The Brief

Survey after survey shows that the cost of housing is a top concern for Los Angeles voters. And the issue sharply divides candidates vying for mayor in the June 2 primary.

Mayor Karen Bass says her efforts to fast-track affordable housing are working. But few apartments have been built so far. She has fought to keep new apartments out of most of the city’s residential neighborhoods, pleasing homeowners but angering some housing advocates.

City Councilmember Nithya Raman has said her different vision for tackling housing affordability was pivotal in her decision to run against Bass. Citing unaffordable rents and home prices, Raman has promised to accelerate building in more parts of the city.

Raman’s housing platform has won her the backing of many in the Yes In My Backyard (YIMBY) movement. But critics say her support of density could drastically transform some single-family neighborhoods.

Political outsider Spencer Pratt has promised a downtown L.A. housing boom once he “gets rid of” tens of thousands of unhoused people. But he has been called out for spreading false information about state housing legislation.

Other candidates have presented their own ideas about the city’s housing affordability issues, but they’re behind in the polls.

Here are where the top three candidates stand on housing in L.A.

What Bass says she’s accomplished so far

When asked what she has done to bring down rents, Bass has pointed to a program she created in her first week in office: Executive Directive One. It speeds up city approvals of 100% affordable apartment projects.

By some metrics, ED1 has been a major success. After the program launched, developers flooded the city with applications.

L.A.’s Planning Department has received plans for 43,360 apartments since ED1 launched in December 2022 and has approved 34,298 of them. Under the directive, developers must agree to keep all units in these buildings affordable to low and moderate-income Angelenos.

Karen Bass

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But few of those units are actually getting built. The city’s Building and Safety Department says 8,058 apartments have been issued building permits. Only 298 have received certificates of occupancy, the last step in getting an apartment ready to rent to tenants.

In a recent mayoral debate, Bass said some variables are out of her control.

“Some of the factors are the price of construction materials, just the general economy,” Bass said. “We are doing everything we can to make sure we are able to fast-track that housing.”

Bass has also said the city’s adaptive reuse program, which allows office buildings to be converted into housing, has enabled the creation of more than 43,000 potential units.

The Building and Safety Department told LAist it could only find two units that have received certificates of occupancy since she took office. However, the city-wide expansion of this program, building off an older program limited to downtown L.A. and some other urban cores, only took effect in February 2026.

Do apartments belong in single-family neighborhoods?

Bass has scaled back ED1 from its original design. She banned projects in historic zones and on many lots with existing rent-controlled apartments. She also blocked projects in the nearly three-quarters of residential land reserved for single-family homes.

Bass says new housing belongs on commercial main streets, so homeowners in single-family zones don’t have to see apartments going up next to their lots. That’s one of the reasons she asked Governor Gavin Newsom to veto Senate Bill 79, a major new state housing law allowing taller, denser apartment buildings near transit stops, including in some single-family zones.

Raman has said she views this issue differently. She has said all kinds of neighborhoods need to accept denser housing. She defended an ED1 project in a single-family neighborhood in her district, even as city leaders tried to kill it. Courts eventually ruled the city fought that project illegally.

Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman announced Saturday that she is running for mayor.

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Joining a minority of City Council members, Raman voted not to oppose SB 79. She has said young families are leaving L.A. because they can’t afford housing, and the city should do more to plan for increased density throughout the city, including in some single-family neighborhoods.

“We desperately need this housing,” Raman said in a recent debate. “What I want to do is go out here and not lie to you that we can keep everything the same, and Sacramento will not intervene. That is not possible.”

Raman has said that as mayor, she’ll make departments respond to zoning-compliant housing applications within 60 days.

Pratt’s plan for a downtown building boom

On his Substack, Pratt has said that L.A.’s housing supply shortage is “a myth.” But the former reality TV star also promised on a recent podcast to “speed up building” and work with architects to “bring Art Deco back.”

In a recent debate, Pratt said as mayor he’d get up to 20,000 apartments built in downtown L.A. by removing unhoused people.

“I’m gonna have 40 blocks when I get rid of all the drug addicts that are sleeping on the sides of all these empty buildings,” Pratt said. “We will have so much high-density… We have plenty of places to build. We don’t need to put a seven-story cement structure in a single-family neighborhood with no parking.”

