put together by our rotating cast of producers and co-hosts every week. If you want to help us bring more independent voices to California media, you can subscribe at thinkforward.la

All opinions expressed on the show are solely those of the individual co-hosts and may not represent the views of LA Forward

Alissa, Mike, and Godfrey discuss the next era for LA’s homeless services with a newly named interim CEO for LAHSA and a terrifying executive order from the Trump administration. Then LA’s charter reform commission is finally underway, starting with tackling much-needed infrastructure reforms. And Kamala Harris won’t run for governor — so what (and who) defines the race now?

LA Councilmember Traci Park has filed a motion to assess evacuation routes after last week’s tsunami advisory that seems to take aim at denser housing (no one tell her that scientists now recommend “vertical evacuation” where you go to higher floors of a building, as Alissa wrote in 2018)

Gita O’Neill is the new interim LAHSA CEO and some people are not happy about that choice; LA CAN put out a series of blistering statements opposing her appointment 

A new Trump executive order on homelessness is very alarming because federal grants will now only go to cities that ban urban camping — and a Trump appointee specifically told LA County their funding was at risk

Celebrating the order is Joe Lonsdale, the Palantir cofounder on Rick Caruso’s Steadfast LA board who shops anti-camping ballot measures around to states; here’s his thread praising the decision 

Meanwhile, ICE is using LAPD databases to track immigrants

LA’s charter reform commission got off to a contentious start with a leadership battle, before pivoting to a deep dive on questions of infrastructure, planning, and power

Alissa wrote about Investing in Place’s 16 recommendations for public space including a five-year Capital Infrastructure Program, two-year budget, and possibly dissolving the Board of Public Works? Read Investing in Place’s report

Join LA Forward’s Capital Infrastructure Program working group with a special meeting on Monday, August 4 from 8 to 9 p.m. on Zoom with Investing in Place

Fair Rep LA has a schedule of all the upcoming charter commission meetings

Kamala Harris announces she will not run for California’s governor

Politico: “The governor’s race truly begins”

Gavin Newsom wants to force a special election to redistrict the state to favor Democrats, although it’s politically risky

Listen to Mike’s upcoming episode of What’s Next, Los Angeles? featuring journalist Karen Ocamb on philanthropist Wallis Annenberg’s legacy

Support for LA Podcast is provided by LA Forward and by listeners like you. The reporting and analysis you hear in the show is put together by our rotating cast of producers and co-hosts every week. If you want to help us bring more independent voices to California media, you can subscribe at thinkforward.la

All opinions expressed on the show are solely those of co-hosts and may not represent the views of LA Forward

This week’s episode is produced by Olive Greenspan

Alissa and Mike sit down for a full assessment of recovery efforts six months after the January fires — and discuss why a key rebuilding effort went off the rails. Plus, we check in on the accomplishments of the fire-recovery billionaires, and try to figure out why one of those billionaires, Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, announced he’s taking the paper public.

Cleanup was astonishingly fast, but as this LA Times summary of progress notes, only 800 rebuilding permits have been filed so far across both burn zones 

One reason: there are a lot of concerns about what people are returning to, both when it comes to the toxicity of their homes and the future of their communities

The UCLA Blue Ribbon Commission Climate Action and Fire-Safe Recovery that was convened by Supervisor Lindsey Horvath released its six-month fire recovery report with one topline recommendation: create a special Resilient Rebuilding Authority at the state level. Here are some extremely good explainers from UCLA’s Emmett School of Law on what a rebuilding authority could do and how it would have aided Woolsey Fire recovery

That effort, SB 549, has now stalled, in part due to conspiracy theories amplified by reality star Spencer Pratt, and State Senator Ben Allen talked to KCRW’s Madeleine Brand about what’s next

Meanwhile, Altadena’s land is being gobbled up by outside developers and lots are losing value for those who want to sell and efforts to rebuild smarter and to have families collaborate and source materials more sustainably are largely left up to homeowners

And while there haven’t been any significant charges for rent gougers, LA City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto is going after Airbnb for price gouging

