mayor

KYIV’s mayor and former world champion boxer Vitali Klitschko entered the ring with Volodymyr Zelensky, accusing him of “authoritarianism”.

The former heavyweight blasted the wartime Ukrainian President for paralysing his city with “raids, interrogations and threats of fabricated criminal cases”.

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Klitschko said the president’s decision to use martial law to appoint a rival military administration in Kyiv stopped his city from making progress.

The 53-year-old mayor’s claims come after ex-comedian Zelensky was taunted earlier this year by Donald Trump and his right-hand-man JD Vance.

The Don tripled down on his criticism of Zelensky in a blistering Truth Social rampage in February, branding the Ukrainian President a “dictator” and a “moderately successful” comedian.

And just days after that, a furious Trump dramatically booted Zelensky out of the White House amid a seething row over US backing of the Ukraine war, sparking global chaos.

Trump has also accused wartime hero Zelensky of “refusing to have elections” – despite this being normal protocol under martial law.

Klitschko’s allegations towards Zelensky of authoritarianism come as his Kyiv administration faces a string of arrests.

Some of Klitschko’s deputies have been purged by the national anti-corruption bureau under an operation called Clean City.

The probe has exposed widespread corruption under the mayor’s watch – and seven of his subordinates have so far been arrested, with another three under investigation.

The former athlete has now lashed out at Zelensky, saying that the work of his city council has been plagued by fake criminal cases and threats.

He says that these hampered the ability of Kyiv authorities to make key decisions.

Kyiv’s mayor told The Times: “This is a purge of democratic principles and institutions under the guise of war.

“I said once that it smells of authoritarianism in our country. Now it stinks.”

He also accused President Zelensky of using military administrations across the country to take power from elected mayors.

This is not the first time ex-sportsman Klitschko – who is also said to have presidential ambitions – has called out his rival Zelensky.

The Kyiv mayor called out the Ukrainian President in February amid stalling peace negotiations.

Zelensky then hit back at the boxing champ, saying: “Klitschko is a great athlete, but I didn’t know he was a great speaker.”

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Klitschko said that his recent criticism of Zelensky has been protected by his celebrity status.

“Many of the mayors are intimidated, but my celebrity status is a protection,” he explained.

“You can fire the mayor of Chernihiv, but it is very difficult to fire the mayor of the capital who the whole world knows.”

He added: “That is why everything is being done to discredit and ruin my reputation.”

Political scientist Volodymyr Fesenko said that the conflict betwene the two rivals goes deeper.

The expert said it reflected concern about abuse of city funds in wartime, calling it a “response to manifestations of corruption in the Kyiv city administration”.

He told The Times: “During the war money should go primarily to defence, to protect the country, yet there is all this construction.”

Questioning the corruption in Kyiv, he added: “In some other cities, even stadiums are being built.

“In the Donbas there are large landscaping projects. The frontline is near by, and the money is not going to defensive structures, but to greenery.”

Kyiv locals have been baffled as luxury flats keep popping up instead of shelters or schools — often built on public land using a dodgy “toilet loophole”.

This starts with setting up a par-per-use toilet for example, to then receive something similar to squatters’ rights.

Many of the ten Kyiv officials under investigation have been charged with corruption relating to the approval of these land permits.

Klitschko’s ex-deputy has been charged with taking bribes to help war conscripts escape, while a former city councillor accused of embezzlement has fled to Austria.

He responded to claims of corruption under his watch, saying that he had sacked eight of the officials being investigated.

“I have 4,500 employees in this building alone and about 300,000 employees working for the city,” he said.

“Corruption cases sometimes happen, but we react harshly and quickly.”

He added: “We co-operate with law enforcement, provide all the necessary information and hope for an impartial investigation of all cases.”

Klitshcko’s main rival in Kyiv, Tymur Tkachenko, has slated the mayor for showing “weakness” during wartime.

Tkachenko told The Times: “Mr Klitschko could not close the brothel in the basement of the same building where he lives.”

He was referring to Tootsies, a notorious strip club raided and shut down by the security service last month as part of an investigation into sex trafficking. 

Klitschko hit back at claims he was tied to the strip club which is near a hotel complex he owns, calling it a “lie” meant to smear him.

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Staycee Dains was about a month into her job overseeing the Los Angeles city animal shelters when an employee openly defied her.

Dains asked the employee to clean a kennel. Instead, the employee picked up a hose and sprayed a dog in the face, Dains said.

Dains thought the employee should be fired, but she said the city’s personnel department recommended five days of leave.

Mayor Karen Bass hired Dains in June 2023 after promising to make L.A. “a national model for animal welfare” by turning around its troubled shelters, where dogs may live in overcrowded and dirty kennels and volunteers have complained that animals sometimes don’t get food and water.

But in an interview with The Times, Dains said she felt powerless to solve entrenched problems that included severe understaffing and employees who mistreated or neglected animals.

She said she was repeatedly told by the personnel department, which functions like a human resources department at a private company, that she couldn’t fire problem employees. She also clashed with one of the unions that represents shelter employees.

At one point, Dains even reached out to L.A. County prosecutors for help.

Meanwhile, as the overcrowding worsened, more dogs and cats were euthanized in city shelters under her watch than in the preceding years.

“We need to tell the unfiltered, unvarnished truth about what is happening in the shelters,” Dains said.

In August, after a little more than a year as Animal Services general manager, Dains went on paid leave. A few days later, a top Bass advisor told Dains that her last day would be Nov. 30 and that she was free to resign before then.

Zach Seidl, a Bass spokesperson, pushed back on Dains’ accusations.

“Many of these characterizations are misleading and some are just plain inaccurate,” he said in an email.

Dains, in a series of interviews, said the city does not provide enough funding to meet the basic needs of the animals in its six shelters.

During Bass’ first year in office, amid critical reporting by The Times and others about conditions in the shelters, the mayor offered an 18% budget increase — far less than the 56% the Animal Services department had requested. The following fiscal year, her budget proposal slightly lowered the department’s funding.

Last week, in passing a budget that closed a nearly $1-billion shortfall, the City Council spared Animal Services from major cuts.

Dains, who previously held top shelter jobs in San José and Long Beach, said her employees were desensitized to the suffering of the animals after witnessing it day after day. The understaffing was so bad that three people were responsible for 500 dogs: cleaning kennels, setting up adoptions and working with the medical team, she said.

“I couldn’t sleep knowing that animals were just in those hellholes suffering,” said Dains, who now works at a shelter system in Sacramento. “It was awful.”

Dains, who made about $273,000 a year in L.A., said she witnessed some of her employees “terrorizing” dogs by banging on their kennels, or spraying them with water to move them back. She told the employees to stop the behavior, but some said they had been trained to treat the dogs that way, she said.

To ensure that animals were fed and their enclosures cleaned, Dains suggested starting a schedule that tracked when each task was done. But a union representative worried that the information could be used to punish employees, Dains said.

Ultimately, Dains said, she dropped the proposal because of the opposition from the union, Laborers’ International Union of North America Local 300. A representative from the union declined to comment.

Dain said that personal entanglements and gossip among employees sometimes made it hard to hold them accountable.

Some supervisors had had sexual relationships with their subordinates, which led them to overlook the employees’ poor work performance, according to Dains. Others used the “dirt” they had on co-workers to protest when confronted about their own behavior, she said.

Dains said she suspected that some employees were sleeping during night shifts instead of cleaning cages or doing paperwork. She showed The Times a photo of dog beds arranged on the floor of a staff room like a “nest.”

She said she also witnessed employees watching videos on their phones, rather than working. Others ignored people who walked into the shelter looking to adopt a pet, she said. Some employees told her that colleagues failed to give food or water to cats and dogs.

At the same time, Dains said, other employees went “above and beyond constantly” to make up for those who didn’t pull their weight.

“There’s a significant portion of staff that just aren’t doing their jobs,” she said. “I saw this constantly.”

Dains put some of the blame on supervisors, who were “not requiring them to perform.”

When she tried to discipline supervisors, she faced pushback, she said.

