The Brief

Los Angeles may not have an official Little Saigon, but if you travel to the San Gabriel Valley you'll find a thriving community of Vietnamese businesses along Garvey Avenue, straddling the cities of El Monte, South El Monte and Rosemead.

This bustling commercial hub doesn’t have a dedicated highway exit or government-sponsored placard, but I like to call it “GarViet” as a nod to the area’s main drag.

Drawn to the area in part by more affordable rents than nearby Alhambra and San Gabriel, the family-owned Vietnamese restaurants here serve regional specialties that can be harder to find elsewhere.

Familiar favorites like phở and bánh mì are available alongside rarer offerings from Central and Northern Vietnam in the many plazas dotting this highly trafficked thoroughfare.

With April 30 marking the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War — which triggered the first wave of Vietnamese refugees and immigrants settling in the U.S. — it's a good time to celebrate the culinary contributions of the Vietnamese diaspora in L.A. Through restaurant ownership, many Vietnamese families gained a foothold in the American economy while nourishing their communities with a taste of home.

Here are some great places to check out.

Kim Hoa Hue 

The restaurant Kim Hoa Hue in El Monte has served Central Vietnamese delights for nearly two decades, while a second outlet opened in Temple City in 2024. During peak lunchtime hours, the main dining room fills up fast with locals and nearby workers, while folks ordering bounteous catering trays trickle in throughout the day. The most pleasant seats in the house are on the back patio, away from crowds and shaded by mature fruit trees.

Kim Hoa Hue Restaurant serves food from Hue, in central Vietnam.

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Kim Hoa Húê Restaurant in El Monte

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The restaurant is named after Hue, the former capital of Vietnam, famous for its imperial cuisine. The Hue Combo ($11.50) offers a variety of these delicacies served on a single plate, including bánh bèo (steamed rice cakes topped with shrimp and cracklins), bánh nậm (rice cakes embedded with shrimp and steamed in banana leaves), bánh bột lọc (shrimp and pork tapioca dumplings), chả (steamed pork forcemeat), and bánh uớt tôm chấy (rice sheets with minced shrimp).

Brighten these light bites with the accompanying fish sauce; whether it’s a restrained drizzle or a serious dunking is up to your tastes. A bowl of bún bò Huế ($13.25), complete with pork trotters and slippery rice noodles, is just the thing to round out the meal.

Bánh Cuốn Hương Bắc  

Bánh Cuốn Hương Bắc in South El Monte has a Northern Vietnamese menu.

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While some Vietnamese restaurants boast winding menus spanning many regional specialties, others opt to keep their offerings tight and focused.

Bánh Cuốn Hương Bắc sits in the latter camp, serving a succinct Northern Vietnamese menu with just a trio of appetizers, a few noodle soups (canh bún, bún riêu, and bún mọc), and the house-specialty bánh cuốn. Relative newcomers on Garvey Avenue, the owners of Bánh Cuốn Hương Bắc are betting that dependably executing a few dishes well will attract a steady crowd. So far, their gamble is paying off.

The restaurant prepares five varieties of bánh cuốn ($12), gently steamed rice flour “crepes” served plain or wrapped around eggs and ground shrimp, or pork and wood ear mushrooms.

It’s hard to go wrong with the signature (dặc biệt) platter, which includes bánh cuốn plumped with both a pork and wood ear mushroom filling and minced shrimp. Everything is topped with fried shallots, two types of steamed pork sausage, and a deep-fried sweet potato raft studded with skin-on shrimp. Blanched herbs and bean sprouts and a fish sauce-based dressing arrive on the side for garnishing to taste.

Thien Tam Vegetarian Restaurant

Thien Tam serves a plant-based menu, including the Hainan chicken rice made of soy beans.

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Whether you've adopted a plant-based diet or just dine meatless on occasion, Thien Tam is a terrific spot for Vietnamese vegetarian fare. The restaurant serves a brisk crowd on most days of the week and is especially popular on the first and fifteenth days of each month on the Lunar calendar, when Vietnamese Buddhists refrain from eating meat. So plan accordingly.

Opened by Bonnie Quach in 2009, the restaurant serves a robust menu featuring the cuisine’s greatest hits — all made without any animal protein. Start with the tautly-wrapped spring rolls ($6.95) chock-full of herbs, vegetables, and fried tofu. The fishless fish sauce served alongside for dipping is impressive in its mimicry. Equally superb is the Hainan chicken rice ($13.95) made of soy beans, boasting crispy and divoted skin, just like the real thing. A mound of ginger-laced rice, pickles, soup, and a ginger “fish” sauce comes with each order.