Listen to Kate Cagle’s podcast, “Rebuilding LA”

Six months after the fires, the LA Times reached out to nearly a dozen city, county and state agencies involved with evacuation planning. “All either did not respond to requests for comment, could not point to an evacuation analysis in line with the state’s guidelines for AB 747 or indicated the responsibility for doing the work lies with other agencies”

Many big name philanthropists have gone missing but Department of Angels, Evan Spiegel’s partnership with California Community Foundation, seems to be carrying out important work

The block captain model is powerful and Altatogether is coordinating it in Altadena

Billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong went on The Daily Show to announce that he’s taking the LA Times public

Status: “Jon Stewart torched media executives for bowing to Trump — then handed Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, one of the worst offenders, an unchallenging interview minutes later”

This week’s episode is produced by Sophie Bridges and Olive Greenspan

Support for LA Podcast is provided by LA Forward and by listeners like you. The reporting and analysis you hear in the show is put together by our rotating cast of producers and co-hosts every week. If you want to help us bring more independent voices to California media, you can subscribe at thinkforward.la

All opinions expressed on the show are solely those of co-hosts and may not represent the views of LA Forward

Alissa, Rachel, and Sophie come bearing (some) good news as 2000 National Guard troops are withdrawn from LA and a federal court ruling invokes a temporary restraining order that stops ICE agents from racial profiling. Plus: Children’s Hospital LA closes a clinic that’s served trans kids for 30 years, and Trump’s transportation department tries to revoke California’s high-speed rail funding.

Trump orders 2000 National Guard troops to leave LA — but 2000 National Guard troops and about 700 Marines still remain

The New York Times talked to a some Marines and National Guardsmen who said morale is so low that soldiers are shitting in hummers; while the Los Angeles Times reports on the widespread boredom of those deployed to the “Los Angeles mission”

A federal temporary restraining order says ICE needs probable cause to retain someone and cannot rely on other discriminatory factors “including apparent race or ethnicity; speaking Spanish or English with an accent; presence in a particular location like a bus stop, car wash, or agricultural site; or the work the person does.” LA Taco’s Lexis-Olivier Ray reports that a similar temporary restraining order in Kern County is working

Economic analysis on the ICE raids by CalMatters: California saw a 3.1% drop in private-sector employment in June, a decline that the state hasn’t seen since the pandemic or the 2008 recession. 

“As a campus we recognize the significant harm that has resulted from these events and reaffirm our commitment to supporting our students, faculty, and staff and prioritizing your safety and well-being”: Cal State LA allows students to switch to online learning 

LASD is now handing over prisoners to ICE, claiming sanctuary laws apply but there are “exceptions for cases that involve criminal offenses”

LA Public Press: “LA bus operators vow to shut doors on ICE to keep immigrant riders safe”

Children’s Hospital LA’s Center for Transyouth Health and Development will close on July 22 due to Trump administration threats

The history of CHLA providing gender-affirming care is astonishing — they’ve been doing this for 30 years, serving many low-income families 

LA County is trying to scramble money for a 988 hotline for trans youth after Trump ended funding for the national one in July

Politico: “Four hours inside Newsom’s head”

Trump’s Department of Transportation is trying to claw back $4 billion in high-speed rail funding, even though Newsom says revoking the money is illegal. The state is now suing to stop them

Alissa’s thoughts on the fake high-speed rail train from LA to NYC

How Caltrain’s electrification and faster, more frequent service boosted ridership 53 percent year over year

This week’s episode is produced by Sophie Bridges

Support for LA Podcast is provided by LA Forward, and listeners like you. The reporting and analysis you hear in the show is put together by our rotating cast of producers and co-hosts every week.. If you want to help us bring more independent voices to California media, you can subscribe at thinkforward.la

All opinions expressed on the show are those of co-hosts alone and do not necessarily represent the views of LA Forward.

Alissa, Mike, and Godfrey on the terrifying U.S. military invasion of MacArthur Park that sent LA Mayor Karen Bass racing to the scene. Why homicides in LA have hit a 60-year low (hint: it’s not because of cops). And when LA County voters approved the governmental-reform Measure G in 2024 they inadvertently invalidated the anti-incarceration Measure J, passed in 2020. Whoops!

