The Brief

A federal judge issued a blistering ruling Tuesday, finding Los Angeles officials failed in multiple ways to follow a settlement agreement to create more shelter for unhoused people.

Judge David O. Carter also ordered stronger oversight by a court-appointed monitor to “ask the hard questions on behalf of Angelenos,” as well as quarterly hearings to oversee compliance with the city’s commitments to create nearly 13,000 new shelter and housing beds.

“When the system fails, people die,” Carter wrote in his 62-page ruling, which comes as a result of a major, long-running homelessness lawsuit filed by the L.A. Alliance for Human Rights, a group of downtown business and property owners.

“Nearly seven unhoused community members die each day in the County of Los Angeles,” the judge continued. “These deaths are preventable and represent a moral failure by all of us.”

The judge stopped short of the most extreme option he was considering: seizing control of the city’s hundreds of millions of dollars in homelessness spending and handing control to a court-appointed receiver.

Carter noted that such a move would be a last resort after a court has given multiple opportunities for the city to comply.

In the statement issued late Tuesday, the City Attorney's Office said the judge had "correctly" decided not to appoint an "unelected and unaccountable" receiver.

"Over the last three years, the City of Los Angeles has successfully moved thousands of Angelenos off the streets, into housing and services," the statement read in part. "Thousands of new housing units have been built, and homelessness is down in LA for the first time in years."

Matthew Umhofer, an attorney for L.A. Alliance, told LAist that the ruling is a win for the people of L.A., especially those experiencing homelessness.

“The court continues to hold the city’s feet to the fire on its failure to comply with the agreement,” he said. “Instead of fighting us and fighting the court on this issue, the city should be coming to the table.”

How the judge says the city breached the agreement

The court found that L.A. breached the settlement agreement with L.A. Alliance in four ways:

• The city did not provide a plan for how it intends to create 12,915 shelter beds, as promised, by June 2027.
• It consistently missed milestones over years for creating those beds. 
• It incorrectly reported encampment reductions and disobeyed the court’s order on those actions.
• The city “flouted” responsibilities by failing to provide accurate, comprehensive data when requested and did not provide evidence to support the numbers it was reporting.

The ruling comes after days of court testimony and thousands of pages of documents submitted to Carter on the issue.

The judge ordered stepped-up reviews by a court monitor to check for compliance with the settlement agreement in the case. The monitor “shall have full access to the data that the City uses to create its reports to the Court” to show compliance with the agreements, according to the ruling.

Carter also ordered the city and L.A. Alliance to attend in-person court hearings each quarter to review compliance, starting in the fall. The hearings will continue for as long as needed to make sure the city honors its commitments under the settlements, Carter ruled.

He wrote that these steps are progress, not punishment.

“The Court wants the City to succeed,” he wrote. “Because when the system fails, people die. And when it works — even slowly — lives are saved.”

Judge finds lack of accountability

Carter had harsh words for what he described as a glaring lack of accountability for how the city spends money on homeless services and housing.

“Unhoused individuals hear about programs and promises" the judge wrote. "They hear that hundreds of millions are being spent, that homelessness is being addressed, that success is being claimed. Yet many still cannot find a bed, a bathroom, or a hot meal.

"Their lived reality does not match the headlines.”

He pointed to the difficulty faced by court-appointed reviewers, and LAist, in getting data from the L.A. Homeless Services Authority — known as LAHSA — about how much was being spent for more than 2,000 housing subsidies the city was taking credit for to show compliance.

“Without accurate data, the public is left to rely on the assurance of public officials who have already presided over repeated reporting failures,” the judge wrote.

“The City’s compliance rests on shaky ground, upheld not by verifiable facts, but by the last-minute declarations of its own officials,” he added. “If the Roadmap Agreement has taught us anything, it is that seeking accountability with the City of Los Angeles is like chasing the wind.”

After LAHSA officials criticized LAist’s reporting of concerns about the data, Carter ordered the city to turn over addresses for each housing site. The city then acknowledged that the data was inflating the true number: 130 subsidies were being wrongfully counted twice.

