May, one of the strippers who has worked to unionize Star Garden, holds up some swag: a pro-union thong.
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Topline:
In May 2023, the strippers of Star Garden Topless Dive Bar in North Hollywood won a 15-month campaign to unionize, making national headlines and becoming the second ever union strip club in U.S. history. Now, more than six months later, LAist is circling back on how it's been since then.
Why it matters: This week, LAist Studios debuts Imperfect Paradise: Strippers Union, a four-part series which takes listeners behind the scenes of the club’s tight-knit community, to examine the workplace conditions that led them to organize, how their campaign sparked conversations around race, class and privilege in sex work, and the limits and challenges of unionization.
In May 2023, the strippers of Star Garden Topless Dive Bar in North Hollywood won a 15-month campaign to unionize, making national headlines and becoming the second ever union strip club in U.S. history.
This week, LAist Studios debuts Imperfect Paradise: Strippers Union, a four-part series which takes listeners behind the scenes of the club’s tight-knit community, to examine the workplace conditions that led them to organize, how their campaign sparked conversations around race, class and privilege in sex work, and the limits and challenges of unionization.
Don't miss Episode 1, listen below or wherever you get your podcasts.
Part 1: In 2023, North Hollywood’s Star Garden reopened as the only unionized strip club in the U.S. Emma Alabaster tells us the behind-the-scenes story of the workplace conditions that pushed the dancers into action. CONTENT WARNING: This episode includes sensitive content about sexual assault. For sexual assault and harassment support and resources, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673, which is a service of RAINN (Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network).
Strippers Union: Part 1
Part 1: In 2023, North Hollywood’s Star Garden reopened as the only unionized strip club in the U.S. Emma Alabaster tells us the behind-the-scenes story of the workplace conditions that pushed the dancers into action. CONTENT WARNING: This episode includes sensitive content about sexual assault. For sexual assault and harassment support and resources, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673, which is a service of RAINN (Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network).
It was history in the making Thursday night as Star Garden reopened as the only currently unionized strip club in the U.S. — and the second ever in the country. (The very first, the now defunct Lusty Lady in San Francisco, unionized in 1996.)
It was part union rally, part sidewalk party, part reopening celebration at Star Garden Topless Dive Bar in North Hollywood. Customers were lined up outside waiting for its doors to open at 8 p.m. A group from the United Farm Workers chanted, “Si, se puede!” Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine played union songs on acoustic guitar to the sidewalk scene.
Among the crowd, in bikinis, corsets and crop tops, were some of the strippers who used to dance inside this bar. After almost a year and a half of being on strike, much of it on this same sidewalk, these dancers were finally going back inside.
“I've been on strike 17 months and now I'm going back in. It's very surreal,” said one Star Garden stripper, whose stage name is Wicked. (For safety reasons, we are using stage names for all the strippers in this story.)
Five dancers — Charlie, May, Wicked, Sinder and Velveeta — gather outside the Star Garden strip club on opening night to celebrate their successful unionizing efforts.
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Even though the dancers and their supporters are celebrating, their work isn’t over.
The club was reopening under an interim contract, but negotiations for the more permanent contract are still underway. Dancers say they want more say over scheduling, protection against retaliatory firings, as well as security protocols to protect dancers from aggressive customers and anti-discrimination provisions in hiring.
“Bargaining’s not over. Nothing is done yet,” Wicked said. “So it's a little uncomfy to be going in under less than ideal circumstances. But my friends have reminded me that you have to take your little victories where you find them. We fought for it, we worked for it, we bled for it, we cried for it. We made history.”
An Nguyen Ruda, Star Garden management’s chief labor negotiator, said club management was “happy to have its customers there to support it and its employees.”
“We continue to negotiate in good faith with the Union as we continue to rebuild business,” Ruda said in a written statement. “We look forward to a continued and successful weekend reopening, and to continued productive discussions with the Union.”
A tense opening night
Inside the club on reopening night, the tensions between management and the dancers were palpable. The bar previously did not have a cover charge but was charging $40 per person on opening night, about four times more than other strip clubs in the area. The drink prices were also significantly increased. And the lap dance booth was not open since workers and management have not come to a financial agreement yet on that aspect of the workplace.
On this opening night, patrons wait to get in and celebrate the unionization.
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In another surprising move, the club was also going cashless, unusual for a strip club where customers normally tip dancers by throwing money onstage.
A dancer named Reagan came prepared with her own stack of singles and walked around the club breaking up larger bills for customers. There was no DJ, so the dancers played their own songs.
