Reps. Katie Porter, Adam Schiff and Barbara Lee (from left) during a U.S. Senate candidate forum hosted by the National Union of Health Care Workers in Los Angeles on Oct. 8, 2023.
(
Richard Vogel
/
AP Photo
)
Topline:
The five major contenders have different track records and proposals on some of the biggest issues facing California. They’re trying to position themselves to appeal to sizable voting blocs before the March 5 primary.
But their ads, slogans and speeches offer only a glimpse into who they are, or what they have done — or plan to do — to tackle some of Californians’ most pressing concerns. All three Democrats have years of voting records while serving in Congress.
All but Early are set to debate for the first time in this race on Monday evening. Ahead of the event, CalMatters sent each campaign a questionnaire and analyzed their records and stances on issues such as border, immigration, criminal justice, foreign policy, economy, labor and housing.
Here’s a detailed look at where they stand on those issues — and how they differ from each other:
Border and immigration
The three Democrats share a similar track record on immigration and border security issues.
All support expanding unemployment insurance benefits to undocumented immigrants seeking work.
At a November immigration forum, all three Democrats criticized President Joe Biden’s policy that banned most migrants from seeking asylum if they crossed the border illegally. Porter said the policy was “dishonoring this nation’s history and our future.” Schiff and Lee both called it “wrong.”
Lee, Schiff and Porter all agreed a generic border wall is ineffective in response to CalMatters’ questionnaire this month. Schiff and Porter both advocated for increased use of detection technologies at the border.
Porter, however, said some “site-specific” barriers do work, “for example, in dangerous areas where the lives of migrants and U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel are at risk when there are unauthorized crossings and search and rescue missions.”
Migrants stay in a makeshift camp in Jacumba Hot Springs in San Diego on Nov. 18, 2023.
(
Adriana Heldiz
/
CalMatters
)
Of the three Democrats, Lee appears to be the most staunch critic of allocating more funds to federal border patrol agencies.
Lee called for a 50% budget cut for the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol in statements to CalMatters. Funding for the Department of Homeland Security, she said, would be better spent on “meaningful immigration reform.”
“ICE is rotten to the core,” Lee said in response to the CalMatters questionnaire. She is the only Senate candidate to have voted against creating the agency in 2002, when Schiff — then in his first term — supported it.
Porter told CalMatters she generally does not support additional funding for the agency, but said she wants border patrol employees to “receive pay commensurate with their work” to help “recruit a workforce that can meet the needs of our border communities.”
Schiff said Congress should provide aid to border communities and increase resources and personnel at ports of entry to help handle an influx of asylum seekers.
The top two Republicans — Garvey and Early — both support the border wall, additional funding for border patrol agents and tightened restrictions on border entries. Both said the nation should prioritize immigration applications from people legally present in the United States and both oppose offering undocumented immigrants unemployment benefits.
Early argued he supports a path to citizenship for “illegal immigrants who have enlisted in and participated honorably in our military.” Currently, non-citizens can only join the military if they are legal permanent residents, but a Democrats-backed bill in Congress would allow undocumented DREAMers to serve in the military.
Garvey and Early’s campaigns called for more funding for police departments and law enforcement officers, as well as the need to secure the southern border.
All three Democrats support boosting funding for mental health treatment programs. Lee — arguing poverty is the root cause of crime — believes raising the minimum wage, expanding access to healthcare and legalizing marijuana will address the “structural problems” that lead to criminal acts, her campaign says.
Porter’s campaign championed her Mental Health Justice Act — a 2022 bill to give grants to governments to recruit and train mental health professionals to respond to emergency calls. Schiff and Lee both voted for the measure.
Garvey’s campaign said he also supports funding to treat mental health problems and drug addiction, arguing they often contribute to gun violence and homelessness. Early, via a campaign spokesperson, advocated for a “rebuild” of the nation’s mental health system “that allows for the severely mentally ill to be permanently housed and cared for,” arguing that services were “decimated” in the 1960s — when people were discharged from institutions and placed in community-based care centers amid the civil rights movement.
