The Brief

A year ago I went to my first public yoga event hosted by the wellness group WalkGood LA. It was in Kenneth Hahn Park on a Sunday and, for a Black woman like me in Los Angeles, it was a breath of fresh air — a sip of an ice cold Arnold Palmer on a breezy day.

Picture this: dozens of Black and brown folks of all ages — some with young kids hanging around their necks — doing sun salutations and warrior poses on a wide, green lawn surrounded by trees. Everyone was breathing in and out in unison. It was a special moment — and not something I would have expected even five years ago.

WalkGood LA hosts a weekly yoga session called BreatheGood every Sunday at Kenneth Hahn Park.

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To be frank, when I was growing up, you didn’t see a lot of Black people in yoga class; it is — or was — often seen as something for “other” people …white people, wealthier people. Yet here we were in Baldwin Hills, the Black Beverly Hills. What a calming balm for my soul.

WalkGood LA is born

WalkGood LA was started three years ago in June of 2020 by filmmaker and actor Etienne Maurice, driven by a need to connect with the community — and to protest. It was the height of the pandemic and George Floyd Jr. had just been murdered by police. A few weeks earlier, the nation saw the leaked video of three white men killing Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, for simply jogging through the neighborhood earlier that year.

Looking back on that moment, Maurice says he was sad, angry and scared. But instead of wallowing in that pain, anger and frustration, he wanted to do something.

“We are inundated with nothing but information and news where trauma is just becoming the norm and none of us have an outlet to release that pain, to release that frustration, to release that trauma and face that trauma in a healthy way,” Maurice says.

He sent out a flier to people in his community to meet at a Mid City park on June 13, 2020. A lot of folks showed up. They did yoga. They worked on their breath. They marched.

The rest became history.

Now WalkGood LA has expanded its reach throughout the city. It's all run by volunteers and organizers who host yoga sessions (BreatheGood) , run clubs (RunGood) , group hikes (HikeGood) and wellness sessions (YouGood?) with a goal of creating a community for Black and brown folks to get outside and into their bodies. Classes are free, although there is an option to make a donation.

“I didn't think yoga and mindfulness and wellness was for me because I didn't see it in my community," Maurice says. “And now what we're doing with WalkGood, we're showing that there are people of color who really care about this.”

To learn more about how Maurice got this movement started, the How to LA team met up with him at the park where it all began: LA High Memorial Park. My colleague Brian De Los Santos and I had an extended conversation with Maurice that you can listen to here. Or read the excerpt below.

Five questions for Etienne Maurice 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Describe that first day you started WalkGood ...

My cousin Marley Ralph just got let go from a yoga studio. I thought it would be a good idea to have her just guide everybody in some stretches and some breathwork and meditation before we did this protest. I remember seeing a sea of Black and brown folks doing these yoga poses and it was like, a sense of calmness and stillness that hadn't been experienced or felt in a while. I just remember being very present in the moment, and I was like "We need to do this every week."

We would have like 200, 300 people here in this park. People would donate water and snacks and masks. We'd raise money and we'd donate to families who had lost loved ones at the hands of racial injustice.

Then we'd walk and we'd all kneel for five minutes in a moment of silence, a moment of protest. It's crazy even thinking about this now, like, how bold we were just to stop traffic. A lot of people were finding their voices through these protests, people who were afraid.

Where does the name WalkGood come from?

"Walk good" means to take care of yourself. When you’re out there in the world, be good. Take care of yourself. Make sure you come back.

I was inspired by my grandmother, who's of Jamaican descent, who, you know, she was always telling me to ‘walk good’. {It’s} what the elders tell their children, their nieces, their nephews, their grandchildren in Jamaica whenever they leave the house.

WalkGood LA's weekly yoga session, BreatheGood, is usually held on Sundays at Kenneth Hahn Park.

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Who inspires you? 

I'm truly inspired by my mother's (Emmy-Award winning actress Sheryl Lee Ralph) strength and her courage. She's very outspoken. And she's always been the same person you see in the interviews, the person you see on stage and when she’s accepting her award. My sister and I always laugh because, sometimes, when she does her speeches, we mimic her a lot. She speaks with such bravado and such strength and courage.

I would ask my mom, "How are you able to just speak to a whole crowd like that with no pen and paper with nothing prepared?’ She's like, "Etienne, I just stand there. And I envision all the people and I just feel the spirit. I just feel the energy in the room. And I just let it come out of me."

She's been through the ups and downs of Hollywood and life. And she knows that we've all experienced some type of pain, some type of hurt. But there is still hope, we must still have faith. My mom has instilled those same values in me.

What has been your greatest challenge? 

