The Brief

Last year was supposed to mark a milestone in the psychedelic movement. Lawmakers and advocates were set to make California the next frontier in allowing the use of “magic mushrooms.”

They were hopeful because Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2023 — after vetoing a bill that would have decriminalized the possession of psychedelics — asked legislators for a bill that would prioritize the therapeutic promise of these drugs.

Sen. Scott Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat, responded to Newsom’s request with a proposal that would have allowed for psilocybin and other hallucinogens to be ingested in a controlled setting and under the supervision of licensed and trained facilitators.

But that bill, like three similar ones before it and after it, went nowhere. Skeptical lawmakers expressed concerns about funding, standing up a complex program and safety as they turned down the measures.

Undeterred, advocates now are regrouping to try again.

What exactly a new legislative proposal would look like in California is still uncertain, advocates and lawmakers say. Most agree that getting something through in California will have to be more narrow than what’s been proposed in the past, and likely will be centered on providing access to veterans.

What’s most feasible is “some sort of pilot program, or something on a smaller scale to prove it out,” said Jesse Gould, founder and president of the Heroic Hearts Project, which has sponsored psychedelic proposals in California and other states. His nonprofit connects military veterans struggling with post traumatic stress disorder with psychedelic programs in other countries.

Psychedelics remain illegal at the federal level, but voters in two states have authorized them for certain uses and several California cities have passed measures decriminalizing them. President Joe Biden in late 2023 signed a defense spending bill that included money to study how psychedelic drugs could be used to treat veterans and military service members.

What Gould and other advocates envision as a first step for California might look like a proposal Sen. Josh Becker, a Democrat from Menlo Park and Sen. Brian Jones, a San Diego Republican, submitted last summer. Their bill, dubbed Heal Our Heroes Act, would have allowed the counties of San Diego, Santa Cruz and San Francisco to launch up to five centers each where licensed staff could facilitate psilocybin to veterans and former first responders over 21 who passed a screening test.

Their bill did not move forward, but their concept could return.

Prioritizing and limiting this experimental access to veterans and former first responders is the most responsible route, Jones said. He does not support decriminalizing psychedelics for recreational use.

“I want to serve our veterans who are suffering from these mental ailments and do everything we can so that they get the attention they need when they come home,” Jones said.

As of publication, Jones and Becker said they had not yet decided whether they’d re-introduce the Heal Our Heroes bill this year. Wiener’s office did not respond to requests for an interview.

States legalize psychedelic therapies

Approximately 8 million Americans used psilocybin mushrooms in 2023, according to RAND, a research organization, and a UC Berkeley poll showed that 61% of voters  support regulated therapeutic use of psychedelic substances.

Since 2020, at least 37 states have introduced bills or ballot measures pertaining to psychedelics. These range from funding research to reducing penalties for possession. Not all proposals make it through, but some researchers predict this momentum will lead to change in state laws over the next several years. One 2023 analysis published in the Journal for the American Medical Association Psychiatry forecasted that a majority of states will have legalized psychedelics by 2037.

In the Golden State, drug reform advocacy groups and researchers have tried at least three times since 2022 to place psychedelic-related measures on the ballot, but have failed to meet the signature-gathering deadlines.

Going to voters is expensive and a major undertaking with no guarantee. The ballot box strategy proved successful in Oregon and Colorado, where voters, in 2020 and 2022, approved measures to allow the facilitated use of psychedelics.

Voters in Massachusetts, however, recently rejected a measure that would have allowed the state to legalize and regulate five plant-based psychedelics for people 21 and up.

Part of the issue with the Massachusetts ballot initiative was that it was too broad, said Jared Moffat, deputy policy director of New Approach, a political action committee dedicated to drug reform. Voters were confused about what exactly the measure would do and who it would apply to, he said. He didn’t view the measure’s failure as a sign that people would reject legalizing psychedelics for specific uses.

“I think that there’s still a ton of support for therapeutic access,” he said. “I think that people, broadly speaking, have a deep understanding that there is a mental health crisis, and that the existing tools that we have help some people, but there are a lot of folks that aren’t being helped.”

Veterans seeking new PTSD treatments

Gould started his nonprofit, Heroic Hearts Project, after his own journey with PTSD led him to the Peruvian Amazon for nontraditional therapies.

Two years after leaving the military, Gould was diagnosed with PTSD. He was also dealing with the aftermath of a traumatic brain injury. The former Army Ranger sought therapy from the Department of Veterans Affairs, but even before he could see a therapist, he was being offered prescription drugs, he said.

“This didn’t seem like the first, next best step, and I was sort of disillusioned by what was offered,” Gould said. “It was just sort of an acquiescence of, ‘oh yeah, you’re messed up, and you’re going to be messed up,’ as opposed to building tangible steps forward.”

