The Brief

"I sought out community college to grow my nascent interest in art and journalism."

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I had been thinking about making my own career change for over five years.

Some friends and I formed a group to discuss the book “Designing Your Life.” In that moment, our past decisions would no longer dictate our lives. We brought the design concept of iteration into practice, ready to learn from trial and error.

It took me time. I was terrified of leaving a respectable job and financial stability, even though I had lost a sense of vitality in my work. I sought out community college to grow my nascent interest in art and journalism.

I could be a student again — make mistakes, ask dumb questions, and dare to imagine a different future.

This is a project about six people, who by way of community college have made — or started — a leap of faith.

A leap of faith.

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Investment banker > aspiring dietician

Rita Kwan worked in investment banking for 15 years. People in Hong Kong considered it a good job for the salary and the benefits.

Buildings and cuisine in Hong Kong

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"I didn’t really like that at all, the so-called ‘money-making’ industry.”

She was busy with work and she didn’t have the time to think about her future.

She thought it was “normal to suffer in my job, in my life.”

Kwan’s dad was fighting cancer and she thought his poor diet might have hurt his health. In Hong Kong, she saw people eating unhealthy junk food.

She realized the importance of what one consumes.

“We have to protect ourselves by raising our awareness of what we put into our bodies.”

In Hong Kong, the opportunity to make career changes seemed limited right after high school.

Kwan came to the U.S. and took an English as a second language class at Mt. San Antonio College, where she took a personality test. Her result pointed toward a “helping” career, like a teacher or a counselor.

"If they want to garden, they can garden. They have the health to do that, instead of staying in bed all day long."

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“I feel like I am a living person, instead of a person who doesn’t have a dream or who doesn’t know what I want to do.”

After taking nutrition courses at Mt. San Antonio College, Kwan plans to work full-time to afford the cost of a master’s degree in nutrition.

“Life is not about how long you live. It’s about the quality, when somebody’s healthy and able to do whatever they want to do. Like if they want to garden, they can garden. They have the health to do that, instead of staying in bed all day long.”

Khaokham enjoyed being a jeweler, having her own creative line and her artistic pieces in galleries.

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Jeweler > geography student

Candace Khaokham enjoyed being a jeweler, having her own creative line and her artistic pieces in galleries. “It was really rewarding and fun stuff, but it’s very taxing on your body and your eyesight because everything is so small.”

She realized she wasn’t earning enough.

“I’m getting older. I need to start thinking about a regular health care plan and savings.”

“I was looking at where people are needed in the future, you know?” A friend said there was a demand for people in the geography profession.

Khaokham attended Pasadena City College “without really knowing what I wanted to do when I started. I took my cultural geography class. I was like, ‘I love this class.’” She liked how geography is a study of “where we are, who’s around us, and how we got here.”

1939 Home Owners Loan Corporation color-coded and rating system of Los Angeles neighborhoods

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At community college in her early 40s, Khaokham excelled with a 3.9 GPA. “I wasn’t a great student in high school or my early teens, but this time I was like I’m gonna do good in school.”

“I wanted to have a job to be kind of helpful too, like if I could make a map that would help with land reclamation, a project on the history of redlining, redistricting, or gerrymandering.”

Adrián Huerta, education professor at University of Southern California

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Truck driver > aspiring occupational therapist

Before he had a stroke, Bladon was working as a truck driver for seven years. The job was stressful. He was working 14-hour days, five days a week, and he neglected his health.

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Before he had a stroke, Barri Bladon was working as a truck driver for seven years. The job was stressful. He was working 14-hour days, five days a week, and he neglected his health. “I ended up ballooning to like 330 pounds.”

“I didn’t have an education beyond high school. Being a truck driver was what I could do to make a decent salary.”

After the stroke, the doctor painted a bleak future for Bladon, pointing to statistics for African Americans. Bladon felt like the doctor was insensitive — his words causing more harm than good. Instead of feeling defeated, Bladon determined to get better.

During his rehabilitation process, he “met some incredible occupational therapists,” and decided to become one himself, starting with going back to school.