The Guardian: “The troops were deployed to a mostly empty MacArthur Park in the neighborhood of the same name for about an hour, some on horseback and others in armored military vehicles. Agents were also operating an armored vehicle with a mounted rifle”

Capital and Main: “When ICE came up empty”

Alissa’s story on how traumatizing kids at a rec center summer camp has made LA parents even more uneasy

Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez: “What you see happening in MacArthur Park is coming to you”

Ken Klippenstein published alleged leaked documents detailing the goal of “Operation Excalibur”

Vets About Face created an important video explaining why the U.S. military does these “shows of presence” in occupied regions

CalMatters, Bellingcat, and Evident Media analyzed 100 ICE raids in Southern California and highlighted some troubling (and unconstitutional) tactics

The City of LA, LA County, Pasadena, Montebello, Monterey Park, Santa Monica, Culver City, Pico Rivera, and West Hollywood joined the ACLU’s lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security. After we recorded, a ruling siding with ACLU from Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong “temporarily blocked the Trump administration from using racial profiling to carry out indiscriminate immigration arrests.” Read the order here

Day labor advocates were arrested for allegedly planting tire spikes (they’ve been released); an astonishing 12-hour standoff with Ventura County farmworkers ended with over 200 people kidnapped and one farmworker, Jaime Alanis, dead. Here’s how to support the families

Wired: New DHS guidance “urges officers to consider a range of nonviolent behavior and common protest gear — like masks, flashlights, and cameras — as potential precursors to violence” 

New Gallup polling shows Trump’s immigration policy is becoming very, very unpopular

Julia Wick’s reporting on how Stephen Miller was radicalized in Santa Monica is a must-read in the Times

LA just recorded its lowest homicide numbers in 60 years; this chart is truly incredible

Homicides are down nationwide post 2020 largely due to an outpouring of funding for social services. Directing more spending towards parks, local nonprofits, community centers, and violence interrupters has been attributed to a historic drop in homicides in cities like Baltimore as well — but what happens in a city that slashes that funding?

LA Times: “LA County’s charter reform accidentally repealed anti-incarceration ballot measure”

LA Daily News: “Two members say the measure, approved by voters, contains a clause that ends a 2020 measure that requires county funds be spent on incarceration alternatives”

Watch last week’s LA County’s Governance Reform Task Force meeting for the reveal of the error. Discussion begins 43 minutes in

On Monday, July 14 at 12:45 p.m., Isaac Bryan and Eunisses Hernandez are hosting a conversation on why J matters and what happens next. LA County Supervisors Lindsey Horvath and Janice Hahn are proposing a fix on Tuesday

Where are our elected leaders in the resistance to attacks on our communities? LA Forward is hosting its monthly meeting to answer these questions in partnership with Local Progress. Tuesday, July 15 at 7 p.m. on Zoom, RSVP here

Produced by Sophie Bridges

Support for LA Podcast is provided by LA Forward, and listeners like you. The reporting and analysis you hear in the show is put together by our rotating cast of producers and co-hosts every week.. If you want to help us bring more independent voices to California media, you can subscribe at thinkforward.la. 

All opinions expressed on the show are those of co-hosts alone and do not necessarily represent the views of LA Forward.

Alissa, Hayes, Mike, and Carla recap another week of relentless ICE raids. The Trump administration sues LA over its sanctuary city status, and a coalition of immigrants rights groups sue the federal government right back. A ruling in the Alliance lawsuit raises questions about LA City’s homelessness count numbers. And the biggest-ever rollback of California’s often-abused environmental quality law, CEQA.

