The Thorn West is a state and local news roundup compiled by volunteer members of DSA-LA. Our goal is to provide a weekly update on the latest developments in state and local politics, and to track the issues that are most important to our membership. Writers and copy editors wanted! Email [email protected] if interested!

Issue No. 230 - April 18, 2025

State Politics

• Governor Newsom has filed a lawsuit, contesting the legality of Trump administration’s tariffs, established through executive orders, without Congressional approval. Also this week, Newsom was quoted as calling the illegally-deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia "a distraction."

• Every state legislative session, all bills that would affect the state budget must pass through the “suspense file.” An informal process which California lawmakers have used to kill many bills. CalMatters identifies a few key bills that are at risk.

City Politics

• Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez held a rally in Los Angeles last weekend, as part of their “Fighting Oligarchy: Where We Go from Here”tour. Similar rallies hosted by Sanders across the country have drawn massive crowds; in Los Angeles 36,000 people attended.

• Los Angeles County faces a budget crisis. Potential federal funding curtailment under the Trump administration, fallout from the wildfires, and a $4 billion dollar settlement payment to several thousands of victims of abuse in county-run juvenile detention centers. The 2025-2026 draft budget, passed this week by the Board of Supervisors, shrinks several departments’s budgets while funneling $9.5M to the Sheriff’s Department. Criminal justice reform activists worry that the county will make up the shortfall by raiding the funds set aside by Measure J for non-carceral public safety alternatives.

• Elections are being held for Los Angeles’ Neighborhood Councils, but voter participation has plummeted.

Immigration

• Four Homeland Security agents attempted to speak with students at two LAUSD elementary schools, claiming they were performing “wellness checks.” In both cases the schools followed LAUSD policy and denied the agents access. California’s Senators have opened an inquiry.

• The ACLU filed a lawsuit against several federal agencies, after Border Patrol agents arrested 77 people in neighboring Kern County, based on what strongly seems to have been nothing but racial profiling. In response the Department of Homeland Security has said it will retrain agents to comply with the Fourth Amendment, going forward.

NOlympics

• The Olympics Committee has announced several more of the venues where the 2028 Olympic Games’s events will be held. Transit activists have been pleasantly surprised that the venues are all served by public transit.

Labor

• The University of Southern California is contesting a unionization vote using the same radical argument employed by Amazon and SpaceX: that the National Labor Relations Board is itself unconstitutional.

Environmental Justice

• With lead-soil-level concerns rising in the wake of the Los Angeles wildfires, The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has approved $3M in funds to test the soil of intact properties within a mile downwind of the Eaton Fire burn scar.