After she put a supervisor on leave who was accused of bullying people, Laborers’ International Union of North America Local 300 filed a grievance against her, Dains said.

A spokesperson for the personnel department declined to comment.

At the same time, Dains acknowledged that she should have been tougher on some of the assistant general managers who reported directly to her. But she said she wanted to maintain working relationships with them.

It is a “tricky thing to do to start writing up executive-level managers that you are trying to work with,” she said.

A shelter employee, who requested anonymity because he didn’t have permission to talk to the media, agreed with Dains’ assessment.

“There’s no accountability, there’s no repercussions,” he said. “And the staff who do work have to work twice as hard.”

A report last year by Best Friends Animal Society, which highlighted the poor conditions in the shelters and suggested possible solutions, criticized Dains as the “biggest barrier” to improvement.

The shelters lacked written protocols, and the euthanasia policy “changed five times in the last year” without communication about the changes, the report said.

According to a Times analysis, the number of dogs euthanized at city shelters from January through September last year increased 72% compared with the same period the previous year. The number of dogs entering the shelters increased each year since 2022, but the number put to death far outpaced the population gain.

In the crowded conditions, animals started behaving poorly and suffered “mental and emotional breakdown,” according to the Best Friends report. That made them less likely to be adopted and more likely to be euthanized.

Dains, in her interview with The Times, defended her euthanasia decisions, arguing that it wasn’t safe for the animals, staff, volunteers or the public to “warehouse” dogs in kennels for months or years.

She said that there was no euthanasia policy when she arrived and that the department was creating one during her tenure.

Bass was Dains’ boss, but Dains’ main contact was Jacqueline Hamilton, deputy mayor of neighborhood services. Dains said she spoke often with Hamilton and told her about the personnel problems and other issues. But Hamilton didn’t offer any meaningful help and didn’t want her to publicize the poor conditions at the shelters, Dains said.

“I am not getting any movement or traction,” Dains told The Times, describing her work experience.

Seidl, the Bass spokesperson, said Dains “was given support to succeed, including assistance in communicating the status of the department to the public and decision makers.”

Dains said that shortly after she became general manager, she asked Deputy Dist. Atty. Kimberly Abourezk, who worked on animal cruelty cases, to send a letter to the mayor about poor conditions at the shelters.

Venusse D. Dunn, a spokesperson for the district attorney’s office, said Abourezk didn’t send the letter because she visited city animal shelters and didn’t find evidence of any crimes.

The office “is not in a position to tell another agency how to operate their facility,” Dunn said.

Annette Ramirez, a longtime Animal Services staffer, is now interim general manager. The “severe overcrowding crisis,” as the department described it in news release this month, continues.

It was the first and possibly the most dramatic act by Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass after she took office: declaring a city emergency on homelessness.

That move, backed by the City Council, gave Bass the power to award no-bid contracts to nonprofit groups and to rent hotels and motels for interim homeless housing. It also allowed Bass to waive regulations limiting the size and scale of certain types of affordable housing.

Now, two and a half years into Bass’ tenure, some on the council are looking to reassert their authority, by rescinding the homelessness emergency declaration.

Councilmember Tim McOsker said he wants to return city government to its normal processes and procedures, as spelled out in the City Charter. Leases, contracts and other decisions related to homelessness would again be taken up at public meetings, with council members receiving testimony, taking written input and ultimately voting.

“Let’s come back to why these processes exist,” McOsker said in an interview. “They exist so the public can be made aware of what we’re doing with public dollars.”

McOsker said that, even if the declaration is rescinded, the city will need to address “the remainder of this crisis.” For example, he said, the homeless services that the city currently provides could become permanent. The city could also push county agencies — which provide public health, mental health counseling and substance abuse treatment — to do more, McOsker said.

Bass, for her part, pushed back on McOsker’s efforts this week, saying through an aide that the emergency declaration “has resulted in homelessness decreasing for the first time in years, bucking statewide and nationwide trends.”

“The Mayor encourages Council to resist the urge of returning to failed policies that saw homelessness explode in Los Angeles,” said Bass spokesperson Clara Karger.

The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, also known as LAHSA, reported last summer that homelessness declined by 2.2% in the city of L.A., the first decrease in several years. The number of unsheltered homeless people — those who live in interim housing, such as hotels and motels, but do not have a permanent residence — dropped by more than 10% to 29,275, down from 32,680.

The push from McOsker and at least some of his colleagues comes at a pivotal time.

Last month, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors voted to pull more than $300 million from LAHSA, the city-county agency that provides an array of services to the unhoused population.

Meanwhile, the L.A. Alliance for Human Rights, which has been battling the city in court over its response to the crisis, is pushing for a federal judge to place the city’s homelessness initiatives into a receivership.

Matthew Umhofer, an attorney for the alliance, said the city has “very little to show” for its emergency declaration in terms of progress on the streets.

“It’s our view that a state of emergency around homelessness is appropriate, but that the city is not engaged in conduct that reflects the seriousness of the crisis — and is not doing what it needs to do in order to solve the crisis,” he said.

Inside Safe, Bass’ signature program to bring homeless people indoors, has moved 4,316 people into interim housing since it began in 2022, according to a LAHSA dashboard covering the period ending April 30. Of that total, nearly 1,040 went into permanent housing, while nearly 1,600 returned to homelessness.

Council members voted this week to extend the mayor’s homelessness emergency declaration for another 90 days, with McOsker casting the lone dissenting vote. However, they have also begun taking preliminary steps toward ending the declaration.

Last week, while approving the city budget, the council created a new bureau within the Los Angeles Housing Department to monitor spending on homeless services. On Tuesday, the council asked city policy analysts to provide strategies to ensure that nonprofit homeless service providers are paid on a timely basis, “even if there is no longer a declared emergency.”

The following day, McOsker and Councilmember Nithya Raman — who heads the council’s housing and homeless committee — co-authored a proposal asking city policy analysts to report back in 60 days with a plan addressing the “operational, legal and fiscal impacts” of terminating the emergency declaration.

That proposal, also signed by Councilmembers John Lee and Ysabel Jurado, now heads to Raman’s committee for deliberations.

While some on the council have already voiced support for repealing the emergency declaration, others say they are open to the idea — but only if there is a seamless transition.

“I want to make sure that if we do wind it down, that we do it responsibly,” said Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, who represents the southwest San Fernando Valley.

Blumenfield wants to protect Executive Directive 1, which was issued by Bass shortly after she declared the local emergency, by enshrining its provisions into city law. The directive lifts height limits and other planning restrictions for 100% affordable housing developments, which charge rents below market rates.

Raman said the city must confront a number of issues stemming from the homelessness crisis, such as improving data collection. But she, too, voiced interest in exploring the end of the emergency declaration.

“This is also an extremely important conversation, and it is one I am eager to have,” she said.

SIR Sadiq Khan has backed calls to decriminalise possessing small amounts of cannabis.

London’s mayor said a report published today gave “a compelling case”.

The London Drugs Commission says current cannabis laws are “disproportionate” and policing continues to focus on ethnic communities, hurting relations with cops.

The LDC, set up by Mr Khan in 2022, is calling for small quantities of natural cannabis to be decriminalised.

Importing, manufacturing or distributing the drug would still be illegal.

Labour’s Mr Khan said: “The report makes a compelling case for the decriminalisation of small quantities of natural cannabis which the Government should consider.”

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “Cannabis is illegal for a reason. I oppose these plans.”

Responding to the report, Sir Sadiq said: “I’ve long been clear that we need fresh thinking on how to reduce the substantial harms associated with drug-related crime in our communities.

“The London Drugs Commission report makes a compelling, evidenced-based case for the decriminalisation of possession of small quantities of natural cannabis which the Government should consider.

“It says that the current sentencing for those caught in possession of natural cannabis cannot be justified given its relative harm and people’s experience of the justice system.

“We must recognise that better education, improved healthcare and more effective, equitable policing of cannabis use are long overdue.”

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When the world calls you “Little Al,” you’re going to do what it takes to be seen.

That’s what I thought after spending an hour last week at the Porsche Experience Center in Carson with the city’s former mayor, Albert Robles.