The Trump administration sues LA for obstructing immigration laws: “Jurisdictions like Los Angeles that flout federal law by prioritizing illegal aliens over American citizens are undermining law enforcement at every level,” said Attorney General Pam Bondi. Here’s the flimsy case

ACLU SoCal, Public Counsel, CHIRLA and other groups sue the Department of Homeland Security alleging that ICE has “unconstitutionally arrested and detained people in order to meet arbitrary arrest quotas set by the Trump administration.” Watch the press conference and read the full complaint

Rep. Laura Friedman held a press conference for the No Masks for ICE Act, and new city motions from Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez are also demanding federal agents show ID and not mask

Alejandro Orellana, a 29-year-old member of the Boyle Heights-based community organization Centro CSO, was indicted for handing out face shields during protests

How the private prison company CoreCivic wants to expand its California City facility for ICE detainees

LA Taco’s Daily Memo featuring Memo Torres is a must-watch. Also check out this Washington Post feature about LA Taco

Cal Matters: “Taken: What happens after an immigration raid”

Judge David O. Carter’s ruling says there is a “glaring lack of accountability for how the city spends money on homeless services and housing.” Here’s all 62 pages of the ruling

LAist keeps reporting on inconsistencies with the homeless count

An ongoing Rand study says homelessness declined in Hollywood and Venice, but not Skid Row

The New York Times on the biggest CEQA rollback we’ve ever seen: “One of the bills signed on Monday will exempt from CEQA high-density projects as long as they are not on environmentally sensitive or hazardous sites. The other bill will create sweeping changes that are aimed at accelerating legal review and that will exempt numerous types of development projects, from farmworker housing to child care centers. The legislation will also make it easier to rezone areas to allow for more housing in some cities”

Many environmental groups are not pleased; here’s a letter signed by 100 groups opposing the reform

Should we give Abundance credit? Ezra Klein was even name-checked by the governor in his speech. Mike asks what books should be on Gavin’s nightstand instead? He recommends Copaganda: How Police and the Media Manipulate Our News by Alec Karakatsanis and Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond

Speaking of reform: some good housing production legislation proposed by LA Councilmember Nithya Raman

Listen to Mike’s exit interview with Rick Cole as he leaves the LA City Controller’s office

Every day at La Placita: Summer of Resistance activities

On the six-month anniversary of the LA firestorm, revisit Think Forward’s opinion essays on recovery and reconstruction and become a paid subscriber to LA Podcast at thinkforward.la

Produced by Sophie Bridges

LA Podcast is a production of LA Podcast LLC, which is owned by LA Forward. LA Forward provides support and editorial guidance for the podcast, but all opinions expressed on the show are those of co-hosts alone. The opinions expressed on LA Podcast by the co-hosts do not represent the organizational position of LA Forward.

Alissa, Mike, and Godfrey track a third week of ICE raids that are more violent, more brazen, and raising more questions about how LAPD is assisting with these kidnappings. The Olympic Wage coalition strikes back with a new referendum to raise the minimum wage for *all* LA city workers. Plus, Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral primary win is huge news for New York City — and maybe for LA?

ICE says 1,600 detained in Southern California, with data showing the majority are men with no criminal records, randomly taken off the street

In an LA Taco video it certainly looked like LAPD was protecting ICE in downtown LA Tuesday

The statement from LAPD only seemed to confirm this: “At one point, a partially handcuffed woman approached and stood near a LAPD officer. After several minutes, a Federal agent approached and assumed control of the woman. LAPD was not involved in her detention or arrest”

As Ron Gochez of Union del Barrio told LA Taco during a ride-along: “They’re not going to call the police to defend them, they’re going to call us”

A motion put forth by LA Councilmembers is asking for more clarity on: “to ensure the safety of City personnel and to prevent unlawful entry by Federal entities”

Meanwhile, the Mayor of Huntington Park, Arturo Flores, formally directed the Huntington Park Police Department to enforce rules about federal agents self-identification, including unmarked vehicles: “We cannot allow Wild West-style bounty hunter tactics to unfold unchecked on our streets… Our residents deserve to know who is operating in their neighborhoods and under what authority”

The hotelworkers union filed a state complaint about misleading signature gathering for the anti-Olympic Wage referendum — here’s the complaint letter and the state leaders they’ve gotten to sign onto it

Now the union is trying to gather signatures for its own ballot measure which basically uses the misleading talking points in proposing to raise the minimum wage for all workers

Zohran Mamdani won a convincing victory against the establishment, as a result of an unusual confluence of reasons, writes Josh Marshall

Mamdani masterfully grabbed public attention, as Ezra Klein and Chris Hayes discuss.