Also present in the crowd was Kate Shindle, president of Actors’ Equity, the union representing the Star Garden strippers. She reflected on what she called the “unpleasant surprises” of the night.
“It seems to me consistently baffling that management does not see a path for everyone to come out of this a hero and for everyone to make a lot of money,” said Shindle.
Ruda, Star Garden management’s representative, said the cover charge and cashless systems were “a business decision which is lawful and not retaliatory.”
Wicked said she hopes management will find value in the club’s new era.
“We want to prove to them how things are different now in a great way," she said. "Being a union club makes us notorious. It makes us really something special. Something people will come from other places to go to.”
Shindle said she was proud of the Star Garden dancers' ability to carry on.
“They've hung in there for so long and have been so tough and supportive of each other. It’s consistently felt like their solidarity is the thing that's kept this together,” she said. “We got this part done. Now we still have some serious ground to cover.”
At one point, while onstage, dancer Reagan led the customers in a chant that they previously used on the picket line:
“Whose club?”
“Our club!”
Sinder, one of the strippers at Star Garden, who worked to unionize the club.
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Charlie and Wicked pose together on the reopening night of Star Garden after unionization.
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The backstory
The Star Garden strippers’ fight for a union started in 2022 when they had various workplace health and safety concerns, including unsanitary bathrooms, broken equipment and assault from customers. The dancers were also unhappy with the cut management was taking of their tips. The dancers delivered a petition to management demanding better working conditions. The club owners responded by locking the dancers out.
This set off eight months of the strippers picketing outside the club with the support of an advocacy organization called Strippers United.
A turning point in the battle came in August 2022, when Actors’ Equity, a union that represents over 51,000 live theater performers and stage managers, announced that they would be representing the Star Garden strippers.
The dancers went on to cast their ballots to vote for union representation.
The union vote was challenged by Star Garden management, so the National Labor Relations Board set a hearing on the matter. In the meantime, the club declared bankruptcy and closed for several months.
But right before the NLRB hearing date, Star Garden dancers told us, management reached out and decided to close the bankruptcy case, sit down with the dancers to negotiate and recognize them as unionized employees.
Which brings us to this week.
What now?
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The strippers we spoke with on the scene are hopeful that things can become less tense.
“Hopefully we can prove to [the management] that there's a future where employees and employers can all have equitable contracts and systems. And everyone makes the money that they deserve,” said a dancer who goes by the stage name Charlie.
In this so-called “hot labor summer,” the Star Garden dancers have also brought their pole out to dance on the WGA and SAG picket lines in support of those ongoing strikes.
And they're supporting another unionization effort by dancers at Magic Tavern strip club in Portland, Oregon. The Magic Tavern dancers have been on strike since April. In June they announced they, too, will be joining Actors’ Equity.
“Once we have it set up, others will follow,” Wicked said. “It will be something that people can take up and be like, this is solid. This can be implemented. There is a pathway.”
Her dream? That other clubs will follow Star Garden’s lead, leading to "more union strip clubs where strippers are safe and well paid.”
What’s happened since reopening over six months ago?
Since Star Garden reopened in August 2023, tensions have persisted between dancers and management as they’ve continued to negotiate their first union contract – a process that often takes more than a year.
In the meantime, dancers told us they felt management was taking steps to weaken their position at the bargaining table, inhibiting customers with the high cover charge cost and by not providing cash change.
Recently, Star Garden has reinstalled an ATM, lowered its cover charge from $40 to $25 and hired an human resources consultant.
The dancers also said they felt the club’s management was trying to undermine them by writing up dancers for various HR infractions they felt were unfair.
Dancers sent us copies of written warnings they’ve received from HR, which included write-ups for “simulating a sexual act.”
“We're not allowed to touch ourselves on stage. Lots of girls have gotten written up for that,” said Star Garden dancer Wicked (stage name). “And I'm like, do you not understand what this performance art is?”
Star Garden management declined our request for an interview, but in an email, their attorneys wrote that the rules are there for “general safety” and that the club’s goal is to get the business to “cost neutral, rather than unprofitable as it has been since reopening.”
In the months after reopening, Actors Equity union filed several Unfair Labor Practice charges (ULPs) with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging that the club was bargaining in bad faith, had gotten in the way of strippers’ earning tips, that management was taking undue disciplinary actions toward the dancers, and had refused club entry or charged higher fees to some union supporters.
In December 2023, the strippers went on a weekend long picket to draw attention to the charges.
