The Brief

A new Los Angeles City Council proposal envisions a future in which renters live in buildings with less room for stairs and more room for apartments.

The motion introduced Wednesday could lead to eliminating parts of the local building code that currently require mid-sized apartment buildings to include more than one staircase.

Councilmember Nithya Raman, chair of the council’s Housing Committee and a co-author of the new motion, said this seemingly small change has potential to greatly increase the amount and variety of apartments getting built in a city starved for affordable housing options.

“I see this as part of a larger effort for me to push the city to do more to make it easier to build housing,” Raman told LAist.

She said single-staircase blueprints could give developers more physical space for each new apartment. Only 14% of the city’s existing rental housing units have three bedrooms or more, leaving young parents who can’t afford L.A.’s single-family houses with few family-sized options.

“A big part of why people end up leaving Los Angeles right now is because their family grows and they're unable to find a home at their price point,” Raman said. “If we had more rental stock that had two or three bedrooms rather than just one bedroom, I think that could also encourage people to stay in Los Angeles. I'd really like to make that possible.”

Why you’re likely to hear more about single-staircase policy 

Calls for single-staircase reform have been percolating in a handful of cities across the country in recent years. Local governments in San Francisco and Austin, Texas are weighing changes to their building codes that could permit single-staircase designs.

Housing policy experts note that apartments built around a single staircase are the norm outside the U.S., and are commonly found throughout Europe and Asia. Today New York, Seattle and Honolulu are the only U.S. cities that allow single-staircase plans in buildings between four and six stories tall.

During the 20th Century, most cities in the United States adopted requirements for multiple staircases in buildings more than three stories tall. The standards were created to give residents multiple ways out of a building in the case of a fire.

The problem, housing advocates say, is that these double-staircase mandates leave less physical space for an apartment building’s primary job: providing housing. Long hallways connecting the two staircases push apartments to the sides of buildings, leaving many units with windows along just one wall and cutting off space that could have been used for additional bedrooms.

Research finds low risk, cheaper construction costs

Updated safety features such as sprinklers and fire-resistant building materials have made staircases less crucial for tenant safety, housing advocates say.

“Research has been showing that [single-staircase buildings] are just as safe as double-stair designs, they are more affordable than other types of apartments, and they fit on more lots," Muhammad Alameldin, a policy associate with UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation, told LAist.

A study published last month by the Pew Charitable Trusts found that the rate of fire deaths in New York City between 2012 and 2024 was no different in modern single-staircase buildings as in other residential buildings.

The Pew study also found total construction costs for four-to-six story buildings on small lots typically increase by 6% to 13% when a second staircase is required. Alameldin said this helps explain why developers building new housing in cities like L.A. tend to propose larger projects, rather than mid-sized apartment buildings.

“The double-stair requirement forces developers to build much more units and make much bigger buildings than they would if there was just a single stair requirement,” Alameldin said.

Next steps for L.A.’s single-staircase proposal

The L.A. City Council motion is in early stages. It still needs to be scheduled for votes in committee and in the full council. If approved, the motion would instruct the city’s Building and Safety department, the Planning Department and the Fire Department to report within 90 days on building code modifications to allow single-staircases in residential buildings up to six stories.

Raman said that with this motion and others — like her recent proposal to permit small housing projects through a self-certification process — she hopes to spur new housing construction from developers who’ve viewed building in L.A. as too expensive and cumbersome.

“There's no way that we will be able to build our way out of this using public funds alone,” she said. “We have to do more to encourage private development. ... We want to push them to be building the kinds of things we need, like family-sized apartments.”

Meanwhile, state legislators are also considering single-staircase reforms. California lawmakers passed Assembly Bill 835 in 2023, a law requiring the state fire marshal to study and present potential plans for single-staircase designs in buildings taller than three stories by Jan. 1, 2026.

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Times Square's digital screens have nothing on the glaring warning signs for Republicans ahead of these upcoming midterm elections.

President Donald Trump, his policies and actions are unpopular. The GOP continues to lose special elections. Republicans are retiring at faster rates than Democrats. And people are saying they'd rather Democrats control Congress.

At this point, all of it adds up to trouble for the party in power.

