The Brief

Tickets to the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles will go on sale Thursday.

The much-anticipated drop is the first opportunity to get seats at Olympic events, including the opening and closing ceremonies — and it's for locals only. The sale will be open to those who pre-registered to buy tickets, and not everyone will be chosen. Fans will be randomly selected and given a time slot to buy tickets.

Fans with eligible Southern California or Oklahoma City ZIP codes will be notified via email if they're selected for a slot to buy tickets in the pre-sale, which runs April 2 to 6. After that, fans from around the world will have their first chance to get tickets from April 9 to 19.

Those who are chosen from the draw will be notified 48 hours ahead of their time slot to buy tickets online, and will have two days to select and purchase their tickets. That means people will know as early as Tuesday if they've been selected to buy tickets.

Each fan can snag up to 12 tickets, and an additional 12 tickets to the Olympic soccer tournament. Tickets to the opening and closing ceremonies are limited to four per person.

If you aren't chosen for the first ticket drop, there will be more in the months to come. Plus, come 2027 there will be a re-sale market for tickets.

How the draw works

If you get an email that you've been selected to buy Olympics tickets, it will include the time window you have to purchase tickets and a link to the website where you can buy them.

You'll have 48 hours to buy tickets, but LA28 recommends logging in as soon as you can to get the best ticket options. Once tickets are in your cart, you'll have 30 minutes to buy them.

LA28 warned fans that they could encounter online queues when buying tickets. Some people reported this when registering for tickets, too.

The ticket site will allow fans to search events by sport, venue and location. Once you choose an event, you'll book in a seating category — but actual seat numbers will be assigned later on.

Fans who want to game out their purchases ahead of time can look at the competition schedule here.

If you purchase tickets in the locals pre-sale, the billing address for the card you buy the tickets with will need to have one of the qualifying local ZIP codes. Here in Southern California, that includes people in L.A., Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties.

Prices

Prices for Olympics tickets will vary widely. The cheapest tickets will be $28 a pop, with the priciest tickets upwards of $1,000, according to Olympic organizers.

The majority of tickets to the Olympic Games will run into triple digits. According to LA28, half the tickets will be more than $200 and around 5% of tickets will be more than $1,000. In total, there will be 14 million tickets available across the Olympics and Paralympics.

What exactly different events will cost — and how expensive tickets might get — isn't clear yet. An example in a Youtube explainer posted by LA28 showed ticket options for Track and Field preliminary competitions at the Coliseum ranging from $28 to $1,035.65.

According to the video, there will also be standing room-only tickets for some events.

Tickets to the Paralympic Games will go on sale next year.

The story first appeared on The LA Local.

Koreatown is preparing for major 2026 FIFA World Cup watch parties next month, with thousands of fans expected to cheer on South Korea during three of its group stage matches.

As excitement builds around the World Cup, concerns remain about possible federal immigration enforcement during the international event.

The three watch parties are scheduled for June 11 and June 24 at Liberty Park and June 18 at Seoul International Park, which organizers expect to draw thousands of attendees.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass attempted to reassure any concerns about federal raids Tuesday while promoting the watch parties. 

“I want folks to know that the World Cup is going to be peaceful,” Bass said during a press conference at Liberty Park. “With this administration, I can tell you the best that I know at this hour. So with that in mind, I do not believe that ICE will be at any of the watch parties.”

Bass could not give a firm guarantee that immigration enforcement would not take place during the tournament.

At a media roundtable on Thursday, Bass said federal law enforcement would have a visible presence around World Cup events and venues.

“The events will be safe, because these are international events. And so it’s not just going to be LAPD, it’s going to be a lot of other local law enforcement agencies as well as federal support,” she said. “So in some instances, especially near the venues, you will have federal presence, not ICE, probably the National Guard, but they will be here.”

Bass said she feels confident there will not be ICE raids during the World Cup matches in Los Angeles, because President Donald Trump and his administration do not want the games to project chaos on the international stage. 