Spencer Pratt

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Last year, Pratt drew attention on social media for opposing SB 79. He said the law would bring high-rises to the Pacific Palisades, where his home burned down.

Critics pointed out that was never true, because there are no qualifying transit stops in the Palisades.

What about the city’s controversial 'mansion tax'? 

In 2022, L.A. voters passed Measure ULA, perhaps better known as the city’s “mansion tax.” It has taxed the sale of real estate valued at $5 million or more. It applies not just to single-family mansions, but also to apartment buildings and other commercial real estate.

Economists argue the tax has led to a slow-down in apartment construction at a time when L.A. needs more housing. Defenders say it has raised more than $1 billion for affordable housing construction and tenant aid programs.

Raman surprised many of her colleagues earlier this year when she proposed putting a measure on the June ballot to ask voters to exempt apartments built within the last 15 years. That effort failed, but Raman has continued to push for changes to Measure ULA.

Last year, Bass asked state lawmakers to pull a last-minute bill aimed at similar reforms, saying more tweaks were needed to get the policy right.

Pratt has said he would push for a full repeal of Measure ULA. The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association has qualified a measure for the November ballot that, if passed, would do just that.

Where do the candidates stand on rent hikes and tenant protections? 

As housing committee chair, Raman has said she pushed the council to pass the first update to the city’s rent control limits in 40 years. She has also said her efforts to pass new tenant eviction protections and legal aid programs are helping keep vulnerable renters housed.

Bass also supported the city’s new, lower rent hike limits. She says she’s been working with the Mayors Fund, an outside nonprofit, to provide eviction defense services to many tenants.

Pratt has said that state and city tenant protections amount to “squatter’s rights.” He has said he will work with the city attorney to streamline evictions and remove tenants within 72 hours.

Residents in East LA are weighing the promise of a new Metro E Line extension with concerns over construction disruptions, small-business impacts and whether more outreach is needed about the project.

The 4.7-mile extension of the Metro E Line would connect East Los Angeles to Montebello with four new stations. The project would relocate the existing Atlantic and Pomona station underground and include a mix of underground, aerial and street-level track transit.

The $7.9 billion project is expected to open for service between 2035 and 2037, according to Metro.

Construction will begin in 2029 and last approximately eight to 10 years, pending full funding approval. It’s part of a wider plan to connect the E Line to the city of Whittier, though officials say the work will be built in two phases due to funding constraints.

While officials say the project is intended to reduce traffic congestion and ease pressure on local roads, residents at a recent community meeting focused more on the immediate impact and communication.

Concerns over construction and local impact

“Thirty days for comment on a complex issue like this is ridiculous. … We need better outreach,” said East LA resident Clara Solis about a 30-day public comment period ending June 26.

Solis and others also raised concerns about how construction could affect traffic and disrupt local commerce, pointing to past transit projects.

“How is this going to impact the businesses? When the Gold Line went through, a lot of our businesses really suffered economically. We want to see a presentation on that. You should have a presentation just on how it’s going to impact the businesses,” Solis added.

A map shows the Eastside Transit Corridor Phase 2 project will extend the E Line nearly nine miles east from East Los Angeles to the City of Whittier. ()

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Calls for broader outreach

East LA resident Kristie Hernandez said community outreach for the project should also extend to people who do not necessarily live within the immediate 200-foot project radius.

“We need to understand that folks who don’t necessarily live within that close proximity also frequent that area when they drive,” said Hernandez.

Hernandez advocated for a 90-day public comment window and also called for presentations on underground infrastructure, especially in the wake of the East LA pipeline that was punctured during construction work in late May.

“We do not want that to happen again,” she said.

A promise for greater mobility

Lucia Martinez spoke favorably about the extension plans, considering that she relies on buses to get around East LA to do her shopping. She said she looks forward to using the Metro to travel to the Citadel as well as to the hospital in Pasadena.

“As an older woman who became aware of this project, I think it is amazing because I am someone who does not drive,” she said.