Gunsmith Don Gregory shows off two new single-action firearms recently released by Juggernaut Tactical in Orange on Thursday, Sept. 21, 2023. Photo by Alisha Jucevic for CalMatters
(
Alisha Jucevic
/
CalMatters
)
On gun policies, Garvey supports “common-sense measures” such as pre-sale background checks and an assault weapon ban — something mainly supported by Democrats, according to his campaign. “We can keep guns out of the hands of criminals while also protecting Second Amendment rights,” his campaign said in a response to CalMatters’ questions.
The candidates are otherwise split along party lines. For example, all three Democrats oppose the federal death penalty, while Republicans argue the opposite.
But there are nuanced differences, especially among Democrats. They all voted against legislation to permanently raise fentanyl-related drugs to the highest class of illegal substances — a GOP-led bill Biden urged Congress to pass. Lee, however, was the only candidate to vote against even temporarily doing so.
Schiff — a former prosecutor in Los Angeles — has the most controversial track record on criminal justice issues due to his past support for tough-on-crime policies.
Schiff was among 48 Democrats to support the Thin Blue Line Act in 2017 to apply the federal death penalty to cop killers — something Early supports. Schiff has since publicly spoken against the sentence. In his campaign response to CalMatters, Schiff credited his change of heart to “technological advancements” that revealed “deep flaws” with the death penalty and a “disproportionate application” of the sentence on people of color.
As a state senator, Schiff authored legislation to crack down on juveniles, including a bill to create year-long “boot camps” for teenagers found in possession of marijuana at school and another to try kids 14 years and older as adults if they commit murder or rape.
In Congress, he introduced legislation in 2009 to increase funding to a controversial program to place more cops in communities, supported language to exclude asylum seekers and immigrants from privacy protections and voted for the Protect and Serve Act in 2018 to impose stricter penalties on assaulting law enforcement officers, which most Democrats voted for. Lee voted against both measures.
Schiff’s record irked criminal justice activists, who in a 2021 letter urged Gov. Gavin Newsom not to appoint Schiff as the next state attorney general. He has since softened some of his positions on criminal justice. In February 2023, he said his viewpoint had changed since the 1990s. “I’ve learned that some of the policies of the 90s didn’t work,” he told ABC7 last year.
Foreign policy and defense
The issue of a ceasefire in the Gaza war highlights a key split among the three Democratic hopefuls.
A day after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, Lee called for a permanent ceasefire from the stage of a Senate candidate debate — one of the first members of Congress to do so. Schiff called for “unequivocal support” for Israel, while Porter cautioned against Islamophobia and mourned the lives lost on both sides.
For months afterward, as the casualty numbers rose in Gaza, Schiff and Porter both called for a “humanitarian pause” — aligning with the Biden administration’s policy. But as calls for a permanent ceasefire grew, Porter shifted her stance in a Dec. 18 statement, calling for a “lasting bilateral ceasefire” that “brings remaining hostages home, secures Israel’s safety, removes Hamas from operational control of Gaza, and invests in creating a better economic and political architecture for Palestinians in Gaza.”
When asked to explain why she shifted her stance, Porter’s campaign pointed to her Dec. 18 statement, in which she seemed to suggest Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rejection of Palestinian governance of Gaza was the reason.
“His remarks and actions necessitate tough conversations with our ally Israel about its long-term strategy and among U.S. policymakers about our approach in the Middle East,” she said in the statement.
Schiff, however, has stood by his initial position, arguing that a permanent ceasefire would “perpetuate Hamas terrorist control of Gaza,” according to his campaign.
All three Democrats signed on as co-sponsors of a largely symbolic bipartisan House resolution affirming Israel’s right to defend itself. But Lee was the only candidate to vote against the Hamas International Financing Prevention Act — a bipartisan bill that would sanction Hamas, its affiliates and governments providing aid to the group.
“The bill was opposed by major humanitarian organizations because it is overly broad and will hurt a lot of innocent Palestinians by making it harder if not impossible to receive humanitarian assistance,” Lee spokesperson Sean Ryan told CalMatters in an email.
An Israeli battle tank moves along the border between the Gaza Strip and southern Israel on Wednesday as battles between Israel and Hamas continue.
(
Jack Guez
/
AFP via Getty Images
)
Decades before Gaza, Lee shocked the world by being the lone vote against the Afghanistan war after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a decision that got her death threats then but now hailed as a show of courage by her supporters.
