The Brief

NPR has been picked to receive a $500,000 grant through this year’s Getty Prize, half of which will be shared with Los Angeles member stations LAist and KCRW.

Ann Philbin, director emeritus of the Hammer Museum, has been awarded the 2025 prize for her work in arts and culture, the J. Paul Getty Trust announced Wednesday. The honor comes with a $500,000 pay-it-forward grant from Getty, which was established last year. It allows the award recipient to recognize the work of an arts or educational nonprofit.

NPR will receive $250,000, while the other half will be split evenly between KCRW and LAist, with the stations receiving $125,000 each.

Philbin said she’s humbled to accept a prize that has honored so many agents of change in Los Angeles and beyond. Being able to award the grant to NPR is a “thrill,” she added.

“In addition to their in-depth coverage of the arts and culture, they represent the epitome of fearless and essential journalism in a time when threats to free expression and the suppression of diverse voices is rampant,” she said in a statement.

“We love them and need them!”

What station leaders say

Katherine Maher, president and chief executive of NPR, said the grant supports one of the unique and founding purposes of public media — to provide Americans with free access to cultural programming.

“NPR and member organizations like KCRW and LAist exist to serve communities,” Maher said in a statement. “There is no greater recognition or validation of that work than when a member of the community chooses to give back to the mission of public media, and it is especially meaningful at this moment.”

Alejandra Santamaria, LAist president and CEO, said in a statement that the station’s mission to strengthen the civic and cultural bonds that unite Southern California’s diverse communities is deeply important to her.

Ann Philbin, winner of this year's Getty Prize, the institution's highest honor.

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Mark Hanauer

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Courtesy of the J. Paul Getty Trust

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“At this time when public media is being threatened, we at LAist are grateful for the generous support from Ann Philbin,” Santamaria said. “She understands the value of our coverage and the communities we aspire to serve.”

Jennifer Ferro, KCRW president, said reflecting the people and spirit of the communities that public radio serves is at the core of its mission.

“We’re so grateful for this support and thrilled for the opportunities it will create to further invest in public interest programming for the people of this city,” Ferro said.

Philbin, NPR, KCRW and LAist will be honored at the annual Getty Prize dinner in September.

The grant comes as Congress considers cutting $1.1 billion previously allocated for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting as part of President Donald Trump’s rescission package. The federal funding supports NPR and its member stations, including LAist, which receives about 4% of its budget — or $1.7 million — from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Congress has until midnight Friday to approve the rescission package. If the Senate passes it, the package will go back to the House of Representatives for a final vote.

About the award

The Getty Prize is the institution’s highest honor. It has recognized leaders whose work expands understanding and appreciation of arts and culture since 2013, including architect Frank Gehry and art curator Thelma Golden.

Katherine Fleming, president and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust, said Philbin is a powerhouse in the art world, having completely transformed the Hammer Museum into an internationally recognized institution.

Philbin was director of the Hammer Museum for 25 years, when the museum developed more than 300 free public programs, including film screenings and workshops for families, according to the trust.

A 2023 art installation at the Hammer Museum.

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Joshua White

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Courtesy of the J. Paul Getty Trust

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A 2023 installation at the Hammer Museum.

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Jeff Mclane

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Courtesy of the J. Paul Getty Trust

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“Having spent many years working in both Los Angeles and New York, and with longstanding relationships with artists and organizations around the world, she is widely known as a passionate advocate for the arts and a champion for the freedom of expression,” Fleming said.

Last year’s winner, artist Mark Bradford, chose the Arts for Healing and Justice Network for the grant.

The University of Southern California board of trustees has appointed interim president Beong-Soo Kim to be its 13th full president.

Kim was named as the interim leader in February 2025 and began the role this summer. He most recently served as USC’s senior vice president and general counsel, and as a lecturer at the law school. Prior to joining USC, he worked at Kaiser Permanente and was a federal prosecutor for the Central District of California.

Kim succeeds Carol Folt, who was brought on to stabilize the university following a series of scandals under the administration before hers. She formally stepped down from her role in July, following criticism of her ability to handle student protests and concerns over fiscal stewardship.

