After a decade of expanding health coverage and safety net programs, the Golden State took a sharp detour in 2025. As federal funding reductions and policy changes rippled through the health care system, California confronted service cuts, coverage losses and growing uncertainty.
Medicaid coverage: During the summer, a congressionally-approved spending plan slashed nearly a trillion dollars from the Medicaid program over the next decade. Funding cuts and new rules — such as work requirements — are expected to push 3.4 million Californians off their Medicaid coverage as changes take effect.
Federal marketplace: In Washington, a dispute over whether to renew enhanced premium subsidies that help keep Affordable Care Act marketplace insurance plans affordable prompted the longest shutdown in history. Absent federal action, hundreds of thousands of people could be priced out of Covered California insurance in 2026. More than 2,300 Dreamers in California have already lost access to the state marketplace: The Trump administration overturned a rule that had allowed undocumented people brought to the country as children to buy subsidized health insurance.
Read on... for more on the effects of federal changes and actions.
After a decade of expanding health coverage and safety net programs, the Golden State took a sharp detour in 2025. As federal funding reductions and policy changes rippled through the health care system, California confronted service cuts, coverage losses and growing uncertainty.
During the summer, a congressionally approved spending plan slashed nearly a trillion dollars from the Medicaid program over the next decade. Funding cuts and new rules — such as work requirements — are expected to push 3.4 million Californians off their Medicaid coverage as changes take effect.
In Washington, a dispute over whether to renew enhanced premium subsidies that help keep Affordable Care Act marketplace insurance plans affordable prompted the longest shutdown in history. Absent federal action, hundreds of thousands of people could be priced out of Covered California insurance in 2026. More than 2,300 Dreamers in California have already lost access to the state marketplace: The Trump administration overturned a rule that had allowed undocumented people brought to the country as children to buy subsidized health insurance.
Shifting federal policy forced the state the state to inject millions into Planned Parenthood to try to keep clinics afloat. Anticipating more restrictive federal immunization rules under U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, California advanced its own vaccine guidelines.
On affordability, Gov. Newsom delivered on his promise to cut down the cost of insulin. In 2026, diabetics will be able to purchase long-acting insulin pens at pharmacies for $11 a pen. After CalMatters shed a light on disappearing birth centers, state lawmakers approved a new law improving access in underserved areas, streamlining licensure requirements so that birth centers can more easily contract with Medicaid.
As federal spending cuts phase in, they’ll have implications for hospitals and other providers, such as an uptick in uncompensated care.
California has been distributing $6.4 billion from a voter-approved mental health bond. Starting July 1, the Behavioral Health Services Act will also require counties to spend revenue received from a 1% tax on incomes over $1 million on services and housing for people who are homeless.
Meta will lay off 10% of its staff in May. The layoffs will take place on May 20 and affect some 8,000 workers. Meta will also not hire for 6,000 open roles that it had intended to fill.
About the layoffs: In a memo, Meta's chief people officer Janelle Gale wrote, "We're doing this as part of our continued effort to run the company more efficiently and to allow us to offset the other investments we're making. This is not an easy tradeoff and it will mean letting go of people who have made meaningful contributions to Meta during their time here." In a separate round of layoffs this month, the company announced that it was laying off some 700 people as part of its efforts in "right-sizing" its investment in Reality Labs, the division that runs the company's Metaverse products.
Facing a string of costly legal challenges: The company lost two pivotal court cases earlier this year: a New Mexico jury found that Meta failed to protect young users from child sexual exploitation. Penalties in that case could reach $375 million. Meanwhile, a jury in Los Angeles found the company — along with Google — liable for the mental health problems experienced by a woman who used social media as a small child, awarding her $6 million. Meta has said it will appeal both lawsuits.
Meta will lay off 10% of its staff in May, according to an internal memo which was published by Bloomberg. A Meta spokesperson confirmed the report's accuracy to NPR.
The layoffs will take place on May 20 and affect some 8,000 workers. Meta will also not hire for 6,000 open roles that it had intended to fill.
In the memo, Meta's chief people officer Janelle Gale wrote, "We're doing this as part of our continued effort to run the company more efficiently and to allow us to offset the other investments we're making. This is not an easy tradeoff and it will mean letting go of people who have made meaningful contributions to Meta during their time here."
Calling it "unwelcome news" that "puts everyone in an uneasy state," Gale wrote, confirming the layoffs to employees now "is the best path forward, given the circumstances."
Meta and other big players in artificial intelligence have been spending vast amounts of money to build data centers and try to win the AI race — one in which Meta lags behind competitors such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Google.
In January, Meta forecast record capital expenditures this year of up to $135 billion — almost double what it spent last year.
