Topline:
The celebrity lookalike contest trend is having a moment this weekend in L.A. LAist's Brian de los Santos was especially excited about the edition centering around Mexican singer and rapper Peso Pluma.
Why now: As promised, Brian is at the contest in Echo Park Lake to give us the blow-by-blow.
The celebrity lookalike contest trend is having a moment this weekend in L.A. And I was especially excited about the edition centering around Mexican singer and rapper Peso Pluma.
As promised, I'm at Echo Park Lake — the northeast corner of Park Avenue and Echo Park Avenue, to be precise — to check out the gathering.
I got to the park on this lovely Sunday 30 minutes before its 11:00 a.m. kick off time. No Peso Plumas anywhere in sight... yet, but I did find the organizers right away.
Ryan Kahn, Jean Fernandez, Daniela Salazar are the minds behind this contest.
Salazar, who is 21 and lives in Altadena, says the inspiration came from a Timothée Chalamet lookalike contest — which kicked off this global trend after attracting not just lookalikes, but the actor himself.
"We saw it, kind of got FOMO and said, 'Wait, we should and we can do this here," Salazar said.
Salazar and her co-organizers started to get the word out about the contest. It caught fire.
"When the first post went up, a lot of people were interested and our community really wanted it — and kind of needed this, I saw that a lot in the comments. Honestly, this is just a reminder to all of us that you are Peso enough and that we are community."
Some 100 people showed up at the lake to enjoy the contest and the community.
One woman told me she wasn't sure if the contest was real, but showed up anyway.
By 11:00 a.m., the lookalikes start to show up, looking kind of like Peso Pluma.
A couple more showed up minutes later, making for the final field of 6 contestants.
Some 45 minutes later, where lookalikes are judged under 5 categories including their dancing skills and their Peso "Bella" impersonations — the winner is crowned.
Oscar Reyes from Downey is a huge fan of Peso Pluma. He said he just learned about the contest a couple days ago.
"I didn't think I would actually, like, win, but this is huge," Reyes told me. "He's like one of the greatest artists right now."
As advertised, Reyes gets the grand prize of a $50 gift card for King Taco, a fake gold chain — and a surprise Hija De Tu madre “guadalupana” jacket.
Just as I was leaving, I caught sight of someone who called himself "Cash," and says he's here to check out the Peso Pluma contest, which is just a couple hours from an event he is throwing at the lake.
The Shrek lookalike contest. Grand prize: $500.
"It's Shrek and crazy," Cash said.
Topline:
A Cal State University lecturer charged with assaulting a federal officer with tear gas was acquitted on Thursday.
What was the case? Jonathan Caravello, a philosophy lecturer at Cal State Channel Islands, was arrested while protesting a raid at a licensed cannabis farm in Ventura County last summer. The federal government said agents were executing a search warrant at the farm, in search of evidence of unlawful employment. Prosecutors said agents deployed tear gas because protesters obstructed traffic on a two-lane road, and contended that Caravello picked up the canister agents deployed and threw it back at them.
The defense: Caravello's legal team, led by attorney Knut Johnson, underscored that the lecturer did not hurt anyone and shared a video showing federal vehicles making their way across the road. The defense also said Caravello picked up and threw the canister as far as he could—past the agents—to keep protesters safe from harm.
A Cal State University lecturer charged with assaulting federal officers with tear gas was acquitted on Thursday.
Jonathan Caravello, a philosophy lecturer at Cal State Channel Islands, was arrested while protesting a raid at a licensed cannabis farm in Ventura County last summer.
For three days, Caravello’s colleagues, friends, family and students packed the courtroom at the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
The jury returned a verdict within about two hours, according to Caravello’s attorney, Knut Johnson.
“He was never trying to hurt anyone and didn't hurt anyone,” Johnson told LAist Thursday after the verdict was rendered. “He knows that trying to hurt people or hurting them does nothing to help the cause he supports.”