The state of play: Democrats' hopes for taking over the House are more likely by the day, while the Senate remains a longer shot.

The House: All members of Congress face election every two years. Republicans currently have a 218-214 majority with three vacancies (one Democratic, two Republican). If the vacancies are filled by members of those same parties, which is likely, and you put redistricting battles to the side, Republicans can only afford to lose two seats to maintain their majority.

At this point, according to the Cook Political Report, there are 36 House seats that are either toss-ups or lean toward one party or the other. Of those, 18 are held by Republicans and 18 are Democratic seats. But zeroing in on the toss-ups alone, 14 are Republican, and only four are Democratic. And the political winds are blowing in Democrats' direction. Cook moved 18 seats in Democrats' direction a few weeks ago.

The Senate: Senators win six-year terms, and roughly one-third of the Senate is up every election cycle. Republicans currently maintain a three-seat net advantage, 53-47. (Two independents caucus with the Democrats.) But given Trump is president, and Vice President Vance would come in to break ties, Democrats need a net gain of four seats to take control.

This year, 35 Senate seats are up for grabs (22 Republican-held and 13 by Democrats). But the universe of competitive seats is actually much smaller — 25 seats are considered to be safely in the hands of the incumbent party (16 Republican, nine Democratic), according to Cook. That means only 10 seats are truly in play. Of those, six are held by Republicans, including Maine, North Carolina, Alaska, Ohio, Iowa and Texas. Four are Democratic: Georgia, Michigan, New Hampshire and Minnesota.

The fights for both chambers will be closely watched, but the House is still considered Democrats' best chance for control of one of the chambers of Congress.

The reasons for potential winds of change:

1. President Trump is unpopular. 

President Trump talks to reporters while aboard Air Force One on Friday en route to Palm Beach, Fla.

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Almost nothing is a better predictor of electoral success in midterms than who's in power and how popular they are.

Historically, midterms are not good for the president's party. Since World War II, the president's party has lost an average of 27 seats in the House and four in the Senate.

"Even if it's a Democrat or a Republican, whoever wins the presidency has a hard time with the midterms," Trump said in Iowa late last month. He added, "It's crazy. You know, you'd think it would be like a 50-50 deal or something. It's like, for some reason — and this is Democrat, too — Democrat wins the presidency, for some reason, they lose the midterms."

It's even worse when a president is below 50% job approval, as Trump has been for a while. When that's the case, the president's party has lost an average of 32 seats in the House. (This is mainly a House phenomenon. Presidents' parties have lost on average four Senate seats, regardless of approval rating.)

Redistricting and the rise in safe House seats, though, has lessened the likelihood of wave elections that would bring huge swings toward one party or the other.

Still, the popularity of the president is an important sign, and midterms are often referenda on the president's policies. Right now, Trump is under water, as evidenced by the latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll out last week.

It showed Trump with a 39% job approval rating. He's been under 40% in the poll since November. His policies on everything from immigration enforcement to tariffs and foreign policy are all unpopular.

His voting coalition is fraying, too. Independents, voters under 30 and Latinos were key to Trump winning reelection in 2024. But they have slid away from him heavily. In the NPR poll, just 30% of independents and voters 18-29 approved of the job he's doing, along with just 38% of Latinos.

For all of Trump's boasting, he is showing signs that he and the White House understand the vulnerable position he's in. He's changed his tone on immigration enforcement, for example, saying in an interview with NBC News that he's learned his administration can take a "softer touch" (though he blamed "bad publicity" rather than bad policy).

2. The economic outlook is bleak.

Americans continue to say the economy is their top concern.

In the NPR poll, 54% of respondents said Trump's top priority should be lowering prices. Immigration was a distant second at 22%, though it was No. 1 for Republicans.

Only 36% said they approved of Trump's handling of the economy, with a majority saying tariffs hurt the economy.

A Pew Research Center survey also out last week found 72% rated the economy as "fair" or "poor."

A plurality — 38% — said they expect the economy to get worse in the next year, while just 31% said it will be better, and 30% said it would be about the same. Majorities in both parties said they're very concerned about the cost of health care and the price of food and consumer goods.

And, by a 52%-28% margin, respondents said Trump's policies have made things worse rather than better.