In a news release sent to LAist, the club’s attorney alleged that it was the dancers who were disrupting business and making it unprofitable and that "Star Garden denies engaging in any unfair labor practice."
The NLRB has yet to rule on the charges. Since the strike, dancers and management have resumed bargaining over the union contract.
Adolfo Guzman-Lopez
is an arts and general assignment reporter on LAist's Explore LA team.
Published May 19, 2026 5:53 PM
A man casts his ballot during early voting
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Topline:
Write-in candidates in Southern California are no joke. Election officials require them to qualify. While many are already in, Tuesday is the deadline to be considered. The full list will be released to the public Friday.
The rules: The city of L.A. requires write-in candidates to file a form and pay $300 or submit 500 valid signatures, while other cities may not require anything except paperwork. Qualified candidate names are sent to county election officials and will post the information Friday for voters.
Some write-in candidates: As of 3 p.m. Tuesday, the L.A. County Registrar of Voters listed 20 write-in candidates who filed in California for a wide range of races, from state Assembly and state Senate to governor. Of the 20, 11 filed as write-ins for the governor’s race.
Why it matters: Most write-in campaigns are a long shot but some have won: Lisa Murkowski won an Alaska U.S. Senate seat in 2010; Washington, D.C., Mayor Anthony Williams was reelected in 2002.
Who gets counted: Only votes for qualified write-in candidates are counted and certified. Sorry, Mickey Mouse and George Washington.
What's next:Here’s the current list of qualified write-in candidates in L.A. County. Checking the box that says Show only Write In Records will show you write-in candidates. Orange County election officials say they have no write-in candidates.
Matthew Ballinger
is the senior editor for climate and environment coverage at LAist.
Updated May 19, 2026 5:56 PM
Published May 19, 2026 4:02 PM
A fire on Santa Rosa Island has been burning since May 15, 2015. The island is seen here in 1997.
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Carlos Chavez
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Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
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Topline:
Several fires are burning across Southern California, with some destroying structures, threatening homes and charring pristine landscapes.
Where are the fires? A large fire is burning on Santa Rosa Island in Channel Islands National Park. A fire in Simi Valley has destroyed one home and led to multiple evacuation alerts. Two fires are in Riverside County, and a small fire is in the San Gabriel Mountains.
The forecast: Warm weather and Santa Ana wind conditions have hampered firefighting efforts and are expected to continue through Wednesday this week.
Read on ... for details about the Sandy Fire, Santa Rosa Island Fire and others.
Several fires are burning across Southern California, with some destroying structures, threatening homes and charring pristine landscapes.
Warm weather and Santa Ana wind conditions have hampered firefighting efforts and are expected to continue through Wednesday this week. The National Weather Service forecasts cooler weather and "May gray" through the weekend.
Here's a roundup of some of the fires burning now.
(All dates refer to today, Tuesday, May 19, unless otherwise noted)
The fire is burning in Channel Island National Park territory. Firefighters traveled by boat with their equipment to get to the island, according to news reports. The island is home to rare and endangered plants and animals.
CalFire reported about 2:40 p.m. Tuesday that lessening winds allowed "firefighters to take full advantage of improved weather to strengthen containment lines and continue aggressive suppression efforts. Crews remain actively engaged both on the ground and in the air to gain additional containment and keep the fire within its current perimeter."
The fire started Monday in the southern part of Simi Valley. It eventually spread eastward toward L.A. County communities in the San Fernando Valley, but overnight conditions were favorable to firefighters, CalFire said. Several communities were under evacuation orders and warnings, and schools in the area were closed.
The fire was first reported around noon Tuesday, according to CalFire, near Jurupa Valley (east of the 15 Freeway and south of the 60). CBS News Los Angeles reported that four people have been injured.
If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less.
Frank Stoltze
is a veteran reporter who covers local politics and examines how democracy is and, at times, is not working.
Published May 19, 2026 3:42 PM
Supervisor Lindsey Horvath sponsored the motion to create an L.A. County Ethics Commission.
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Topline:
Citing a desire to prevent corruption within county government, the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday established Los Angeles County’s first ethics commission.
The backstory: In 2024, voters approved Measure G, which called for the creation of an Ethics Commission and Office of Ethics Compliance. The measure came amid a series of corruption cases at L.A. City Hall but calls for reform spilled over into the county government.
The details: The motion by Supervisor Lindsey Horvath and approved by the board Tuesday directs county departments to begin establishing the operational, staffing and legal infrastructure necessary to launch the commission in this year. It also directs staff to prepare a charter amendment for voter consideration on the November ballot to enshrine the commission in the charter.
