The Brief

At 12:01 a.m. Eastern on Wednesday, the federal government will shut down unless Congress can pass a short-term funding measure, something that currently looks unlikely to happen.

Earlier this month, the Republican-controlled House passed a continuing resolution that funds the government through Nov. 21 at current spending levels, while putting some extra money into a few specific areas, like security for the executive and judicial branches, as well as for members of Congress.

On Sept. 19, the House passed its bill, but that same day the bill failed in the Senate, as did a Democratic counter-offer, before that chamber left for the recess during the Jewish high holidays.

For a brief moment, it looked like the White House would get involved. Democratic Leaders wrote to President Donald Trump, demanding a meeting to discuss government funding. Trump agreed Wednesday only to reverse course the next day and cancel the meeting.

House Republican leaders also have cancelled votes for Sept. 29 and 30, effectively keeping members out of town in the run-up to the shutdown. The move puts pressure on the Senate to pass the House version or get the blame for the shutdown. (House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries is bringing Democrats back Monday night to show they’d be willing to negotiate and ready to vote on a revised funding measure.)

Instead of meeting, Republicans and Democrats are trading blame for who’s responsible, even as the clock continues to tick down.

Republicans have said they’re doing what Democrats have done in the past — passing a clean seven-week CR to allow negotiations to take place.

Democrats respond that they’re willing to work with the president but want to use this as an opportunity to protect health care coverage. They’re seeking continuation of the enhanced ACA tax credit, something some moderate Republicans support. Democrats also want to reverse the Medicaid cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill, a change that’s extremely unlikely given that Republicans put so much effort this summer into passing Trump’s signature bill.

Unlike past shutdowns, this could be very different.

The administration will have the authority to determine what functions are considered “essential” or not. Those employees will still work without getting paid. But this is also the first shutdown since Trump started slashing the federal workforce, and his administration is threatening more layoffs if a shutdown happens.

The Office of Management and Budget, led by Russ Vought, sent a memo to department and agency heads saying that for any programs where funding lapses or is not deemed essential that they “are directed to use this opportunity to consider Reduction in Force (RIF) notices.”

That could mean that when the federal government does eventually reopen, it would return with an even smaller permanent workforce.

The longest government shutdown happened in 2018, during Trump’s first term. It started around the winter holidays and lasted 35 days, costing the economy approximately $11 billion, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. But that was considered only a partial shutdown because some appropriations bills had been signed into law, so not all parts of the federal government were closed. That would not be the case this time around.

Another shutdown happened in 2013, at the start of the new federal fiscal year and lasted 16 days. It reduced GDP by $20 billion, per Moody’s.

A shutdown impacts discretionary spending, which is set by the budget bills that Congress is required to pass and the president must sign into law. Things like Medicare and Medicaid payments, veterans' benefits, and Social Security are not funded through an appropriations bill and should continue uninterrupted.

Still, a shutdown could have impacts in large and small ways across the state, and around the country, especially if it were not quickly resolved.

If you’re flying soon …

Air traffic controllers and most TSA employees are considered “essential workers” and have to stay on the job, even if it means working without pay while the rest of the federal government shuts down.

If a shutdown drags on, travelers could see more “sick outs” of key personnel. That happened during the 2018-19 government shutdown as workers showed their anger over missing paychecks.

Lastly, if you’re planning on any international travel in the new year, you may need to build in even more time for passport renewals. The U.S. Passport agency will remain open, but it could take longer to process applications with some employees furloughed.

What about the mail?

The Postal Service will keep the mail moving as usual in the event of a shutdown. The USPS. is primarily self-funded and doesn’t depend on the appropriations process to continue running as usual.

Benefit and Safety Net Programs

Social Security, VA and other benefits will continue, but there could be some delay in services, such as processing applications.

In a shutdown, the first to feel the pinch could be the mothers and young children who rely on the WIC food program. That benefit cuts off almost immediately. According to Colorado’s WIC dashboard, just over 100,000 clients were enrolled in the program in August 2025.

SNAP, formerly known as food stamps, will last longer but could also run out if a shutdown drags on. Typically continuing resolutions authorize USDA to send out benefits for 30 days after a shutdown starts. Stores that accept the benefit would not be able to renew their license during that time.

There could be missed paychecks and lost jobs

Perhaps the biggest impacts in Colorado will be felt by the state’s approximately 41,000 federal employees and 36,000 active duty military service members, who do not get a paycheck during a government shutdown. The White House also is threatening mass layoffs (RIF) of federal employees, in addition to furlough notices, if a shutdown happens.