“I think during these games … the last concern will be security, because you’ll see an overwhelming force of security. We just have to get our people to not be fearful that there will be ICE raids that happen,” she said about the World Cup and the 2028 Summer Olympics. 

“He doesn’t want the world to see chaos on our streets. He really doesn’t. And that’s why I feel confident that we will not have ICE raids,” she said about Trump. 

Bass added Tuesday that she believes ICE would be present in Inglewood during the World Cup to “look for people who might be on the no-fly list.”

Where to watch the World Cup in Koreatown

Viewing parties for South Korea’s June 11 opener against the Czech Republic and its June 24 match against South Africa will be held at Liberty Park in Koreatown, with programming beginning at 2 p.m. for both events.

The June 18 match against Mexico will take place at Seoul International Park and is expected to draw the largest crowds. Organizers say programming for that event will begin at 10 a.m. and continue throughout the day, with the match livestream beginning at 6 p.m.

Each event will feature large outdoor viewing areas with giant LED screens, live cheering squads and a main stage with K-pop performances, taekwondo demonstrations, traditional Korean performances, ballet and other entertainment throughout the day.

Organizers are also planning mini soccer games, face painting, photo booths and other family-friendly activities. Food trucks and vendors will line the festival grounds, and a separate senior area is being planned so older attendees can participate safely alongside younger fans.

Young-wan Kim, consul general of South Korea in Los Angeles, said the World Cup carries deep emotional significance for many in the community because of memories from South Korea’s historic 2002 World Cup run.

“It’s an opportunity for us to demonstrate our strengths and our unity and our solidarity,” Kim said. “I hope our celebration of unity goes beyond our community, bringing all races, all people with different backgrounds together.”

Viewing party organizers are working with the Los Angeles Police Department, Los Angeles Fire Department, private security teams, medical staff and city officials to prepare for the large crowds, said Duha Hwang with marketing agency and organizer Advue.

He added that organizers already have insurance coverage and safety measures in place for the events.

The watch parties are being organized by the Korean American Federation of Los Angeles, the L.A. Korean Festival Foundation, the Korean American Chamber of Commerce and more groups.

The first 1,000 attendees at each match will receive free “Red Devils” shirts and cheering items. The “Red Devils,” the official supporters group for South Korea’s national soccer team, became a defining image of the 2002 World Cup, when massive crowds dressed in red packed streets across the country to cheer on the team during its historic run to the semifinals — still the furthest an Asian men’s national team has ever advanced in the tournament.

Hwang said organizers hope to recreate some of that atmosphere in Koreatown.

“We believe this event is becoming something much bigger than a traditional Korean community gathering,” Hwang said.

The Los Angeles City Council has officially delayed minimum wage increases for tourism workers. The council made the final vote Tuesday, pushing back a boost to $30 an hour for airport and hotel workers from 2028 to 2030.

The controversial move comes after L.A. faced major pressure from business interests, which had gathered enough signatures to put a measure on the November ballot to repeal the business tax. That effort could have financially ruined the city if it passed.

After the City Council voted to delay the wage from the November ballot, the leaders behind that ballot measure withdrew it.

It's a maneuver hotel workers have called a "shakedown." Originally celebrated as an "Olympic Wage," the $30 minimum was pegged to the arrival of the 2028 Games in Los Angeles. But a battle to upend it started as soon as the City Council passed it last year.

Workers who had counted on the increases aren't happy.

" I would expect my councilmember to stand up for working Angelenos, not help giant companies take money out of our pockets," Jordan Long, a bartender at LAX, said at a recent council meeting.

Stuart Waldman with the Valley Industry & Commerce Association told LAist that business groups decided to advance their ballot measure after unions wouldn't broker a deal with them directly.

"The business community has taken a page out of the union playbook to play hardball," he said.

Council members Eunisses Hernandez, Ysabel Jurado and Hugo Soto-Martinez voted against the motion to finalize the wage delay Tuesday.

The Trump administration has mass-deleted information about prosecutions tied to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, including cases of defendants who assaulted police officers. The removals mark the latest phase of President Donald Trump's effort to rewrite the history of the violent riot.

