The Brief

A temporary ban on rent hikes of more than 10% after January’s wildfires will continue for another month in Los Angeles County after elected leaders voted Tuesday to push back a rapidly approaching deadline.

Under an emergency order issued by Gov. Gavin Newsom in March, price gouging limits for rental housing were set to end next week on Tuesday, July 1. The L.A. County Board of Supervisors voted 4-0 to extend the rent gouging ban until July 31. Supervisor Kathryn Barger was not present for the vote.

Supervisor Lindsey Horvath introduced the motion alongside Barger. During Tuesday’s meeting, Horvath said it’s possible the deadline could be pushed back again in the future.

“The county has authority to extend only for 30 days at a time,” Horvath said. “It is certainly my intention, and we’ll find out if it’s the will of the board at a future date, whether to extend beyond 30 days.”

What the rules say 

The ban on rent gouging took effect in January, when Newsom declared an emergency stemming from the historically destructive Palisades and Eaton fires. The governor’s declaration made it a criminal offense for anyone to raise prices on housing, food and other essential goods and services by more than 10% from their pre-fire rates.

Within days of the fires breaking out, families displaced from their homes started encountering massive price jumps on listings for rental housing. Tenant advocates began compiling examples of apparent price gouging and said they found more than 1,300 suspicious listings less than a month after the fires.

Prosecutors with the California Attorney General’s Office and the L.A. City Attorney’s Office have so far filed a handful of misdemeanor charges against real estate agents and landlords who allegedly asked prospective tenants to pay far more than what is legally allowed, in one case by more than 50% above pre-fire rents.

County District Attorney Nathan Hochman has yet to file any price gouging charges.

Tenant groups ask, where’s the enforcement?

Tenant advocates say illegal rent hikes have been widespread. Laura Matter — a volunteer with The Rent Brigade, a grassroots price gouging watchdog group — said in May alone, she and her colleagues found about 1,800 online listings that appear to have broken the law.

"It's definitely still happening," Matter said. “There hasn't been any enforcement on the county end of this ordinance yet at all, which is another reason that suggests it needs to be extended."

The county imposes larger financial penalties for rent gouging than the state of California. In January, county leaders voted to increase fines up to $50,000 per violation. The maximum fine under state law is $10,000.

The House of Representatives is expected to approve a funding bill on Wednesday that would bring an end to the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

The measure, which extends funding levels for much of the government through Jan. 30, also includes a trio of appropriation bills that would fully fund some federal programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) through Sept. 30, 2026. Payments for SNAP, which provides food assistance to nearly 42 million people, have been locked in a court fight as a result of the shutdown.

The Senate approved the legislation late Monday , with seven Democrats and one Independent joining most Republicans. The bill includes a provision to reverse the layoffs the Trump administration imposed during the shutdown.

Most Democrats on Capitol Hill angrily denounced the deal because it failed to address the central issue prompting the standoff — how to address health care subsidies that are expiring at the end of the year.

As part of the compromise, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., agreed to hold a vote by mid-December on legislation Democrats will craft to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits. Some Republicans agree Congress needs to do something to head off steep premium increases for those relying on the subsidies, but it's unclear there are enough GOP votes to pass a bill through the chamber. Even if a deal comes together in the next few weeks, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has declined to guarantee a vote.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., attends a Veterans Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on Tuesday.

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New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a moderate who helped broker the deal with Thune, told reporters on Monday that the shutdown increased political pressure on the GOP to negotiate some solution on health care.

"If the Republicans don't come to the table, if Donald Trump, who claims he can make a deal, is not willing to say to Speaker Johnson, 'you need to have a vote, you need to get something done,' then come next election, in the midterms, the American people are going to hold them accountable and we are going to continue to make this an issue."

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., panned the deal shortly before the Senate passed it, and urged House Democrats to vote no.

"We're not going to support a partisan Republican spending bill that continues to gut the health care of the American people," Jeffries said.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries,D-N.Y., speaks during a news conference Monday on Capitol Hill.

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Jeffries and other opponents of the deal argue the results of last week's elections , which featured big Democratic wins in gubernatorial contests and other local elections, sent a signal that voters backed the shutdown strategy, and wanted action on health care.