A shutdown would happen toward the end of a pay period, so the first full paycheck missed for federal employees would be Oct. 24, while for the military it would be Oct. 15.

The only salaries the federal government continues to pay during a shutdown will be members of Congress and the president, according to the Constitution. However, elected officials can request that their paychecks be deferred while a shutdown is ongoing.

Federal employees and military will get back pay once the shutdown is over.

Earlier this year, tens of thousands of federal employees accepted deferred resignations, leaving their positions while still collecting their pay through the end of September. That program will end before the shutdown takes hold.

National Parks are a big question mark

During the 2018-19 shutdown, the Trump administration kept National Parks accessible to the public, even as many Park Service employees had to stay home.

At the time, there were reports of damage and trash in the unattended parks. And a GAO opinion in September 2019 found the Trump administration violated federal law when it used entrance fees to keep the parks accessible.

In 2013, the Obama administration closed national parks, but some states, including Colorado, paid to keep theirs open.

Gov. Jared Polis said Colorado is evaluating its options and would be a “willing partner if needed to use limited state funds to keep our biggest park fully operational if necessary.” Rocky Mountain National Park was the fifth-most-visited national park last year.

“We would certainly ask the Federal government to keep the parks open and staffed, or create avenues for the state to assist in keeping parks open and protected,” Polis said in a statement. “If Congress does not fund the federal government, I urge the Administration to prioritize the operations of the national parks that so many people love and are a huge economic driver for our rural communities, especially during leaf peeping season.”

The weather forecasts will keep coming

Ahead of past possible shutdowns, the National Weather Service has said it would continue to provide routine forecasts, as well as extreme weather watch and warning information through its forecasting offices.

Many other day-to-day weather operations also will continue uninterrupted, including urgent repairs to radars and other key equipment. But a shutdown could delay routine maintenance, upgrades and long-term projects for less-critical services, according to NWS.

Previous government shutdowns have delayed the processing of long-term weather and climate data at other federal agencies.

The shutdown in October 2013, for example, prevented the U.S. Geological Survey from gathering and analyzing information on damage caused by catastrophic flooding that occurred across the Front Range just a few weeks prior, according to an assessment from the Obama administration.

The data loss prevented scientists and first responders from fully assessing the effects of the $4 billion disaster and likely hurt the federal government’s ability to share timely information with state officials about possible pollution caused by the flooding in the South Platte River Basin, the assessment found.

It’s about the size of a park bench and made of steel and wood. The bench’s arm rests are formed by the letters “L” and “A” in a design that’s unmistakable to any sports fan. But the welder-artist who created it says it’s not a Dodgers bench.

“This is about civic pride, L.A. pride. I made a design statement saying that it has nothing affiliated with the Dodgers,” said Steve Campos.

Campos grew up near Dodger Stadium, raised by parents who were die-hard Dodgers fans. So much, that they named him after Steve Garvey but that legacy doesn’t keep him from confronting how the Dodgers benefitted from the mass displacement of working-class people from Chavez Ravine after World War Two. That’s why he calls it an L.A. Bench, and not a Dodgers Bench.

The logo may be synonymous with the city's beloved baseball team, but the design of the interlocking letters was used by the L.A. Angels minor league baseball team before the Dodgers moved to L.A. in 1958.

“The monogram was here before the Dodgers,” Campos said.

A second-generation welder

Welding is the Campos family business. His father created gates and security bars for windows and doors for L.A. clients. That was the foundation for the work Campos has done for two decades since graduating from Lincoln High School, L.A. Trade Tech College, and enrolling in a summer program at Art Center in Pasadena.

The inspiration for the L.A. Bench came last year while he was playing around in his shop creating versions of the L.A. logo. A friend he hangs with at Echo Park Lake asked Campos to make him a piece of furniture.

“I was trying to figure out what my friend Curly wanted. He liked Dodgers and drinking and getting into fights, so I was like, 'Let me make something with the LA monogram,'” he said.

Welder-artist Steve Campos created whimsical steel sculptures with the LA logo.

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Courtesy Steve Campos

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It didn’t design itself. He said he had to lengthen the legs on the “A” and lean the back of the “L” in order to make the bench functional. In the process, he’s made a piece of furniture with a ubiquitous logo that he’s embedded with his own L.A. pride, as well as city history past and present.

LA civic pride travels to Japan

Campos vacationed in Japan the last week of April and took advantage of the trip to reach out to people who may be interested in the L.A. Bench. He was caught off guard by people’s reaction when he showed them pictures of it.