3. Democrats continue to overperform in special elections. 

With a win for a state Senate seat in Texas on Jan. 31, Democrats racked up yet another special election victory.

Ordinarily, there wouldn't be that much attention on a state Senate race, but the eye-popping margin and the pattern of other Democratic overperformances in the past year made this one national news. Special elections can be good predictors of success or failure in the following midterm elections.

In 2024, Trump won this Fort Worth, Texas-area seat by 17 points. But the Democratic candidate in this election won it by 14. That's a 31-point swing.

Trump would rather it was ignored.

"I'm not involved in that," he told reporters on Feb. 1. "That's a local Texas race."

But Trump had given his "Complete and Total Endorsement" to the Republican in the race and put out three social media posts promoting her and urged Texans to get out and vote.

It's just the latest example of elections over the past year, from special elections to November's off-year results, where Democrats have racked up wins and overperformed, often by double-digits.

In fact, between House seats, the fall's gubernatorial races and this one, Democrats have overperformed 2024 margins by an average of almost 16 points.

As they might say in Texas, Republicans' House majority is tighter than a wet boot.

4. Republicans are retiring at faster rates than Democrats. 

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., speaks during a hearing with the House Committee on Homeland Security on Capitol Hill on Dec. 11, 2025. Greene has retired, leaving her seat open for a special election.

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A whopping 51 members of the House so far have hung it up for this 2026 election cycle.

It's a record pace, and, right now, it's more Republicans calling it quits — 30 to 21.

Lots of factors go into this, including mid-decade redistricting and the lack of appeal of serving in Washington when little gets done and acrimony is as high as it is.

But which party has more lawmakers who decide not to run for reelection is usually a pretty good indicator of which side is most concerned.

What's more, the rate of reelection is very high for incumbents. Part of that is high name identification. Part of that is built-in financial advantages. Part of that is just that people check the box more often for who they know.

When there are more open seats, especially in competitive places, parties and candidates have to spend more time recruiting candidates and more money trying to help them win — money that could be used to shore up already vulnerable officeholders.

5. Democrats are leading on the congressional ballot test. 

On average, Democrats have about a 5-point edge in polls asking people which party they'd rather see in control of Congress.

That's often referred to as the congressional ballot test in surveys. Because more districts lean toward Republicans in the country, Democrats have generally needed a wider edge on this question.

But that GOP advantage has narrowed in recent years. And, a year ago, Republicans were the ones leading on the congressional ballot, showing just how much the landscape has shifted in Democrats' favor.

There are no guarantees, a lot can change, and the Democratic Party is less popular than the GOP in many polls — mostly because Democratic voters aren't thrilled with their own leaders. But, at this moment, Democrats have the advantage.

As Cook's Erin Covey writes: "With only a few exceptions, midterm elections have been driven by backlash to the party in power — and the Democratic Party's unpopularity hasn't kept their voters from turning out in off-year elections.

"If the election were held today, Republicans would need to win roughly three-quarters of the Toss Up races to keep control of the House ... . Though that's not impossible, it looks increasingly difficult."
Copyright 2026 NPR

Around the middle of Bad Bunny's live NFL Super Bowl halftime performance, the Puerto Rican singer is seen handing a Grammy Award to a young Latino boy.

As he kneels down and rubs the boy's head, he says: "Cree siempre en ti" ("always believe in yourself"). Almost immediately, rumors began spreading like wildfire on social media: the boy was none other than Liam Conejo Ramos, an immigrant who has made headlines in recent weeks.

While the concert was rife with symbolism and statement — this happens to not be true. A publicist for Bad Bunny told NPR Music that the little boy on stage was not Liam Conejo Ramos. A representative for the Conejo Ramos family also confirmed to Minnesota Public Radio that it was not the young boy.

A screenshot of Bad Bunny giving a Grammy to a young boy during the Super Bowl performance.

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Who is Liam Conejo Ramos?

Five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his dad, Adrian Conejo, were detained by federal immigration agents on Jan. 20 at their Minneapolis driveway.

A photo taken of the boy carrying a Spider-Man backpack and wearing a blue bunny hat, went viral on social media, and has become one of the symbols of President Trump's harsh immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.

