Los Angeles Public Press

It’s election season, Los Angeles! We know that filling out your ballot can be daunting — like a pop quiz you forgot about. Are all of those blank bubbles continuing to stare back at you? 👀 Fortunately, voting is an open book affair. And LA Public Press has created a cheat sheet. 🤝🗞️🗳️ The primaries will be held June 2. This is an opportunity to vote for local and state leaders between the presidential election cycle. And in LA, there are more than a half dozen key races on the ballot. We put together this page as a starting point. The sources linked here were developed by our staff and student journalists at Cal State LA, and other local newsrooms and organizations that care about ensuring LA County residents can make informed voting decisions. Remember, you have until 8 p.m. June 2 to vote. 🗓️ LA County has reasonably accessible voting infrastructure that allows you to return your ballot by mail, hundreds of ballot drop-boxes stationed around the county, as well as the ability to vote in-person at a vote center. Make sure you remind your friends to fill out their ballots — you could even host a ballot party! As the election creeps closer, be sure to check out our guide to some of the important dates and deadlines, too. To learn more, read the full story by Mariah Castañeda (@papayathemariah ) via the link in our bio or at LAPublicPress.org.

Over the last two years, three progressive members of the LA City Council — all of whom are fighting for their political futures as they run campaigns in the June primaries — have overseen hundreds of CARE+ cleaning operations carried out in unhoused communities in their districts, according to LA Public Press analysis of city data. The number of CARE+ operations carried out in Nithya Raman, Hugo Soto-Martínez, and Eunisses Hernandez’s districts increased from 2024 to 2025, contributing to a citywide increase of 16% in total CARE+ operations in 2025. CARE+ operations are “comprehensive” cleanings staffed by LA’s Bureau of Sanitation crews. During these operations, encampment residents are required to move their belongings at a scheduled time or risk having them trashed. LA City Council members maintain a lot of control over CARE+ operations. Sanitation spokesperson Tonya Shelton said that operations are scheduled in coordination with council districts “based on their respective priorities.” Sanitation data shows that operations at specific encampments can occur as frequently as several times in one month. The council members ordered at least some of these operations despite initially running campaigns against sweeps. To learn more, read the full story by Phoenix Tso (@phoenixtso ) via the link in our bio or at LAPublicPress.org.

The weekend is nearly here! ☀️ Make the most of it and check out one of these events. 😎 #ThingsToDoInLA

Los Angeles community organizers say construction of the proposed Dodger Stadium gondola would irreparably damage LA State Historic Park by uprooting its trees and siphoning hard-won public space. But they say a state website about the project’s impact on a section of the park is difficult to navigate and limits public engagement ahead of a crucial May 18 deadline. The California Department of Parks and Recreation, also called California State Parks, created a “virtual open house” on its website where people can scroll across a screen with 12 panels explaining the impact of constructing a gondola station on the southern section of the park. The project, developed by former Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, would remove more than 160 trees, ruin the vistas and airspace above the park, and seize two acres of vital green space residents spent two decades fighting for, gondola opponents have said. To learn more, read the full story by Martín Macías, Jr. (@entre_todo.s ) via the link in our bio or at LAPublicPress.org.

After three terms in office, Los Angeles City Councilmember Bob Blumenfield will vacate his seat representing a large swath of the San Fernando Valley. Due to term limits, he can’t run for re-election this year, and three candidates are vying to replace him in the June 2 primary election The third district spans the West San Fernando Valley, including the neighborhoods of Canoga Park, Reseda, Tarzana, Winnetka, and Woodland Hills. The winner will likely confront major issues around housing and homelessness, including the controversial construction of hundreds of homes on the Woodland Hills Country Club golf course, transportation and mobility, including plugging gaps in the LA River bike path, and public safety. It’s a relatively crowded field considering that in 2017, Blumenfield ran unopposed, and in 2022, he faced only one challenger. To learn more, read the full story by Renaissance Thierry via the link in our bio or at LAPublicPress.org.

When we say the Board of Supervisors is powerful, we mean it. 😤 This election season, make sure you are ready to make your voice heard. 📣 🗳️ Find our guide to the candidates running for LA County Supervisor District 3 via the link in our bio or at LAPublicPress.org.