After his stroke, during his rehabilitation process, Barri “met some incredible occupational therapists,” and decided to become one himself.

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“I was afraid that I wasn’t gonna be able to make it through school because I hadn’t been in years, especially having a lesion on my brain.” Bladon hadn’t taken a standardized test in years. He had no idea how many courses he might need.

“Once I got through my first semester at El Camino, I felt more confident. I would get confident with each semester.”

He also found confidence by testing out other classes, like in radiology. He says, “Don’t be afraid to try something if you think you might be interested in it, especially at the community college level.”

Bladon wanted to complete his education as fast as possible. He recommends prospective students “do your own research” on what classes are required to transfer to a university — meeting with the university counselor, for example, can help. He met with a few different guidance counselors, but found only one who was particularly helpful, who saved him from taking unnecessary courses.

Bladon’s goal is “as a practitioner, I want to show people of color that there is representation in the field because the majority of the patients that we serve are Black and brown.”

Pamela Hsiung

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Wealth management client associate > aspiring UX/UI designer 

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Pamela Hsiung, who had been working for a wealth management company for seven years, began to work from home.

Pamela started by taking the Sketching for Design class at Pasadena City College.

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“When you’re working remotely, you’re really reduced to just the essence of the work you do. You really just sat with the work.”

“I realized all the fun parts of work were with my co-workers.” Hsiung says she had to make a career change.

As the eldest daughter of immigrant parents, she felt family expectations led her to study finance. Hsiung wanted to pivot and pursue a more creative career in design.

“I did my homework,” she says. “I realized a lot of professors at accredited universities were teaching at community colleges for a fraction of the price.”

She started by taking the Sketching for Design class at Pasadena City College. “In the beginning everyone is really lost, but maybe the second, third week you start to get the handle of thinking a little more creatively. That’s when I realized that as long as I break these steps down into bite-sized pieces, I’ll be able to digest them and inch forward.”

“I was doing something that I really enjoyed and I had never felt that when I was working in finance.” Hsiung liked creating something of her own. 

If Hsiung wasn’t being cautious, “I would love to be in something that was just purely art related.” She says the design field she’s pursuing is “still a business job.”

“I think it’s still scary. I’m not done with my portfolio, and I am moving into a completely different field. I know the tech industry isn’t great right now. I just have to persevere, and I will eventually make it.”

Physical therapy student > chef

“Career change is pretty evident for especially my generation of millennials. We all grew up kind of like on ‘you’re supposed to do this career, stick with it for like 40 plus, 50 years, retire and then that’s it.’ People are realizing you can do so many different things.”

Marie Manalo graduated from Cal State Northridge in kinesiology — the study of human movement — and began a physical therapy program.

“We were doing water exercises with clients. I was standing there holding my client in the water and I was like, ‘wow, I really don’t want to do this. I either make this change now or I commit and figure it out later.’”

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“We were doing water exercises with clients. I was standing there holding my client in the water and I was like, ‘wow, I really don’t want to do this. I either make this change now or I commit and figure it out later.’”

Manalo’s dad had been a sous chef and her grandma’s cooking had a strong influence on her, so she decided to look into culinary school.

Someone told her that L.A. Trade-Tech has a top culinary program. “And I wasn’t going to spend a crap ton of money going to Le Cordon Bleu or something private.”

Manalo’s dad had been a sous chef and her grandma’s cooking had a strong influence on her, so she decided to look into culinary school.

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“It’s really brave to change your career,” Manalo says, adding that not all families encourage people to change course when they choose. Manalo’s mom supported her doing what would make her happy.

The “culinary (industry) is pretty freaking intense, like mentally and physically,” Manalo says. Every day someone would shout or scream at her.

She said she was so focused on learning that she had a set of blinders on and did not notice the inappropriate behavior. She also worked 14 to 16-hour days and went three years without taking a vacation.

Manalo has stepped away from the restaurant industry now. She feels burnt out. “I think people need to understand too as you grow older the way you feel about life is gonna change.”