Lee is still somewhat of a unicorn on foreign policy compared to her opponents.
In 2002, Lee voted against authorizing the use of military force in Iraq, while Schiff voted in favor. Lee has since sponsored a resolution to repeal the authorization most years; it wasn’t until 2021 that the House passed it, with Schiff and Porter both voting in favor.
Lee was also the only candidate to support a U.S. troop removal from Syria in March 2023 — a measure most Democrats, including Rep. Nancy Pelosi, voted against. Critics of the bill said a removal could give Islamic State terrorists time to reorganize, the Associated Press reported.
Additionally, Lee touts herself as the most consistent in calling for cutting the nation’s “bloated” defense budget. She has voted against authorizing defense and military spending when Schiff and Porter voted in favor, voting records show.
Schiff’s campaign said he wants to reduce the Pentagon’s budget by 10% and supports eliminating weapons systems the administration does not need or want. “There is far too much waste in the defense budget that must be eliminated,” his campaign said.
Porter’s campaign said the funding level needs to be indexed to national security threats and there needs to be more oversight. “I’ll never rubber stamp spending, but I believe investing in our servicemembers and their well-being is paramount,” the campaign said.
Both Republicans support increasing the defense budget. Neither Garvey nor Early supported a call for a ceasefire. They both argued Israel must have the ability to fight Hamas until it is destroyed, their campaigns said.
Economy and labor
Although far lower than during the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation remains high, jumping from 3.1% to 3.4% in December. Experts attribute it to the rising cost of housing, and project it’s unlikely to last given a housing market cool-down, NBC reported.
Republican candidates blame the Biden administration. Garvey attributed it to “excessive government spending” while Early criticized the reduction of domestic energy production — a GOP talking point that conflicts with record-high U.S. oil production in October.
Democrats slam corporations instead. Porter — a self-proclaimed warrior taking on Wall Street interests — argued inflation worsened because businesses are overcharging customers, pointing to record-high profits for big corporations. Similarly, Lee blamed corporate greed. Apart from corporate profit, Schiff pointed to the supply chain interruption during the pandemic and a lack of housing as contributing factors.
Among the three Democrats, Schiff — a past member of the centrist Blue Dog Coalition — has historically been the most skeptical of federal spending. In 2005, he demanded a “rainy-day” reserve in the budget.
Schiff is the only Senate candidate to vote in favor of raising the debt ceiling last year to avoid a default. Lee and Porter — along with 38 other members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus — voted against it. Lee said she voted to stand up against “extreme MAGA Republicans holding our economy hostage,” and Porter — who has argued the debt ceiling should be abolished — criticized the measure for including “giveaways” to the oil and gas industry, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Schiff, who applied to join the Congressional Progressive Caucus last year but withdrew, voted multiple times against the “People’s Budget” — which contains all the caucus’ priorities and which has served as a purity test. Lee — the only other candidate in Congress at the time — voted in favor.
Construction workers on site of a tiny homes village in Goshen on June 2, 2023. Photo by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local
(
Larry Valenzuela
/
CalMatters/CatchLight Local
)
All three Democrats have gained union endorsements, although Schiff has won the most from statewide unions. All the Democrats support the Protecting the Right to Organize Act to override all state right-to-work laws and strengthen union protections. Garvey and Early both said that the decision belongs to states, not the federal government, according to their campaigns.
The five candidates also split along party lines on whether striking workers should be eligible for unemployment benefits — a controversial bill vetoed by Gov. Newsom last year. All three Democrats said those workers deserve the benefits. Early outright said no, while Garvey’s campaign told CalMatters that governments should stay out of disputes between unions and businesses.
All three Democrats believe the federal minimum wage — $7.25 per hour — should increase.
Porter’s campaign said she supports a $20 federal minimum wage and $25 for California, indexed to inflation. Schiff’s campaign said he supports a $20 federal minimum wage indexed to inflation, with a boost to $25 for health care workers.
Early believes the federal rate does not need to change and that an increase would worsen inflation, according to his campaign.
Garvey, on the other hand, did not give a specific number. “Each state and its voters have the ability to raise their minimum wage, as California has multiple times, beyond the federal minimum wage,” his campaign said.