Liam and his dad were sent to a detention center in Dilley, Texas, meant to hold families with minors. They were released earlier this month.

The family, which comes from Ecuador, is claiming asylum. The federal government, however, is pushing to end their asylum claims.

The Department of Homeland Security launched Operation Metro Surge in December, deploying nearly 3,000 federal immigration agents to Minnesota. It has led to hundreds of arrests, including of undocumented immigrants without criminal records, and the killing of two U.S. citizens by federal agents.

A concert filled with symbolism

Bad Bunny's presence at the Super Bowl has been praised — and criticized — for being a predominantly Spanish-language concert, and because of his stance on Trump's immigration enforcement campaign. During his acceptance speech at last week's Grammy Awards, he stated "ICE out… we're not savage We're not animals. We're not aliens. We are humans. And we are Americans."

Sunday's Super Bowl performance was filled with symbolism and contained several strong statements celebrating Latinos and immigrants in America, including when the singer said "God Bless America" and named all of the countries of North, Central, and South America.

Bad Bunny performs during halftime of the NFL Super Bowl on Sunday.

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Copyright 2026 NPR

The impact of HBO Max queer sports romance show Heated Rivalry continues its blaze across pop culture. Last month, the show’s co-stars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie were the torchbearers for the Winter Olympics and presented the best supporting actress award at the Golden Globes. Later this month, Storrie is slated to host Saturday Night Live.

The show’s impact has also hit the ice.

In January, the ticketing platform Seatgeek reported a rise in National Hockey League ticket sales that coincided with the release of the show. In that span, the ticketing site saw a 9% increase in single-ticket sales, which the site reports is the highest it's ever been for the NHL. Stubhub, another ticket platform, reported a 40% interest in hockey tickets since the show first aired.

LA Kings keep the hype going

In an attempt to tap into the moment the show is having, LA Kings music director Dieter Ruehle has been playing music from the show live at the games. Fans took to Instagram and TikTok sharing videos of t.A.T.u.'s hit “All the Things She Said” and Wolf Parade’s “I’ll Believe in Anything” at the games. It’s a trend that multiple teams in the league are tapping into, including the Seattle Kraken.

“I've been a hockey fan since I was a kid, and I've noticed the growth of the game,” Ruehle said. “However…in recent times whenever I click on social media, there's posts about, ‘oh, we're going to our first hockey game.’ And I think that's so awesome.”

Ruehle says he finds “tremendous joy” in seeing the crowd’s reaction when he plays the songs at the games.

"I'm glad that the show is bringing that to hockey,” he says. “It's pretty phenomenal quite frankly, and I'm just glad to be part of it when I [play] some of the songs from the show."

The show’s creators, Jacob Tierney and Brendan Brady, also collaborated with the Kings in a video where they were live mic’d for two periods of a January 16th game against the Anaheim Ducks.

Since the show came out, Kings senior manager of social content Alec Palmer says there’s been an uptick in influencers coming to the Kings games.

“The fact this [show] was about hockey or set in this hockey world was like the greatest gift to hockey,” Palmer says. “It has gotten so many people exposed to the sport.”

An icy environment that still needs thawing

The impact of the show is also felt through people who play the sport.

Since the show’s release, former hockey player Jesse Kortuem publicly came out and, in part, credited Heated Rivalry for his decision. Kortuem played in the Cutting Edges, an LGBTQ+ hockey association in Vancouver.

“I loved the game, but I lived with a persistent fear,” Kortuem wrote in a Facebook post. “I wondered how I could be gay and still play such a tough and masculine sport.”

Fans have long criticized the sport for not being a safe space for queer folks. In 2023, the NHL created controversy with their decision to ban rainbow-colored “pride tape” on the rink and a separate ban on Pride-themed jerseys during warmups.

“ I think this show has really brought all of those things back up to light and forced people to look in the mirror and have those conversations,” Palmer said, speaking in a personal capacity.

Palmer says the real work comes with engaging with the community through workshops with coaches on inclusive language, hosting community pride nights and supporting LGBTQ+ friendly teams like the Los Angeles Blades.

“ That's where you're making that impact in real life,” he says, “and how we're setting the next generation up to be successful.”