Ranked choice voting helped in the context of the partisan primaries, which we don’t have in California

NYC Comptroller Brad Lander’s cross-endorsement with Mamdani was especially powerful

Watch Anand Giridharada’s interview with Brad Lander about the election results and where things go from here (featuring strategist Waleed Shahid and messaging guru Anat Shenker-Osorio too)

NYC is the most Jewish city in the country and Mamdani’s ability to win many Jewish New Yorkers’ votes despite massive spending by AIPAC-aligned funders has to be understood in the context of extensive, locally-rooted Jewish-Muslim coalition building, as Peter Beinart, Arielle Angel, Mari Cohen, and Alex Kane discuss.

Listen to Mike Bonin speak with Ami Fields-Meyer about “Being a dissident in the United States” on the latest What’s Next, Los Angeles?

On July 1, Reclaim the Streets marches against ICE are taking place all over the city: Eastside, SELA, Crenshaw, South LA

Become a paid subscriber to LA Podcast at thinkforward.la

Produced by Sophie Bridges

Alissa, Mike, Rachel, and Oscar give an update on LA under siege as at least 500 people are taken from their families in federal raids. Plus, the massive No Kings rally in Downtown LA ends in police violence, how CHIRLA’s rapid response team is monitoring detention centers, and widespread fear fuels an economic crisis across a city of immigrants. 

The June 14 No Kings rallies may have been the largest single-day nationwide protest in US history, according to The Guardian, but when all the individual actions are counted up since Trump has taken office the second time, there is “dramatically more protest activity” in the U.S. now than his first term

Los Angeles Times: “How the LAPD’s protest response once again triggered outrage, injuries and lawsuits”

“I saw no evidence of violence on the part of protestors (the many thousands of them) before that moment.” Watch Matt Gutman and Jacob Soboroff reporting live on national TV when local law enforcement began to escalate their attacks on protesters (with a special shout out to Gutman for keeping his cool)

Three different lawsuits — LAPD, LASD, DHS — have been filed on behalf of journalists and legal observers who have been injured in protests. A slideshow of injuries has been compiled by Press Rights Chair at Los Angeles Press Club Adam Rose: “In 2021, I made a slideshow based on 50+ incidents of police misconduct toward journalists. It covered all California over a 12 month period. The legislature responded with new laws to protect press. I just made a new one. It's bigger. It's worse. And it's just one week in Los Angeles”

Brittny Mejia and Rachel Uranga put together an incredible account at the LA Times of the Hollywood Home Depot raid and what happened when a U.S. citizen was detained, including ICE agents bragging about the number of “bodies” apprehended — his phone recorded the whole thing

De Los columnist Fidel Martinez: “What the Dodgers can learn from Angel City about community”

“The population of the Adelanto Processing Center went from 350 to 1,200 in a matter of 10 days in June”: Members of Congress went to Adelanto with CHIRLA to see “inhumane” detention facilities

So many representatives have tried to get access that DHS has now changed the rules -- in violation of federal law

How the Home Depot in Westlake has become a resistance center

On Friday, LA’s City Council introduced a series of motions related to the raids, including laying the groundwork for suing the Trump administration — we’ll get into these in more depth next week

CalMatters: “Trump can keep troops in LA for now, appeals court rules”

CHIRLA’s know-your-rights resources

A group of faith leaders are holding a weekly prayer vigil on Wednesdays at 6 p.m. starting at La Placita, follow LA Voice for details

Donate to the street vendor fundraiser organized by Community Power Collective, East LA Community Corporation, Inclusive Action for the City, and Public Counsel

Join the Summer of Resistance: 30 days of actions at La Placita

Ensure we can keep releasing new LA Podcast episodes every week -- become a paid subscriber at thinkforward.la.

Produced by Sophie Bridges