Bukola Olusanya, a nurse practitioner and the leader of a street medicine team operated by St. John’s Community Health in Los Angeles, listens to the heart of Mia Angulo, who is pregnant and has been living in a tent in Los Angeles.
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Bernard J. Wolfson
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KFF Health News
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Topline:
A coalition of community clinics, health care workers, and advocates, are pushing for a five-year, half-cent sales tax in the nation’s most populous county to help backfill the projected loss of federal and state dollars.
Why now: In California, the GOP One Big Beautiful Bill will slash the federal contribution to Medi-Cal by an estimated $30 billion a year, or 25%. Enrollment in Medi-Cal could drop by 3 million by 2028 as a result of the federal and state spending cuts, according to an analysis by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and the University of California-Berkeley Labor Center. In July, California will slash Medi-Cal payments that community clinics receive for certain services provided to patients with “unsatisfactory” immigration status by about $1 billion a year.
What's next: The L.A. County Board of Supervisors approved the proposal last month for inclusion on the June 2 primary ballot, over the objection of some cities within the county. Their leaders argued the tax would put a strain on consumers and business owners. Most of an estimated $1 billion in annual revenue generated would be used to protect safety-net health care at community clinics, hospitals, and schools.
Mia Angulo, who is pregnant and due in May, is living in a tent with her boyfriend in the predominantly Latino neighborhood of Boyle Heights.
Lingering pain from a car crash two months ago, on top of an already hardscrabble life, has Angulo worried about her pregnancy. So, she was relieved when a mobile street medicine van from St. John’s Community Health pulled up near her encampment last month.
“Thank God that we have them,” she said.
St. John’s, which operates 28 clinics, mostly in L.A. County, is part of the nation’s network of nonprofit community clinics that care for the poorest Americans. Around 80% of its 144,000 patients, including Angulo, have Medi-Cal, California’s version of the Medicaid program for people with low incomes or disabilities.
But federal cuts to Medicaid spending under the Republican-passed One Big Beautiful Bill Act, compounded by fiscal belt-tightening in Sacramento, could cost St. John’s up to one-third of its $240 million annual revenue, requiring cuts to services that might include street medicine, said Jim Mangia, the president and CEO.
Smaller, more cash-strapped clinics in L.A. County could face harsher consequences, including closure, if the lost funding is not replaced.
That’s why Mangia, along with a coalition of community clinics, health care workers, and advocates, is pushing for a five-year, half-cent sales tax in the nation’s most populous county to help backfill the projected loss of federal and state dollars. St. John’s has contributed at least $2 million to the campaign so far.
Mia Angulo, who is pregnant and due in May, sought medical attention from a street medicine team run by St. John’s Community Health. Her lingering pain from a car crash, as well as concerns about the hardships of homelessness, have her worried about the pregnancy.
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Bernard J. Wolfson
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KFF Health News
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Louise McCarthy, president and CEO of the Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County, said there aren’t a lot of options to save the health care system from disaster.
“Our backs are up against the wall,” she said. “This has the potential to be a game changer. It will be an absolutely significant offset to the losses.”
The L.A. County Board of Supervisors approved the proposal last month for inclusion on the June 2 primary ballot, over the objection of some cities within the county. Their leaders argued the tax would put a strain on consumers and business owners. Most of an estimated $1 billion in annual revenue generated would be used to protect safety-net health care at community clinics, hospitals, and schools.
One of the two street medicine teams that St. John’s Community Health sends out five days a week to provide care at homeless encampments and shelters around Los Angeles (from left): Brenda Barrales, Walter Lopez, Edgardo Marroquin, Bukola Olusanya, Grace Calderon, and Luis Perez.
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Bernard J. Wolfson
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KFF Health News
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Scrambling To Stay Afloat
Nationally, the GOP budget law is expected to cut federal Medicaid spending by $911 billion over 10 years, and it could lead to an increase of over 14 million in the number of people left uninsured. The L.A. ballot proposal is among many local and state initiatives nationwide, as clinics, hospitals, health care workers, advocates, and legislators scramble for new money to help offset the spending cuts.