Homelessness and housing
On California’s worsening homelessness crisis, Republican candidates say mental health problems are the main culprit — not the lack of affordable housing.
Early, in his campaign’s response to CalMatters’ questions, said the cause of the state’s homelessness is “severe mental illness” and “soft-on-crime” policies, referring to Proposition 47 — a ballot measure passed in 2014 that reduced penalties for certain thefts and drug offenses.
“The biggest factor is manifestly not insufficient low-income housing,” the campaign’s statement read.
Garvey’s campaign said the biggest driving factors of the problem are “drug and alcohol addiction” and “mental health issues.” During a Wednesday visit to a Sacramento homeless encampment, he said he wants a “deep dive” into how taxpayer dollars are spent to battle the homelessness crisis.
An unidentified person carries a blanket along Alvarado Street in Los Angeles.
(
David Swanson
/
Getty Images
)
But the Democratic candidates all argued a lack of affordable housing is driving the crisis.
The homelessness problem is a “direct result” of failed federal housing policies over the past decades, Porter argues on her website. Her campaign said she supports a “major investment” in housing, including a fully-funded federal Section 8 program and an expansion of the national Low Income Housing Tax Credit.
Lee’s campaign said homelessness is a housing issue “at its core.” Like Porter, she also called for a fully-funded Section 8 program and a national rent control standard — one that the Biden administration has pushed for. She believes expanding health care access, offering free college and raising the minimum wage would help ease homelessness in the state, her campaign said. She also touted legislation she introduced to help renters, such as the DEPOSIT Act, which would allow federal programs to cover security deposit and moving expenses for those using the Housing Choice vouchers.
Similarly, Schiff’s campaign said he also supports expanding Section 8 vouchers and providing wraparound services. Additionally, his campaign stressed the importance of easing regulations and offering tax incentives to encourage the build-out of affordable housing — something Garvey and Early also support.
On Schiff’s campaign website, he touted legislation he introduced and supported to fight homelessness, including the Affordable and Homeless Housing Incentive Act, which would offer tax incentives for homeless shelters.
Asked if they support more federal funding to combat the crisis, only Early’s campaign said no. Garvey’s campaign said funding for housing should prioritize projects in “low-income areas, and near job and transit centers.”
Schiff and Lee have both touted their success securing earmarked funds for housing and homelessness. Porter, however, is a staunch opponent of earmark requests, arguing the funding goes to lawmakers’ “pet projects” and requests should be rejected. She has signed onto letters instead, urging her colleagues to approve grants to homelessness assistance programs.
Many Native American languages are endangered. With the help of his mentor, a 12-year-old in Michigan hopes to help preserve his language through robotics.
Why it matters: U.S. Indian boarding schools played a major role in the loss of Indigenous languages. Children separated from their families were taught, sometimes violently, not to speak their native tongues, and many did not pass them on to their children.
Today, some Native youth are learning their languages in schools. That's why SkoBot was invented.
SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. — The idea came to Danielle Boyer in a toy store. The inspiration? It was Tickle Me Elmo.
"Whenever you'd press his belly, he would talk, and he would teach you things," she said. "There are toys that teach us in English, but there aren't toys that teach us Anishinaabemowin. And I wanted that to be different."
Anishinaabemowin includes the Potawatomi, Odawa and Ojibwe languages. Exact estimates vary, but there are fewer than 10,000 people in the U.S. who speak Anishinaabemowin. That number is around 25,000 in Canada. Some Native languages have just a few dozen fluent speakers, while others have none.
Boyer has seen how quickly language loss can happen. Her grandmother speaks Anishinaabemowin, but she is one of the last fluent speakers of their dialect.
"It is devastating to feel like your language could be lost," said Boyer, a member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians. "You lose your culture, you lose a way to describe who you are."
U.S. Indian boarding schools played a major role in the loss of Indigenous languages. Children separated from their families were taught, sometimes violently, not to speak their native tongues, and many did not pass them on to their children.
Today, some Native youth are learning their languages in schools. But Boyer said many of them still aren't invested. "They see it as another homework assignment."
Boyer and Hoy work on some last-minute adjustments to his AI-powered SkoBot before presenting at his school's end-of-year showcase, called the STEAM Museum.