“The pattern is clear: documentation is withheld until exposure is imminent, public accountability is resisted until judicially mandated, and the truth of reported progress remains clouded by evasive recordkeeping,” Carter wrote in his ruling. “These failures have undermined public trust and judicial trust alike.”

The judge added that the court-enforced agreements in the lawsuit — the L.A. Alliance settlement and an earlier agreement known as the Roadmap — were intended to be a turning point in the homelessness crisis. But there have been major problems with the city’s compliance.

“That neglect carries real consequences, borne most heavily by those with the least, by the people whose lives depend on those promises being fulfilled,” he wrote.

Referring to audits of the city’s homelessness spending, he added: “Taken together, these audits paint a consistent and deeply troubling picture of chronic operational failures in Los Angeles’ approach to homelessness.”

What do city leaders say about the ruling?

LAist has reached out for comment from L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, City Attorney Heidi Feldstein Soto and the chair of the City Council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee, Councilmember Nithya Raman.

While emphasizing L.A.'s progress in getting unhoused people off the streets, Feldstein Soto's office also pointed to wording from the U.S. Supreme Court in the Grants Pass case, which overturned some legal protections for unhoused people.

"As the Supreme Court decision last year in the Grants Pass case noted, developing lasting solutions to homelessness is a complex challenge facing cities across the country, and cities need flexibility in determining the best policy approaches," the statement read.

A spokesperson from Raman's office emailed a statement that read: "For the first time, we are seeing substantial reductions in street homelessness and to take power away from the City when it is actually making progress toward the purported goals of this Settlement, would have been a contradiction and potentially a harmful step backwards."

Umhofer said even though the judge did not order a third-party receiver to take over as L.A. Alliance had requested, the monitor would require the city to share more information about how it reports its progress.

That, Umhofer said, is a “very big deal.”

“The city has spent an extraordinary amount of money to try to defend itself, and the court saw right through the city and concluded that it had failed,” he told LAist.

The first quarterly compliance-review hearing is scheduled for Nov. 12.

The U.S. job market unexpectedly stalled in July.

A report Friday from the Labor Department shows that employers cut 23,000 jobs last month, and job gains for May and June were revised sharply lower.

The unemployment rate dipped to 4.1%, but only because more than 260,000 people dropped out of the workforce.

It was the second month in a row that the monthly jobs tally came in weaker than forecasters had expected.

"We are increasingly hearing from workers that they are anxious about their job security and they are frustrated by the fact that they are stuck in roles that are not necessarily good for them," said Daniel Zhao, chief economist at the job search website Glassdoor. "And that's on top of workers who are not in a job right now and feel frozen out of the job market."

Glassdoor's worker confidence index slumped in July to a record low.

The Fed's job gets harder

Restaurants and retailers cut thousands of jobs last month, and local government also saw large job losses. Healthcare continued to add workers, but at a more modest pace than earlier in the year.

The softening job market may complicate the Federal Reserve's job, since it's also battling stubborn inflation. The Fed may be more cautious about raising interest rates at a time when the labor market appears less stable.

For people who are working, average wages have risen 3.2% in the last 12 months. That's likely not enough to keep pace with inflation, however, so workers' paychecks don't stretch as far as they used to.

"Part of the reason that workers are feeling bad about today's job market," Zhao says, is that "a lot of those wage gains have been eaten up by rising energy prices."

Copyright 2026 NPR

It seems that jazz is everywhere in Los Angeles. Blue Note opened a club last year, venues like Sam First, Catalina’s, Vibrato and the Baked Potato draw large crowds, and hotels and bars are adding jazz to their schedules.

But every week, a semi-secret event at the tony Los Angeles Athletic Club lets anyone experience a near-private concert from legends such as Rickey Woodard, who played saxophone for Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn and others; and Nolan Shaheed, trumpeter for Duke Ellington, Marvin Gaye and more.

That’s before you get to the evening’s singer, who might be 96-year-old pianist Betty Bryant, former Raelette Val Monroe or singer and Grammy-winning songwriter John Proulx.

Until recently, the Sunday night Jazz Salon was free. Now it charges a nominal $10 per person, which is still an outrageous bargain, so be sure to add something to the tip jar on the piano, and maybe try one of the cocktails or the steak frites.