I think the first challenge we had was not getting support from the city. When we were at (LA High Memorial Park), we didn't have permits. Obviously people live here. We did have the support of the community. But there were one or two people that just did not like the fact that we were coming together here at this park.

We're no longer here because the city kicked us out. And so we had to fight tooth and nail to find a new park that was going to welcome us. But we got the support and the help from L.A. County Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell to be at Kenneth Hahn.

That was a blessing in disguise. We're now in a neighborhood that's being heavily gentrified, that is a predominantly Black neighborhood, where now we can be of service to that community that needs us the most. It just fits. We're in a space where it's private, it's safe. People don't have to worry about the outside energy.

We were able to put together a proposal and we were able to receive a grant from Supervisor Mitchell … so that now first 150 people that come to BreatheGood on Sunday, they get a free parking pass.

People now have access to participate in these things where they don't have to pay $80 a month or $120 a month to go to a yoga studio. They can now participate in their backyard … we're introducing them to something that is beneficial to their mind, body and spirit. I think that's the shift that we're seeing, for communities of color to engage more into these wellness practices.

Why is WalkGood LA so important for communities of color? 

I feel like people need people. Black people need to be inspired. There’s no inspiration for us to feel good about ourselves. Given the media, given the tools, the resources, we haven’t been given enough. In every aspect of life, we are lacking. I'm praying that what we're doing will inspire another community. And it will be a trickle down effect, where we will be able to support each other. There is a need for us to engage in these mindfulness and healing experiences that we never had access to.

The fact that we got Black people coming outside to do yoga shows that something is working.

WalkGood LA holds BreatheGood, a weekly yoga session on Sundays at Kenneth Hahn Park.

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I want us to take another step forward. I want us to thrive in this life. Because we deserve it. So the most important thing I want for us to do as a people is to breathe. A lot of us forget to do that one simple thing in through our nose and out through our mouth. The first thing that we have when we come into this world is our breath. The last thing we're gonna have when we leave this world is our breath. So while we're here, living on this Earth right now, you might as well learn how to use it.

What’s next for WalkGood

Maurice told us WalkGood LA has secured a studio in the Arlington Heights neighborhood near Mid City. It's expected to open in February thanks to support from the Propel water company and actor Michael B. Jordan. The goal is to provide yoga and wellness class every day, and not just on Sundays “where,” says Maurice, “people from all walks of life are welcome and can heal.”

Listen to the rest of the conversation on the latest How To LA podcast episode. For more information visit WalkGood LA’s website and Instagram.

Voters on Saturday rejected a measure that would have weakened California’s landmark environmental law by fast-tracking reviews for some projects.

With about 76% of votes counted, voters rejected Prop. 45 by 55.7% to 44.3%.

The vote maintains the status quo under the state’s Environmental Quality Act, which since 1970 has required public agencies to review project developments that could have harmful environmental impacts, and mitigate those harms.

“Californians have sent a clear message to corporate developers, utilities and data center builders that they will not stand for a broad assault at the ballot box on state law protecting our air, water and natural resources,” No on 45’s Woody Little said. “We were outspent but not outgunned.”

Supporters had said the changes would reduce building costs. The California Chamber of Commerce sponsored Proposition 45, the Building an Affordable California Act, which would limit the length of environmental reviews for projects deemed “essential” to 365 business days and require courts to resolve litigation in 270 calendar days. Those projects include housing, water, broadband and transit developments.

Proponents said the savings from building more quickly would pass to consumers and spent $41 million campaigning for the measure. The Building a Better California political action committee was the largest donor, giving $10 million to the campaign. The organization is funded partly by current and former Google executives Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt. Two of the largest investor-owned utilities, Pacific Gas & Electric Company and Southern California Edison, together donated $4.4 million.

Environmental groups argued the measure would go too far in weakening a law meant to protect people from environmental harms. Opponents, including a coalition of environmental, health and union organizations, spent $30 million trying to stop it. Wendy Schmidt, a Democratic philanthropist, was the largest donor, giving $10 million to the campaign. The political action committee Clean and Healthy California Sponsored by Environmental Organizations contributed $7 million.

The California Democratic Party opposed the measure. The California Republican Party supported it, while county Republican groups were split.

Deborah Sivas, an environmental law professor at Stanford University, said Prop. 45 would radically change current law. It would shift power “away from local governments and to developers by giving them some new tools … and limiting what courts can do in terms of reviewing decisions that agencies and local governments make,” she said.

CEQA and housing

California’s environmental review law, signed in 1970, requires agencies to assess the environmental impacts of developments and help mitigate them.

Over decades, developers have raised concerns about the process, arguing litigation and bureaucracy slow down construction.