Soon after his term began, Kim oversaw the university’s effort to manage a $200 million deficit, which also led to hundreds of layoffs.

“We did have to make some difficult decisions last year with respect to our budget and layoffs,” Kim told LAist. “And I'm really pleased that as a result of those difficult decisions, we're now in a much stronger financial position and really for a number of months have been really focusing on the opportunities that we see on the horizon.”

In a call with LAist, and joined by USC board chair Suzanne Nora Johnson, Kim touched on bright spots and some of his priorities. He also touched on the relationship between USC and the Trump administration before a sudden ending to the call.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

LAist: You've talked about addressing the mass layoffs and budget challenges. What do you see as the way forward?

Beong-Soo Kim: Our research expenditures have actually been going up over the last year, over the last couple of years. We're focusing on: How do we provide the best possible educational value to our students? We're focusing on how to maintain and strengthen our academic culture of excellence, open dialogue and engagement with different viewpoints.

And we're also really kind of leaning into artificial intelligence and asking questions as a community about how we incorporate AI responsibly into our education, into our operations, into our research. And there are obviously a lot of important ethical questions that we're working on, and it's really an quite an exciting time to be in the position that I'm in.

What are you excited for?

Well, a couple things that we're really looking forward to are, as part of the anniversary of the United States, we're going to be hosting a National Archives exhibition [of] founding documents in late April. We're also looking forward to helping host the L.A. Olympics in 2028. We have our 150th anniversary coming up in 2030 as a university.

So there's a lot that's on the horizon. We also have the Lucas Museum opening up across the street later this year and, of course, George Lucas is one of our most beloved Trojan alumni. So there's so much vitality, so much energy on the campus right now.

USC has, for the most part, avoided the sort of conflicts that the University of California system and elite private institutions across the country have had with the Trump administration. What can you share about how you plan to manage USC’s relationship with the federal government?

Well, we really make an effort to engage with all levels of government, as well as foundations, the private sector, community groups. That kind of engagement is really more important nowadays. Universities can't just go off on their own. It's important for us to partner and find opportunities to work with others. And that's what we've been doing.

And that's part of the reason why I think that our research has continued to go strongly. And I give a lot of the credit to our faculty and researchers who can continue submitting grant applications and continue to do research in areas that are critically important to the benefit of our community, our nation, and our world. And I think that we -—

Suzanne Nora Johnson: —Actually I'm so sorry, but we have to complete the board meeting, and we've got to run. Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it. We'll be in touch. Bye. Thanks. Bye.

Huntington Beach will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review a decision striking down the city’s controversial voter ID law.

What’s the backstory?

Huntington Beach voters approved a measure in 2024 allowing the city to require people to show ID when casting a ballot. That contradicts state law — voters in California are asked to provide ID when they register to vote but generally not at polling places.

The ensuing court battle

The state and a Huntington Beach resident promptly sued the city over the voter ID law and won an appeals court ruling striking down the law. The California Supreme Court declined to review the decision earlier this month. The state also passed a law prohibiting cities from implementing their own voter ID laws.

Then, the City Council voted unanimously this week to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in.

Does the city have a shot?

The Supreme Court gets 7,000 to 8,000 requests to review cases each year. The Court grants about 80 of these requests, so the city’s chances of getting the court’s attention are statistically slim.

There’s also a question of whether or not the city’s voter ID case meets the Court’s criteria for review — SCOTUS addresses questions of federal law. Mayor Casey McKeon said it does, in a news release, noting a 2008 Supreme Court decision that upheld a state’s voter ID law — in Indiana. But Huntington Beach is a city, and the question in its voter ID case is whether or not a city can implement its own requirements for voting, even if it clashes with state law.

Go deeper

• Huntington Beach's controversial voter ID law is illegal
• Huntington Beach clashes with California over voter ID requirement in court
• HB Mayor defends Voter ID measure as Gov. Newsom seeks to ban it
• Listen 26:32

  The Trump Administration wants your confidential voter data. What’s behind their battle with CA and other states?