As water agencies across California grapple with the increasingly extreme effects of climate change, they’re also facing another problem: the incoming “silver tsunami.”

That’s the phrase coined by the industry to illustrate the fact that much of the workforce — largely baby boomers — that keeps our water flowing and safe are getting ready to retire.

Nationwide, about a third of the nation’s water workforce is eligible for retirement within the next decade, “the majority being workers with trade jobs in mission critical positions,” the Environmental Protection Agency wrote in a 2024 report.

Climate resilience needs a workforce

To deal with how pollution in our atmosphere is driving longer, hotter droughts, as well as increasingly intense rain when it does come, water agencies across Southern California are working to boost aging infrastructure and invest in more diverse water supplies, such as recycled water.

The lack of people to staff those changes is a problem for pretty much every water agency, urban and rural.

L.A. is the second-largest city in the nation and is spending billions on water recycling and stormwater capture, for example, but it has been struggling to fill needed positions at its four wastewater treatment plants.

The city of L.A. plans to clean all wastewater that flows to the Hyperion plant.

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The city plans to treat nearly all of the Hyperion wastewater facility’s water to drinkable standards in the coming decades. To support that massive expansion, Hi-Sang Kim, the operations director at Hyperion, told LAist in 2022 the facility will need to boost its workforce by at least 30%.

For less urban water agencies, the challenge is even greater. The Eastern Municipal Water District serves close to 1 million people (and growing), as well as agricultural customers in western Riverside County and northern San Diego County.

They estimate as much as half of their workforce could retire within five years.

“Not only are we investing in new infrastructure, but we have aging infrastructure, so we are in dire need of technical skill sets to operate, maintain everything from treatment plants to pipelines, to pump stations,” said Joe Mouawad, the water district's general manager.

Jobs in the water industry — potable water and wastewater treatment operators, engineers, managers, skilled maintenance, public relations and more — are well paid and secure, Mouawad said, but it’s hard to fill the needed positions.

“We are finding it more challenging to backfill retirees,” he said. “It's not so much a lack of interest — I think it's a lack of awareness.”

Building a pipeline for water jobs

Those job gaps are why Eastern Municipal has become a leader in building the water workforce pipeline. For decades, the water district partnered with local schools to provide education about water conservation and what they do. But over the last decade, as the retirement forecast grew more dire, the agency has shifted to prioritize skills-based programming and partnerships with local high schools.

Local high school students tour Eastern Municipal Water District facilities in Perris.

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In 2013, they launched the Youth Ecology Corps program, for young adults between 18 and 24. Many who went through the program and paid internships are now full-time employees, said Calen Daniels, a spokesperson for the agency, who himself went through the program.

In recent years, the water agency has focused on younger potential future employees through a variety of Career and Technical Education programs at local high schools, including in automotive tech, engineering, agriculture, construction and information systems, said Erin Guerrero, Eastern Municipal’s public affairs manager overseeing its education programs.

“We're starting earlier and getting these kids real world experience,” Guerrero said.

Michelle Serrano teaches a two-year pre-apprenticeship Environmental Water Resources program at West Valley High School in Hemet. Students leave the program equipped to take the state-level certification exam for a job as a water treatment operator or water distribution operator once they turn 18.

Clayton Gordon, GIS mapping administrator at EMWD, talks to West Valley High students in the GIS Engineering certification summer program.

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Already more than 200 students have gone through the program since it launched last year. While local community colleges have similar Career and Technical Education programs, this is the first program of its kind targeting high schoolers in the region. Eastern Municipal hopes to expand to other area schools as well.

“Once the kids get out of the program, they're set if this is the direction they want to go,” Serrano said. “We have these students set for a job or a career for the rest of their life.”

She said the program is a gamechanger for students who don’t see themselves going to college or who are unsure of their future career path.

“We really are pushing hard for college, and that's a good push,” Serrano said. “However, we have kids who don't see themselves going to college.  It's opening up an amazing path for students who otherwise may not see a job direction.”

They’re not only finding a stable career path, she said, but fulfilling roles necessary to our society, Mouawad said.

“It's working for us,” he said, “and we want to see this serve as a model for the rest of the industry.”