While the journey was worth it, along the way Manalo learned something about herself that is informing her next steps.

“I thought I was gonna regret changing, but once I was in it, I was in it. Now it’s like 10 plus years later and I still don’t regret.”

“I’m trying to find that, like, unicorn job that has everything — work-life balance, intensity, passion, like all that wrapped into one. And it’s really, really hard right now to find something like that.”

Archaeologist > nurse

Jane Mitchell worked as an archaeologist for nearly a decade.

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“I loved archaeology but I needed to make more money so that I could support myself and the family that I wanted to have one day,” Jane Mitchell says. She worked in the field for nearly a decade.

She considered continuing in archaeology in different ways. Getting a master’s degree and teaching and publishing, or working in a museum, for example.

She weighed the potential outcomes of different routes. Then, she decided to become a nurse.

For her, nursing was “the most practical, stable job you could probably find.” She said she would go from studying human remains to the living.

Making the change was “like jumping off a cliff into the water. ‘Am I really gonna start making this change? Start telling people that I’m totally turning my life around. What am I doing?’”

Making the change was “like jumping off a cliff into the water."

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Classes for nursing can be in high demand, but she enrolled in physiology and anatomy prerequisites at Pasadena City College.

Jane Mitchell

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Mitchell said she was closer to her professor’s age.

“I had to drop any amount of pride I had to ask people sometimes younger than me, ‘how do you do this?’”

At the same time, her life experience gave her confidence to ask questions. “I feel like a lot of students don’t ask questions at all. Maybe they’ll text a question.”

Mitchell says she did tons of research on how to become a nurse.

“Do your research. Make sure you have a clear path of how you’re gonna do it, how long it might take you so you can just be ready for it and not get stressed out about surprises along the way.”

How we made this story

This story was originally written and illustrated as a physical zine. The zine includes everything captured in this story: Advice from career counselors, questions to ask yourself when considering a career change, and hand-painted illustrations.

Want to learn more about how we put this together? Check out our Medium post.

If you have any questions about the project, or would like to learn about other print products related to higher education we have available, please reach out to associate engagement producer Adriana Pera at apera@scpr.org.

The union that represents 29,000 faculty members is asking its members to authorize a strike after negotiations with California State University reached an impasse. Members have till November 19 to vote.

The California Faculty Association last went on strike in January 2024.

Now they are back at the bargaining table. While the union seeks pay raises, members say this negotiation is also about all the ways higher education has changed since they won their last contract: That includes provisions guaranteeing academic freedom — in the face of pressure from the Trump administration over DEI and and artificial intelligence guardrails.

“This is the boldest proposal we've had as a bargaining team, as a union,” said Elaine Villanueva Bernal, who teaches chemistry at Cal State Long Beach and also serves on the bargaining team.

She and other members of the union rallied this past week in support of the authorization vote, one of many such demonstrations across the state.

They said the union is fighting for members to decide whether or not to use artificial intelligence and to “not to be replaced with AI, for our work not to be evaluated by AI.”

Even if the vote passes, that doesn’t mean a strike will happen; contract talks can still continue.

Elaine Villanueva Bernal teaches chemistry at Cal State Long Beach and serves on the CFA bargaining team.

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In an emailed statement, Amy Bentley-Smith, a spokesperson for the university system, said CSU has reached agreements with four other unions “demonstrating that meaningful agreements can be achieved through collective bargaining.”

“We believe that continued negotiations, rather than a strike, offer the best path toward reaching a fair and sustainable agreement with CFA. Our priority remains supporting our faculty, serving our students and avoiding unnecessary disruption to their education,” she said.

Why is another strike possible?

In January 2024, faculty members went on strike across the state, disrupting classes for around 500,000 students. The strike lasted one day — to the disbelief of many union members.

“The last contract sucked. The union caved after one day. We had all the momentum of faculty here and a lot of support to keep the strike going,” said Helen Hood Scheer, a cinematic arts professor at Cal State Long Beach. “However, I will say that at some of the other CSUs that are not as healthy as we are, I think some other people felt like it was a good contract.”