Hue Thai Bakery & Deli

Despite its discreet signage, Hue Thai Bakery & Deli in Rosemead offers bountiful sandwiches.

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In this economic climate with soaring prices and stretched dollars, Vietnamese sandwiches promise the ultimate meal on the go.

While Vietnamese delis can be found across L.A., none can compete with the expertly made sandwiches at Hue Thai in Rosemead. Located in a freshly paved strip mall anchored by outposts of Orange County imports Hot Stone Pho and Bake and Che, Hue Thai may very well be the shabbiest business on the block. Look beyond the peeling paint and make a beeline for the front counter, which is loaded with Vietnamese provisions, including cured pork sausages with fresh chilies and garlic ($8) that make for a spicy, sour snack.

The deli’s menu is posted in both English and Vietnamese, with photographs of each dish. Every sandwich is made on one of two kinds of house-baked baguettes: round and squat or long and lean. Sandwiches constructed on the latter loaves are about a dollar more and contain additional protein and less bready fluff. Hue Thai’s variety of fillings include cold cuts ($7), grilled pork ($7.50), canned sardines ($7), fried eggs ($7) and more, each one with requisite flourishes of pickled carrots and daikon, shaved jalapeno, cilantro and scratch-made mayonnaise.

What separates these sandwiches from the pack is their masterful proportions. From pickles to spreads and proteins, the ratio of each ingredient is thoughtfully considered so that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Order the dặc biệt ($7) sandwich brimming with head cheese and plenty of pâté to experience the dynamic interplay of textures and flavors.

Che Hien Khanh

Che Hien Khanh makes a variety of Vietnamese desserts.

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The Los Angeles location of this longtime Orange County sweets shop is the ultimate IYKYK. Hidden inside a food court within the GW Supermarket complex in Rosemead, Che Hien Khanh prepares Vietnamese desserts — a genre heavy on legumes, seaweed, fruits, tapioca flour, and coconut milk — with a deft hand.

Hien Khanh’s colorful array of chè (puddings, beverages, soups) is hard to resist. The chè đậu trắng ($3.75) combines glutinous rice with black-eyed peas and a rich dollop of sweetened coconut cream.

Ripe baby bananas, teeny tapioca pearls, taro, and coconut milk come together in chè chuối ($3.75). Best of all is chè trôi nước ($3.75). Served warm, the chewy tapioca balls stuffed with mung bean paste come soaked in ginger syrup and finished with coconut cream and a sprinkling of toasted sesame seeds.

Beyond its wide range of chè, Hien Khanh also makes several varieties of xôi (sticky rice) and sticky-sweet bánh da lợn, a fetching dessert featuring layers of pandan-infused tapioca and mung beans. Bring your sweet tooth.

Democrats' big wins in these midterm elections couldn't have happened without some massive voter shifts.

Young voters, Latinos and Asian Americans, urban and suburban voters, men and independents all moved heavily to the left.

One of the sharpest turns in this election was by Latinos. And Democrats had their best performance with white voters in years

In 2024, President Trump won a record share of Latino votes for a Republican presidential candidate. But they took a sharp left turn in this election after Trump's promises of lower prices never came to fruition and his administration's harsh deportation tactics backfired.

Latinos swung 21 points toward Democratic House candidates, compared to two years ago.

Asian Americans also sharply diverged from 2024, also going 21 points more in Democrats' favor, from a 22-point advantage to a whopping 43.

Democrats even tied with white voters. To put that in perspective, Democrats haven't won white voters in a presidential election since 1964. Since then, they came closest in 1992 and 1996 when former President Bill Clinton lost them by 2 points both times and then in the 2006 midterms when Republicans won them by just 4.

By age, it was a sharp boomerang, particularly with voters 18 to 29

Democrats won this group of young voters by 48 points, a 34-point swing from two years ago.

To put in context just how dramatic of a margin that is — it's wider than for former President Barack Obama in 2008 when he won the youngest voters by 34 points. The difference in 2008 is they were 18% of the electorate, compared to 11% in this midterm.

Young voters traditionally have the biggest turnout drop from presidential to midterm elections of any group, so there are likely many Republican-leaning 18- to 29-year-olds who simply stayed home.