“They look at it and they go, 'Oh, Ohtani bench,'” he said.

For them, it’s still a bench embedded with pride, he said, but centered around Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani, an icon in his native Japan.

Campos has made four L.A. benches and is selling them fully assembled, he said, for $2,500 each — taking into account his labor and how costly the raw materials have become. For now, he’s offering the metal parts as a package for $500, which requires the buyer to purchase the wood for the seat and the back — an easy process, he said.

While he has no plans to mass produce the L.A. Bench, he does have one goal in mind that shows how hard it is for him to separate L.A. civic pride and the Dodgers.

“I would love to get a couple of them installed at Dodger Stadium,” he said.

The Venice Boardwalk after sunset has generally been a no-go zone for tourists and locals alike, as the beachside bars and restaurants close on the early side and safety is often an issue. Now, a group of artists is out to bring some vibrancy to the creative neighborhood with a series of new installations that will include live evening performances – and even a “Venice Opera House.”

“Let's play with light and let's play with sound and give people a reason to come to the Boardwalk after sundown,” said artist and entrepreneur Stefan Ashkenazy, who is curating the project and owns the buildings housing them. “I mean, let's just be open 24 hours a day.”

The concept doesn’t have an official name yet, but he’s been calling it “See World.”

Artist James Ostrer's space looks out from a bed through the fence to the ocean at Venice Beach.

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Laura Hertzfeld

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LAist

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William Attaway, a longtime Venice artist, created a gallery space filled with various paintings and sculptures.

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Laura Hertzfeld

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LAist

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The pair of modern buildings on the Venice Boardwalk at Thornton Ave. – with their big balconies, floor-to-ceiling glass windows, and seven open garage-style retail spaces – have sat mostly empty since Snapchat vacated their beachside offices in 2019. Ashkenazy recently bought the building and recruited artists to fill those front-facing spaces with creative work until a full-time tenant comes in.

Over the past several weeks the installations have been created in real-time, in public.

All of the projects are loosely along the theme of “home,” with each artist claiming a “room” in the two buildings that stretch across a full block on the Boardwalk. Several local Venice artists are featured, including William Attaway, whose intricate mosaic work is recognizable on the Venice public restrooms along the beach. Attaway’s space features a floating larger-than-life-sized statue and various works in a mini-gallery. In the next room is Robin Murez’s pieces, featuring carved wooden seats from her beloved neighborhood Venice Flying Carousel.

Ashkenazy is no stranger to wild (and wildly successful) art ideas. He’s the owner of the Petit Ermitage hotel in West Hollywood, a longtime haven for visiting artists, and the founder of the decade-old Bombay Beach Biennale, where artists install all kinds of work in an annual event near the Salton Sea. Many of the artists from that community are featured at the Venice project.

A "Venice Opera House" will host pop-up music events throughout the summer.

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Laura Hertfeldz

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LAist

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New York-based artist Greg Haberny's paintings on the wall of his Venice space.

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Laura Hertzfeld

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LAist

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New York-based artist Greg Haberny and London-based artist James Ostrer have brought some of their work in the Bombay Beach Biennale to the Venice project. Their windows on the Boardwalk both speak to a child-like sense of wonder and creativity.

“I think it's just kind of exploring and playing a little bit, to have the freedom to be able to do that,” Haberny says of his imagined child’s bedroom space, which includes a fort made out of puffy cheese balls. “It's a big space, too.
It's beautiful.”

Ostrer is experimenting with a performance art idea where he sits in bed amongst a room full of his own artwork, which he describes as “happy art with an edge.” Looking out at the ocean from the bed, he’s invited passersby to sit and have chats with him about his work or anything else they want to talk about.

“It’s a very intimate space, so you have a different kind of conversation,” he said. “I use art to channel human creativity, and [talk about] dark things.”

While there are open fences that block off the spaces, they aren’t sealed up at night. Both Ashkenazy and the team of artists seemed open to the idea that anything could happen and that the installations are a conversation with the public – and with that comes some risk.

Greg Haberny (right) works with his assistants on an installation featuring kid-inspired graffiti art and a "cheesy puff" fort.

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Laura Hertzfeld

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LAist

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“I don't really know if I [would] say worried, but I guess it's just the cost of doing business,” Haberny said. “I don't really make things to get damaged or broken, sure. But I have done [things like] burned all my paintings and then made paint out of ash.”

While he’s felt safe – and even slept overnight in the installation – Ostrer has been collaborating with a local female artist who performs in a pig mask in front of his installation some nights. Watching her perform, he said, has taught him about the vulnerability of women in public spaces like the Boardwalk. “I've started to, on a very fractional level, have seen how scary that is. Because I've sat in the bed behind her performing at the front here… the way in which men are approaching her and shrieking at her … it's shocking.”