He’s not the Albert Robles who was found guilty 19 years ago of fleecing South Gate out of $20 million as treasurer — that’s Big Al Robles. Little Al is the one who has tried to be a political somebody in L.A. County for over 30 years, only to almost always fall short, his career careening from one controversy to another.

In 2006, he represented three men who moved to Vernon in an attempt to take over the City Council; they all lost. That same year, Little Al represented Big Al — no, they’re not actually related — at the latter’s sentencing and argued that his client deserved leniency since what he did was common in California politics. The presiding judge replied, “What you have just said is among the most absurd things I have ever heard.”

Then-Carson Mayor Al Robles during a Carson City Council meeting at City Hall in 2015.

(Los Angeles Times)

The year after he was elected Carson’s mayor in 2015, the Fair Political Practices Commission fined Robles $12,000 to resolve allegations of campaign finance law violations. Two years after that, Robles’ 24-year tenure on the board of directors for Water Replenishment District of Southern California — an obscure agency that provides water for 44 cities in L.A. County — ended after a Superior Court judge ruled he couldn’t hold that seat at the same time that he was serving as mayor.

He lost the mayoral seat in the 2020 general election after striking out in his bid for county supervisor in the primary election earlier that year. Robles has been unsuccessful in two other races since — for an L.A. County Superior Court seat in 2022, and a state Senate primary last year where he garnered just 8.5% of the vote.

“I keep thinking I’m done and then I’m not done,” the 56-year-old joked at one point in our conversation as Caymans and Carreras roared through the test track as we lounged in a nearby patio. “It’s kind of like they dragged me back in.”

We met to talk about his latest waltz with the headlines: He’s the lawyer for former Huntington Park Councilmember Esmeralda Castillo. She’s suing the city to get her seat back after an internal investigation found Castillo wasn’t a resident of the southeast L.A. County suburb. The council declared the seat vacant and then picked a replacement.

“Whether or not she lives in [Huntington Park], whether or not she’s an angel, whether or not she’s Charles Manson, that doesn’t matter: She was denied the process that all of us are entitled to,” Robles said.

Um, Manson?

He’s also representing another former Huntington Park council member, Valentin Amezquita, in another lawsuit against the city. That one demands the city hold a special election for Castillo’s former seat, which Amezquita unsuccessfully applied for.

Wait, aren’t the lawsuits contradicting each other?

A judge told him the same thing, Robles admitted. He told me he filed them to expose what he described as Huntington Park’s “hypocrisy” for supposedly following the city charter over the Castillo matter, but ignoring it when choosing her replacement.

“It’s just like what’s happening at the federal level, as far as I see it,” Robles grumbled. Earlier, he compared the lack of due process Castillo allegedly faced to Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran national illegally deported by the Trump administration to his home country. “It’s frustrating.”

The more he talked, the more it became evident Robles wants to be seen as the crusader he’s always imagined himself to be and is annoyed that he’s not.

Carson Mayor Albert Robles speaks during a hearing about a proposed $480-million desalination plant in El Segundo in 2019 at the Carson Event Center.

(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)

His grievances are many.

He continues to hold a grudge against former L.A. County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley, whom he described as “corrupt … and I’ll call him that to his face.” Cooley, for his part, told The Times in 2013 that when Robles unsuccessfully ran against him in 2008, he was “probably the most unqualified candidate ever” because of his political past.

Robles bragged that he torpedoed Cooley’s career.

“It’s an exaggeration — over-embellishment — on my part, but I actually take credit for” Cooley losing his 2010 bid to become California attorney general. “Because when I ran against him, I caused him to spend money — money that he otherwise would have had for the AG race. And if [Cooley] had that additional half a million dollars that he had to spend for the DA race, he may have won.”

He thinks Latino politicians need to close ranks like he feels other ethnicities do.

Case in point: Operation Dirty Pond, an L.A. County district attorney probe into a long-delayed Huntington Park aquatic park. In February, investigators raided City Hall and the homes of seven individuals, including two former council members and two current ones. Robles said the probe doesn’t “make sense” and is further proof that Latino politicians are held to a higher standard than other politicians.

“If Esmeralda were Black or Asian, or hell — dare I say — even white, I think it would be reported differently. I honestly believe that. Because those communities are willing to set aside their differences for the better good, because they know that, hey, if one person is being mistreated, we all are.”

Once he realized I wanted to discuss his own political travails as much as of his clients, Robles said the better setting for our chat would’ve been the Albert Robles Center, a water treatment center in Pico Rivera that opened in 2019.

“That structure, you know, everyone loves it now. Everyone celebrates that it’s there. But surprise, surprise: not one environmental group, not one came out and supported our effort to build it up. … Nobody fought more for that building, for that project, than me.”

This set off more grievances.

Robles was bitter that L.A.’s “Latino power elite” hadn’t listened to him and invested more time and effort in the South Bay, where Latinos make up a majority of the population in many cities but have little political representation.

“They just see us as differently and the resources to organize and build up that political power base never materialized,” he said. “I don’t know if they see it as ‘Oh, those are more affluent communities, they don’t need our help.’ I don’t know.”


He was also “disheartened” by Black residents that opposed district elections in Carson that would have probably brought more Latinos onto the council. They were introduced in 2020 after a lawsuit alleged Latino voters were disenfranchised in the city. Since then, there hasn’t been a Latino elected to the City Council.

“We would have members of the African American community come up and say, ‘Well, we have a Latino mayor. We don’t need districts. Latinos should vote — stop speaking Spanish, and learn to vote.’ And then I would say, ‘You know, everything you’re saying is what whites said about Blacks in the South. And they’re like, ‘That’s not true.’
So, like, some forgot their history and now we seem to have fallen into the politics of, ‘If it’s not us, it can’t be them.’”

We climbed upstairs to the Porsche Experience Center’s viewing deck so Robles could pose for photos. Workers at the venue’s restaurant greeted him, drawing the first genuine smile Robles had flashed all afternoon.

He then mentioned that somewhere in the building was his name. I thought it would be on a plaque commemorating the debut of the Porsche Experience Center in 2016, when Robles was mayor. But it turned out to be his John Hancock alongside a bunch of others on a whiteboard in a room facing the parking lot.

The room was locked.

Robles wondered out loud if he should ask the staff to open it so we could take a better look. Instead, we peered through a window.

“It’s right there,” he told me, trying to describe where exactly it was among all the other signatures. “Well, you’re not familiar with it so you probably can’t see it.”

He could.

Only a few months ago, former Irvine Vice Mayor Tammy Kim had aspirations of returning to the City Council she previously served on for four years.

Now her immediate goal is to fight off charges that could put her in prison for several years.

The Orange County district attorney’s office announced Thursday afternoon that Kim was charged with 10 felonies tied to allegedly lying about her residency during her City Council tenure and while campaigning for mayor last fall.

Kim was formally charged with three felony counts of perjury by declaration, three felony counts of filing a false document, and one felony count each of a public official aiding the illegal casting of votes, of filing false nominations papers, of knowing of the registration of someone not entitled to vote and of voter registration fraud. She was also charged with a misdemeanor of making a false statement.

She could spend up to 11 years and two months in state prison and county jail if convicted on all counts.

She is scheduled to be arraigned Friday morning.

Kim briefly responded to a call from The Times, saying she was advised not to share too much per her attorney, Caroline Hahn.

“We’re entering a not guilty plea,” Kim said.

Hahn added that she and her client “planned to launch a vigorous defense” but did not answer further questions.

Kim is accused of using two fraudulent addresses while running for mayor in the November 2024 election and then in a City Council special election in early 2025, according to the criminal complaint. She owned a condo in the city’s 3rd District, where she had lived since 2015, according to a separate lawsuit filed against Kim to get her thrown off the City Council ballot.

Kim won election to the Irvine City Council in November 2020, receiving nearly 44,000 votes a 14-person, top-three-candidate race.

At that time, city elections in Irvine used an at-large voting system, meaning candidates could live anywhere in the city.