State legislators have tried to fix the problem by passing laws that exempt or streamline certain projects from environmental review. In 2025, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed laws that exempt many urban housing projects from the full review process.

But some supporters of Prop. 45, including the California Building Industry Association and the California Council for Affordable Housing, say those changes don’t go far enough.

“It’s an important piece of the puzzle, but (that type of housing) does not produce quickly or at scale,” said Jennifer Hernandez, an attorney who helped write the measure. “We need quicker, at scale, affordable housing.”

Supporters say Prop. 45 would help California redevelop large, unused sites like malls and parking lots into housing and make it easier to build away from urban areas.

Pro-housing groups, public agencies divided 

Pro-housing and local government groups usually support CEQA reform, but Prop. 45 has divided many of them.

Housing advocates in the Bay Area, including East Bay for Everyone and the Greenbelt Alliance, oppose the measure. Other Yes in My Backyard groups are neutral, including Abundant Housing Los Angeles and both California YIMBY and YIMBY Action — the movement’s two flagship advocacy groups.

The split between pro-housing groups lies in whether California should keep building outward onto undeveloped land or promote construction in urban centers. Some supporters, including Oakland Democratic Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, have said the state needs all types of housing.

Others say building away from urban centers would make it harder to address climate change.

“We believe we can (and must) solve the housing and climate crises simultaneously. That means building communities with denser housing and alternatives to automobile dependence,” wrote Max Dubler of California YIMBY in a blog post explaining the group’s neutral stance on Prop. 45.

Public agencies and local governments that could benefit from the building rules were also divided.

The California Municipal Utilities Association opposes the measure. But most other groups representing local governments, including the League of California Cities and California State Association of Counties, remained neutral.

Financial impacts for Prop. 45

Prop. 45 supporters argued that streamlining development would make life more affordable for Californians, but the long-term financial benefits are unclear.

An analysis by Blue Sky Consulting Group, commissioned by the California Chamber of Commerce, estimated the measure would produce $1.5 billion in savings and additional revenues for public agencies over 10 years that would reduce overall housing costs.

But the measure would initially cost local governments and public agencies more as they adjust to the measure’s rules, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office, a nonpartisan adviser to the Legislature.

Democrats have done well in recent elections when they win young voters by a margin of at least 20 points. On Tuesday, they carried Gen Z — those under 30 — by nearly 50 points, according to exit polling.

It's a stunning shift from 2024, when the party lost critical ground with young people. Long seen as a part of the Democratic base, voters under 30 shifted right towards Donald Trump, motivated by his pledge to better their economic prospects.

But this week, the youngest generation of voters issued a strong rebuke of Republicans, taking another chance on Democrats and their change-focused message at a moment when many of them feel as though the American Dream is out of reach.

How young voters powered Democrats to victory 

Americans ages 18-29 have a history of turning out at lower rates than older voters, and this year was no exception. Gen Z made up 11% of the total vote on Tuesday.

However, where young Americans may have made the greatest difference is on the margins in House and Senate races where Democrats flipped seats.

The Texas Senate race is a key example. Democrat James Talarico won the state by 12 percentage points; however, when looking at just Gen Z, he won it by 60 points.

Explaining the massive shift from 2024

When assessing gains more broadly, Democrats argue the party's strong slate of candidates helped drum up increased enthusiasm.

But another motivating factor remains strong opposition to Trump. Throughout his second term, Gen Z increasingly soured on the president, with some arguing he failed to make good on a number of core campaign promises — from pledging to lower prices and repeatedly vowing "no new wars," to calling for a crackdown on federal corruption and the release of the Epstein files.

Much of that disappointment was reflected in exit polling. Economic issues were the top concern for a plurality of 18- to 29-year-olds, at 43%, and these voters expressed broad frustrations with Trump's handling of the issue. More than eight in 10 said that Trump's policies have worsened economic conditions, with similar shares opposing his tariff strategy and the decision to go to war with Iran.

The young voters Trump lost

Early analysis from CIRCLE indicates that 15% of young people who backed Trump in 2024 voted for a Democratic House candidate in this year's midterms.

Democrats made gains with some young voters who backed Trump two years ago, including white men and Latino men, two blocs that narrowly voted Republican in 2024 and then voted blue on Tuesday by double digits. Democratic candidates also narrowed the margins with young rural voters and people without college degrees.  

Some of those gains may have been helped by young Trump voters who chose to sit this election out, but it's unclear how many of them there were.

How the election results broke down by age

The midterm results underscore how neither of the two major parties owns Gen Z, according to John Della Volpe, a left-leaning pollster who's extensively studied the politics of young Americans.