LA Documenter Rafael Cazzorla contributed reporting for this story. LA Documenters trains and pays LA residents to take notes at local government meetings around Los Angeles. You can find meeting notes and audio at losangeles.documenters.org

For the first time in nearly three decades, the Food and Drug Administration approved a new chemical UV filter for use in sunscreens sold in the U.S. And that has many dermatologists cheering.

"This is a very big deal," says Dr. Heather Rogers, a dermatologist in Seattle and a fellow of the American Academy of Dermatology.

The new ingredient is called bemotrizinol, and it has several advantages over the chemical sunscreen ingredients previously available in the U.S., Rogers says.

"It hits like really every box for us that we have been waiting for as dermatologists and consumers," Rogers says.

Here's what you need to know about this new ingredient and how it could lead to better sunscreens sold stateside.

1. It blocks both UVA and UVB rays

Rogers says in general, you want to use sunscreens that are broad spectrum, meaning they protect against both UVA rays — the longer wavelengths that cause premature aging and wrinkles — and UVB rays, which lead to sunburns. Both types of UV rays can cause skin cancer.

She says the sunscreens currently sold in the U.S. do an excellent job of protecting against UVB rays, but the chemical UV filters available in sunscreens in the U.S. until now aren't as good at blocking out UVA rays.

In general, chemical sunscreens sold in the U.S. rely on an ingredient called avobenzone to block out UVA rays, says Kelly Dobos, a cosmetic chemist who teaches at the University of Cincinnati.

But avobenzone by itself isn't photo stable, meaning its protection can start to break down rapidly when exposed to sunlight. And as avobenzone breaks down, it can release molecules that lead to skin irritation, says Alexa Friedman, a senior scientist with the nonprofit Environmental Working Group, or EWG.

By contrast, bemotrizinol offers protection against both UVA and UVB rays all on its own, and it is photo stable, so it breaks down more slowly, offering better protection, Rogers says.

"So if you go a little longer than two hours to reapply your sunscreen, there will be more protection left," Rogers says. However, she says you should still reapply sunscreen every two hours.

2. It's long been used in other countries 

Bemotrizinol has been widely used in European and Asian sunscreens for decades. But it has taken 20 years for the FDA to approve its use in this country.

That's because in the U.S., sunscreens are regulated as over-the-counter drugs rather than cosmetics, as they're classified in Europe. That means ingredients need to undergo rigorous testing for safety and efficacy before they can be approved for use in the U.S.

"It's really expensive and time consuming," Dobos says. The European company DSM-Firmenich spent at least $18 million over more than two decades in its push to gain FDA approval for bemotrizinol.

3. It has a well-documented safety profile

However, all that testing means bemotrizinol has more safety data to back it up than any other chemical sunscreen ingredient currently approved in the U.S., says Friedman of EWG.

"This ingredient is exciting because we have that data to support its safety," Friedman says.

Friedman says animal testing showed bemotrizinol doesn't lead to concerns like reproductive harm, while clinical testing on humans found that it does not irritate the skin, even after repeated application over time, "which is hopefully how people are using sunscreens."

And because bemotrizinol's molecules are larger, it's not readily absorbed by the skin and into the bloodstream, she says.

That's important, because studies have shown that some of the other chemical sunscreen UV filters sold in the U.S. can be absorbed in the bloodstream, prompting calls for more safety data and leading to a backlash against sunscreen on social media fueled by misinformation. Rogers says that trend is concerning because skin cancer is the most common form of cancer.

"We just need to have sunscreen that people will use, that they'll trust," Rogers says. "And this ingredient is going to allow that to happen. And that is very exciting."

And bemotrizinol is also considered to be non-irritating, Friedman says. That should be welcome news to people who've been put off by chemical sunscreens in the past.

4. It could lead to sunscreens that look better on you

Until now, Rogers says, the only sunscreen ingredient available in the U.S. that offered the aforementioned advantages of bemotrizinol — photo stable, non-irritating, minimally absorbed into the skin and with good broad spectrum protection against both UVA and UVB rays — was zinc oxide.

Both zinc oxide and titanium dioxide are mineral UV filters. Both chemical sunscreens and mineral sunscreens work by absorbing UV rays from the sun. Mineral sunscreens also reflect some UV rays. The bigger difference is that mineral sunscreens sit on the surface of the skin, while chemical sunscreens get absorbed into the skin, Rogers says.