The city moved to district elections in the fall 2024, requiring council members to live in the districts they represent. Only voters from those districts could vote for those candidates.

Kim served until November 2024 when she ran for and ultimately lost a mayoral campaign to Councilmember Larry Agran by a margin of nearly 5,000 votes.

The district attorney’s office believes Kim improperly used an address to run for mayor, no longer claiming to live in the 3rd District condo she had owned for a decade.

To run for mayor, Kim changed her California driver’s license and her voter registration to a home in the 5th District, where she never lived, according to the criminal complaint.

The home belonged to a family Kim met through a Korean teaching class, the complaint alleges. Kim did not inform the family that she was using their address, according to the complaint.

She has been charged with certifying that address as her own under the penalty of perjury.

Kim eventually finished her campaign and voted in November’s mayoral race based out of the 5th Diistrict home.

Shortly after her defeat, Kim declared her candidacy in December to fill the now- vacant 5th District seat, which Agran left after winning the mayoral election.

Kim eventually found a room in another 5th District home on Jan. 10 and changed her California driver’s registration that same day, according to the complaint. She then filed new nomination paperwork with the new 5th District address, according to the complaint.

Later that month, former mayoral candidate Ron Scolesdang sued Kim, claiming that she was fraudulently using an incorrect address. Scolesdang had hired a private investigator to monitor Kim, according to that lawsuit.

Kim eventually dropped out of the race on Feb. 7, the same day a Superior Court judge removed her name from the ballot.

Betty Franco Martinez won the special election.

A former senior member of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’ staff has struck a plea deal with federal prosecutors, admitting he called in a fake bomb threat to City Hall late last year that was blamed on anti-Israel sentiment, federal prosecutors announced on Thursday.

Under the terms of the plea agreement, Brian Williams, a longtime law enforcement oversight official who served as Bass’ deputy mayor of public safety, agreed to plead guilty to a single count of threats regarding fire and explosives, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years. He is expected to make his initial court appearance in the next few weeks.

“In an era of heated political rhetoric that has sometimes escalated into violence, we cannot allow public officials to make bomb threats,” U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli said in a news release announcing the deal. “My office will continue its efforts to keep the public safe, including from those who violate their duty to uphold the law.”

In a statement to The Times, Williams’ lawyer Dmitry Gorin said his client “has demonstrated his unreserved and full acceptance of responsibility for his actions.”

“This aberrational incident was the product of personal issues which Mr. Williams is addressing appropriately, and is not representative of his character or dedication to the city of Los Angeles,” Gorin said.

Williams was participating in a virtual meeting at City Hall on Oct. 3, 2024, when he used the Google Voice application on his personal phone to place a call to his city-issued cell phone, according to the plea agreement.

Williams admitted he left the meeting and called Scott Harrelson, a top aide to the LAPD chief. According to the plea, Williams falsely stated that he had just received a call on his city-issued cell phone from an unknown male caller who made a bomb threat against City Hall.

At no time did Williams intend to carry out the threat, according to the plea agreement.

About 10 minutes after calling the LAPD, according to the plea, Williams texted Bass and several other senior mayoral officials a message that read: “Bomb threat: I received phone call on my city cell at 10:48 am this morning. The male caller stated that ‘he was tired of the city support of Israel, and he has decided to place a bomb in City Hall. It might be in the rotunda.’ I immediately contacted the chief of staff of LAPD, they are going to send a number of officers over to do a search of the building and to determine if anyone else received a threat.”

Soon after, LAPD officers searched the building and did not locate any suspicious packages or devices, according to the agreement. Williams told the officers that a man called and said: “I’m tired of the city support of Israel, I have decided to place a bomb in City Hall. It might be in the Rotunda.”

Williams showed the officers the record of an incoming call, which appeared as a blocked number on his city-issued phone. According to the plea deal, that call was the one Williams had placed from Google Voice.

Williams followed up with the mayor and other high-ranking officials some time later with several other texts, saying that there was no need to evacuate City Hall.

“I’m meeting with the threat management officers within the next 10 minutes. In light of the Jewish holidays, we are taking this thread, a little more seriously. I will keep you posted,” the text read, according to federal authorities.

Federal authorities revealed they were looking into Williams last December, when FBI agents raided his home in Pasadena. It sent shock waves through City Hall and the Police Department, where many expressed incredulity at the prospect of a respected government official faking a bomb threat.

Before the case was turned over to the FBI, detectives from the LAPD’s Major Crimes Division conducted surveillance that led them to conclude that Williams was responsible for the bomb threat, sources previously told The Times.

Williams, who was the deputy mayor overseeing the police and fire departments, was on leave because of the criminal investigation in January when Pacific Palisades was engulfed in flames, killing 12 people and destroying more than 6,000 structures.

“Like many, we were shocked when these allegations were first made and we are saddened by this conclusion,” said Zach Seidl, a spokesperson for Bass.

Bass named a former FBI official to replace Williams in early April. The official, Robert Clark, led anti-gang efforts in Los Angeles during his time with the Bureau before retiring in 2016 and serving as a law enforcement consultant and director of public safety for the city of Columbus, Ohio, among other roles.

Williams has held a variety of government positions spanning more than three decades. He had spent nearly two years as a deputy mayor in Bass’ office, working on issues such as police hiring, public safety spending and the search for a new police chief.

Previously, Williams was a deputy mayor in the administration of Mayor James K. Hahn, who held office from 2001 to 2005. Before that, he spent several years as an assistant city attorney in Los Angeles.

From 2016 to 2023, Williams was the executive director of the Sheriff’s Civilian Oversight Commission, according to his LinkedIn page.

Working in Bass’ office, Williams oversaw the Police Department, the Fire Department, Port Police, Airport Police and the city’s emergency management agency, according to his hiring announcement. He was also a member of the mayor’s inner circle, playing a key role in the monthslong search for a new police chief that ended with the hiring of Jim McDonnell.

When Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman was sworn in last year, Williams was the city official chosen to address the audience on behalf of the mayor. He was also a fixture at police graduations, news conferences, community meetings and other events across the city, often wearing a well-pressed suit and a bowtie.

Williams’ attorney Gorin called his client “a career public servant who has worked closely with law enforcement, community groups, public safety and prosecuting agencies throughout his many years in local government and has devoted his life to the service of others.”

Akil Davis, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, said in a statement that Williams “not only betrayed the residents of Los Angeles, but responding officers, and the integrity of the office itself, by fabricating a bomb threat.”

“Government officials are held to a heightened standard as we rely on them to safeguard the city,” the statement read. “I’m relieved that Mr. Williams has taken responsibility for his inexplicable actions.”

Federal prosecutors alleged Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver of New Jersey pushed and grabbed officers while attempting to block the arrest of the Newark, N.J., mayor outside an immigration detention facility, according to charges in court papers unsealed on Tuesday.

In an eight-page complaint, interim U.S. Atty. Alina Habba’s office said McIver was protesting the removal of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka from a congressional tour of the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark on May 9.

The complaint says she attempted to stop the arrest of the mayor and pushed into agents for Homeland Security Investigations and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She faces two counts of assaulting, resisting and impeding an officer.

McIver has denied any wrongdoing and has accused federal agents of escalating the situation by arresting the mayor. She denounced the charge as “purely political” and said prosecutors are distorting her actions in an effort to deter legislative oversight.

Habba had charged Baraka with trespassing after his arrest but dismissed the allegation on Monday when she said in a social media post that she instead was charging the congresswoman.

Prosecuting McIver is a rare federal criminal case against a sitting member of Congress for allegations other than fraud or corruption.

The case instantly taps into a broader and more consequential struggle between a Trump administration engaged in overhauling immigration policy and a Democratic Party scrambling to respond.

Within minutes of Habba’s announcement, McIver’s Democratic colleagues cast the prosecution as an infringement on lawmakers’ official duties to serve their constituents and an effort to silence their opposition to an immigration policy that helped propel the president back into power but now has emerged as a divisive fault line in American political discourse.

Members of Congress are authorized by law to go into federal immigration facilities as part of their oversight powers, even without advance notice. Congress passed a 2019 appropriations bill that spelled out the authority.