Hill Republicans maintain that flight delays due to staffing shortages and disruption in government services over several weeks will harm Democrats who blocked bills to reopen the government. But President Trump suggested after GOP candidates were defeated last week that the shutdown harmed the party.

With the midterm elections a year away it's unclear just how far the longest shutdown on record will factor into voters' decisions, especially if concerns about the economy persist.
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The competition schedule for the Olympics is out, more than two years ahead of the 2028 Games.

The extensive program, released by Olympics organizing committee LA28 this morning, lays out the dates, times and locations of all competitions for 51 sports taking place across Southern California (and as far as Oklahoma City).

The first Olympic winner will be named at the women's triathlon in Venice Beach on the morning of July 15 — the first day of the Games and the day after the opening ceremony. The last will be more than two weeks later, July 30, when the men's and women's medley relay finals and other swimming finals will take place at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.

The closing ceremonies will take place the same day at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum in Exposition Park.

The 2028 Games have flipped the traditional Olympic schedule to start with track and field and end with swimming. On a press call, LA28 executive Shana Ferguson said that's because SoFi Stadium is one of the venues hosting the Opening Ceremonies, and the site of all swimming competitions.

"In order to transition from opening ceremonies to swimming, we just couldn't do it," Ferguson said.

Olympics schedulers considered summer weather

Ferguson called developing the competition schedule a "painstaking process" that took months of coordinating with the International Olympic Committee and 36 international sports federations, which manage individual sports.

The Games will come to Los Angeles in the middle of summer, and Ferguson said LA28 considered heat and sunshine when it laid out the schedule.

" Some of the timings were made based on having a little bit later session in the evenings for cooling for fans and for athletes, as well as sun position, water tides, water quality," she said. "When we're having a diving competition outside, we have to think about the position of the sun so as to not distract the athletes."

Diving will take place at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center in Pasadena . Those competitions are scheduled either in the morning or afternoon, with a gap between 12:30 and 2 p.m.

Equestrian competition also has been scheduled with the summer heat in mind.

Those competitions will take place at the Santa Anita racetrack in Arcadia, either in the morning or late afternoon. Ferguson said that's for the horses — and also the fans.

" We are also thinking about, quite frankly, how quickly we can get 'em into the venue, right?" she said. "We don't want them necessarily standing outside in long lines for too long. Let's get them inside where it's shaded."

Schedule highlights

July 29, will be the busiest day of Olympic Competition, with 26 finals in marathon, boxing, swimming, table tennis and many more.

The first day of competition will have the most women's finals, including the triathlon and 100-meter and women's rugby sevens.

You can find the detailed competition schedule here . The Paralympic schedule hasn't been released yet.

When can I get tickets? And how much will they cost?

Fans will be able to register for tickets starting in January . They'll cost as little as $28.

Los Angeles is working on its first major overhaul of the city’s charter — the document that acts as the city’s constitution for how government is run — in more than 25 years. Now there’s a new way residents can get involved. Applications are open for Angelenos who want to be a part of an upcoming mini civic assembly on charter reform.

The details

The L.A. Charter Reform Commission, a civilian board with 13 appointed commissioners, recently endorsed these mini assemblies and pledged to hear their recommendations at commission meetings. This group selected from the applications will come up with a set of suggestions for updating the rules on how L.A. is run and present them to the commission for consideration.

A mock civic assembly taking place in Culver City on June 7.

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What’s a civic assembly?

It’s a process by which a small group of residents get together and work out solutions to thorny community problems . Think of it as an intensive, in-person group project. Members are chosen by lottery but also selected to be demographically representative by factors like age, race or geography.

When is the assembly and how do I apply?

The first mini assembly, organized by a coalition called Rewrite LA , takes place Dec. 13 at the Institute of Contemporary Art in downtown L.A. Forty people will be selected, and this session will focus on one specific topic related to charter reform. If you’re interested, apply on Rewrite LA’s website by Tuesday .

How else can I weigh in on charter reform if I don’t get picked?

There are more assemblies planned for 2026. In the meantime, Rewrite LA is asking residents to share their thoughts here for what the assembly should address and how the city should be run. You also can give public comment at upcoming Charter Reform Commission meetings or submit written comments at ReformLAcharter@lacity.org .