The downside of mineral sunscreens is that they can leave an unattractive white cast on the skin — think of lifeguards with white paste on their noses. "Particularly if you're a person of color, zinc is going to make you look pale, white or ashy, which really makes it hard to use on a regular basis," Rogers says.

Bemotrizinol, on the other hand, is transparent on the skin, and because it protects against both UVA and UVB rays on its own, it doesn't have to be mixed with as many other chemical filters and stabilizers to achieve broad spectrum protection, Dobos adds. She says that should lead to more aesthetically pleasing, less greasy sunscreen formulations in the near future.

"I think it's a real win for public health," Dobos says. "If we can make a sunscreen that consumers like to use and want to use and apply in the proper amounts, I think that's something that's really going to be a win for consumers."

DSM-Firmenich has exclusive rights to market bemotrizinol in the U.S. for 18 months. It will be sold under the brand name Parsol Shield. The company says the first sunscreen products containing the ingredient should start hitting American store shelves around September.

The Justice Department on Friday approved Paramount's proposed $111 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery.

After concluding its antitrust investigation into the pending merger, the department said in a statement that it found that the deal posed no threat to competition or consumers of film, broadcast television or streaming.

The decision clears the way for a merger of two rival Hollywood studio titans: Paramount, the owner of CBS, including CBS News, will swallow the much larger Warner, which includes HBO and CNN.

The DOJ''s Antitrust Division concluded that a union of two studio giants isn't anti-competitive because the streaming market has expanded the competition for conventional Hollywood studios, which includes Netflix, Apple and Amazon, as well as smaller streamers. The Justice Department's view is that, for the same reason, consumers won't lose out because there are plenty of other places to get entertainment.

Several states, including California, have raised antitrust concerns. The European Union is investigating as well.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who has been investigating the deal for antitrust violations, said in a post on social media following the Justice Department's approval: "The merger of Warner Bros and Paramount is not a done deal and remains under investigation by my office."

In a statement following the decision, Paramount described the deal as "pro-competitive," and would result in "a stronger company better positioned to compete against dominant technology platforms in an industry increasingly defined by intense competition for audiences, talent, technology, and investment."

The company said it planned to complete the merger as soon as possible, "delivering its benefits to consumers, creators, and the entertainment industry as a whole."

The consolidation will put media mogul David Ellison — son of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison — at the helm of Warner Bros. studio as well as its cable and streaming properties, including CNN and HBO. The Ellison family took over Paramount and CBS last summer.

In the months leading up to the regulatory approval, critics in Hollywood feared the deal would consolidate an already concentrated media landscape and lead to fewer jobs and less creative content.

In April, thousands of directors, actors, writers and other industry talent — including Kristen Stewart, Pedro Pascal and Javier Bardem — signed an open letter opposing the merger.

The elder Ellison is also a financial backer and adviser to President Trump on artificial intelligence. Critics of recent changes at CBS under the Ellisons' control are concerned that, as they say has happened with CBS News, the acquisition would make CNN more friendly to Trump.

NPR's Carrie Johnson and Mandalit del Barco contributed to this story.
Copyright 2026 NPR

Countless soccer fans will stream into SoFi Stadium (temporarily renamed Los Angeles Stadium) in the coming days, or maybe catch a match at a neighborhood watch party.

But right here in Los Angeles — at LACMA’s Resnick Pavilion to be specific — are a series of miniature face-offs too, thanks to a local artist who’s captured some big moments with the tiniest of soccer players in the exhibition, Fútbol Is Life.

Artist and animator Lyndon J. Barrois  Sr. gave me a tour of his home studio in Mid-City on a recent Friday. Tools of his trade are scattered throughout, including a glue gun, paint brushes and a life-sized recreation of a human skeleton.

And inside an orange, Halloween-themed Utz pretzel barrel, thousands of pieces of a material that sets Barrois apart: chewing gum wrappers.

“I find them around the world,” Barrois said. “When we travel, I see them on the ground and I pick them up. One trip we took to New Orleans... I must have come back with maybe two dozen. I found some in Lisbon, I found some in Marrakesh, I found some in Nairobi.”