Justice Department news releases that detailed guilty pleas, jury verdicts and prison sentences abruptly disappeared from government websites last week.

On social media, the Justice Department defended the move, saying, "We are proud to reverse the DOJ's weaponization under the Biden administration. We will do everything in our power to make whole those who were persecuted for political purposes. This includes stripping DOJ's website of partisan propaganda."

A review by NPR found that the deleted material included information about some of the most serious assaults on law enforcement that occurred that day. NPR maintains the most complete database and visual archive of the Jan. 6 prosecutions.

The purged news releases covered cases including:

• Daniel Rodriguez, who pleaded guilty to driving an electroshock device into the neck of former Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department officer Michael Fanone, and who was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison. 
• Albuquerque Head, who pleaded guilty to assaulting police and grabbing Fanone by the neck and pulling him into the mob of rioters while yelling, "I got one!" Head was sentenced to more than seven years in prison. 
• Thomas Webster, who was convicted by a jury of assaulting law enforcement with a metal flagpole, tackling a police officer to the ground and trying to remove the officer's gas mask. Webster was sentenced to 10 years in prison. 
• Christopher Alberts, who was convicted by a jury of assaulting police with a wooden pallet and carrying a loaded handgun on Capitol grounds. Alberts was sentenced to seven years in prison.
• Peter Schwartz, who was convicted by a jury of assaulting police officers with pepper spray and throwing a metal chair at law enforcement. Schwartz was sentenced to 14 years in prison. 
  

The previously accessible news releases now lead to a "Page not found" message.

The mass deletion of government information about the riot, in which a mob of Trump supporters injured 140 police officers and threatened the lives of members of Congress and then-Vice President Mike Pence, follows a broader effort by the Trump administration to whitewash the attack.

Trump granted clemency to every Jan. 6 defendant, including full pardons for all the most violent rioters and the erasure of seditious conspiracy convictions for members of extremist groups. The Justice Department fired dozens of prosecutors who worked on Jan. 6 cases and hired a former riot defendant who was seen on video urging the mob to "kill" police. The administration settled a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the estate of rioter Ashli Babbitt, who was shot and killed while storming the Capitol, for nearly $5 million. On the fifth anniversary of the riot, the White House created a website that distorts that day's events, describing the rioters as "patriots" and blaming police for causing "chaos." And just last week, the administration announced a $1.8 billion "Anti-Weaponization Fund," indicating that even rioters who assaulted police may be eligible for payouts.

When speaking about the attack, Trump consistently describes his supporters as victims rather than perpetrators of violence.

"I pardoned people that were assaulted themselves. They were assaulted by our government," Trump said last year. "They didn't assault. They were assaulted."

Police officers who were violently assaulted on Jan. 6 have described suffering lifelong physical and psychological injuries.

"I have been sentenced to a lifetime of medical issues that include physical pain and mental and emotional distress," former Capitol Police Sgt. Federico Ruiz said in a victim impact statement filed in a Jan. 6 case. "There is not a day that goes by that pain, discomfort, and/or a mental health issue do not flare up to remind me of that day."

Brendan Ballou, a former federal prosecutor who worked on Jan. 6 cases, told NPR in a recent interview that the administration's effort to flip the story of the riot is part of a broader effort to attack democratic institutions.

"It's clear there is an ongoing fight to rewrite the history of Jan. 6, because these people know if they can successfully get people to forget about Jan. 6 — or worse yet, condone it — then they will be able to convince people to accept any attack on democracy," said Ballou.

Ballou currently represents two police officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6 and are suing to prevent payouts from the Anti-Weaponization Fund.

While the government continues to remove information on the attack, NPR's database and visual archive of the attack remains accessible. NPR's work has been used by prosecutors, defendants, academic researchers and the general public.

The searchable database covers all the nearly 1,600 criminal cases, including charges, convictions and sentencing outcomes. The archive also includes a timeline of the day's events and makes accessible hundreds of videos from police body cameras, Capitol surveillance footage and other sources. NPR is currently taking legal action to obtain additional video evidence held by the government, which has not been previously disclosed.
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