Tida Norasingh (@tidathaitea ) is the creator of Jiji’s Jazz Club, a music meetup that has found itself in a surging LA jazz scene. Norasingh, who is Thai and Lao, said she didn’t always feel like she belonged in older jazz spaces in LA. “I think we’ve had so many people tell us what jazz is versus us having the chance to decide it for us,” Norasingh said. She designed Jiji’s to be a place that is inclusive of women and people of color, where everyone can let loose, stay unplugged and unconcerned with followers or likes. In the beginning, “it was just me and my cat (Jiji),” Norasingh, said, laughing at the common misconception that she is Jiji. “I took all the equipment out of my tattoo studio, redid the entire room to feel like a jazz club and served tea and dim sum. We did it again, then again and again. Each time there were more and more people that came.” You can keep up with Jiji’s events via @jijisjazzclub . To learn more, read the full story by by Rigo Bonilla Jr. (@snaccmanjones ) via the link in our bio or at LAPublicPress.org.

Volunteer observers witnessed in immigration proceedings in LA County and regularly observed immigrants appearing in immigration court without legal representation or interpretation services. A report released last month by Court Watch LA draws from 47 observations by volunteers who, from February to September 2025, noted repeated court delays; the prioritization of deportation over alternatives, such as voluntary departure, filing an appeal or seeking asylum; and a general lack of due process that the organization said has led to immigrants getting unnecessarily deported. The Court Watch report, titled Canary in the Coal Mine, said court watchers saw immigrants’ asylum claims denied while lacking the appropriate counsel or language support to understand the proceedings. The report was released as former immigration judges criticize the Trump administration for pressuring courts to issue as many deportations as possible and deny asylum claims. The Trump administration is openly recruiting “deportation” judges amid a hiring spree that has brought in 140 judges with little to no experience practicing immigration law. More than 200 judges have been fired or retired in the last year. To learn more, read the full story by Martín Macías, Jr. (@entre_todo.s ) via the link in our bio or at LAPublicPress.org.

That's not your girl, that's the LA Public Press Voter Guide!! 😮‍💨 Find her via the link in our bio 🔗 📰

When residents of Whittier, a majority-Latino suburb of Los Angeles, came out in large numbers last summer to protest a rush of ICE operations, the city’s Republican leaders remained unfazed. Masked federal agents were rounding up people at the Home Depot and hauling workers away from local car washes, a jarring disruption to the usual quiet charm of a city where a lush canopy of ficus trees and Canary Island pines line the streets. To the protesters who saw ICE vans stationed at City Hall and the public library, the city was complicit. They demanded that Whittier officials take action and ban ICE agents from covering their faces and using public land to make arrests. A council meeting to discuss the raids had to be moved out of city hall and into a larger auditorium to fit the crowd that attended. But their pleas did not convince the council; its conservative majority rebuffed a proposed ordinance to restrict ICE activities. “We expected the city council to do something to make us safer, and we did not receive that response,” says Renee Lorenzo, a member of Organize Whittier, an advocacy coalition that emerged after the raids to channel residents’ anger over the council’s inaction. Once a conservative stronghold known as Richard Nixon’s hometown, Whittier has grown and transformed into a predominantly Latino city that votes reliably Democratic in state and national elections, including voting against Trump by double-digits in 2024. But for decades, GOP politicians kept winning local contests, while Latino residents struggled for influence in city government. To learn more, read the full story by Pascal Sabino via the link in our bio or at LAPublicPress.org. This article was produced by the nonprofit journalism publication Bolts. It is co-published here with permission.

Ballots are landing in mailboxes across LA County — and voting for the June 2 primary is underway. 🗳️ At @lapublicpress , we’ve been covering the races, candidates, and ballot measures shaping this election — from what to do if ICE shows up at polling places to a round-up of the mayoral candidates jockeying to lead Los Angeles into the future ➡️➡️➡️ YOU are on the ballot this year and every election year — don’t let others make decisions about you without you! Find our election guide at the link in my bio ✨

Why are LA streets so busted? It turns out one big reason why repairs aren’t happening in a timely or orderly fashion is because we don’t have a Capital Infrastructure Plan. A CIP is meant to help a city map out 5-10 years in advance the investments it needs to maintain its streets, parks, buildings and utilities. Most major metropolitan cities in the US have one, except LA. Mayor Karen Bass is trying to fix that, but meanwhile, Angelenos are struggling with decades of neglect. “Every day I go out on my bike, I feel like I’m taking my life in my hands,” said 70 year-old Koreatown resident David Greenfield. Do you have a pothole or broken sidewalk that isn’t getting fixed? We want to see it. You can send pictures and locations to our reporter at [email protected]. Read the rest of our reporting at the link in our bio. Video by @bokchoy_baobei