In Michigan, where the federal law is projected to cost the state $32 billion over 10 years, Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s office has proposed new or increased taxes on tobacco, vape products, online gambling, sports betting, and digital advertising, which it projects would raise hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
In Rhode Island, a group of state legislators hopes to ease some of the pain caused by the federal cuts with a package of bills that includes a tax on digital ads and a 3% surcharge on taxable incomes above roughly $640,000.
“The goal is not to replace the revenue; it’s to mitigate the damage,” said Democratic state Rep. Brandon Potter, one of the legislators involved.
In Washington, Democratic state Rep. Shaun Scott recently introduced legislation to address the loss of federal dollars with a 5% payroll tax on large companies, applied to employee salaries exceeding $125,000 a year.
In California, the GOP law will slash the federal contribution to Medi-Cal by an estimated $30 billion a year, or 25%. Enrollment in Medi-Cal could drop by 3 million by 2028 as a result of the federal and state spending cuts, according to an analysis by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and the University of California-Berkeley Labor Center.
In July, California will slash Medi-Cal payments that community clinics receive for certain services provided to patients with “unsatisfactory” immigration status by about $1 billion a year. Those patients include permanent residents in the country for less than five years, refugees, asylees, and other lawfully present people.
Bracing for a ‘New Reality’?
Advocates and health care experts say finding new revenue is the only way to avoid a crisis in California’s health care system.
“Are we going to let the gaps created by federal policies and state budget cuts leave millions of people uninsured?” said Laurel Lucia, deputy executive director of programs at the UC Berkeley Labor Center. “I think a lot of that question comes down to revenues.”
Some medical professionals say that new revenue is needed in the short term but that the country needs to address its notoriously expensive health care system.
“This new reality is that we have to do our work with less money going into the future,” said Hector Flores, president-elect of the Los Angeles County Medical Association. “So, this is an opportunity for us to look at how we can do things better.”
In the meantime, efforts to raise taxes for health care abound.
Voters in Santa Clara County, home to Silicon Valley, last November approved a five-year 0.625% sales tax increase to offset federal Medicaid cuts. A similar measure will be on the June ballot in Contra Costa County.
The best-known initiative, and a hotly contested one, is a union-sponsored ballot proposal in California for a one-time 5% tax on the state’s more than 200 billionaires. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom strongly opposes it; Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) stumped for it in California recently and has promised to introduce a national version in Congress.
Proponents of the temporary wealth tax say it would raise $100 billion, which would mostly be used to backfill lost federal and state dollars in Medi-Cal and other safety-net programs. Proponents are trying to collect nearly 875,000 signatures needed to get it on the November ballot.
“We are on the precipice of a collapse of our health care system. So the most fortunate among us pay a modest tax that will hold us over and allow us to figure out a long-term solution,” said Suzanne Jimenez, chief of staff for Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, the measure’s chief sponsor. “They would still be incredibly wealthy after that.”
Billionaires Push Back
The plan has stirred considerable controversy, not just in the Golden State but nationwide, and has generated strong resistance from billionaires and others.
Critics argue the measure could prompt billionaires to leave California, putting a damper on innovation, jobs, and tax receipts. And, some warn, the measure could end up in a legal quagmire, as those deemed liable to pony up challenge it on multiple fronts.
“If this passed, you would expect it to be tied up in court for some time,” said Jared Walczak, a visiting fellow at the California Tax Foundation. “It is fairly plausible that no revenue could come in for a number of years, if there’s ever any revenue at all.”
The prospect of such complications has led some health care advocates to focus instead on local initiatives that could start generating revenue more quickly, such as the proposed sales tax in L.A. County.
That one has critics too, including leaders of multiple cities within the county who pleaded with supervisors to reject a proposal they argued would add to the affordability worries of consumers and put a strain on businesses.
Kathryn Barger, a Republican and the only L.A. County supervisor to oppose putting the measure on the June ballot, said in a statement that the proposed tax would make the county “less affordable for families and less appealing for consumers to shop and businesses to operate.”
But supporters say safety-net health care is already feeling the impact of diminished funding. Last month, for example, L.A. County’s Department of Public Health announced it was closing seven clinics due to $50 million in federal, state, and local funding cuts.