Democrats also won by huge margins with urban and suburban voters

Urban voters swung by 25 points in their favor, while voters in the suburbs, who had voted narrowly for Trump in 2024, went for Democrats by 19 points.

But Democrats can't win in red states without minimizing losses in small towns and rural areas. Democrats lost them by 16 points this year, a 16-point shift in their favor, compared with 2024, when they lost them by 32.

Democrats won men for the first time since 2008

Women were the fuel for Democrats' wins in these elections. They broke by 19 points for Democrats, 13 points wider than in 2024 and the best mark for the party since Trump's first midterm.

But the shift with men was notable. Democrats won men by 2 points, a 16-point shift from 2024 and the first time the party has won men since 2008. It's only the third time in 34 years that Democrats have won men.

The other time was in 1992 when Bill Clinton won them by 3 points, and that was with a third-party candidate in the race, Ross Perot, who won 19% of the national popular vote.

Republicans saw their worst performance with independents since at least 1998

The number to watch heading into Tuesday night for Republicans was 46%. That was the mark they needed with independents in order to do well. When they have hit that threshold in the Trump era, they have done well, winning the presidency in 2016 and 2024 and making gains in the House in 2022.

But when they were below it, they didn't do well, losing more than 40 seats in the House in 2018 and the presidency in 2020.

In these midterms, they didn't even get close. They only won 38% of independents, their worst mark since at least 1998 when independents viewed the impeachment investigation against Clinton as politically motivated and an overreach.

The only other time that comes close was in 2006 when they only won 39% of independents, and Democrats, like this year, won both the House and Senate.

More graphics from the voter poll

Methodology

2026 data comes from a poll of tens of thousands of voters, conducted by the firm SSRS for a number of news outlets, including the Associated Press. The full sample has a margin of error of plus or minus 0.6 percentage points. Data may shift as votes and exit poll analysis are finalized.

2018-2024 data comes from exit polls conducted by Edison Research (now Edison Research at SSRS) for a number of news outlets. NPR accessed all data via results posted by CNN and ABC News.

2026 data combines results from in-person exit poll responses and a pre-election survey of voters, while 2018-2024 data combines results from in-person exit poll responses and responses from early and absentee voters.
Copyright 2026 NPR

Chemical manufacturer 3M will pay up to $7.35 billion to settle lawsuits by people who say they were sickened by groundwater contamination from compounds used in firefighting foam and other consumer products.

The St. Paul, Minnesota-based company announced the settlement Tuesday. It will pay the money over nine years to as many as 120,000 people who say they were harmed by exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known collectively as PFAS. The chemicals contaminated groundwater near military bases, airports and other locations where the foam was used to extinguish fires.

3M did not admit liability for the contamination under the agreement.

Called “forever chemicals” because they don’t degrade naturally in the environment, PFAS have been linked to health problems including liver and immune system damage and some cancers. The chemicals are also used in nonstick, water- and grease-resistant products, including clothing and cookware.

3M chairman William Brown called the settlement a “significant milestone” that substantially reduces uncertainty from the litigation. The company previously reached settlements in other PFAS-related lawsuits, including a $450 million agreement with the state of New Jersey to settle claims of natural resource contamination and a deal to pay more than $10 billion to many U.S. public drinking water systems.

Other manufacturers, including DuPont de Nemours Inc. and spinoffs Chemours Co. and Corteva Inc., have agreed to settlements totaling more than $1 billion to resolve PFAS claims.

Fred Thompson, an attorney with the Motley Rice law firm that helped negotiate the 3M settlement for the plaintiffs, called it welcome news for “the thousands of victims who have sought answers and accountability for nearly a decade.”

He said in a news release that the plaintiffs urgently need help covering mounting medical bills and other costs.

Under the terms of the settlement, the payouts will begin with $50 million this year, followed by yearly payments of more than $1 billion each year from 2028 to 2033.

3M could make additional payments if enough plaintiffs participate. If too few sign on, 3M has the option to cancel the settlement and continue fighting the lawsuit.

Environmental activists say PFAS manufacturers knew about the chemicals’ health risks long before they became public. They noted that the same attributes that make the chemicals so valuable in many uses — resistance to breakdown — also make them hazardous to people.

The Environmental Protection Agency has set strict limits on PFAS in drinking water from public utilities and requires testing, but those rules do not apply to private wells.