The pivot to AI comes at a time when Meta seems to be backing away from its previous focus on its virtual reality Metaverse products. The Metaverse was once key to CEO Mark Zuckerberg's vision for the company's future — so fundamental that in 2021, he changed the name of the company from Facebook to Meta.
In a separate round of layoffs this month, the company announced that it was laying off some 700 people as part of its efforts in "right-sizing" its investment in Reality Labs, the division that runs the company's Metaverse products.
Meta is also facing a string of costly legal challenges. The company lost two pivotal court cases earlier this year: a New Mexico jury found that Meta failed to protect young users from child sexual exploitation. Penalties in that case could reach $375 million.
Meanwhile, a jury in Los Angeles found the company — along with Google — liable for the mental health problems experienced by a woman who used social media as a small child, awarding her $6 million.
In the Los Angeles case, the woman's lawyers argued that Meta's products were designed to be addictive to kids.
Meta has said it will appeal both lawsuits.
The company faces similar lawsuits, including one brought by several school districts against Meta and several other social media companies, which will be heard in Oakland, California this year.
Copyright 2026 NPR
Gab Chabrán
covers what's happening in food and culture for LAist.
Published April 23, 2026 3:55 PM
Zangi-style fried chicken, miso vinaigrette slaw, pickled cucumbers, and chile-truffle shoyu sauce on a brioche bun.
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Courtesy Hokkaido Fried Chicken
)
Topline:
Hokkaido Fried Chicken opened quietly in January out of a ghost kitchen on Olympic Boulevard on the outskirts of Koreatown, and it's already making a strong case for the best fried chicken sandwich in the city.
Why it matters: In a town saturated with Korean fried chicken and American fast-casual sandwiches, HFC is doing something genuinely different — bringing Hokkaido's zangi tradition, a deeply marinated and distinctly craggy style of Japanese fried chicken, to a fast-casual format that you’d be hard-pressed to find anywhere else in L.A.
Why now: The concept is less than four months old, the word isn't fully out yet, and the man behind it — Ronuk Patel, an Indian American chef-owner who came up through cannabis farming in Humboldt County and a ramen bar in Arcata — has a second concept, Hokkaido Soup Curry, already running out of the same kitchen with more on the way.
The backstory: Patel first visited Hokkaido on snowboarding trips and fell in love with the local food culture. On his first trip to Sapporo over a decade ago, he met Japanese chef Gory, whose family zangi recipe eventually became the foundation of HFC. In 2024, Patel sponsored Gory's visa, brought him to Arcata to help launch Susukino Ramen Bar, and the sandwich evolved from there.
What's next: Hokkaido Fried Chicken is available for delivery via major apps. Find them on Instagram at @hokkaido_fried_chicken.
The first thing you notice when you unwrap the fried chicken sandwich from Hokkaido Fried Chicken is the craggy crust, almost geological in its texture — the kind of fry that makes you want to reconsider every other fried chicken sandwich you've ever eaten.
The craggy, crunchy Hokkaido fried chicken
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Courtesy Hokkaido Fried Chicken
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The chicken itself — shattering on the outside, improbably juicy within — holds its own against everything surrounding it. With the miso vinaigrette slaw, the pickled cucumbers, the chili truffle shoyu sauce, it’s a revelation — and for me, the best fried chicken sandwich I’ve ever eaten in L.A., hands down.
Hokkaido by way of Arcata
Hokkaido Fried Chicken, which is online-only, has been running since January out of an unassuming ghost kitchen on the edge of Koreatown. It’s the brainchild of Ronuk Patel, an Indian American who grew up outside Chicago, fell in love with snowboarding, and relocated to Arcata, a Northern California town about three hours from the Oregon border.
Ronuk Patel, chef and owner of Hokkaido Fried Chicken and Hokkaido Soup Curry, at his ghost kitchen on Olympic Blvd on the outskirts of Koreatown.
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Courtesy Hokkaido Fried Chicken
)
There, he built a career as a cannabis farmer — and began making regular snowboarding pilgrimages to Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost island, chasing powder and, eventually, some of the most interesting food he'd ever eaten. It was on that first trip to Sapporo, over a decade ago, that he met Gory, a Japanese chef who would become a close friend and, eventually, his collaborator.
In 2024, Patel sponsored Gory's visa and brought him to Arcata to help launch Susukino Ramen Bar — named after the Sapporo neighborhood where they first met. It was there, with Gory's family zangi recipe on the menu as an appetizer, that the seed of Hokkaido Fried Chicken was planted.
What is zangi?