Around the same time, he was hearing about Ayahuasca retreats in Peru. After lots of internet research and a leap of faith, Gould made the trip to Iquitos, a remote town in the northwestern part of the country. He described the experience as one of the most challenging things he’s ever done. Immediately after he felt lighter, more at peace and more connected to everything around him, he said. In the following months, he noticed that the things that would trigger anxiety, hypervigilance or depression, didn’t affect him to the same degree as before, he said.

Learn more about legislators mentioned in this st

Groups including Heroic Hearts and Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions (VETS) provide “healing grants” to veterans from across the country seeking to try guided psychedelic retreats in other countries. More recently, Heroic Hearts has also started helping vets access psychedelic programs in Oregon.

“There are a lot of veterans from California going to our retreats in Oregon,” Gould said. “I feel like if I was a politician in California, that’d be a little bit embarrassing.”

But demand currently outstrips the availability of these grants, said Khurshid Khoja, director of public policy at Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions, an organization that focuses on veteran suicide prevention.

“We are saying no to a majority of the folks who are applying because we simply don’t have the funds to be able to send them,” Khoja said. “We try to identify folks who have tried everything at this point, and they need a Hail Mary because they are experiencing a suicidal ideation.”

Suicide is the second leading cause of death for veterans under the age of 45, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. In California, 449 veterans died by suicide in 2022, the most recent federal data show. By some estimates 1 in 5 U.S veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan experience PTSD and major depression.

The goal, Khoja said, is get to a point where the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves a psychedelic product for therapy that can be available and covered by the Department of Veterans Affairs, but in the meantime, Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions is looking to states to create psychedelic programs.

One of the first things on advocates’ wishlist is a memorandum promising states that the federal government would not pursue charges in states that legalize and regulate psychedelics, said Sam Chapman, a political strategist and former campaign manager for Oregon’s measure that legalized psilocybin use there. The Obama administration issued that kind of guidance to states in 2013 with regard to marijuana.

“The states are going to continue to lead,” Chapman said. “The states passing laws are the reason that the federal government will eventually get off the bench and do something.”

Supported by the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF), which works to ensure that people have access to the care they need, when they need it, at a price they can afford. Visit www.chcf.org to learn more.

L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna confirmed Monday that ICE will play a role in World Cup security, but said he's been told federal agents won't conduct immigration enforcement.

He made the comments at a news conference on law enforcement's plans for the tournament, and said he'd been speaking directly with the head of Homeland Security in the Los Angeles area.

"There will be federal agents," Luna said. " Because it's gonna take all of us to make sure that all the venues, the scoped and unscoped events, are secure."

SoFi Stadium is set to host eight tournament matches, including the U.S. team opener against Paraguay on June 12. Los Angeles will also host a historic match three days later when Iran is set to take the field in Inglewood, making the U.S. the first host nation in World Cup history to be at war with a participating country.

Luna said the federal government had said that civil immigration enforcement would not occur at the tournament. But he made no guarantees.

" They told us that specifically would not be occurring at any of the games. Any of that's subject to change," he said. "But I have trust that they're giving me the appropriate information because if that starts occurring, we're gonna have a whole new host of problems."

In a statement to LAist, Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis wrote that Department of Homeland Security is working with federal, state, local and international partners.

“The safety and security of the American people and the millions of visitors attending these events remain our highest priority," Bis wrote in an email. "DHS will continue leveraging every available authority, technology, and partnership to protect the Homeland while ensuring the World Cup remains safe, secure, and successful for everyone involved.”

Luna is the latest official to confirm that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will play a role in the tournament. Kathryn Schloessman, who leads L.A.'s World Cup host committee, told reporters last month that ICE would be at the World Cup, and that its presence was typical at these types of major events.

ICE has two main branches: Enforcement and Removal Operations, which detains and deports people, and Homeland Security Investigations, which conducts international criminal investigations.

Todd Lyons, the former head of ICE, said at a congressional hearing earlier this year that it would be ICE’s investigatory branch, not its enforcement division, playing a key role in World Cup security.

Still, some in L.A. aren't satisfied. The World Cup is coming to Los Angeles at exactly the year mark since immigration agents ramped up arrests in the region. Masked agents in neighborhoods across the county sparked protests and widespread fear, and ICE arrests in the L.A. area last year tripled.

SoFi Stadium workers represented by Unite Here Local 11 have threatened to strike over ICE's role in the tournament. They'll vote on whether or not to authorize a strike later this week.