A study that would help federal regulators understand which industries dump the forever chemicals with their wastewater has been stalled for two years, awaiting review by the White House Office of Management and Budget.

Longer wait times for graffiti removal and streetlight repair. Fewer police officers per shift. Completely eliminating school crossing guards.

Those are just some of the service cuts the city of South Gate made earlier this year as it stared down a $9.4 million annual budget deficit and a looming fiscal emergency.

But none of that was enough to convince South Gate voters to approve an 8% utility user tax that would have been tacked onto a wide range of utility bills, including electricity, water, cable and phone service. Now, the city is gearing up for more cuts, including closing sports fields and the city pool for the winter months.

South Gate’s utility tax was just one of the many ways Southern California cities asked their residents to give them more money via local tax initiatives this November, with proposed taxes on everything from hotel stays to cannabis businesses.

And those early results suggest South Gate is an outlier: Of the 32 total local tax measures on the ballot in Los Angeles and Orange counties, all but six appear poised to pass, according to early results. (There are still several more days of vote counting to come.)

Eleven transient occupancy tax measures, which tax overnight stays in hotels or short-term rentals, passed in cities from Burbank to Los Alamitos. Most cities sought to increase their existing hotel taxes by anywhere from 1 to 5 percentage points, while Lynwood residents voted to establish a hotel tax for the first time.

Business-related taxes, such as taxes on business licenses or on certain businesses, also mostly passed, as did most parcel taxes in cities including Pasadena and Culver City.

But sales taxes saw more mixed results. Cudahy, San Gabriel, Orange, Santa Ana and Los Angeles all approved sales tax measures, while voters in Diamond Bar, Hermosa Beach and San Clemente all voted down their local sales tax proposals.

Most of those sales taxes focused on maintaining basic city services in communities facing big budget deficits, driven by the rising costs of insurance, maintenance and infrastructure projects, and employee pensions, among other factors. But in San Clemente, the proposed 1% sales tax would have specifically funded sand replenishment and other beach projects, along with wildfire prevention work. That measure appeared to be headed for failure, with just 36% of voters in support as of Wednesday afternoon.

Voters in San Marino approved an extension of their utility tax, and increased it from 5% to 6%. Last year, the tax provided almost $2.2 million in revenue.

City officials in South Gate had hoped for a similar boon, and projected the utility tax would bring in an estimated $10.4 million per year in general fund revenue, while raising total utility costs by about $39 per month for a typical household.

Leading up to the election, the city of South Gate pointed to other neighboring cities that have their own utility taxes, including Downey, Lakewood and Norwalk, where the tax mostly hovers around 5%. “South Gate is the exception, not the rule,” noted one city presentation that pointed to these other taxes in a bid to coax voters to go along.

Voters weren’t convinced. “I’m extremely frustrated that you now want to do electricity, water, sewer, cable, cell phone, gas. ... That hurts us. You’re passing that on to us and that is absolutely not acceptable,” said one resident at a City Council meeting on the measure earlier this year.

LAist has reached out to the city of South Gate about what’s next for the city.

The city of West Hollywood has approved an ordinance to create a domestic partnership registry for people in polyamorous relationships.

The domestic partnership registry extends certain legal protections for people in the city, including visitation rights to hospitals and jails in West Hollywood and some tenant protections. The registry doesn’t replace the state’s marriage or the state’s domestic partnership laws.

“It's a landmark ordinance and really puts and continues to elevate West Hollywood as a city that is here to support queer people and queer families as they evolve in their needs,” said Chelsea Byers, a West Hollywood City Council member. “I think that's a real joy that we can bring to people — that they can live in a greater sense of being seen and understood.”

How it works

To file, people in a multi-partner relationship will submit a form in person that will be provided by the City Clerk’s office — all members of the relationship will have to provide identification to the clerk.

The ordinance also offers an option by mail, if the signatures are notarized.

The ordinance builds on historical precedent

In 1985, the city became the first city in the nation to create a similar domestic partnership registry for same-sex couples. Similar to that registry, people outside the city can also register.

“This new law not only gives polyamorous unions legal recognition, it also gives people permission to imagine a future together and to plan their lives openly,” said Christina Fialho, president and founder of Rewrite the BiLine, an advocacy group for bisexual people and nonnuclear families, who advocated for the ordinance.

Several cities in Massachusetts have also passed multipartner domestic partnership laws.