Most Angelenos with a passing familiarity with Japanese cuisine know karaage — the lightly battered, juicy fried chicken that has become a fixture on Japanese menus across the city. Zangi is Hokkaido's answer to that tradition, and it plays in a different register entirely. Where karaage tends toward a lighter touch — a brief marinade, a delicate crust — zangi goes deeper. The marinade is heavier on soy and sake, more aggressive with garlic and ginger and almost always incorporates a fruit component that varies by chef.
Patel and Gory pushed it further still, applying a dry batter separately after marinating — rather than mixing everything together in the traditional wet batter method — for a crust that fries up dramatically craggier and crunchier. The result is chicken that is deeply seasoned all the way through and improbably juicy — both of which hit you immediately on first bite.
The HFC sandwich up close — the craggy, dry-battered crust is the first thing you notice, a direct result of Patel and chef Gory's decision to depart from zangi's traditional wet batter.
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Gab Chabrán
/
LAist
)
Inside the sandwich
Bite into the sandwich ($10.99), and you immediately understand why it took four or five months to get here. Every detail is thought through. The miso slaw cuts the richness of the chicken without competing with it. The cucumbers, pickled in a brine riffed from Patel's own recipe, add brightness and snap. The chili truffle shoyu sauce, born from mixing his ramen shop's house chili with a white shoyu-truffle product he'd been experimenting with, ties it together with a depth that sneaks up on you.
Just getting started
Fried chicken sandwiches aren't all that's on the menu at HFC. Nuggets and tenders round out the chicken offerings, along with the fries, which are definitely worth ordering — particularly the loaded pork belly fries ($10), topped with chashu pork belly, spicy truffle aioli and green onions over crispy shoestring fries, and the furikake fries ($5), whose umami-rich seasoning makes them a natural companion to the chicken.
Patel has also launched a second concept out of the same ghost kitchen: Hokkaido Soup Curry, a Japanese dish that combines aromatic curry spices with a lighter, broth-based preparation rooted in the same Hokkaido culinary tradition that inspired HFC — and one that hints at the Japanese-Indian fusion menu Patel says he's only just beginning to develop.
For Patel, none of it feels calculated — and that, perhaps, is the point.
"It just happened really organically, naturally, just like us being in the kitchen, having a good time."
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Critical Mass Los Angeles riders roll near the intersection of Slauson Avenue and Crenshaw Boulevard in Hyde Park, August 2025.
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Courtesy of LACM
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Topline:
On the last Friday of every month, Wilshire and Western transforms into a human-centered movement that proves LA is more than just its gridlock.
The backstory: The modern Critical Mass movement began in San Francisco in 1992 as a grassroots effort to reclaim the streets has since grown into a global movement, with Los Angeles now hosting one of its largest rides.
About the event: The ride takes place on the last Friday of every month on the corner of Western and Wilshire across from The Wiltern. Routes change monthly, turning each ride into a moving tour of the city. Some rides head west toward Marina del Rey, others east toward Mariachi Plaza, passing through neighborhoods that rarely feel connected outside of car travel.
Read on ... for more on Los Angeles Critical Mass.
When I first started, I went alone. I couldn’t convince any of my friends to commit to riding 20 miles on a bicycle on a Friday night through a city known for its car culture. It didn’t help that I told them the bike ride would start in Koreatown, among the most densely populated neighborhoods in the whole country.
I didn’t know what I was getting myself into.
What I discovered is that Los Angeles Critical Mass (LACM) is the largest community bicycle ride in the United States, drawing almost 4,000 riders each month, according to the group’s own records.
The modern Critical Mass movement began in San Francisco in 1992 as a grassroots effort to reclaim the streets has since grown into a global movement, with Los Angeles now hosting one of its largest rides.
LACM Vice President JoJo Valdez, told The LA Local that the event is ”a living example of what safer, more human-centered streets could look like” in the City of Angels.
Critical Mass Los Angeles riders roll through Koreatown, January 2026.
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Courtesy of LACM
)
The ride takes place on the last Friday of every month on the corner of Western and Wilshire across from The Wiltern. Routes change monthly, turning each ride into a moving tour of the city. Some rides head west toward Marina del Rey, others east toward Mariachi Plaza, passing through neighborhoods that rarely feel connected outside of car travel.
As the ride moves through different neighborhoods, it often brings energy — and customers — to local businesses along the route as riders stop for food, drinks and supplies throughout the evening.
Valdez said, “Cyclists, skaters and riders moving together make the demand for alternative transportation impossible to ignore.”
A cyclist takes off on a monthly Critical Mass ride in Koreatown on Nov 8th, 2025.
(
Steve Saldivar
/
The LA Local
)
L.A. is the last place you’d expect a mass cycling movement to take hold. That’s probably why it did. In a city defined by gridlock, LACM offers something rare — movement through neighborhoods at a human pace.