Inside the club 

Walking into the club earlier, you see black-and-white photos of all types of healthy pursuits on the walls, as well as trophies and mementos of the club’s nearly century-and-a-half history. Plush sofas, high ceilings and book-filled shelves are the order of the day, and alongside members in gym gear or lugging laptops, you go up in one of the elevators to the third floor, where the Jazz Salon takes place.

Dave Ross, bassist and founder of the Jazz Salon.

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James Bartlett

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LAist

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The bassist who built it 

Earlier in the day, Dave Ross, 76, was setting up the amps, drum kit, mixer and mic stands. He also administers the website, acts as MC and plays double bass as part of the ensemble. He began the venture over a decade ago, when he persuaded the LAAC, of which he had long been a member, to host concerts in their redecorated restaurant and bar.

Ross draws from a repertory group of about 15 artists, and the concert takes place opposite the bar in a wood-paneled room of just a few dozen leather chairs and tables. This small scale makes the night intimate and unique.

“No gig is ever the same,” says Ross. “We don’t rehearse, and every time we play a song, we're never trying to play it the same way we played it before.”

That makes the night fun, too. Since you’re right near the musicians, you can hear their laughter and banter, as well as their impressive solos. Ross, stage left, stays out of the limelight — which is how he prefers it — and often says he's just happy to be there playing.

“You're there to keep the beat, the pulse of the music,” he says. “And then, secondarily, the notes that you play help the other musicians understand what the chord, what the harmony is. I'm just doing it for the pleasure of playing the music.”

The Jazz Salon is a $10 Sunday night concert at the Los Angeles Athletic Club.

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James Bartlett

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LAist

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Why $10 barely covers it 

Once a month, Ross and some of his stable join a touring artist — recently five-time Grammy-nominee Karrin Allyson — in the club’s 250-seat ballroom for a more formal ticketed event, but there have been just two complete sellouts of them this year: tributes to Bill Evans and Dave Brubeck/Paul Desmond.

Donations and the tip jar on Sunday evenings sometimes haven’t been enough to break even, either, which led to Ross reluctantly introducing the $10 charge. No matter what, he is determined the Jazz Salon will keep going.

“When I was younger, there was a receptionist I knew who was a nun. She said: “‘You know what your problem is? You’re too optimistic!’”

Daniel Shemtob has been going around Los Angeles asking strangers this question: "What's your mom's best dish?"

He then turns their answers — from Filipino oxtail adobo to the Ashkenazi Jewish favorite of gefilte fish — into a taco for his new five-episode web series, "Better Than Your Mom."

One episode breaks from the format entirely: a head-to-head chopped salad taco challenge between Shemtob and Vanessa Silverton, daughter of famed L.A. chef Nancy Silverton, judged blind by Nancy herself.

Daniel Shemtob, founder of The Lime Truck and creator and host of Better Than Your Mom.

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Courtesy Daniel Shemtob

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A two-time winner of "The Great Food Truck Race" on the Food Network, Shemtob is no stranger to reality TV — he also founded The Lime Truck, serving Cali-Mex cuisine in Orange County.

What starts as a quick, chaotic street-corner challenge opens into something bigger — a Long Beach woman honoring her late mother-in-law's gefilte fish recipe, and a chef processing his own mother's death and the loss of his home in the 2025 Palisades Fire.

A dish for his mother

Despite loving fine dining, Shemtob said nothing beats the experience of having someone invite him to their mother's home for dinner.

"It's by far my favorite thing," he said.

Gundry watched as Shemtob reworked her mother-in-law's recipe in real time — a process that normally takes her more than two hours, done in 20 minutes.

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Screenshot via Better Than Your Mom

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That urge to connect with other people also came from wanting to celebrate his late mother's legacy and the impact she had on him in the kitchen.

"Eating was like a big part of how we shared and celebrated," Shemtob said. "It was a culture that was built around food."

A stranger says, 'yes'

While most walk past him or decline to talk, Shemtob said he's been surprised by how many strangers say yes almost immediately — like Anne Gundry, a retired biology teacher in Long Beach.