The federal government said agents were executing a search warrant at the farm, in search of evidence of unlawful employment. In his opening statement Wednesday, assistant U.S. attorney Roger Hsieh said agents deployed the tear gas because protesters obstructed traffic on a two-lane road. Hsieh said Caravello picked up the canister agents deployed and threw it back at them.
Caravello's legal team, led by Johnson, underscored that the lecturer did not hurt anyone and shared a video showing federal vehicles making their way across the road. The defense also said Caravaello picked up and threw the canister as far as he could—past the agents—to keep protesters safe from harm.
The California Faculty Association, which represents CSU faculty, said in a statement Thursday that they welcomed the jury's decision.
"After a thorough investigation by the court, John was cleared of any wrongdoing," the statement said. "The jury’s decision underscores John’s right to peacefully protest and speak out against the cruelty and inhumanity this administration has shown toward immigrants and other marginalized communities across the country."
Senior editor for education Ross Brenneman contributed to this story.
Topline:
L.A. City Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez announced today that 59 unhoused people who used to live along the 110 Freeway are now in housing.
How it happened The effort was funded by a $6.3 million grant from the state that paid social workers and health professionals from various agencies to help those living in the encampments with paperwork, healthcare needs, and other hurdles that would normally slow their access to housing.
What's next: Hernandez’s office said the goal is to house 11 more people with the grant funds.
On Thursday morning, L.A. Councilmember Eunisse Hernandez stood at Lacy Street Neighborhood Park in the shadow of the 5 and 110 freeway interchange. Just last year, she said, the Lincoln Heights park and the areas near the freeway were filled with unhoused people. But now, thanks to a $6 million state grant awarded last fall, the park is clear and dozens of people are in temporary and permanent housing.
“Today we’re here to celebrate that 59 of our neighbors, human beings, finally have a roof over their heads,” she said.
The funds were secured by Hernandez from California’s Encampment Resolution Funds, which targeted a 4-mile stretch of the 110 Freeway.
The grant helped pay health and social workers from public and private agencies and nonprofits, including employees with USC’s California Street Collaborative.
These workers helped people straighten things out before they moved into housing, like finding IDs, matching housing with disability needs and space for pets.
That kind of help requires building trust between the worker and the unhoused person, said Caitlin Schwan, director of the California Street Collaborative.
“And it takes an investment of resources and a lot of coalitions, a lot of partnerships across street medicine, housing providers, service providers,” she said.
Los Angeles Global Care has been as the primary interim housing provider. It also provides daily meals to those transitioning to housing, help with pets and case management.
“I used to live right here under the bridge for like, four years,” said Rigo Vega, who attended the announcement at the park.
Outreach workers, he said, helped him get food and clothes, and the paperwork needed to get into housing last November. Now that’s settled him enough for him to set a goal for himself, “to work, to get a job,” he said.
Hernandez’s office said the goal is to house 11 more people with the grant funds.
Topline:
Head to the Songkran festival, the Thai New Year, at Wat Thai in North Hollywood, the largest Buddhist temple in L.A. this weekend, Saturday and Sunday. (It's also one of the biggest Songkran festivals in the U.S.) Expect Thai music, Thai dancing, traditional water blessings, the building of sand pagodas and, of course, delicious food.
What's on offer: The temple's Thai food court is a must-visit for many during regular weekends, when a large collection of food vendors set up stalls around the temple, similar to what you'd see in Bangkok. Expect this and more at the festival. "Smells and tastes are amazing," say happy visitors on social media. (Try the Thai gelato). The temple itself is also beautiful to experience.
When and where: The temple is at 8225 Coldwater Canyon Ave., North Hollywood. There's additional parking at the Kaiser Permanente in Panorama City with a free shuttle to the festival. The temple is open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. each day. The opening ceremony starts at 1 p.m. Saturday.
Topline:
Head to the festival of Songkran, Thai New Year, at Wat Thai in North Hollywood this weekend, Saturday and Sunday. It's the largest Buddhist temple in L.A. and also one of the biggest Songkran festivals in the U.S. Expect Thai music, Thai dancing, traditional water blessings, the building of sand pagodas and, of course, delicious food.