Helen Hood Scheer and her friend came out to a rally in Cal State Long Beach to signal their support for a strike authorization vote after negotiations between the California Faculty Association and CSU reached an impasse.

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She said she drove over an hour on a day she does not have to teach to be on campus for the rally to “let the chancellor know that we’re serious.” Hood Scheer said some professors are living below the poverty line, while CSU Chancellor Mildred Garcia makes close to $1 million annually.

 Lily Housepeters, an associate professor of geography at Cal State Long Beach and vice president of the CFA Long Beach chapter, said the bargaining team has made changes because some members were ready to strike longer and were disappointed with some of the contract gains.

“This time around, we have a much more inclusive bargaining team. We've expanded our bargaining team. We have members of our bargaining team from every single campus,” she said.

The impact of the Trump administration on faculty

The landscape of higher education has also changed since the last contract.

Contract negotiations have centered federal funding cuts to research and to grants that sought to increase representation of historically excluded groups on campus.

“ We should be able to teach the classes that we need to teach, that we want to teach, that students actually demand, without government or political interference,” said Melissa Hidalgo, a lecturer in women’s, gender and sexuality studies at Cal State Long Beach. “When your federal government tries to tell you that certain subjects are off the table now because they don't like them, when you can't talk about things like gender and race anymore, when we start to have directives coming from the top down, this is how we know that our, our academic freedom is under attack.”

CFA members and supporters rally in support of a strike authorization vote after negotiations between the union and CSU reached an impasse.

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Deborah Ham, a retired education professor, came out to support the rally on Tuesday at CSU Long Beach. As someone who has taught for over 35 years, Ham said, the attacks on education are nothing like she’s seen before.

“I feel an attack on our work, on our way of life, on our way of believing, on our humanity, and it's very, very painful. As someone who taught children and English as a second language to immigrants, to see the attack on everyone is just Nazism,” she said. “It just is frightening to me, and I don't like seeing this in my community. And so that's another reason why I am here, to protect our community.”

Ronald Loewe, a professor of anthropology said academic freedom protections are important because he has seen pushback on faculty and students who have spoken out in support of Palestinian rights.

At rallies including the one on campus on Tuesday, faculty members use amplified sound and it’s something that has been done for years, he said. But, during a protest in support of Palestinian rights,  ”five faculty members were sanctioned for using amplified sound. There's been a lot of attempts to kind of pick on faculty members and students who've spoken out in favor of Palestine or have been critical of Israel.”

A spokesperson for Cal State Long Beach told LAist no faculty member has been disciplined for taking part in actions related to Palestinian advocacy.

AI has changed contract negotiations

Loewe also wants to see strong artificial intelligence guardrails in the new contract.

“I think that the university has really excluded us from having kind of any input or any say in the development of artificial intelligence on campus. It's affecting our teaching, it's affecting student learning, and it's making people stupid,” he said.

The CSU system recently renewed a controversial contract with OpenAI that costs $13 million annually, a decision Loewe and Housepeters say faculty were not consulted on.

 ”We also see lots of other spending throughout the CSU that we would argue is wasteful or is not in priority with faculty working conditions, which are student learning conditions,” Housepeters said.

During the recent heat waves that pummeled Southern California, for instance, she said some faculty had to work in offices without air conditioning where temperatures hit over 90 degrees.

The union, Housepeters said, is also fighting for improved working conditions and reducing workload for some faculty members. She said the union wants “ a transformational contract where tenure-track faculty would receive more time for research, and our lecturer faculty would receive more time for service because currently all of their service is uncompensated.”

Some students are joining the rallies

Joining the faculty members in support of their fight for a new contract were students Christina Henry and Zack Medway.

Henry, who is studying history, said she hoped to become a professor one day.

“I think it's important that our professors get a living wage. They do so much to set us up for our future careers. Their career should be rewarding for them as well,” she said.

“ If we truly want to value education as a country,” said Medway, a graduate student, “we need to honor and respect the people who do the work and the people who do the learning, and know that learning is uncomfortable and necessary.”