California air regulators on Friday approved a contentious overhaul of the state’s carbon market, creating a program that could steer billions of dollars in free pollution permits to oil refineries and other major polluters over the objections of environmental groups, key lawmakers and three of the board’s own members.

Ten members of the California Air Resources Board voted to adopt the changes to its cap-and-invest program after two days of lengthy hearings, including a full day dedicated to hundreds of public comments.

The overhaul followed intensive lobbying by the oil industry as well as pressure from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration to help keep refineries operating in the state amid rising gas prices.

The approval sets up a potential budget fight in Sacramento. The Legislative Analyst’s Office projects that quarterly auction revenue for state climate programs will drop from roughly $4 billion a year to about $2 billion under the new overhaul.

Such a shortfall would effectively zero out programs lawmakers spent last year fighting to fund: affordable housing, public transit, drinking water in low-income communities and pollution monitoring in California’s most polluted neighborhoods.

The governor’s office praised the measure as a compromise that balanced economic uncertainty with the state’s climate goals. Refinery closures and the Iran-Israel war have driven average California gas prices above $6 a gallon.

Newsom, in a statement, used the moment to draw a contrast with President Donald Trump.

“While Trump sows ongoing chaos and uncertainty, California is staying focused by protecting our economy, safeguarding public health, and doubling down on the clean energy future all Californians deserve,” he said.

Environmentalists warned the changes to the program amount to a giveaway to the fossil fuel industry that weakens California’s only program setting a firm cap on greenhouse gas emissions.

Katelyn Roedner Sutter, California senior director for the Environmental Defense Fund, called the decision “deeply misguided” for prioritizing polluters over communities.

“Newsom’s air regulators are handing billions to oil executives at the expense of our climate, health, and affordability for working families in a rushed process that has shortchanged meaningful public participation,” said Bahram Fazeli, policy director at Communities for a Better Environment.

How the program works — and what changes

California’s 13-year-old carbon market forces major polluters to buy permits while the state lowers the overall cap each year. Friday’s vote will reduce those permits – and creates a new subsidy program carved out of the market.

The program, which may still see changes, could make available a new pool of free pollution permits available to industry valued at as much as $4 billion. Companies that pledge to invest in clean energy and efficiency may qualify for the permits in exchange for investments in clean energy.

The pool will be capped at 118.3 million permits — the same number the air board has said must come off the market for California to hit its 2030 climate target. Environmentalists say the proposal risks wiping out those reductions.

Half are reserved for the fossil fuel sector. A recent Berkeley analysis, by the chair of an independent committee that oversees the carbon market, found refineries could end up with more free permits than they need to cover their emissions.

The air board has defended the design. Officials say the credits will go only to companies undertaking decarbonization projects, will be limited and temporary and can be clawed back if companies misuse them. The plan, they say, is meant to keep California refineries operating at a time of mounting closures and global market pressure. According to air regulators, the amended program will spur clean-energy investment as Trump cuts federal support.

Here's what you should know about the vote totals currently released:

Keep in mind that June 9 will be the final day for votes postmarked by June 2 to arrive at county elections offices, so the bottom line on the vote totals won't be known until then.

In L.A. County, the combined tallied votes as of Sunday add up to about 10% of registered voters.

In Orange County, the current tallies represent about 22% of registered voters.

How vote counts will be released

I thought it was an election NIGHT?

That hasn't been true in quite a while. It takes a while to get results because after the initial tallies on election night, there are still many, many votes to count and more mail-in ballots are usually arriving.

Here’s what we know so far:

L.A. County turnout

Los Angeles County has more than 5.8 million registered voters. As of Sunday, May 31:

• 580,720 ballots have been processed
• 95% voted by mail
• 5% voted in person

What's next:

• We'll know more on election night and the following days how many ballot remain to be counted.
• Has your ballot been tallied yet? You can track the status of your ballot here.

Orange County turnout

Orange County has more than 1.8 million registered voters. As of Sunday, May 31:

• 401,865 ballots have been processed
• 95% voted by mail
• 5% voted in person

What's next:

• We'll know more on election night and the following days how many ballot remain to be counted.
• Has your ballot been tallied yet? You can track the status of your ballot here.

Expected total turnout

Political Data Inc. is tracking ballot returns across California and in some high-profile races.

As of midday Monday, turnout statewide was at 16%. While Democrats outnumber Republicans statewide by almost double, Republicans have returned more ballots pre-election (21% of their voters compared to 16% for Democrats).