Barrois crafts these little strips of foil and paper into art: one inch-tall, lifelike sculptures of humans in kinetic poses. Oftentimes, that means capturing his favorite moments from sports games with what he calls ‘sportraits.’

Barrois handles one of his earlier miniatures

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“All my life I was just making toys,” he said. “These are all my toys. Because I would play with these things like action figures.”

The small things in life

Barrois began making his miniatures at 10 in New Orleans, starting with the tiny drivers he made for his Hot Wheels cars.

Many of those original creations he’s held onto for five decades. Now they overflow from a Hershey’s Chocolate tin.

There are hundreds and hundreds of his tiny gum wrapper figures in Barrois’ studio: soccer players and boxers and football players with helmets so small he crafts them on pin heads.

It was while he was studying graphic design at Xavier University in New Orleans that Barrois says he realized his craft could be more than just a childhood hobby. One of his professors encouraged Barrois to take his miniature for what it really was: sculpture.

Barrois went on to get his master’s degree in film and video from CalArts in 1995 and has worked in animation and visual effects ever since, with credits on films like The Matrix Reloaded, Night at the Museum and Terence Malick’s The Tree of Life.

“It’s weird what things take you where,” Barrois said. “I always loved movies and wanted to do it in some capacity. I just didn’t know how. And to say that this is what led to all that, a childhood hobby, I don’t even know how to describe the feeling. Or how humbling it is,” he said.

Ravi S. Rajan, president of CalArts, said that whether Barrois is animating a monologue by author Ta-Nehisi Coates or creating special effects for a Matrix film, he makes his subjects more human and relatable.

“And I think that’s the magic of what he does as an artist,” Rajan said.

Barrois’ mastery in making his lilliputian figures has brought him into plenty of fine art spaces. Just a couple of miles from his home, Fútbol Is Life meticulously recreates historic moments from men’s and women’s soccer in a sizable space inside the Resnick Pavilion.

One of the vignettes in Barrois' 'Fútbol Is Life' depicts a celebratory moment from Argentina 3-1 win over the in 1978.

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“You can imagine when they showed me this room, I was like: I gotta fill this room with little people!,” the artist said on a recent visit to his show.

And fill it he did. Inside clear cases there are dozens of scenes from soccer history spanning nearly a century of World Cup matches. That includes Brazilian footballer Marta Vieira da Silva celebrating a goal during a 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup match.

“One of them that really gave me the most joy is probably the game where Marta kisses her foot after she scores. Because just the flex of that whole moment. I can’t kiss my foot, man,” Barrois said with a chuckle.

But there are less celebratory moments, too, like when German players gave a pre-kickoff Nazi salute before facing off against the Swiss team, foreshadowing a world that would soon be at war.

It’s a dark moment in history captured in a playful way that makes you look twice.

“That was the German team in 1938. Pre-World War II, but it was the rise of Nazism. And so that’s how the team saluted when they came out on the field,” Barrois said. “The importance of this was to also contrast what the same German team did in 2022. They wore ‘human rights’ on their T-shirts.”

Lyndon J Barrois Sr. in his Mid-City studio.

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Already writing history

As museum visitors look in wonderment at the minuscule scale of Barrois work, they are also drawn into some of these past realities.

“It makes the subject matter easier to digest. Because there’s a lot of tough subject matter here. But still, you pay attention to it,” Barrois explained.

Artist Lyndon J. Barrois, Sr. at his LACMA exhibition 'Fútbol Is Life'

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Each vignette is a different conversation starter: from on-field protest moments, to celebrations of underdog victories to prisoners of war playing their beloved game on a dirt field.

Barrois said his exhibition is a deep dive into the history of the game. That includes “the players, the personalities, and the politics.”

“Because it’s countries. It’s bragging rights. It’s unification. It’s division. It’s all that,” he said.

And discourse arising from the current World Cup isn’t lost on Barrois. The Iran men’s team is scheduled to play two matches here in L.A., even as the U.S. war with their country looks like it will continue.

“This game is already writing history before it even begins with all this political stuff happening,” Barrois said.

“So it’s going to be interesting to see all the stories that get told out of this one.”

Maybe a job for some skilled hands... And a few humble gum wrappers.