A nearly two-minute clip released by the Homeland Security Department shows McIver on the facility side of a chain-link fence just before the arrest of the mayor on the street side of the fence. She and uniformed officials go through the gate and she joins others shouting they should circle the mayor. The video shows McIver in a tightly packed group of people and officers. At one point, her left elbow and then her right elbow push into an officer wearing a dark face covering and an olive green uniform emblazoned with the word “Police” on it.

It isn’t clear from body camera video whether that contact was intentional, incidental or a result of jostling in the chaotic scene.

The complaint says she “slammed” her forearm into an agent and then tried to restrain the agent by grabbing him.

Tom Homan, President Trump’s top border advisor, said during an interview on Fox News on Tuesday that “she broke the law and we’re going to hold her accountable.”

“You can’t put hands on an ICE employee,” he said. “We’re not going to tolerate it.”

McIver, 38, first came to Congress in September in a special election after the death of Rep. Donald Payne Jr. left a vacancy in the 10th District. She was then elected to a full term in November. A Newark native, she served as the president of the Newark City Council from 2022 to 2024 and worked in the city’s public schools before that.

House Democratic leaders decried the criminal case against their colleague in a lengthy statement in which they called the charge “extreme, morally bankrupt” and lacking “any basis in law or fact.”

Catalini, Richer and Tucker write for the Associated Press.

Baraka’s defence team say they will file a motion to dismiss trespassing charges pursued by the Trump administration.

Lawyers in the United States have said they will file a motion to dismiss trespassing charges directed at Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, following his arrest during a protest at an immigrant detention centre in New Jersey.

During a hearing in a New Jersey federal court on Thursday, Baraka’s defence team said that they believed he was being selectively prosecuted by the administration of President Donald Trump.

“We believe that the mayor himself was targeted here,” said Rahul Agarwal, one of Baraka’s lawyers.

“The mayor was invited into the facility on Friday,” Agarwal added, pointing out that Baraka was “outside the facility when he was ultimately handcuffed and detained”.

Baraka himself attended the hearing and spoke to supporters outside afterwards. On social media, he framed the criminal complaint as a sham.

“Today, the U.S. Attorney General’s office chose to move forward with a trial over trespassing charges at Delaney Hall. While the charges are unwarranted, we will fight this,” Baraka wrote. “This is bigger than me. It’s about all of us.”

The incident is the latest to underscore growing tensions between the Trump administration and local authorities who oppose his immigration crackdown.

Civil liberties groups have argued that the government is using its power to intimidate or coerce officials who do not align with its priorities on immigration.

The Trump administration’s complaint centres on the events of May 9, when lawmakers and protesters showed up at Delaney Hall, a new detention facility in Newark run by the private company GEO Group.

Baraka has long opposed the 1,000-bed facility, saying it lacks the proper permitting, and he has appeared outside its gates multiple times since its May 1 opening.

On the day of his arrest, Baraka joined three members of the US Congress — LaMonica McIver, Bonnie Watson Coleman and Rob Menendez — who arrived unannounced “to conduct lawful congressional oversight” of the facility, according to their statements afterwards.

Agarwal said that Baraka was the only person arrested in the incident. Baraka has maintained that he was invited in to the facility and shared a video on social media on Wednesday that he says shows a guard opening the gate to allow him inside the premises.

“Mayor Baraka was at Delaney Hall to join a tour of the detention facility with a congressional delegation as part of their authorized oversight responsibilities,” the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said in a statement on the arrest of Baraka last week.

“Mayor Baraka — and lawmakers across New Jersey and the country — are being targeted by the Trump administration for refusing to be complicit with its ongoing violations of due process.”

However, the government’s criminal complaint alleges that Baraka entered and remained inside the private facility despite multiple warnings to leave. He faces up to 30 days in prison.

“We believe there’s clear evidence that the mayor was within the property,” Assistant US Attorney Stephen Demanovich told US Magistrate Judge Andre Espinosa.

Video of the incident shows an official behind the gate at Delaney Hall telling Baraka he must return outside because “you are not a congressmember”.

Judge Espinosa on Thursday told Baraka he needed to be processed by US Marshals Service after proceedings came to an end.

The Associated Press said the request sparked a moment of confusion in the courtroom. Baraka pointed out that he had already been processed after his arrest, but ultimately agreed to give his fingerprints and take a mugshot a second time.

“They’re trying their best to humiliate and degrade me as much as they possibly can,” said Baraka. “I feel like what we did was completely correct. We did not violate any laws. We stood up for the constitution of this country, the constitution of the state of New Jersey.”

Baraka is considered a leading candidate in the 2025 New Jersey governor’s race.

NEW YORK — Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has agreed to pay a $329,794 fine to settle an ethics board’s complaint that he misspent public funds on his security detail during his brief, failed run for U.S. president.

The deal, announced Wednesday by the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board, is the costliest repayment order in the ethics board’s history. But it allows de Blasio to avoid an even steeper penalty of $475,000 that was previously imposed, a reduction the board said came in light of the former mayor’s “financial situation.”

In exchange, de Blasio agreed to drop his appeal of the board’s finding. And for the first time, he admitted that he received written warning that his out-of-state security expenses could not legally be covered by city taxpayers.

“In contradiction of the written guidance I received from the Board, I did not reimburse the City for these expenses,” de Blasio wrote in the settlement, adding: “I made a mistake and I deeply regret it.”

The payments concern the $319,794.20 in travel-related expenses — including airfare, lodging, meals — that de Blasio’s security detail incurred while accompanying him on trips across the country during his presidential campaign in 2019. He will also pay a $10,000 fine.

The campaign elicited a mix of mockery and grousing by city residents, who accused the Democrat of abandoning his duties as second-term mayor for the national spotlight. It was suspended within four months.

Under the agreement, de Blasio must pay $100,000 immediately, followed by quarterly installments of nearly $15,000 for the next four years. If he misses a payment, he will be deemed in default and ordered to pay the full $475,000.

The funds will eventually make their way back into the city treasury, according to a spokesperson for the Conflicts of Interest Board.

An attorney for de Blasio, Andrew G. Celli Jr., declined to comment on the settlement.

De Blasio had previously argued that forcing him to cover the cost of his security detail’s travel violated his 1st Amendment rights by creating an “unequal burden” between wealthy candidates and career public servants.

Since leaving office in 2021, de Blasio has worked as a lecturer at multiple universities, most recently the University of Michigan, and delivered paid speeches in Italy.

Offenhartz writes for the Associated Press.

May 14 (UPI) — Democrat John Ewing Jr. defeated incumbent Republican Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert to become Omaha’s first Black mayor.

Ewing, a former Omaha deputy police chief and current Douglas County, Neb., treasurer, defeated Stothert by an unofficial margin of 48,693 to 37,758, as reported by the Douglas County Election Commission. The commission will canvass and make the election official on May 29.

Ewing will also be the first Democrat to serve as Omaha mayor since 2013. Stothert had won three consecutive terms before this loss. Stothert had been the first woman elected city mayor.

Democrats also won four of the seven City Council seats.

The mayor’s office is nonpartisan, but the candidates’ parties came into play as an ad from Stothert stated that “Ewing stands with radicals who want to allow boys in girls’ sports.” KETV-TV reported that Ewing said in response that “Nobody’s ever brought that question up. So I believe it’s a made-up issue by Jean Stothert and the Republican Party.”

Ewing ran an ad that connected Stothert to President Donald Trump, to which she told KETV that “Donald Trump does not call me and ask for advice.”

Omaha and its suburbs make up Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District, and it carries a presidential electoral vote, which can be won by a party different than who may carry the state-wide election and its four electoral votes.

The state generally leans Republican, but Democrats have won the 2nd Congressional District with some regularity, as Kamala Harris did in 2024, Joe Biden in 2020 and Barack Obama in 2008. On the other hand, Republican Donald Trump won in 2016 and GOP member Mitt Romney took the vote in 2012.