Medi-Cal enrollees are worried, too. “We get a lot of calls from panicked patients afraid they’re going to lose their Medi-Cal. Dozens of calls a day, hundreds of calls a week,” said St. John’s Mangia.
“We tell them that we’re working on a solution and hopefully we’ll have that solution come June.”
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.Subscribe to KFF Health News' free Morning Briefing.
Adolfo Guzman-Lopez
is an arts and general assignment reporter on LAist's Explore LA team.
Published May 2, 2026 5:00 AM
Steve Campos sits on a bench he calls the "LA Bench" that approriates the logo used by the Dodgers in a statement of civic pride.
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Courtesy Steve Campos
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Topline:
LA welder-artist uses the well-loved "L.A." logo to create an “LA Bench” to spark civic pride. It may look like a tribute to the Dodgers, but it's more complicated.
Why it matters: Steve Campos is a second-generation welder born and raised in L.A. who is using his training and education to create work with more artistic designs.
Why now: The Dodgers’ success is making their logos ubiquitous. But the team's success, some Angelenos say, came at the cost of mass displacement after World War II of working class communities where Dodger Stadium how stands.
The backstory: The interlocking letters of the L.A. logo were used by the L.A. Angels minor league baseball team before the Dodgers moved to L.A. in 1958.
What's next: Campos is offering the LA Benches for sale and hopes he can get permission from the Dodgers to install a few at Dodger Stadium.
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.
I would love to get a couple of them installed at Dodger Stadium.
— Steve Campos, welder-artist
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 former Snapchat buildings on the Venice Boardwalk are now pop-up art spaces, free for all to visit.
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Laura Hertzfeld
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Topline:
A new art installation on the Venice Boardwalk features local and international artists, pop-up evening performances, and projects that explore the themes of childhood and home.
Why it matters: The Venice Boardwalk is usually a daytime playground, but a new art installation and performance pop up aims to breathe new life into the evening scene at the beach.
Why now: Two formerly vacant buildings with spaces facing the Boardwalk have been turned into free art installations after a new owner took over the former Snapchat-owned buildings.
The backstory: Stefan Ashkenazy, founder of the Bombay Beach Biennale, brings some of his favorite collaborators into a new space on the Venice Boardwalk, giving a chance for tourists and locals alike to check out projects from artists including William Attaway, James Ostrer, Greg Haberny, Robin Murez, and more.
Read on ... to find out how you can visit.
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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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.
Venice Boardwalk art pop-ups The installations are open now and can be seen from the Boardwalk for free 24/7. They will be up for several months and evening performances are ongoing.
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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“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.”
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Fiona Ng
is LAist's deputy managing editor and leads a team of reporters who explore food, culture, history, events and more.
Published May 2, 2026 5:00 AM
Elephant Hill in El Sereno.
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Courtesy Save Elephant Hill
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Topline:
A new trail across the beloved natural area of Elephant Hill in Northeast Los Angeles officially opens this weekend.
Why it matters: 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.
What's next: The trail is part of a decades-long effort to preserve the entire 110 acres of Elephant Hill. Read on to learn more.
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 nonprofitSave 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 ofTest 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.
Josie Huang
is a reporter and Weekend Edition host who spotlights the people and places at the heart of our region.
Published May 2, 2026 5:00 AM
Battery storage hubs are used to stabilize the energy grid but have led to lithium battery fires.
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Sandy Huffaker
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AFP via Getty Images
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Topline:
San Gabriel Valley residents are rallying today against a battery storage project in the City of Industry. They warn it could bring environmental and health impacts and pave the way for more industrial development, like data centers.
The backstory: City leaders approved the 400-megawatt Marici battery facility in January. But residents in nearby communities say they were not adequately informed and are concerned about safety risks.
What's next: Some local activists have challenged the approval of the battery facility under the California Environmental Quality Act.
The rally: Protesters will be at the Peter F. Schabarum Regional Park in Rowland Heights from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
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.
WHAT: Protest against battery storage facility in the city of Industry
WHERE: Peter F. Schabarum Regional Park in neighboring Rowland Heights
WHEN: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
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.”
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.
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.”