See the latest totals ▶

Why election day has turned into ballot-counting month

Because of the increasing use of vote-by-mail ballots, the vote count has gotten longer, according to the California Voter Foundation. In an analysis, the organization found:

• In November 2004, more than 80% of votes were counted within two days of Election Day, with 32.6% voting by mail. 
• In June 2022, about 50% of ballots were counted within two days of Election Day, with more than 90% of people voting by mail. 
• In November 2024, 66% of votes were counted within the first two days of Election Day, with 81% of the vote by mail.

A closer look at ballot counting times in California where an increasing number of vote-by-mail ballots has slowed ballot counts.

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Courtesy California Voter Foundation

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Election officials must physically open mail-in ballots and verify signatures.

Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation, recently wrote about the ripple effect of turning in mail-in ballots by hand or in drop boxes on election day. She wrote for our partner newsroom CalMatters:

"We turn in ballots in envelopes on Election Day that take time and care to process and cannot be processed until after Election Day. Processing these ballots — which account for as much as a quarter of all ballots cast — creates a bottleneck I like to call 'the pig in the python effect'. It prevents counties from doing other tasks they need to do to certify the results."

The buzz on college campuses is that AI is disrupting the job market for young college graduates.

But new research from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York finds that the culprit may be something else: remote work.

An analysis of federal employment data, paired with a deep dive into the flexible work arrangements at one unnamed Fortune 500 tech company, reveals that companies are less likely to hire recent college grads into occupations that can be done remotely.

Researchers speculate that employers are reluctant to put such workers in a setting where it's harder to absorb lessons from coworkers.

The researchers found the unemployment rate among younger college grads — those under the age of 29 — rose 20% after the pandemic, while unemployment among older college grads fell slightly.

The study compares unemployment rates pre-pandemic, from 2017 to 2019, with unemployment rates after the pandemic, from 2022 to 2024.

Unemployment rose as remote work grew fourfold, the researchers write. "Our analysis suggests that these trends are related, with remote work making it more difficult for managers to train and mentor new employees."

Remote work leads to less feedback on the job

The research began with a look at how much feedback software engineers at a Fortune 500 tech company were getting, says Emma Harrington, an assistant professor of economics at the University of Virginia and one of the authors of the report.

"What we saw was this pretty striking pattern that software engineers got about 20% more feedback if they were sitting near their colleagues than if they were distant from them," she says, adding that that was true even before the pandemic.

But after the pandemic, feedback plummeted.

"And that really hit young workers much harder," says Harrington. "It was these people who had the most to learn that really saw this deficit in feedback."

The researchers then looked deeper into who was getting hired at the tech firm. Turns out, as the company embraced remote work, they switched away from hiring younger people.

"So they used to hire a bunch of new grads for their software engineering jobs," Harrington says. "Then they shifted really towards hiring much older people, like a decade older on average."

Later, the company pivoted again, implementing what Harrington calls a "pretty aggressive" return-to-office policy. At that point, the company resumed hiring new graduates.

"So [there was] some sense that these problems with mentorship were translating into whom this firm was deciding to hire," she says.

A look at the broader economy

The researchers then wanted to see if what was happening at that single tech company was playing out in the broader economy.

Using a widely-used index that measures how feasible it is to do a job from home, the team divided all occupations into two categories: "remotable," which included software engineering, and "non-remotable," which included mechanical engineering.

They found the gap in unemployment between recent graduates and older workers was significantly higher in "remotable" jobs than in jobs that have to be done in person.

The unemployment rate for younger grads in "remotable" jobs jumped by almost a full percentage point after the pandemic, while the unemployment rate among older grads fell marginally.

They concluded that remote work explained nearly two-thirds of the rise in unemployment among young graduates during this period.

"This relative increase in young people's unemployment coincided with the pandemic and has remained elevated since then, as have rates of remote work," the researchers write.

AI isn't disrupting so many jobs for recent college grads — yet

To see how the rise of AI chatbots may have contributed to rising unemployment among the younger set, the researchers used another index that divides occupations into those more exposed to AI, such as engineering and accounting, and those less exposed, such as teaching and nursing.

They found exposure to AI didn't explain the divergence in unemployment rates in the 2022-24 time period. Remote workflows were much more of a driving force, Harrington says, while emphasizing that this could change.

"It's always hard to make guesses about what's going to happen with generative AI," she says. "It's certainly possible that this story could really change over the next few years."

Researchers at the London School of Economics have reached a similar conclusion — that remote work is having a clearer impact on early-career hiring than AI — in a working paper examining new hires in the U.S., the U.K., Canada and Australia.

Regardless of the cause, the New York Fed report warns that a high unemployment rate among young college grads is concerning.

"Early-career experiences can have lasting consequences," the researchers write. "Research finds that individuals who began looking for jobs in slacker labor markets tend to have lower earnings and slower career progression relative to comparable peers who began their job search in better market conditions."

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