Police bodycam footage shows Newark Mayor Ras Baraka being arrested outside a detention centre in New Jersey, during a protest about US immigration. Officials claim he trespassed, but Baraka and witnesses say he complied with orders.

May 10 (UPI) — Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested at least 103 for alleged immigration violations during traffic stops in and near Nashville, which prompted the city’s mayor to challenge the enforcement effort.

ICE says the arrests are part of a “public safety operation,” but Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell questions the legality of the enforcement effort, WKRN reported.

“The U.S. Department of Homeland Security says they’ve arrested people with criminal histories or criminal intent this week,” O’Connell told media on Friday, “but they have shown us no proof.”

O’Connell has asked ICE officials to release the names and charges against the 103 people currently in custody.

“We don’t even know the names of who they’ve arrested, much less the charges,” O’Connell said. “What we have seen is a violation of due process and the defiance of court orders.”

O’Connell on Friday told media the Metro Nashville Police Department continues to cooperate with the state highway patrol but does not participate in the ICE enforcement effort.

Nashville Legal Director Wallace Dietz said city officials are powerless to stop or otherwise interfere with the ICE operation.

Instead, they are “looking into” how city officials might announce a pending federal immigration enforcement activity before it occurs.

“We have absolutely no authority to instruct ICE not to carry out their enforcement actions,” Dietz said. “We have no authority to tell [Tennessee Highway Patrol]they cannot cooperate with ICE.”

The THP and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation are participating in the ICE enforcement effort by stopping motorists for moving violations and allowing ICE agents to detain those who might not have legal status in the United States.

The stops have resulted in the arrests of at least 103 individuals, including suspected members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua and the El Salvadoran MS-13 transnational gangs and their affiliate organizations, WZTV reported.

The enforcement activity began Sunday and is occurring in several counties in the mid-Tennessee area.

At least 588 traffic stops for hazardous moving violations, driving under the influence and other causes have been made as part of the enforcement activity.

The stops resulted in one felony charge for evading arrest, three drug-related arrests and the detention of six people who have warrants for alleged felony offenses.

Among those arrested are an alleged member of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang and an “undocumented migrant” who had been convicted as a child sex predator. It is not clear if the conviction was in the United States or another nation.

An alleged MS-13 member who is wanted for aggravated murder in El Salvador also is among the 103 “undocumented migrants” who have been detained during the weeklong ICE operation.

May 10 (UPI) — Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said he was “targeted” when he was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at a migrant detention facility in that city.

“Nothing happened for a long, long time, you know, for at least over an hour. And then, you know, after that, they finally told us to leave, and I told him I was leaving, they came outside the gate and arrested me,” Baraka said during a TV interview with MSNBC.

“So it looked like it was targeted.”

Baraka was arrested at Delaney Hall Detention Center in Newark, after attending the facility with New Jersey Reps. Robert Menendez Jr. and Bonnie Watson Coleman.

The Department of Homeland Security later accused the two members of Congress of illegally breaking into the detention facility as part of a “bizarre political stunt.”

Watson Coleman said the officials had ” lawful oversight authority to be there.”

Baraka was later released from a DHS field office following his arrest.

The 55-year-old native of Newark is running to replace Gov. Phil Murphy, D-N.J., who is term-limited. Baraka has made several TV appearances following the arrest.

“The reality is this: I didn’t do anything wrong,” Baraka told the public following his release.

“[Baraka] was exercising my right and duty as an elected official,” the mayor told CNN.

Interim U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba pushed back, saying federal officials were in the right.

“The Mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove himself from the ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey this afternoon,” Habba said on X. “He has willingly chosen to disregard the law. That will not stand in this state. He has been taken into custody. No one is above the law.”

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka on Saturday denied trespassing at a new federal immigration detention center during a confrontation that led to his arrest while the Democrat was at the facility with three members of Congress.

Baraka, who has been protesting the center’s opening in his New Jersey city this week, was released around 8 p.m. Friday night after several hours in custody. He was accused of trespassing and ignoring warnings to leave the Delaney Hall facility.

Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant secretary for public affairs with the Department of Homeland Security, said in an interview with CNN on Saturday that the investigation was ongoing and that the department released more video of the confrontation. McLaughlin accused Baraka of playing “political games.”

“I’m shocked by all the lies that were told here,” said Baraka, who said he had been invited there for a news conference. “No one else arrested, I was invited in, then they arrested me on the sidewalk.”

Baraka, who is running to succeed term-limited New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, has embraced the fight with the Trump administration over illegal immigration. He has protested the construction and opening of the 1,000-bed detention center, arguing that it should not be allowed because of building permit issues.

Alina Habba, interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey, said on the social platform X that Baraka trespassed at the detention facility, which is run by private prison operator Geo Group.

Habba said Baraka had “chosen to disregard the law.”

Video of the incident showed that Baraka was arrested after returning to the public side of the gate to the facility.

Witnesses describe a heated argument

Witnesses said the arrest came after Baraka attempted to join three members of New Jersey’s congressional delegation — Reps. Rob Menendez, LaMonica McIver and Bonnie Watson Coleman — in attempting to enter the facility.

When federal officials blocked his entry, a heated argument broke out, according to Viri Martinez, an activist with the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice. It continued even after Baraka returned to the public side of the gates.

“There was yelling and pushing,” Martinez said. “Then the officers swarmed Baraka. They threw one of the organizers to the ground. They put Baraka in handcuffs and put him in an unmarked car.”

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that the lawmakers had not asked for a tour of Delaney Hall, which the agency said it would have facilitated. The department said that as a bus carrying detainees was entering in the afternoon, “a group of protestors, including two members of the U.S. House of Representatives, stormed the gate and broke into the detention facility.”

Ned Cooper, a spokesperson for Watson Coleman, said the three lawmakers went there unannounced because they planned to inspect it, not take a scheduled tour.

“Contrary to a press statement put out by DHS we did not ‘storm’ the detention center,” Watson Coleman said in a statement. “The author of that press release was so unfamiliar with the facts on the ground that they didn’t even correctly count the number of Representatives present. We were exercising our legal oversight function as we have done at the Elizabeth Detention Center without incident.”

Video of the incident

In video of the altercation shared with the Associated Press, a federal official in a jacket with the logo of Homeland Security Investigations can be heard telling Baraka he could not enter the facility because “you are not a Congress member.”

Baraka then left the secure area, rejoining protesters on the public side of the gate. Video showed him speaking through the gate to a man in a suit, who said: “They’re talking about coming back to arrest you.”

“I’m not on their property. They can’t come out on the street and arrest me,” Baraka replied.

Minutes later, several Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, some wearing face coverings, surrounded him and others on the public side. As protesters cried out, “Shame,” Baraka was dragged back through the gate in handcuffs.

Menendez said in a statement that as members of Congress, he and his colleagues have the legal right to carry out oversight at DHS facilities without prior notice and have done so twice this year. But on Friday, “throughout every step of this visit, ICE attempted to intimidate everyone involved and impede our ability to conduct oversight.”

The detention center

The two-story building is next to a county prison formerly operated as a halfway house.

In February, ICE awarded a 15-year contract to the Geo Group to run the detention center. Geo valued the contract at $1 billion, an unusually long and large agreement for ICE.

The announcement was part of President Trump’s plans to sharply increase detention beds nationwide from a budget of about 41,000 beds this year.

Baraka sued Geo soon after the deal was announced.

Geo touted the Delaney Hall contract during an earnings call with shareholders Wednesday, with Chief Executive David Donahue saying it was expected to generate more than $60 million a year in revenue. He said the facility began the intake process May 1.

He said the activation of the center and another in Michigan would increase capacity under contract with ICE from around 20,000 beds to around 23,000.

The Department of Homeland Security said in its statement that the facility has the proper permits and inspections have been cleared.

Offenhartz, Lauer and Shipkowski write for the Associated Press. AP writer Rebecca Santana in Washington contributed to this report.

Ras Baraka denies charge against him a day after he spent several hours in police custody.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka has denied trespassing at a new United States federal immigration detention centre following his arrest and release.

Baraka, who has been protesting the centre’s opening this week, denied his trespassing charge on Saturday, a day after he spent several hours in police custody.