(
Kadin Mills
/
NPR
)
That's why she invented the SkoBot. It's a customizable toy robot designed to get Indigenous children excited to learn their languages.
"I can say 'Hey SkoBot, what is bear?' And it will say, 'Bear is makwa, makwa,' and it'll repeat it, right? So I can say, 'What is crane?' It'll say, 'Crane is ajijaak, ajijaak.'"
SkoBots use a form of artificial intelligence to speak Indigenous languages, and they're small enough to mount on the user's shoulder. They sort of resemble mini R2-D2 droids, from Star Wars, except these robots are designed to look like woodland creatures and decorated in Native American florals.
Through a nonprofit she started when she was 18, Boyer, now 25, has mentored hundreds of Native American children across the country, teaching them to build SkoBots of their own. One of them is 12-year-old Holden Hoy in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
"I was already a big fan of robotics and how they work, how you can bring inanimate objects to life," he said. "And I'm Ojibwe, and so I've always wanted to save the Ojibwe language."
Hoy, a rising seventh-grader, showed off his design at an end-of-the-year science fair at his school, JKL Bahweting Anishinaabe School in Sault Ste. Marie. Like Boyer, he is a member of the Sault Tribe.
He programmed his SkoBot to answer three questions ahead of his presentation. One of them was, "What's your name," to which the robot would respond in Hoy's voice: "Aaniin, Hello. Sabe indizhinikaaz, Bahweting indoonjibaa. I was built by Holden Hoy. I will not gain sentience and take over the world. Or will I?"
Hoy named his SkoBot Sabe, which means Bigfoot in Anishinaabemowin. In Ojibwe culture, Bigfoot represents honesty, one of seven sacred teachings.
His classmates and their parents stopped by his booth to see Sabe in action. Boyer was there too, helping Hoy with his presentation.
"I'm very happy that people are actually coming to this booth," Hoy said. "I'm happy that they are learning things, and I'm really happy that I'm part of the Ojibwe."
Sabe has one eye, a sensor that detects movement and lets it know to start listening.
Hoy's Sabe, or Bigfoot, SkoBot on display (right), alongside three other SkoBots that Boyer brought with her to show off at the STEAM Museum. Each represents a specific animal: a wolf, turtle and bear. Hoy's SkoBot is 3D printed in light gray, and its face is adorned with a footprint surrounded by floral designs.
(
Kadin Mills
/
NPR
)
"Basically, when it hears that one trigger word, it then plays a prerecorded audio file. So there isn't synthetic speech, there isn't any generative AI," said Boyer. "It's simply listening to what you're saying, identifying it and playing [audio files] that already exist."
That means the SkoBots will never make things up, often called AI hallucinations. Hoy said it's important not to use generative AI. "AI tends to falsify things a lot, not get things from trustworthy sources."
Boyer's goal isn't to replace interactions with real language speakers. Instead, it's to get kids interested in not only their languages, but in subjects like science, math and engineering as well. That includes getting them to think about how to use AI ethically.
"Artificial intelligence, especially when it's not created by Indigenous people, stands to do a lot of harm to our communities," she said. "When you are putting accurate information into these models … you're giving away sacred information to companies that don't have our best interests at heart."
And as chatbots have become more popular, Boyer said some people have turned to them to help them learn their languages. She's even seen large language models like ChatGPT invent fake words in Anishinaabemowin, which she said is dangerous. "If we're not learning our language correctly, we shouldn't learn it at all."
Jocelyn Hoy is Holden's mom. She's excited that her son is not only exposed to their culture, but he's eager to know more. She said he's even been teaching her new things.
"As someone who, at a time in my life, did not want to be identified as Native American … now as an adult, I cannot wait to learn more, and I think the SkoBots are going to help me and so many kids — so many people in general — learn their heritage and who they are."
Holden Hoy said that heritage and the language are inseparable: "The language is the culture!"
He added, "It is important to protect it, because it's some people's way of life. Generation after generation is based around this culture."
Artist brings Korean public art tradition to Ktown
By Hannah Kang | The LA Local
Published July 26, 2026 10:00 AM
Artist Dave Young Kim's mural at the Korean Resource Center in Koreatown depicts traditional Korean drummers. The mural was informed by oral histories collected by youth in the Koreatown Storytelling Program.