Go deeper 

• Want residents, not politicians, to find answers to LA’s thorniest problems? Try a civic assembly

The Supreme Court on Tuesday extended an order blocking full SNAP payments, amid signals that the government shutdown could soon end and food aid payments resume.

The order keeps in place at least for a few more days a chaotic situation. People who depend on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to feed their families in some states have received their full monthly allocations, while others have received nothing.

The order will expire just before midnight Thursday.

The Senate has approved a bill to end the shutdown and the House of Representatives could vote on it as early as Wednesday. Reopening the government would restart the program that helps 42 million Americans buy groceries, but it's not clear how quickly full payments would resume.

The justices chose what is effectively the path of least resistance, anticipating the federal government shutdown will end soon while avoiding any substantive legal ruling about whether lower court orders to keep full payments flowing during the shutdown are correct.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the only one of the nine justices to say she would have revived the lower court orders immediately, but didn't otherwise explain her vote. Jackson signed the initial order temporarily freezing the payments.

Beneficiaries in some states have received their full monthly allocations while in others they have received nothing. Some states have issued partial payments.

How quickly SNAP benefits could reach recipients if the government reopens would vary by state. But states and advocates say that it's easier to make full payments quickly than partial ones.

Carolyn Vega, a policy analyst at the advocacy group Share Our Strength, also said there could be some technical challenges for states that have issued partial benefits to send out the remaining amount.

An urgent need for beneficiaries

In Pennsylvania, full November benefits went out to some people on Friday. But Jim Malliard, 41, of Franklin, said he had not received anything by Monday.

Malliard is a full-time caretaker for his wife, who is blind and has had several strokes this year, and his teenage daughter, who suffered severe medical complications from surgery last year.

That stress has only been compounded by the pause in the $350 monthly SNAP payment he previously received for himself, his wife and daughter. He said he is down to $10 in his account and is relying on what's left in the pantry — mostly rice and ramen.

"It's kind of been a lot of late nights, making sure I had everything down to the penny to make sure I was right," Malliard said. "To say anxiety has been my issue for the past two weeks is putting it mildly."

The political wrangling in Washington has shocked many Americans, and some have been moved to help.

"I figure that I've spent money on dumber stuff than trying to feed other people during a manufactured famine," said Ashley Oxenford, a teacher who set out a "little food pantry" in her front yard this week for vulnerable neighbors in Carthage, New York.

SNAP has been the center of an intense fight in court

The Trump administration chose to cut off SNAP funding after October due to the shutdown. That decision sparked lawsuits and a string of swift and contradictory judicial rulings that deal with government power — and impact food access for about 1 in 8 Americans.

The administration went along with two rulings on Oct. 31 by judges who said the government must provide at least partial funding for SNAP. It eventually said recipients would get up to 65% of their regular benefits. But it balked last week when one of the judges said it must fund the program fully for November, even if that means digging into funds the government said need to be maintained in case of emergencies elsewhere.

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to pause that order.

An appeals court said Monday that full funding should resume, and that requirement was set to kick in Tuesday night before the top court extended the order blocking full SNAP payments.

Congressional talks about reopening government

The U.S. Senate on Monday passed legislation to reopen the federal government with a plan that would include replenishing SNAP funds. Speaker Mike Johnson told members of the House to return to Washington to consider the deal a small group of Senate Democrats made with Republicans.

President Trump has not said whether he would sign it if it reaches his desk, but told reporters at the White House on Sunday that it "looks like we're getting close to the shutdown ending."

Still, the Trump administration said in a Supreme Court filing Monday that it shouldn't be up to the courts.

"The answer to this crisis is not for federal courts to reallocate resources without lawful authority," Solicitor General D. John Sauer said in the papers. "The only way to end this crisis — which the Executive is adamant to end — is for Congress to reopen the government."

After Tuesday's ruling, Attorney General Pam Bondi posted on social media: "Thank you to the Court for allowing Congress to continue its swift progress."

The coalition of cities and nonprofit groups who challenged the SNAP pause said in a court filing Tuesday that the Department of Agriculture, which administers SNAP, is to blame for the confusion.

"The chaos was sown by USDA's delays and intransigence," they said, "not by the district court's efforts to mitigate that chaos and the harm it has inflicted on families who need food."
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