She answered with a dish from her mother-in-law from her first marriage — gefilte fish served cold.

Shemtob's take on Dena Levenstein's gefilte fish, reimagined as a taco with an apple-horseradish slaw.

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Courtesy Daniel Shemtob

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Gundry recalled her first meeting with Dena Levenstein, who would become her mother-in-law. The relationship started out cold — but cooking together changed their dynamic.

"That's where I honestly think we had the deepest bond with her," Gundry said.

Gundry described yearly visits to Levenstein's house as a cooking "apprenticeship," where Gundry was taught to cook by feel — adding ingredients by the handful, testing a dish's consistency by touch.

"She used to say, 'How does it feel?'" Gundry recalled. "And I'd say, 'I don't know, I don't know how it's supposed to feel.'"

Over the years, she learned. Now, Gundry teaches her own children that recipe the same way — without referring to what's written down.

Watching Shemtob cook on "Better Than Your Mom," Gundry was skeptical. Her own process takes over two hours; his took 20 minutes — until she tasted the apple-horseradish slaw he added.

"Brilliant," she said. "I've been trying to duplicate it at home."

You can find Shemtob's videos on his YouTube channel.

Next week Phoebe Bridgers fans in Southern California will get an otherworldly way to enjoy her new album ahead of its official release Friday.

And a Costa Mesa institution will enjoy the chance to introduce indie music lovers to what it does beyond astronomy lectures and field trips.

The Orange Coast College Planetarium is one of dozens of planetariums around the world – and the only in Southern California – hosting listening sessions next week for Lost Weekend, one of the year’s most anticipated indie releases and Bridgers’ first solo studio album in six years.

The Pasadena native is not expected at any of the planetarium shows. But that doesn’t matter to her fan base.

Phoebe Bridger fans can listen to her album in the planetarium's 125-seat dome theater.

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Courtesy Orange Coast College Planetarium

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Twelve shows in the 125-seat theater sold out within four hours of going on sale Thursday, according to the planetarium. So staff added 16 more, bringing the total to 28 screenings over four days, Aug. 10 through 13. (At last check, tickets for showings earlier in the day were still available.)

“We have never had an event that was this anticipated,” Rhiannon Graffio, lead speaker and educator at the planetarium.

There’s two ways to experience the record from start to finish, which is a little over 50 minutes long.

One is a full-dome show featuring images taken by renowned astrophotographer Babak Tafreshi.

“It's gorgeous,” Graffio said. “There's some that are of the night sky, where you can see the paths of the stars as the Earth rotates, or auroras or lightning.”

The other option is a laser show created by Laser Fantasy, with scenes and storylines moving in time with the music.

Graffio said the planetarium had been approached by Bridgers’ label Dead Oceans to host the shows, which are being presented in partnership with Spotify.

Rhiannon Graffio, a lead speaker at the Orange Coast College Planetarium, has been working with Phoebe Bridgers' label on next week's listening sessions.

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Courtesy Rhiannon Graffio

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The events are strictly phone-free. To prevent album leaks, attendees will have to put their phones in pouches provided by Yondr, a company that works concerts and other events. Smartwatches, and Meta glasses also aren’t allowed.

The Lost Weekend events are the most high-profile but certainly not the planetarium’s first experiment with mixing music and visuals.

The theater regularly hosts laser shows set to music, cycling through different artists like Taylor Swift and Beyoncé each month while keeping some crowd favorites like Pink Floyd in rotation. Graffio said in the last year KPop Demon Hunters laser shows have been especially popular.

Accommodating the Lost Weekend shows has meant bringing extra staff to handle the weekday crowds at the community planetarium.

But Graffio said there's a big upside to introducing music fans to a place they may never have thought to visit.

“It’s a wonderful experience,” she said. “And most of the shows that we do are also educational in some sense. As cool as the visuals are, they are about the universe and what we know about it.”

And for those who can't make it to the planetarium shows, there's a more traditional route to marking Bridgers' new album. A dozen record stores around Southern California are hosting listening sessions at midnight Friday.