"The cohort of younger people in this cycle had a different set of experiences than the cohort of people two years ago, or four years before that," he said. "Every candidate, every party has to earn their votes."

Della Volpe, who runs the Harvard Youth Poll, notes that in the latest survey, released in October, there was a sizable enthusiasm gap between young Democrat and young Republican respondents. While half of Democrats said they definitely planned to vote, just a third of Republicans and less than a quarter of Independents said the same.

"I also think we shouldn't overread what's happened," he added. "Clearly a significant historic rebuke on the party in office — that's obvious — however, I think we need to more fully, kind of understand, the contour of the electorate, who showed up and who didn't show up."

By 2028, Gen Z and millennial voters will make up more than half of the electorate, a demographic shift with huge implications for Democrats and the GOP.

"Young adults can make a difference," said Elizabeth Matto, who serves as the director of the Center for Youth Political Participation at Rutgers University.

"They do care about politics. They can sway the outcome of elections. And they're a voting bloc worth paying attention to."
Copyright 2026 NPR

The morning after Tuesday's midterms was gloomy and rainy in Minneapolis, but people still gathered at the place where Border Patrol agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, a VA nurse and U.S. citizen, last January. All week, community members have come here to place their "I Voted" stickers at the memorial.

Nicki Adams, who dated Pretti and was his close friend for nearly 17 years, watched quietly as a woman added her sticker to a street lamp completely covered in the red decals.

"I wanted to see all the stickers. I just wanted to be here," she says. "It just means a lot to me. I think it would mean a lot to Alex, too."

A few blocks away, people left their stickers where an ICE officer killed Renee Good, a mom of three and a U.S. citizen, just a few weeks before Pretti's death. In Houston, they left them where an ICE officer killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a father of three and a Mexican immigrant, in July.

Adams says these stickers, and the election results this week, send a clear message to Congress: "You work for us, and please carry on these values that we care about … We want to be seen and heard and taken care of and have our neighbors taken care of."

The deaths of Pretti and Good during the ICE surge in Minneapolis marked a pivotal moment for the country, sparking intense public backlash to President Trump's aggressive deportation efforts. But federal law enforcement officials have given little indication they're progressing in investigating their deaths, or the deaths of at least seven other people killed by federal immigration agents since Trump took office again last year. DHS did not respond to an NPR request for the status of those investigations.

Now, after Democrats' sweeping wins this week, their deaths at the hands of immigration agents will likely be the targets of renewed investigations. With a majority in Congress, Democrats can issue subpoenas to the major players in Trump's mass deportation plan, compelling them to testify under oath before the legislature.

That could include White House Border Czar Tom Homan, former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, former Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino, and White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, among others.

Congress can also demand internal documents, like use-of-force reports.

"They can dissect these individual shootings, and really unravel the story of what happened," says Naureen Shah, who leads the ACLU's immigration policy work.

Democrats have already held shadow hearings on the ICE shootings, during which they've called in family members and witnesses to testify.

But Shah says now Congress can ask key questions of top decision makers: What orders were given to immigration officers in the field? What was training like for these officers?

Who made the decision to paint Good and Pretti as threats, including calling Pretti a "would-be assassin" and a domestic terrorist, when video showed otherwise?

"It's like we can turn the faucet on and actually find out so much more," Shah says. "There's an aspect of this that is really about a kind of reckoning with how it's possible that things that seemed unthinkable could happen on American streets. How do you have that reckoning if you don't actually have the ability to force people to explain themselves?"

Democratic leaders have already said that's the plan.

Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, who is expected to lead the House Judiciary Committee, told NPR in a statement that Congress will use "every tool" at its disposal to investigate ICE and that it is time for the agency to "start answering to the American people."

California Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia, expected to lead the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, vowed to take on DHS and ICE abuses in a two-word statement: "Lawyer Up."

Mississippi Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, expected to lead the House Committee on Homeland Security, sent a letter on Wednesday to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, demanding the agency "comply with all document preservation requirements."

Illinois Democratic Rep. Delia Ramirez wrote on social media that Noem, Miller, Homan, Bovino and Mullin should "clear" their schedules.

In response to that, DHS general counsel James Percival said Democrats are "more interested in political shenanigans than in governing" but said the agency is prepared to "deal with this nonsense."

There are key limitations to what Democrats in Congress can do with their majority when it comes to ICE accountability, says Rachel Moran, a professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law.

Major changes, like clawing back funding for the agency, would require a veto-proof majority, something the Democrats don't have.

"You still have a president who has shown a complete lack of interest in accountability for federal agents and in fact, a great deal of knee jerk defensiveness about their conduct," Moran says.