The mayor has gone head-to-head with the Trump administration over undocumented immigration, pushing back against the opening of the Delaney Hall Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) 1,000-bed detention facility, arguing that it should not be allowed to open because of building permit issues.

Officials accused Baraka of trespassing and ignoring warnings to leave the Delaney Hall facility in Newark, New Jersey.

“I’m shocked by all the lies that were told here,” he said, adding he had been invited there for a news conference.

“No one else [was] arrested, I was invited in, then they arrested me on the sidewalk.”

Alina Habba, interim US Attorney for New Jersey, said on the social media platform X that Baraka trespassed at the detention facility, which is run by private prison operator Geo Group.

Habba said Baraka had “chosen to disregard the law”.

Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant secretary for public affairs with the US Department of Homeland Security, said in an interview with CNN on Saturday that the investigation was ongoing and that more video from the scene would soon be released.

She also accused Baraka of playing “political games”.

Baraka was taken into custody by the ICE agents in a scuffle at the facility.

He had joined several lawmakers at the detention centre for a demonstration on Friday.

Video of the incident showed that Baraka was arrested after returning to the public side of the gate to the facility.

Local elected officials swiftly condemned the federal agents’ actions, with the state’s governor, Phil Murphy, writing on X that he was “outraged by the unjust arrest”.

Two years ago, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass laid out an ambitious and expensive goal for her first city budget: restore the size of the Los Angeles Police Department to 9,500 officers.

At the time, the LAPD was struggling with recruitment, and Bass — just four months into her job — openly worried the department would soon fall below 9,000.

Now, the mayor’s hiring goal looks even more out of reach. With the city battered by a budget crisis and homicides falling by double digits, some are wondering: just how low can, or should, LAPD staffing go?

On Thursday, the City Council’s budget committee provided a short-term answer, moving forward with a plan to cut the LAPD by another 300 officers — not through layoffs, but simply by slowing down recruitment. Such a move would leave the department with 8,400 officers by June 2026, down from about 8,700 this year and 10,000 five years ago.

The slowdown, if approved by the City Council later this month, would free up $9.5 million, helping the city save some of the civilian workers at the LAPD whose jobs are among the 1,600 targeted for elimination in the mayor’s proposed budget.

But that wasn’t the end of it. Faced with a nearly $1-billion shortfall and several years of financial turmoil ahead, the five-member committee obtained an analysis from the city’s policy experts showing how much could be saved if the LAPD ramps down hiring even more, and for a longer period of time.

The answer? $385 million over five years, if the LAPD cuts the mayor’s police hiring plan for 2025-26 by 75%. Under that scenario, the department would bring on just 120 recruits per year — far fewer than the number who resign or retire — leaving slightly more than 6,600 police officers by 2030.

Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, an outspoken opponent of police spending who sits on the budget committee, requested the analysis. She was one of three council members who voted against Bass’ budget last year, arguing that too much money went to the LAPD and not enough to departments that provide other critical city services.

The four-page analysis handed Hernandez and her allies, who have long called on the city to shift funds away from police, a road map for driving down police spending over the long term.

Hernandez, in an interview, called the committee’s decision to cut police hiring in half over the coming year — taking Bass’ proposal for 480 recruits down to 240 — a good start. She sounded intrigued by the numbers laid out in the analysis, saying it “lays out a very clear pathway” for future budget deliberations.

“This budget crisis is not going to be solved in one budget cycle,” said Hernandez, who represents part of the Eastside. “So I’m hoping we take this into consideration as we try to move this city out of this crisis.”

Others were more critical of the committee’s deliberations.

Sylvia Robledo, a former City Council aide who plans to run against Hernandez next year, warned that scaling back police hiring would increase attrition, result in officer burnout and force the LAPD to spend even more on overtime.

Real estate developer Rick Caruso, now mulling a second run for mayor, also blasted the committee’s approach, calling it “just more of the mismanagement we’ve come to expect from this City Hall.”

“Whether it’s a disastrous budget that will cut services while raising costs on working families, a downgraded bond rating, or fewer cops, Los Angeles is on the wrong track, and this budget will only make it worse,” Caruso, who called in 2022 for the LAPD to have 11,000 officers, said in a statement.

Bass spokesperson Clara Karger said in an email that her boss “has not abandoned her goal to grow the Los Angeles Police Department.” Karger argued that progress is still being made, with the LAPD receiving a record number of applicants and a larger number of officers staying in their jobs.

“Now, with new leadership in the Personnel Department and LAPD, we will eliminate barriers preventing applicants from becoming officers,” she said.

Karger would not say whether Bass would veto a budget that cuts the number of LAPD recruits in half, noting that the council is still “in the middle of the process” of reviewing the spending plan for 2025-26.

In recent years, a majority of council members have been willing to give Bass the money she needs to preserve sworn hiring at the LAPD, even as its ranks continued to shrink. But that equation changed once Bass proposed layoffs for more than 400 civilians working at the Police Department.

Budget committee members coalesced around the idea of slowing down police hiring on the condition that it save the jobs of some of the 133 specialists who carry out critical tasks at the LAPD, such as handling DNA rape kits or conducting fingerprinting analysis.

The committee didn’t bite on another Hernandez idea: halting the acquisition of new police helicopters. Hernandez, who pushed unsuccessfully for that idea last year, will almost certainly raise it again in coming weeks.

“I’m going to keep doing my best to try to move forward with fiscally responsible suggestions and decisions,” she said.

State of play

— CUTTING BACK: The council’s budget committee didn’t just go after police hiring. During its marathon 11-hour meeting on Thursday, the panel also took steps to zap Bass’ proposal for creating a new 67-person homelessness unit within the Los Angeles Fire Department and endorsed a reduction of up to $10 million for Inside Safe, the mayor’s initiative to move homeless Angelenos into interim and permanent housing. The committee is set to finalize its recommendations next week.

— OPEN FOR BUSINESS: Bass went to the 10th Select LA investment summit this week to offer foreign investors a clear message: L.A. remains very much open for business. “At a time of global uncertainty, Los Angeles stands out as a reliable, stable partner for international business and trade,” she said during her welcome remarks, while also releasing her office’s investors guide to L.A.

— WAGE WORRIES: Meanwhile, a coalition of business groups has been pleading with city leaders to delay passage of an ordinance requiring hotel owners and businesses at Los Angeles International Airport to pay a $30 per hour minimum wage, plus $8.35 per hour for healthcare. Those groups say the proposal will deal a potentially fatal blow to L.A.’s tourism industry. “L.A. has destroyed housing production. Now they’re coming for tourism,” said Stuart Waldman, president of the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn.

— SO LONG, NATE: Former L.A. City Councilmember Nate Holden, who served in the state Legislature and later spent 16 years on the council, died this week at 95. “He was a lion in the State Senate and a force to be reckoned with on the Los Angeles City Council,” said L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn.

— SOIL SAMPLES: New soil testing by the L.A. County Department of Public Health has found high levels of lead and other toxic metals at homes destroyed by January’s catastrophic wildfires and cleared by federal cleanup crews.

— MORE FIRE FALLOUT? Bass joined L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, Annenberg Foundation Executive Director Cinny Kennard and Snap CEO Evan Spiegel for a wildfire recovery panel moderated by Fox 11’s Elex Michaelson at the Milken Institute Global Conference.

The mayor was bullish on the city’s recovery and defended the performance of DWP head Janisse Quiñones. But she also hinted that more city officials might lose their jobs over the fires.

“I think that there are a number of people that should be held accountable, and we’re in the process of doing that,” she said, without providing specifics. Bass ousted her previous fire chief, Kristin Crowley, in February.

— JEERING FROM THE SIDELINES: One figure was notably absent from the Milken stage: Caruso, the former mayoral candidate and frequent Bass antagonist. Caruso, who recently published an op-ed criticizing the mayor’s leadership, was slated to participate in the recovery panel but dropped out after Bass joined the lineup.