Consumers who buy Affordable Care Act health insurance are going to see changes both big and small as open enrollment for 2027 coverage kicks off. These include premium increases, possible additional identity checks, potential delays in working with a broker and new limits on which immigrants can get subsidies.

Shoppers need to plan accordingly.

Open enrollment starts Nov. 1 in most states. Idaho, Connecticut, and Massachusetts started earlier, and some states have been allowing "window shopping" to check premium rates.

A continued decline in overall enrollment is expected, mainly because of the expiration of enhanced subsidies at the end of 2025. Policy experts say the end of those subsidies led millions to drop or lose coverage through the first few months of this year.

But the Trump administration sees victory in the falling enrollment, crediting its various efforts to reduce fraud, including the August cancellation of policies covering 760,000 enrollees suspected to be improperly signed up. A small number of those enrollees have regained coverage.

Have your ID ready

One of the biggest changes for people shopping for their 2027 coverage will be increased scrutiny of both consumers and agents. The requirements are aimed at thwarting fraud or improper enrollments. For consumers, it could slow the enrollment process.

The new rules, outlined by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, affect only consumers using agents or brokers to help them enroll through the federal marketplace, which serves 29 states. They do not apply to state-based exchanges, which have their own rules and have in most cases been more successful at preventing fraudulent sign-ups.

For starters, all consumers using an agent in the federal marketplace will need to get a one-time confirmation code or link to authorize a specific agent to enroll them or make changes on their behalf. It will be sent to consumers by text message, email or an automated phone call from one of the private enrollment platforms used by their agent. Returning consumers who have incorrect or outdated contact information will first need to call the federal marketplace themselves or submit an application online to update it.

Additionally, consumers and policyholders deemed "high-risk" must verify their own identity before authorizing an agent. CMS defines as "high-risk" first-time applicants or those with existing coverage whose applications involve a change of state, as well as consumers working with a new or different agent or with a monthly premium payment of $30 or less.

Joshua Brooker, who oversees an insurance agency in Pennsylvania, said CMS appears to have selected people in those groups for greater scrutiny because "someone who is moving to a new state or switching brokers — that could be a broker trying to impersonate a consumer."

The $30-a-month cutoff may be tied to concerns that plans with no or low monthly premiums are easier for bad agents to target for unauthorized enrollments because the policyholder may never get a bill. Some rogue agents even pay the low monthly amount themselves and still make a profit from the commission, Brooker said.

The broad nature of the new rules, though, has Brooker concerned "that up to 1 in 5 consumers is going to have to do extra identity proofing" and may just give up and not get insured.

Consumers designated high-risk must prove their identity through a CMS-approved third party such as credit company Experian, which generally asks questions only the consumer should be able to answer. People who fail this test may be asked to call Experian's help desk or submit their applications themselves by creating a healthcare.gov account, which requires them to upload identification such as a driver's license, a passport, immigration papers or another form of ID.

"Some people may have trouble not because they're not real, but because they don't have a credit file, or have moved, or have changed names," said Stacey Pogue, a senior research fellow at the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown University.

She said the changes might "be an appropriate response by CMS that targets fraudulent enrollments but might also create extra hurdles."

There may be fewer brokers

CMS in September issued a rule that places a moratorium on brokers new to offering ACA coverage. Agents not registered with the federal marketplace in 2026 will not be allowed to assist with enrollments for 2027 until February at the earliest, past the end of open enrollment season.

CMS said it took this step because a disproportionate number of "significant compliance concerns" in 2026 came from newly registered agents or brokers. Additionally, the agency has kicked out "hundreds of non-compliant agents and brokers" this year.

Jason Fine, who runs a brokerage in Florida, said he agrees with the concept behind these changes. He has reported multiple times to CMS, for instance, that rogue agents have switched his clients' coverage without authorization, wanting the agency to take action against them. But he said the updated rules also raise concerns.

"Everything they are doing in the long term makes sense," he said. However, in the short term, "I don't know if they care about the chaos it will cause."