Ashkenazy says he will keep the artists in the space, potentially rotating new ones in, until a fulltime tenant takes over.

“This is an experiment … and after acquiring the building, the intention wasn't, ‘let's open a bunch of public art spaces,’ he said. “It is kind of …what the building wanted and listening to what the Boardwalk needed. Let's play, let's have the artists that we love and appreciate have a space to play and engage and give the locals and the visitors to the Boardwalk something to experience.”

A new trail across the beloved natural area of Elephant Hill in Northeast Los Angeles is officially opening this weekend.

The route is years in the making, and it's a big milestone in the decades-long conservation efforts to preserve this local jewel in the community of El Sereno.

The hiking trail connects one side of Elephant Hill to the other — from the corner of Pullman Street and Harriman Avenue all the way across to Lathrop Street.

It's 0.75 miles in total, but packs a punch.

"It's a pretty straight shot, but because of the terrain — the trail is kind of twisty and curvy. There's switchbacks — and great views," Elva Yañez, board president of the nonprofit Save Elephant Hill, said.

People have always been able to access the 110-acre green space, but Yañez said the new trail provides a safe and easy way to navigate the steep hillsides.

The El Sereno nonprofit has been working for two decades to preserve the land. Illegal dumping and off-roading have damaged the open space over the years. And the majority of the 110 acres are privately owned by an estimated 200 individual owners.

Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA) joined the efforts in 2018, spurred by a $700,000 grant from Los Angeles County Regional Park and Open Space District, in part, to build the trail. The local agency received some $2 million in grants from the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy to add to the 10 acres of Elephant Hill it manages and conserves. This year, MCRA acquired an additional 12 parcels — or about 2.4 acres.

And the spiffy new footpath — with trail signage, information kiosks and landscape boulders — is not just a long-sought-for victory but a beginning in a sense.

"We know that it means a lot to the community," Sarah Kevorkian, who oversees the trail project for MRCA, said. "We're wrapping up the trail, but it really feels like the beginning of all that is to come."

A hint of that vision already exists — for hikers traversing the new route, courtesy of Test Plot, the L.A.-based nonprofit that works to revitalize depleted lands.

"They're able to see at the end of the trail, at the 'test plot' — exactly what a restored Elephant Hill would look like," Yañez said.

Here's a preview:

A coalition of residents from across the San Gabriel Valley are mobilizing over a battery storage project and possibly more industrial development in the City of Industry they say could pollute communities next door.

A protest is scheduled today in neighboring Rowland Heights, targeting a 400-megawatt battery energy storage facility sited on about 9 acres that was approved by the City of Industry leaders in January.

Such Battery Energy Storage Systems, or BESS, are used to keep the power grid stable, especially as output from renewable energy sources like solar and wind fluctuate. But fires involving lithium batteries at some sites have heightened environmental and public health fears.

Because of the City of Industry’s unusual, sprawling shape stretching along the 60 Freeway, it borders on more than a dozen communities, meaning what happens there can have far-reaching impact.

“Pollution does not end right at the border,” said Andrew Yip, an organizer with No Data Centers SGV Coalition. “Pollution travels.”

Some local activists with the Puente Hills Community Preservation Association have challenged the approval of the battery facility under the California Environmental Quality Act.

Beyond environmental concerns, locals have also been frustrated with how decisions are made by officials in the City of Industry, a municipality that’s almost entirely zoned for industrial use and has less than 300 residents.

Organizers say they’ve struggled to get direct responses from city officials whom they say have replaced regular meetings with special meetings, which under state law require less advance notice.

A city spokesperson has not responded to requests for comment.

The so-called Marici Energy Storage System Facility would be run by Aypa Power. The fact that the battery storage developer is owned by the private equity giant Blackstone, a major investor in AI and data centers, has only fueled concerns that a battery storage facility would lay the groundwork for data center development.

A request for comment from Aypa was not returned.

Today’s protest is taking place at Peter F. Schabarum Regional Park in Rowland Heights across the street from the Puente Hills Mall, a largely vacant “dead” mall, which activists fear could be redeveloped into a data center and bring higher utility costs and greater air and noise pollution.

Yip pointed out that industrial developments make a lot of money for the City of Industry.

“But none of these surrounding communities receive any of those benefits,” Yip said. “Yet we have to put up with all the harmful effects and impacts from this city that does all this development without really reaching out.”