Composition: Supervisors voted for a plan that calls for a seven-member commission. Initially, the chair of the Board of Supervisors, the county assessor and the Governance Reform Task Force would each appoint a commissioner, filling three spots. Those appointees would then select the remaining four members from a pool of applicants.
Opposition: Supervisor Janice Hahn supported the overall motion but opposed the composition of the commission, saying too many members were to be appointed by elected officials — the same people the panel would be charged with watchdogging.
History: The county has had its own campaign, lobbying and ethics laws on the books for years, but they were enforced by ethics officers in various departments. The latest proposal calls for a 54-member ethics office to enforce those laws and for the commission to impose fines if they are violated.
Students walk past a sign for a campus financial aid office Dec. 8, 2017.
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After a spike in fraudulent applications to California’s community colleges, school officials say they are getting better at detecting and preventing fraud, though it still happens.
Why it matters: Between January and March 2025, scammers stole nearly $5.6 million in federal student aid and over $900,000 in state aid. By comparison, this spring colleges have reported losing just under $1.5 million in federal student aid and about $330,000 in state aid to fraudsters. Last spring was “really the peak,” Hadsell said. He said he anticipates the end-of-year total in 2026 to be “significantly lower” than last year.
The backstory: Last spring, CalMatters reported that colleges were seeing unprecedented reports of fraud, with scammers stealing millions more dollars of student aid than in any previous period, according to reports submitted by colleges to California’s Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office.
Read on... for more on how community colleges in the state are cracking down on financial aid fraud.
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.
California’s community colleges have been battling fraudulent students for years, trying to prevent scammers from stealing financial aid money.
Recent data shows the colleges’ efforts finally may be working.
Last spring, CalMatters reported that colleges were seeing unprecedented reports of fraud, with scammers stealing millions more dollars of student aid than in any previous period, according to reports submitted by colleges to California’s Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office.
Now fewer scammers are bypassing colleges’ vetting systems, according to monthly reports, and school administrators say they’re better, though still not perfect, at detecting and preventing fraud.
After CalMatters reported on the rise in fraud last year, Republican U.S. Congress members called for a federal investigation, a Democratic state legislator launched a state audit and later, California’s Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office approved a new ID verification policy for students. Colleges now are more vigilant about policing fraud, said Jory Hadsell, an executive in technology initiatives for the chancellor’s office, who pointed to better filtering practices and new software to detect fraud.
Between January and March 2025, scammers stole nearly $5.6 million in federal student aid and over $900,000 in state aid. By comparison, this spring colleges have reported losing just under $1.5 million in federal student aid and about $330,000 in state aid to fraudsters.
Last spring was “really the peak,” Hadsell said. He said he anticipates the end-of-year total in 2026 to be “significantly lower” than last year.
Even in the worst months, such as last spring, the money distributed to scammers is less than 1% of the total financial aid distributed to community college students in California. Students use the money to help pay for tuition, books and the cost of daily living expenses, such as rent, transportation and food.
But any fraud, however small, is unacceptable, said Chris Ferguson, executive vice chancellor of finance and strategic initiatives. “The ultimate goal for our system is zero.”
Some anti-fraud policies have been slow to take effect. The California Community Colleges Board of Governors voted nearly a year ago to require ID verification for all students, but only about 50% of college students are doing it as of this month. Hadsell said the delays arose in part because of complications verifying information of students under 18 years old, who represent a growing demographic for the community colleges. He said ID verification, which is currently optional, will become mandatory on July 1.
The board also voted to “explore” the option of charging students an application fee of no more than $10, but with the rates of fraud declining and other solutions that seem to work, the chancellor’s office is no longer pursuing that option, Ferguson said.
After blaming California officials, the U.S. Department of Education, which shares responsibility for administering federal aid and detecting fraud, said it would implement a “screening process” for applicants. It was supposed to take effect last fall but didn’t launch until last month, according to press releases from the department and statements from the California Student Aid Commission. CalMatters reached out to the U.S. Education Department five times over the last 12 months, seeking clarification, but the department has refused to respond to questions about delays with the screening process.
When more than a third of college applicants are fake
After classes suddenly moved online during the COVID-19 pandemic, the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office saw an increase in financial aid fraud on their application portal, CCCApply, which is used by nearly every student as the first step in applying to community college.
In 2021, the chancellor’s office suspected roughly 20% of applicants were fraudulent.