That's because the moratorium will make it much harder for small brokers to help clients this year. His agency and others often pare their staffing after open enrollment but hire again toward the end of the year. He was planning to add up to 10 agents to his core staff of about five but has been told by recruiters that he's unlikely to be able to find anyone who was registered for 2026 and is still available.

He suggested that the move unintentionally benefits larger call centers, some of which were doing much of the marketing that regulators feared led to unauthorized switching. Call centers often maintain larger staffs.

"They can afford to keep a staff of 25 or 40 people all year long," Fine said.

Groups representing agents are very unhappy with the directive. One, the National Association of Benefits and Insurance Professionals, filed a lawsuit on Oct. 15 against the Trump administration over the moratorium, saying it unfairly targets 19,000 agents who may want to sell ACA plans for next year.

"Just because you're a new agent doesn't mean you are fraudulent," said Ronnell Nolan, president of Health Agents for America, another sales agent group, which on Oct. 21 filed suit seeking a temporary restraining order on the moratorium. "All these agencies who have trained new agents and paid thousands of dollars now have people who won't be able to work."

It all leads to an important piece of advice from Georgetown's Pogue: Consumers should not delay making appointments. "If you rely on an agent or broker, and a lot of people do, their slots might fill up faster because there will be fewer of them to help with enrollment. I would reach out early."

Costs will continue to be an issue

This year, after Congress did not renew the expiring enhanced subsidies, most people getting ACA coverage saw what they had to pay increase. Higher earners lost subsidies entirely. Add in double-digit premium increases, and most people had to pay substantially more for their coverage.

Still, most people who buy ACA coverage for next year will receive a subsidy. It will just be less generous than it was before the enhancements expired at the end of 2025.

The subsidies are pegged to the premium costs of benchmark plans, the name given to the second-lowest-priced silver-tier plan in an area.

This helps offset premium increases.

"For most folks, overall affordability will stay about the same," said Louise Norris, a health policy analyst for HealthInsurance.org. "That's not to say it's great, but if you were able to manage the premiums this year, it should be similar to that."

But there are other factors at work, too.

Last year's average premium increase of 26% was the largest in years. It was driven in part by insurers' fear that the expiration of subsidies would cause healthier people to drop out of the marketplace. Other drivers often cited for such increases include a rise in overall medical care costs and general inflation, and labor shortages.

For the upcoming year, those dynamics remain a concern, with premiums slated for double-digit increases, although at 15%, slightly lower than last year.

Subsidies are income-based and cut off for households earning more than four times the federal poverty rate. During this open enrollment season, that amount is $63,840 for a single person, $86,560 for a couple, and $109,280 for a family of three, for example.

"The biggest issue we will face is affordability," said Anne Petry, who, with her father, owns Jaggi Petry Insurance & Investments in Forsyth, Illinois, and helps customers purchase health insurance, including ACA plans. "There definitely will come a breaking point for people."

Agents and other experts say consumers should not allow their plans to automatically renew and should instead go online to compare premiums and coverage, which can change each year even for the same plan. There may be less expensive alternatives, including plans from new insurers, so they suggest looking at not just premiums, but also deductibles and other costs. At the same time, several insurers, including Cigna, have dropped all or part of their ACA coverage areas.

"If you just sit on the sidelines and let the policy auto-renew, you might miss out on what could be a better opportunity," Norris said. She said it is important to check options because the cap on out-of-pocket maximums for ACA plans is also increasing.

That amount, which represents the most a consumer must pay toward deductibles, copayments and coinsurance before the policy is expected to cover remaining in-network medical costs, was $10,600 for an individual and $21,200 for a family plan this year. In 2027, it will grow by 13% to $12,000 for an individual and $24,000 for family coverage. Lower caps on out-of-pocket maximums are set for households earning up to 2.5 times the federal poverty level.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Congress passed last year, also strips subsidy eligibility from many lawfully present immigrants, including people holding temporary H-1B work visas, refugees, asylees, people with temporary protected status, and those with pending green-card applications.

Three immigrant groups can still get ACA subsidies: green-card holders, who have permanent legal status; certain Cuban and Haitian immigrants; and citizens of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands or Palau.