(
Nathan Solis
/
The LA Local
)
Topline:
Korean American artist Dave Young Kim has completed his first mural in Koreatown, aiming to revive a tradition of Korean public art that has largely disappeared from the neighborhood where he grew up.
The mural: Installed this summer at the Korean Resource Center, the mural centers on pungmulnori — a traditional Korean folk performance combining drumming, dance and acrobatics — with drummers moving beneath sweeping ribbons of color and plum blossoms blooming across the wall.
Why it matters: Kim, 46, who was born and raised in Koreatown, says many of the culturally rooted murals he remembers from childhood have vanished, along with the public funding that once supported them. His work carries forward a tradition established by Korean American muralists like Dong-In Park in the late 1980s and early 1990s — at a time when longtime residents worry the neighborhood's Korean character is fading amid rapid change.
Murals depicting Korean drummers, dancers and historical figures were a large part of Dave Young Kim’s childhood in Koreatown.
At the time, the Korean American artist didn’t know what all of the imagery meant, but it left a lasting impression on him.
“We don’t learn culture via formal education. It’s all gleaned,” Kim said. “It’s just what we sense, and we feel a connection to it without actually knowing anything about it. It belongs to us, and it feels very familiar.”
Many of the murals Kim remembers from his childhood have since disappeared. With his latest mural at the Korean Resource Center, Kim hopes to bring some of that visual imagery back to the neighborhood.
Completed this summer, the mural is Kim’s first in Koreatown.
The mural shows a group of traditional Korean drummers moving beneath sweeping ribbons of color, with plum blossoms blooming across the bottom of the wall. Faint outlines of traditional Korean architecture appear in the background.
At the center of the mural is 풍물놀이 (pungmulnori), a traditional Korean folk performance that combines drumming, dance and acrobatics and has long been part of village festivals and celebrations.
A close-up view of artist Dave Young Kim’s mural at the Korean Resource Center in Koreatown. The work depicts traditional Korean drummers.
(
Courtesy Dave Young Kim
)
For Kim, the project was a chance to reconnect the neighborhood with the kind of cultural imagery he says shaped his own understanding of identity growing up.
“It was important to me growing up, and for me to see myself through very purposeful art, very intentional art,” he said. “For my own formation and identity, I think it was very important. I’d like to do that for future generations.”
Kim, 46, who was born and raised in Koreatown, said the project felt different from his other murals because it was rooted in the community where he spent his childhood.
“The formative years of my life are here,” he said.
The project grew out of the Abbey Mural Prize, a national grant program that supports community-based public mural projects.
As part of the project, Kim partnered with the Koreatown Storytelling Program, which trains youth to interview community elders. Students interviewed residents at Durae Crenshaw House, an affordable senior housing complex and home to the Korean Resource Center, and shared transcripts with Kim as he developed the mural.
The architecture in the mural reflects the idea of home that emerged repeatedly in interviews with elders, Kim said.
“There were a lot of iterations of the mockups. The very initial ones were very, very, very rooted in the stories, the narratives from the elders,” Kim said.
The interviews also left an impression on Daisy Yeon, 17, one of the students who conducted them. She said participating in the project changed the way she thinks about Koreatown and its history.
Yeon said she believes traditional Korean imagery still has a place in a neighborhood that has changed rapidly in recent years.
“Personally, the way Koreatown has evolved in these few last years from the pandemic and the shift where people move into other Korean enclaves like Buena Park and Torrance, Koreatown is partly becoming a place of pop-up matcha spots, for example,” she said. “So I think it’s important for tradition to still be here.”
Seeing the finished mural was “a full-circle moment,” she said, after spending months interviewing elders whose stories became part of the artwork.
While researching Koreatown’s public art history, Kim learned many of the murals he saw as a kid grew out of cultural initiatives and public funding that no longer exist. He also discovered an earlier generation of Korean American muralists whose work once covered parts of Koreatown.
In 1993, artist Dong-In Park completed a mural of traditional Korean farmers’ dance in the Korean Community Center at 981 S. Western Ave.