“I’m not going to be part of a campaign stop,” he told a reporter shortly after the panel, while holding court in the bustling Beverly Hilton lobby bar. Caruso has been flirting with the idea of another mayoral run but said he won’t “focus on a decision until the end of summer.”

— SHOW YOUR RECEIPTS: Three top officers of United Firefighters of Los Angeles City Local 112 were suspended from their posts Monday after an investigation by the union’s parent organization found $800,000 in credit card purchases that were not properly documented. The International Assn. of Fire Fighters, which oversees UFLAC, suspended President Freddy Escobar and the others over financial improprieties, including “serious problems” with missing receipts. Escobar, who is now locked out of UFLAC’s office, said Friday that he has paperwork that would clear his name.

— BAD FOR BARNSDALL: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House, located in East Hollywood’s Barnsdall Art Park, could close to the public if the mayor’s budget is approved. The reductions also threaten the site’s designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

— HIRING A CHIEF: The Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced the hiring of a new police chief: Bill Scott, an LAPD veteran who most recently was chief of the San Francisco Police Department. Scott will be responsible for building Metro’s new police force, a concept approved by the board last year.

— D IS FOR DORMANT: Speaking of transportation, the Metro D line, also known as the Purple Line, will soon be closed for 70 days as construction continues on a $3.7-billion extension of the subway west to La Cienega Boulevard. The extension is scheduled to open by the end of 2025.

— TRANSITIONS: Former Board of Public Works president Vahid Khorsand has moved across the 3rd floor to the mayor’s office, taking a new job last week as deputy mayor of community engagement. Steve Kang, a former member of the Central Area Planning Commission, is taking over as public works president. Khorsand, a super fan of The Killers, managed to work in lyrics from the band into his all-staff goodbye email and his final board remarks.

QUICK HITS

• Where is Inside Safe? The mayor’s signature homelessness program went to two parts of Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky’s Westside district: Wilshire Boulevard at San Diego Way and Robertson Boulevard at Burton Way. Inside Safe workers also went to Warner Center in Councilmember Bob Blumenfield’s west San Fernando Valley district and made return visits to Chinatown and South L.A., per the mayor’s team.
• On the docket for next week: The City Council is scheduled to vote Wednesday on the plan for hiking the minimum wage of hotel workers and employees of private companies doing business at Los Angeles International Airport.

Stay in touch

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US attorney says Baraka ‘committed trespass’ during protest of facility, which he argues opened without proper permits.

Rights groups and Democratic officials have decried the arrest of the mayor of Newark, New Jersey, during a protest at an immigration detention centre.

Mayor Ras Baraka had joined several lawmakers at the detention centre, called Delaney Hall, for a demonstration on Friday.

For weeks, he has been among those protesting the recently opened 1,000-bed centre, which critics see as a key link in President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts.

Those in attendance said Baraka sought to enter the facility along with members of the United States Congress on Friday, but he was denied entry.

A video reviewed by The Associated Press showed a federal official in a jacket with the logo for the Homeland Security Investigations unit telling Baraka he could not tour the facility because “you are not a congress member”.

Baraka then left the secure area, rejoining protesters on the public side of the centre’s gate. Video showed him speaking through the gate to a man in a suit. The man said, “They’re talking about coming back to arrest you.”

“I’m not on their property. They can’t come out on the street and arrest me,” Baraka replied.

Moments later, several Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, some wearing face coverings, surrounded the mayor and others on the public side of the gate. Baraka was dragged back through the security gate in handcuffs, while protesters yelled, “Shame!”

In a subsequent post on the social media platform X, Alina Habba, Trump’s former personal lawyer and acting US attorney for New Jersey, said Baraka had “committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings” to leave.

“He has willingly chosen to disregard the law. That will not stand in this state,” Habba wrote. “He has been taken into custody. NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW.”

US Representative LaMonica McIver was also at the centre on Friday, along with Representatives Bonnie Watson Coleman and Robert Menendez Jr, to conduct what they called an “oversight inspection”.

In a post on X, McIver said Baraka “did nothing wrong” and had already left the facility at the time of his arrest.

“This is unacceptable,” McIver said in the video.

For its part, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security accused the lawmakers of “storming” the facility in a “bizarre political stunt”.

Baraka has said the detention centre — located in Newark, not far from New York City — opened despite not having the proper local permits and approvals. He has launched a lawsuit to halt its operations.

The GEO group, which runs the centre in coordination with ICE, has denied his claims. It entered into an agreement with the federal government in February to run the Delaney Hall facility, under a 15-year contract valued at $1bn.

‘Unjust arrest’

Local elected officials swiftly condemned the federal agents’ actions, with the state’s governor, Phil Murphy, writing on X that he was “outraged by the unjust arrest” of Baraka.

Murphy called the mayor an “exemplary public servant who has always stood up for our most vulnerable mayors” and appealed for his release.

The governor noted that New Jersey had previously passed a law banning private immigration detention centres in the state, a Democratic stronghold, although it was partially struck down by a federal court in 2023. An appeal is ongoing.

Baraka, who is running in next month’s Democratic primary for governor, has been an outspoken critic of the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

He struck a defiant tone against the Trump administration in January, after ICE raided businesses in the city he leads.

“Newark will not stand by idly while people are being unlawfully terrorised,” he said at the time.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House could soon be closed to the public and lose its designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site if budget cuts proposed by Mayor Karen Bass are passed by the City Council.

The architectural landmark, perched atop Barnsdall Art Park in East Hollywood, is managed by the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs, with two full-time staffers running tours on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays as well as handling the maintenance of the building, which is an early example of California Modernist architecture.

The mayor’s proposed budget, which attempts to close a nearly $1-billion shortfall in part by laying off more than 1,600 city employees, eliminates one of those two staff positions and also cuts two vacant positions at Hollyhock House.

The Cultural Affairs Department had been interviewing candidates for the vacant positions and had made an offer for the job of arts manager. But after the mayor released her proposed budget, the department had to rescind the offer and pause other job interviews.

“A single full-time staffer would not be able to manage both the tour program and preservation, necessitating the suspension of public tours until additional full-time staff could be restored,” said Juan Garcia, a spokesperson for the department.

Amid the massive budget shortfall caused in large part by rising personnel costs, soaring legal payouts and a slowdown in the local economy, department heads have been testifying before the City Council’s budget committee about how the mayor’s proposed cuts would affect city services.

The Cultural Affairs Department would face 14 layoffs and the elimination of 10 vacant positions, out of 91 total positions. The cuts also could lead to the closure of the Lincoln Heights Youth Arts Center, said Daniel Tarica, the department’s general manager.

Oil heiress Aline Barnsdall commissioned the Hollyhock House in 1918. She never lived in it, donating it to the city in 1927.

In 2019, it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site — the only man-made World Heritage Site on the West Coast.

The house was closed for more than two years during the COVID-19 pandemic, reopening in August 2022 after undergoing major renovations.

The monumental fireplace, which brings together the four classical elements of earth, air, fire and water, was restored, as were the art-glass balcony doors in the master bedroom.

Two Wright-designed sofa tables, which the architect had said he considered “part of the house design itself,” were reinstalled.

The improvements also included a major restoration of the guest house.

The UNESCO designation required the house to have four full-time staffers, said Garcia, the spokesperson. The department has requested that the City Council restore the three positions in its final budget, which it must pass by June 1.

“The proposed staffing cuts will severely impact the management of Hollyhock House and subvert the baseline staffing commitments made by the City of Los Angeles as part of the site’s 2019 World Heritage List inscription,” Garcia said.

The proposed cuts shocked preservationists.

“UNESCO World Heritage status is a great honor that needs to be nurtured, not lost by taking public access away,” said Kim Cooper, one of two people behind Esotouric’s Secret Los Angeles, a tour company and preservationist blog. “Hollyhock House is the only one of Wright’s Los Angeles houses that people can tour, recently restored at great cost.”

Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez, who represents the area, said it’s imperative to keep the house’s UNESCO status in light of the upcoming Olympic Games and World Cup.

“We’re exploring all options through the budget process to save our dedicated Hollyhock House staff and preserve its protected status,” he said in a statement.