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.

Copyright 2026 KFF Health News

WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 4 in 10 names flagged as possible noncitizen voters in California by the Trump administration cannot be found on the state’s voter rolls, according to a legal filing Saturday by an immigrant-rights group.

It’s the first outside analysis of a list that the Department of Justice has used to threaten prosecution of election officials. The analysis also found that thousands of U.S. citizens appear to be flagged as ineligible to vote on the government’s list.

The contention was made in a filing by two data analysts at the University of California, Los Angeles. They analyzed the 20,930 names that the department demanded that California election officials treat as possible illegal voters by separating their ballots during the vote count on Election Day.

Multiple judges have rejected the demand as unconstitutional and a threat to democracy, and local and state officials have said the list appears riddled with errors.

Court filing outlines problems with government list

The breadth of the problems with the list was outlined in Saturday’s filing. It describes an analysis by two members of UCLA’s Voting Rights Project, who filed a lawsuit challenging it with the Los Angeles-based Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, or CHIRLA.

The research found that 8,880 of the names, representing 42% of the entire list, do not correspond to anyone in California’s current voter file. It also found at least 22 are U.S. citizens, and many more may correspond to those of confirmed citizens.

“The expert analysis further makes clear that the mandated voter list endangers a significant number of eligible California voters,” said the filing, which was cosigned by Xavier Becerra, the Democratic candidate for California governor and an adviser to the UCLA Voting Rights Project. null

The Trump administration had objected to sharing the list, calling it a “fishing expedition” and noting that it included sensitive information. On Saturday, the federal prosecutor who spearheaded the Trump case in California called the analysis “bogus.”

“This is a bogus report by the activist illegal immigrant rights group CHIRLA,” Bill Essayli, who runs the U.S. Attorney’s office in Los Angeles, posted on X.

Also on Saturday, President Donald Trump bemoaned the legal rulings against his effort to force California to separate votes from the individuals his administration labels suspected noncitizens, even though one came from a judge he himself nominated.

In a social media post, Trump claimed his Justice Department found “20,000, but potentially Hundreds of Thousands, and maybe even Millions,” of fraudulent votes, “and the Court has just ruled against it. Why would they reject fixing Election Fraud?”

The Trump administration has also urged Washington state to remove what it says were 400 possible noncitizens on its rolls, though state election officials there say that list is also unreliable and includes one voter who cast ballots in the 1990s.

The Justice Department has warned California election officials they could face criminal liability if they let noncitizens vote and issued subpoenas to election officials there.

Election officials say they have no time to investigate

Election officials have complained that the Trump administration has confronted them with lists of possible illegal voters at the last minute before Election Day, with no time to conduct the painstaking investigation required by law before removing someone from the rolls.

Multiple lawsuits have been filed to stop the administration from continuing to threaten local election officials.

On Friday, a federal judge in California ordered the Justice Department to stop sending demands to state officials, a decision the Trump administration appealed Saturday. Several counties in the state had run quick checks of the Trump list and found numerous errors.

Saturday’s broader analysis was possible because a federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to share the list with the plaintiffs in the case.

CHIRLA and the UCLA project sued the Homeland Security Department in early October to prevent it from using federal immigration data to challenge state voter rolls. The lawsuit cited examples in other states where the federal government’s data has been proven to mistakenly include thousands of citizens.

Case argues that government’s methods pose risk to voting

The case argued that the data-matching methods risk disenfranchising or deterring citizens from voting. On top of that, plaintiffs argued, the lists could disproportionately target naturalized citizens who are legally entitled to vote.

Applying the government’s methodology, the UCLA researchers found that nearly 7,500 naturalized citizens in the state were “highly likely” to be incorrectly flagged as ineligible.

The researchers noted that the administration apparently removed the voter identification number from the names, making it harder for election officials to determine whether the flagged individuals were already on their rolls or were duplicates in the Justice Department list. They described the voter ID number as the most crucial data point.

The Justice Department argues that there is just as much to lose if the ballots aren’t separated.