He told the Los Angeles Times he hoped “the 1.5- and second-generation Korean kids” would not forget their language and history. Park, along with artists including Sonia Hahn and Kuk Chol Han, helped establish a tradition of public art celebrating Korean culture during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
An undated photo of Dong-In Park’s mural depicting a farmers band playing music and dancing to provide entertainment for Korea’s largely agricultural population. The mural was previously located at 981 Western Avenue in Koreatown.
(
Courtesy Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles
)
Kim wants his mural to carry that tradition forward while also reflecting the history of the community it was created for.
The Korean Resource Center, founded by South Korean democracy activist Yoon Han-bong, has long organized around immigrant rights, workers’ rights and civic engagement. During the project, Kim learned that traditional Korean drumming has long played a role in the organization’s activism.
In the mural, an older drummer who immigrated from Korea leads the group, followed by a middle-aged performer who learned from him and younger drummers wearing sneakers, modeled after college students who continue the tradition today.
“Where we landed was very much to the core of what KRC is,” Kim said. “They are very activist and progressive.”
The Koreatown of today is filled with Korean-owned businesses and Korean-language signs, Kim said, but far fewer public murals reflecting Korean culture.
His latest mural isn’t about recreating the past so much as restoring something he believes has faded from the neighborhood.
As an artist, Kim said, public art has the power to shape how people experience a place.
“There’s something about the everyday landscape that you kind of are forced to take in,” he said, “and then as an artist, having the ability to shape what that might be.”
Keep up with LAist.
If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less.
Remediation work continues at Lineage Logistics, where residents and nearby businesses have had to deal with odor complaints as rotten food remains inside the ruined cold-storage Lineage Logistics warehouse in Boyle Heights nearly one month after the fire.
(
Allen J. Schaben
/
Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
)
Topline:
Lineage, the company leasing the storage warehouse in Boyle Heights that burned in June, says “nearly half” the food waste has been removed.
Why it matters: The rotting food inside the warehouse has led to noxious odors in the surrounding neighborhood, causing issues with vermin.
The backstory: Lineage has been removing the food products for weeks and has faced citations and warnings from L.A. County and the South Coast Air Quality Management District.
What's next: Demolition and cleanup of the rest of the burned building will be completed in the coming days, the company said, as it begins cleanup of the unburned section.
Lineage Logistics, the company that operates the burned cold-storage warehouse in Boyle Heights, announced yesterdayit's removed “nearly half” of the food waste there.
The waste, the company said, has been sealed in deodorized containers and is being transported off-site.
Lineage estimated that demolition and cleanup of the rest of the burned structure should be largely completed in the “coming days.”
Before the weeklong fire that began on June 17, the warehouse stored approximately 44,000 tons, or 88 million pounds, of food.
The company said it has started removing the wall separating the burned and unburned sections of the building this weekend to speed up the cleaning of the unburned structure.
The process includes installing plastic sheeting where the wall used to be to help tamp down odors
That part could take up to three days and may temporarily increase odors. To mitigate the smell, the company said three carbon filters will be added on the Union Pacific side of the warehouse.
The company is trying to meet a 45-day deadline set by L.A. Mayor Karen Bass to complete the cleanup. Lineage has faced citations and warnings from L.A. County and the South Coast Air Quality Management District for "an ongoing odor nuisance" and “unsanitary and nuisance conditions.”
Advisers to the Food and Drug Administration voted in favor of easing regulation of popular peptides. The recommendations could pave the way for specialized pharmacies to produce them in the U.S.
Why it matters: Currently, these peptides can't be made in the U.S., except for research purposes, leading many peptide users to buy unvetted substances sold online, with disclaimers such as "for research use only" and "not for human consumption."
By narrow margins, the panel voted in favor of all but one. The FDA isn't required to follow advisory committee recommendations but typically does.
A slate of popular peptide therapies has won the backing of a key advisory panel to the federal government — a step that could eventually open up broader access to the experimental drugs.
In a marathon two-day meeting last week, the panel of doctors, academics and pharmacists recommended the Food and Drug Administration reclassify almost all of the compounds under consideration so that specialized pharmacies in the U.S. could begin offering them.
Seven different peptide therapies — none of which are FDA-approved drugs — were under consideration.
Currently, these peptides can't be made in the U.S., except for research purposes, leading many peptide users to buy unvetted substances sold online, with disclaimers such as "for research use only" and "not for human consumption."