What's on offer: The temple's Thai food court is a must-visit for many during regular weekends, when a large collection of food vendors set up stalls around the temple, similar to what you'd see in Bangkok. Expect this and more at the festival. We're told you should try the Thai gelato. The temple itself is also beautiful.
When and where: The temple is at 8225 Coldwater Canyon Ave., North Hollywood. There's additional parking at the Kaiser Permanente in Panorama City with a free shuttle to the festival. The temple is open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. each day. The opening ceremony starts at 1 p.m. Saturday.
Topline:
The health care union behind the tax measure argues its plan is the only viable fix for federal funding cuts to Medi-Cal. But even some of the most liberal lawmakers and labor unions aren’t convinced yet.
Why it matters: Publicly, prominent labor and progressive players have largely kept quiet, unlike Gov. Gavin Newsom who has aired his disdain loud and clear. Yet in private, some union leaders and their allies in the Legislature rail against the measure. Of the critics who spoke with CalMatters for this story — three union leaders and five members of the Legislative Progressive Caucus — only one lawmaker would criticize the measure openly.
The backstory: The proposed initiative would levy a one-time tax of 5% on any resident of California whose net worth exceeds $1 billion, which applies to around 200 people, according to Forbes. That money would plug an estimated $100 billion hole left by federal cuts to Medi-Cal and other social service programs.
Read on... for more on the proposed initiative.
A union-backed proposal to tax California’s billionaires to fund health care has put some progressive lawmakers — and their labor allies — in a quandary.
Taxing the rich to backfill Trump-induced federal funding cuts might sound like a no-brainer policy for the party’s left flank, which counts wealth inequality among its top issues.
But despite a strong show of support from prominent national figures, including Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and liberal economist Robert Reich, the “2026 California Billionaire Tax Act” has become a hot potato for labor leaders.
The proposed initiative would levy a one-time tax of 5% on any resident of California whose net worth exceeds $1 billion, which applies to around 200 people, according to Forbes. That money would plug an estimated $100 billion hole left by federal cuts to Medi-Cal and other social service programs.
Publicly, prominent labor and progressive players have largely kept quiet, unlike Gov. Gavin Newsom who has aired his disdain loud and clear. Yet in private, some union leaders and their allies in the Legislature rail against the measure. Of the critics who spoke with CalMatters for this story — three union leaders and five members of the Legislative Progressive Caucus — only one lawmaker would criticize the measure openly.
Critics question its feasibility and whether the state even knows how to accurately appraise a billionaire’s total wealth, a crucial step to evaluating how much tax they would owe. They fear long-term revenue loss by driving wealthy people out of California. And some resent that the union sponsoring the initiative, SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West, designed the measure to predominantly benefit its members rather than boost the state’s general fund, where it could go to all budget needs.
“It's not that taxing billionaires in itself is wrong,” said Keely Martin Bosler, formerly the top state budget officer to Newsom and former Gov. Jerry Brown. She is now a Democratic consultant who has advised several of California’s most powerful labor groups, including the Service Employees International Union of California, the parent union of SEIU-UHW. “The way in which this tax specifically is constructed is problematic.”
Many progressive state lawmakers and Capitol heavyweights, such as Sen. Scott Wiener of San Francisco and the powerful California Labor Federation, have sidestepped the question of whether they’d support it, declining for now to take a position on an initiative that has yet to officially qualify for the ballot.
“The Labor Federation won’t take it up for an endorsement until July,” said Lorena Gonzalez, the organization’s president, in a text message.
Yet if the tax lands on the November ballot, as it appears on track to do, progressive critics will be saddled with the tricky optics of opposing — or at least not supporting — a measure that embodies one of their base’s core tenets: taxing the rich.
Even the mere threat the measure could qualify for the ballot has already spurred a torrent of opposition spending — more than $50 million in total so far — from billionaires such as Google co-founder Sergey Brin and cryptocurrency mogul Chris Larsen. Brin’s group, known as “Building a Better California,” has also spawned three new competing ballot measures designed to undermine the billionaires’ tax.