I’ve experienced it firsthand.
For me, LACM became an alternative to the typical night out. Instead of bars or clubs, it became a way to decompress, stay active and explore the city differently.
Over time, I built connections that turned into a consistent group of six friends I now ride with each month. I’ve even brought my girlfriend along, and it’s become one of our favorite end-of-month traditions.
Critical Mass Los Angeles riders roll through Los Angeles.
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Courtesy of LACM
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How a ride typically goes
The LA chapter of Critical Mass is led by LACM President Lisa Lundie and Valdez, who both began as volunteers before stepping into leadership roles for the Los Angeles chapter. According to the organization, their focus includes accessibility, community and mental wellness accessibility, community and mental wellness — and those values show up throughout the ride itself.
Valdez said that what people see — the crowds and energy — is only part of the story. There is real coordination and planning to keep the ride safe and organized as it moves through the city.
“We look out for each other. We ride together. If you’re alone, you won’t stay that way for long,” he said.
Critical Mass Los Angeles riders roll through Hollywood Boulevard, December of 2024.
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Courtesy of LACM
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Ride marshals help guide traffic, support newer riders and keep the group together, while a lead vehicle sets the pace and support riders follow behind to ensure no one is left behind. The result is a ride that may feel overwhelming at first, given the number of people, but quickly settles into a relaxed rhythm.
With everyone following the lead car and built-in stops to regroup, it becomes approachable for first-timers and more communal than a typical solo ride through Los Angeles.
As the ride unfolds, speakers carried by riders create a shifting soundtrack — hip-hop, EDM, reggae and Latin music blending with each neighborhood the group passes through, turning the streets into a moving reflection of L.A.’s culture.
Critical Mass Los Angeles riders roll through Koreatown.
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Louie Martinez
/
The LA Local
)
Some rides carry deeper meaning, including moments of silence for cyclists lost to traffic accidents and ongoing calls for safer streets.
This month’s ride, taking place on April 24 at 7:00 p.m., will celebrate West Coast hip-hop legend DJ Battlecat, who will perform from the lead vehicle, transforming the ride into a rolling party on wheels.
The distance might sound intimidating, but the pace is manageable, with plenty of breaks and lots of potential new friends. Whether you come with a group or show up solo, Critical Mass offers a new way to experience Los Angeles one ride at a time.
Cyclists gather for the monthly Critical Mass rides in Koreatown on Nov 8th, 2025.
Jordan Rynning
holds local government accountable, covering city halls, law enforcement and other powerful institutions.
Published April 23, 2026 2:59 PM
Voter guides in various languages at a polling site in Modoc Hall at Sacramento State in Sacramento on on March 5, 2024.
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Miguel Gutierrez Jr.
/
CalMatters
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Topline:
Voter Information Guides from the secretary of state are starting to hit registered voters’ mailboxes across California this week with info on statewide candidates and ballot measures for the June 2 primary election.
Information on local races: The L.A. County registrar-recorder/clerk also began mailing sample ballots to registered voters throughout the county today, according to a press release. The sample ballot books are available in 19 languages and share more details on local candidates, measures and secure ways to vote.
L.A. County voters can find more information, register to vote or check their registration on LAvote.gov. The registrar-recorder/clerk said in the press release that vote-by-mail ballots will start being sent to all registered voters in the county April 30.
Register and have a plan: The last day for voters to register or update their registration address is May 18, but same-day registration is also available in person at county elections offices, polling places and vote centers.
“Take five minutes today to register or update your address — then make a plan to vote,” Secretary of State Shirley Weber said in a press release earlier this month.
Every active registered voter is mailed a ballot, according to the Secretary of State’s Office. The office recommends that voters return their completed ballot by putting it in the return envelope and dropping it at a secure official drop box, polling location, vote center or county elections office. An online tool will be updated with county-specific voting options.
Early voting starts May 4, a spokesperson for the office told LAist, and vote centers will open in Voter’s Choice Act counties — including L.A., Ventura, Orange and Riverside — on May 23.
Make sure your vote counts: Due to changes to how the U.S. Postal Service postmarks mail, the Secretary of State’s Office told LAist it recommends voters who prefer to mail in their ballots do so at least one week before Election Day, June 2, and ask for a hand-stamped postmark from a USPS employee.
Check out our Voter Game Plan: The LAist newsroom has begun rolling out guides on local candidates and ballot measures in Southern California.
We’re bringing voters our reporting on candidates for L.A. mayor, L.A. and Orange county supervisors, dozens of judicial races and more.
Our guides have started publishing on http://laist.com/vote (or jump directly to the L.A. or O.C. guides) Check in regularly to see what’s new.