In a statement, a White House spokesperson told NPR "if Democrats choose to pursue sham investigations and radical left policies, they are choosing to work against the American people."

Democrats, the statement added, "should be reminded that we still control the federal government and all of its powers."

But that's not true. Congress has its own powers, one of them being the ability to compel testimony. Moran says a deeper probe into the shootings could still serve important purposes, like making evidence available for states to use in their own criminal investigations.

Minnesota officials, for instance, have been fighting with the federal government to get evidence related to the Pretti and Good killings.

Brent Ganger, Renee Good's brother, says learning more information about his sister's death will be hard to hear, "but I think it's also super important for us to understand what happened that day. I don't want history to keep repeating itself."

It was painful, he says, to watch immigration agents kill more people after his sister. He thought her death would be a turning point. In a way, it might have been the start of one. After the surge in Minneapolis, most Americans said ICE had gone too far.

Ganger, who considers himself a moderate, was happy to see the Blue Wave this week. On election night, he was scrolling Instagram when he saw a photo of his sister's memorial site, with all the "I Voted" stickers.

"I was very grateful to see the repudiation of this administration from the country. It felt very supportive of my entire family," he says.

The next morning, in his home in Colorado, he got up and made biscuits and gravy, his sister's favorite breakfast.
Copyright 2026 NPR

Abraham Zavala was born at Adventist White Memorial. So were his kids. So late Friday, when he heard federal immigration agents were at the Boyle Heights hospital, and that local youth were out blowing whistles to warn neighbors, he went. 

“To me that’s sacred ground,” said Zavala, an organizer with Unión del Barrio.

“I’m a dad,” he said. “I wanted to be there to support the youth.”

He was among the Boyle Heights residents who converged on the hospital and stayed in a standoff with federal immigration agents into the early hours of Saturday. Agents detained at least two people, according to rapid response groups.

Neighbors alerted each other with noisemakers and fireworks. A woman pounded her pots and pans. Teenagers ran across Mariachi Plaza, shouting that ICE was in the area and urging residents to lock their doors. 

“Even though we’re afraid, you know we’re still showing up,” said Myra Vasquez, a Boyle Heights resident who rushed to White Memorial after hearing reports of ICE in the area. “We’re not going to allow them to just come into our communities and terrorize us because they’re the real terrorists causing harm.”

Myra Vasquez, a Boyle Heights resident and co-owner of Espacio 1839 rushed to White Memorial after hearing reports of ICE.

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The confrontation peaked around 11:30 p.m. Video shared with Boyle Heights Beat shows agents pushing back protesters who had moved toward them, and the two sides begin shoving. Agents appear to pepper-spray people on the sidewalk. One agent then tackles a man and pins him to the ground, while a second person is pulled from the crowd. Both were detained.

The standoff continued past midnight. Zavala said agents got out of their vehicles and formed a line in front of the parking lot where paramedics enter, blocking an emergency exit. “They literally became White Memorial’s private security detail,” he said. Zavala said he and another person were sprayed with Mace.

Adventist Health White Memorial Hospital in Boyle Heights.

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The Dept. of Homeland Security declined to comment about the incident in Boyle Heights, and, in a statement, the agency said they would “not disclose or discuss law enforcement operations.”

The spokesperson instead said that obstructing law enforcement is a federal crime.

“ICE does not target hospitals, schools, or churches,” the statement said, despite the large turnout of protesters who encountered the masked agents at the hospital.

Father Brendan Busse, who pastors nearby Dolores Mission Church in Boyle Heights, rushed to White Memorial after seeing reports from the Boyle Heights Immigrant Rights Network of ICE at the hospital.

Busse, a Jesuit priest, said he witnessed people caring for each other and tending to those suffering from pepper spray. People there advocated for them to find treatment at White Memorial, Busse said. Community members, he said, “were obviously doing their best, not just to communicate their feelings, but to push, to instigate the dispersal of this ICE presence.”

As clergy, Busse said their presence can help combat a narrative of those advocating for immigrants as “somehow dangerous, or violent, or vulgar.” 

“Just to be there is a sign that that’s not the only version of what this looks like,” he said.

Initially, Busse showed up wearing a hoodie, but he decided to change into his green stole he had in his car as things appeared to get tense. “Just try to do what I could to bring a presence of maybe a little moral authority,” he said.

“It’s bad enough that people have to lift up their voices to say something so obvious, that their lives matter, that our communities are sacred, that families belong together,” Busse said. “It’s bad enough that they have to be out at 3 a.m. in the morning to tell anybody that.”

“It’s even worse if they would have to suffer the consequences of retribution and violence that comes from speaking out in that way,” Busse added.

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