Critics fear that if billionaires like Brin become even bigger perennial spenders in California politics, they could neuter the progressive agenda by bankrolling more business-friendly candidates and ousting left-leaning, labor-aligned legislators.
But the measure’s proponents say they are undeterred by the secretive detractors and challenge their critics to put their names behind their words.
“What we have is a group of so-called leaders who are not reflecting the attitudes of their own constituents,” said Dave Regan, president of SEIU-UHW and the de facto leader of the billionaire tax measure. “That’s why they want to be anonymous.”
Regan said he’s confident the initiative will amass enough signatures to qualify for the ballot before the end of April. Then, he said, “We believe a lot of those people are going to come around and change because this makes sense, because the public is supportive, because their own members are supportive.”
So far, polling has shown the billionaire tax is relatively popular with voters. Recent surveys show just over half of Californians surveyed said they’re inclined to vote for it.
Critics point out that California’s existing state tax structure is entirely based on income, rather than net worth. The state would have to appraise each person’s assets, including real estate, art, automobiles and private and public businesses. The billionaires could pay in installments, handing over 1% of their wealth annually for five years.
Bosler said that with income tax filings, the Franchise Tax Board can use data from federal tax returns to verify its own analysis. Since there’s no federal wealth tax, California would be forging uncharted territory with no tax compliance support from any other source or agency — a risky move that could invite legal challenges.
“The state is not a miracle worker, like, they're not going to suddenly be able to do all of this like perfectly,” said Bosler. “I mean they will do their best, but I just think this is expertise that they have built up over 50-plus years. Like, none of this is in their wheelhouse at this point.”
But champions of the tax argue it is the only real solution on the table so far to save hospitals, health care jobs and, ultimately, patient lives they say are at risk due to federal funding cuts to Medi-Cal and food assistance programs.
Supporters note that the tax is not intended to solve California’s structural budget problems.
“It’s one-time funding to fill what we hope is a one-time hole,” said Brian Galle, a tax law professor at UC Berkeley who helped craft the measure. Galle said only around 200 people would be subjected to the tax, so the extra burden on the Franchise Tax Board wouldn’t be too great.
“It's not like FTB is going to get a blizzard of tens of thousands of new returns that they're going to have to figure out a whole new data system for cracking,” said Galle.
Those who have qualms with the initiative have largely kept their criticisms private.
One liberal state legislator, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the infighting among the unions puts progressive lawmakers in a difficult position. While he empathizes with the urgency that health care workers feel, he and other Democrats are not convinced the policy could withstand legal challenges and worry about the wealthy employing savvy accounting maneuvers to skirt the tax altogether.
Some organizations that are synonymous with progressive politics in California, such as the Working Families Party, also haven’t taken a position, even as other unions such as the Teamsters and AFSCME California support it.
Even the powerhouse labor union SEIU California is choosing not to take a position on the measure, which is spearheaded by one of its local affiliates, SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West.
Assemblymember Chris Ward, a member of the progressive caucus, called the measure a “well-meaning effort by UHW,” but criticized the proposal for being just a one-time tax primarily benefiting the health care sector rather than boosting the state’s overall revenues. Regan said SEIU-UHW made the tax one-time to nullify the argument that it would push billionaires out of the state.
Ward noted that he and his colleagues are considering “superior” bills, such as one that would close a corporate tax loop to generate $3 billion per year, and another that would create a new tax on corporations that pay workers so little that they qualify for Medi-Cal and nutrition assistance.
Regan argued these measures would only make California more unaffordable, since businesses would pass their increased costs along to consumers.
Ward, the sole state lawmaker who would candidly share his concerns about the initiative with CalMatters, said he and his colleagues have heard pushback from “a number of other labor organizations that don't support that initiative,” primarily because its members would not directly benefit from any of the revenue. Uniting labor, he said, is the key to any successful revenue solution.
“There's a need to look at a wealth tax for a more broad range, including health care workers but other purposes that are state priorities,” Ward said, “and that will be left off of the table if this is the only question we're seeing.”
CalMatters' Nadia Lathan contributed to this story.
This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.