By narrow margins, the panel voted in favor of all but one. The FDA isn't required to follow advisory committee recommendations but typically does.
The outcome represents a win for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has publicly supported peptide therapies, and the broader wellness and longevity industry, which stands to profit substantially.
These peptides are promoted for a wide range of uses and are often taken together, including for injury recovery, muscle growth and fat loss, improving athletic performance, enhancing metabolism and more.
If the agency takes the panel's recommendations, clinicians could have the ability to prescribe six peptide therapies: BPC-157, MOTS-c, KPV, TB-500, Epitalon and Semax.
A compound called Emideltide, sometimes used for insomnia, was the only one to receive a down vote.
The panel's endorsement of peptides was a striking rejection of the FDA's stance against them.
While the level of evidence for each compound varies, all of them lack the kind of large, well-controlled trials in humans that are necessary to establish safety and effectiveness, which is required for drug approvals. Peptides are strings of amino acids — smaller than a protein — that often act as signaling molecules in our bodies and carry out many critical functions.
They can be synthesized and delivered as drugs, often by injection. Some of those, like insulin, are naturally occurring in the body. Others are modified versions, as with the blockbuster GLP-1 obesity drugs.
Scientists for the agency spoke extensively about the lack of reliable data for any of the seven peptides before the committee. They advised the panel to vote no.
In some cases, they couldn't find any published clinical studies in humans — and there were safety concerns like the potential to encourage cancer growth or to trigger a massive immune response.
A "foundational challenge" was simply defining the substances, because the chemical composition for peptides labeled with the same name varied considerably, explained FDA official Russell Wesdyk.
"You will see many, many different forms," he said. "We can't create quality standards until we actually know what it is."
The divide among the experts on the panel was a study in contrasts.
Ahead of the meeting, eight new memberswere appointed. Most have ties to the peptide industry and include physicians who work for medical practices and companies that promote them.
In almost all cases, they voted in favor of lifting restrictions.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services pushed back on criticism about potential conflicts of interest and said all underwent the standard ethics and vetting process.
"I think it's about patient access," said Dr. Asare Christian, one of the panel members who runs a Pennsylvania-based clinic that advertises peptide protocols and hormone optimization.
That sentiment was echoed throughout the many hours of public comment.
Compounding pharmacies, large telehealth providers and others from the industry underscored the perils of the unregulated marketplace, with some offering anecdotes of patients obtaining unmarked vials from sketchy suppliers.
"What we are advocating for is not the Wild West," said Brigham Buhler, who runs a telehealth company that offers hormone optimization and peptides and is an ally of Secretary Kennedy.
"What we are advocating for is to slow down or shut down the gray and black market and to allow patients to have a safe and effective manufacturing process," he told the panel.
But some panelists were skeptical of that argument.
"I'm concerned that we are responding to market-induced demand rather than a decision based in solid science," Dr. Elizabeth Rebello, an anaesthesiologist at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, commented after casting a no vote.
The FDA committee was tasked with reviewing data that supports using these peptides to treat a variety of specific conditions, such as BPC-157 for treating ulcerative colitis, an inflammatory bowel disease.
However, if the FDA ultimately reclassifies them and they are produced by compounding pharmacies in the U.S., clinicians would have discretion to write prescriptions outside of those narrow indications.
During the meeting, industry groups — and some on the panel — repeatedly criticized the FDA presentations for not reflecting more recent scientific data on the substances, including results from other human studies that had been submitted ahead of time.
FDA staff said they had considered everything submitted by the meeting deadline and would still take new information into account as they weigh next steps.
The decision to place the products on the FDA's official list for compounding doesn't come close to the standards for drug approval, but some worry that nuance will not be clear to the public, which may not be aware of the limited data for humans.
"I think this endorsement can be potentially harmful and I cannot in good conscience vote yes," said Dr. Brian Lee, a member of the panel and an associate professor at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.
If the FDA moves to reclassify the peptides so that compounding pharmacies can make them, it will be through a formal rulemaking process that could stretch into next year or 2028. There is a possibility that Kennedy could invoke special authority to make them available sooner.
The panel is scheduled to meet again in February to consider additional peptide therapies.
Copyright 2026 NPR