“Every ballot cast by an ineligible voter cancels out the vote of an American citizen,” Kiersten V. Pels, a spokesperson for the department, wrote in an email. “The Department makes no apology for protecting those votes.”

For many of us, karaoke is a chance to sing our favorite shower song in public.

But at a North Hollywood bar every Wednesday night, it’s a team sport. And competitors in the L.A. Karaoke league are more serious about putting on an over-the-top production than hitting all the right notes.

At a social in late September, league manager Michelle Goff kicked off a new season of weekly themed showdowns, from dance-floor favorites to internet memes to songs inspired by birds.

Brittany Gates, the CEO of United Karaoke, who was visiting from D.C., did her rendition of 'Let's Hear It For The Boy' by Deniece Williams.

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"You are going to see numbers that people came up with in their crazy dreams maybe three years ago, and it's going to be amazing,” Goff told performers at the social. “And then they’re never going to be done again.”

Michelle Goff unveils the different themed weeks, from dance-floor favorites to internet memes to songs inspired by birds.

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Performances range from solos to group numbers, and the crowd votes for its favorites. Props and costumes are highly encouraged.

Here, dark wizards from Harry Potter duet to Taylor Swift. A singer tosses flowers to the crowd while belting Seal's “Kiss From a Rose.” Once, Goff danced around as an erupting Mount Vesuvius as her teammates sang Bastille's "Pompeii."

Like intramural sports but with microphones, teams compete over six weeks, followed by two weeks of playoffs, then the finals.

It all happens at the Good Nite bar, on a darkened stretch of Burbank Boulevard. Inside, there’s an inviting purple glow and warm conversation that can be hard to come by in a city as big as L.A.

“You know, the city, exciting as it is, still has so many strangers,” said Carlos Mulia.

A newcomer to the league, the chef-turned-actor already feels like he belongs.

“Sometimes you can go to a karaoke bar and everyone’s talking and no one’s paying attention to you — that can be a downer,” he said. “But here, everyone’s contributing, everyone’s cheering for each other.”

For Mulia, the league also offers a creative outlet during Hollywood’s production slowdown, when he says opportunities to perform are scarce.

Actor Carlos Mulia said competitive karaoke gives him a creative outlet and a place to find community in a big city.

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“There’s not that many auditions," he said. "They’re far and few between, and it can really affect your psyche. So this allows you to just let it all out.”

The L.A. league started in Santa Monica in 2014 before moving among venues around the region and finding its current home at the Good Nite in 2021.

It’s part of United Karaoke, a loose national network with chapters in Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Chicago. The local leagues share a competition format, voting app and a pledge to keep the vibe welcoming.

In the league, friendships spark right away. Mulia hit it off with another actor, Jordan Delgado, who teaches children art at a studio.

They quickly figured out they’re both half-Filipino and grew up with karaoke, a fixture of Filipino social life.

“It is in our blood to do karaoke,” Delgado said. “So yeah, I’m honoring my ancestors in a way by being here tonight.”

Anybody is welcome on karaoke competition nights and invited to vote for their favorite performances.

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Delgado loves to perform but says the karaoke league promises more than that.

“It’s something to look forward to in the downtime of the part-time jobs,” Delgado said. “A reason to regularly meet up with people, where we could just be silly, without any judgment.”

For her league debut, Delgado is going with a tried and true crowd-pleaser.

“My go-to song that my friends and family have heard me sing a billion times is ‘You and I’ by Lady Gaga," Delgado said. "It really gets the crowd going.”

When it’s her turn, Delgado bounds onto the tiny stage up front with a big confident smile that matches a powerful voice.

“We got a whole lot of money, but still pay rent,” Delgado sings, striding across the tiny stage to whoops and cheers.

Several weeks after her league debut, Delgado would go on to win best performer during Graveyard Week, when the league revives songs so overdone they’re normally off-limits.

Her winning number? “Shallow,” with Delgado singing both the Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper parts.

And she brought the theatrical flair. Dressed as Gaga on one side of her body and Cooper on the other, she was her own duet partner.