The estimate was higher in January 2024, around 25%. Last spring, it was 34%, though some schools saw much higher rates.
After they apply through CCCApply, students get filtered locally at their college of choice. In the Los Rios Community College District, which represents Sacramento, college officials suspected 64% of local applications from January to March 2025 were fraudulent. And that was after the state already vetted them through its portal, said Gabe Ross, a spokesperson for the district. The San Diego and Los Angeles community college districts also reported spikes in the number of fraudulent applications around the same time.
CalMatters reached out to the five largest community college districts for an interview. The Rancho Santiago Community College District, which includes parts of Orange County, did not provide sufficient data to draw conclusions about trends in fraud. The State Center Community College District, which represents schools in Fresno and Madera counties, did not respond to CalMatters’ questions.
Monthly data reports to the chancellor’s office show that once detected, most scammers who applied to community colleges were then caught and kicked out before they could apply for financial aid, but some succeeded.
This year, both Sacramento and San Diego community colleges say they’re seeing fewer attempts at fraud and are getting better at stopping those who try. The San Diego Community College District is now manually screening for fraudulent applications twice a week and is finalizing a contract with a company to help improve its detection software.
CCCApply has improved its filtering process, which helped reduce fraud attempts at Sacramento area colleges, said Ross. “When we talked about such a complex dynamic challenge, it's always hard to identify what's the one thing that sort of moved the needle. The truth is that we needed support from the feds, we needed support from the (chancellor’s) office, and we needed to invest in tools locally.”
This spring, he said the district flagged about 12% of college applications as suspect.
Using AI to detect AI
Measuring fraud is, by definition, imprecise. If a scammer is truly successful, colleges have no way to identify that fraud.
For a long time, administrators assumed bots enrolling in online classes were responsible for most fraudulent attempts. Yet teachers, students and financial aid administrators say some of the scams are more sophisticated now and are coming from real people impersonating students. Many fraudulent applications to Los Angeles’ community colleges have real names, dates of birth, and addresses that are likely “leaked or stolen,” said Nicole Albo-Lopez, the deputy chancellor of the Los Angeles Community College District.
In San Diego, Victor DeVore, dean of student services, said the college district only requires ID verification for students flagged as fraudulent. At that point they must prove their identity, either in person or through Zoom. Once, a potentially fraudulent student appeared on Zoom and presented a valid-looking ID that matched their face, but DeVore’s team noticed that the student’s IP address was odd. “One minute they’re logging in from Nairobi, the next minute they'll be logging in from Virginia,” he said, adding that the use of AI, virtual private networks (VPNs) or other technology has made fraud harder to detect.
Students’ personal data is supposed to be private, but school districts and education technology companies are frequently hacked. Last week, Canvas — one of the go-to learning platforms for California’s community colleges, University of California and California State University campuses — went offline temporarily due to a major hack. Its parent company, Instructure, said last week that it reached an agreement with the hackers to relinquish students’ data.
The state has turned to AI to fight fraud. Last summer, the state chancellor’s office negotiated a multimillion dollar contract with N2N Services Inc., enabling any college in the state to access the company’s software at a discounted rate. The software uses AI to detect potentially fraudulent applicants. Colleges are not required to use it, and so far, only about two-thirds do. Some districts, such as the Los Angeles Community College District, use a different fraud detection software, known as Socure.
Colleges and the state chancellor’s office continue to face political pressure and scrutiny of their approach to fraud. Last month, the U.S. Education Department said it had prevented more than $171 million in fraud in California after implementing a new policy regarding ID verification. Hadsell, with the state chancellor’s office, said the federal policy had no impact on California’s colleges. “They issued some interim guidance last year that basically said you should at least have a Zoom call with students and have them show an ID when you're approving their aid. And those were things that were already happening. It was not, you know, some new thing at least for most of our colleges.”
Kiran Kodithala, the CEO of N2N, which collects its own data on fraud at community colleges, said the education department’s claim makes no sense.
“I don’t see how $171 million in fraud in California can occur,” he said. “There’s no basis for those numbers. We’re not seeing anything remotely close.” Kodithala estimates that N2N has prevented over $34 million in fraud since last summer, though his platform is not yet in use by all of California's 116 community colleges.
Collecting more precise data may take months or years. U.S. Representative Young Kim, who represents parts of Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, launched the effort for a federal investigation last spring, but her office could not provide any updates or confirm that an investigation was in fact underway. At the state level, the Legislature last year approved conducting an audit of how California’s community colleges handled fraud but the findings won’t be released until this summer.
