Assemblymember Joe Patterson speaks at a press conference before a swearing-in ceremony for newly elected Republican representatives at the state Capitol in Sacramento on Dec. 5, 2022.
(
Rahul Lal
/
CalMatters
)
Topline:
A Republican bill to require more transparency from California’s 50,000 homeowners associations failed to advance out of committee despite bipartisan support.
About the bill: The proposed new law would force California’s estimated 50,000 private homeowners’ associations to behave more like local governments when it comes to open records and public meetings. The bill failed to advance from its first committee hearing last week.
Views on HOAs: Many people who live in HOA-governed communities have no complaints, appreciate that they help share the cost and believe that standard rules about home appearance prevent eyesores. But the associations themselves can sometimes devolve into bitter feuds between neighbors, featuring accusations of cronyism and ruthless enforcement of petty violations of an HOA’s rules. Multiple popular social media accounts and message boards are devoted to people sharing contempt for their HOAs.
Read on... for more details about the failed measure and what this means for the future of HOAs.
Republican Assemblymember Joe Patterson says a woman slowly drives by his Placer County home about once a week and takes pictures.
She’s not an angry constituent or a stalker. He said she’s a representative from his homeowners’ association gathering evidence to make sure the exterior of Patterson’s home complies with its strict rules.
“I’ve been getting letters for, you know, ‘Oh, your (landscaping) bark isn’t deep enough,’ ” he said. “Now it’s my son’s basketball hoop.”
The “sheer harassment” from his HOA is why he said he has a large black flag in his legislative office. It reads: “Defund the HOA.”
So it didn’t take a lot of arm twisting from Patterson’s Republican colleague, Carl DeMaio, to persuade Patterson to present DeMaio’s Assembly Bill 21. The proposed new law would force California’s estimated 50,000 private homeowners’ associations to behave more like local governments when it comes to open records and public meetings. The bill failed to advance from its first committee hearing last week.
HOAs collect monthly fees from homeowners for services such as maintaining clubhouses and pools, security, plowing snow, landscaping, road repairs and other shared amenities. They often set neighborhood rules to ensure properties are maintained and don’t become unsightly.
Many people who live in HOA-governed communities have no complaints, appreciate that they help share the cost and believe that standard rules about home appearance prevent eyesores.
But the associations themselves can sometimes devolve into bitter feuds between neighbors, featuring accusations of cronyism and ruthless enforcement of petty violations of an HOA’s rules. Multiple popular social media accounts and message boards are devoted to people sharing contempt for their HOAs.
Patterson said his HOA demanded he add more landscaping bark around his home, which he did. As for his son’s basketball hoop, it’s one of those with wheels on it. That, according to his HOA, is a no-no, he said. Representatives for Patterson’s HOA, the Whitney Ranch Community Association in Rocklin, declined an interview request.
Assemblymember Joe Patterson, a Republican from Placer County, displays his “Defund the HOA” flag in his legislative office.
(
Photo courtesy of Joe Patterson
)
The failed measure would have required HOAs to abide by various rules similar to those city and county boards have to follow. That would have included making it mandatory for an HOA board to make decisions in recorded open meetings and adding mandatory disclosure requirements for records such as meeting agendas and minutes and notices of lawsuits. HOA members could sue to void decisions that violated the law.
“It brings sunlight to HOA governance,” Patterson told the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee. “This isn’t a crazy, radical proposal. It’s about ensuring that the people who live in these communities have the right to know what decisions are made on their behalf.”
Attempt to rein in HOAs may return
The bill failed last week with four Democrats on the committee voting for it, along with Patterson. A bipartisan group of seven lawmakers voted “no” or didn’t vote at all, which counts the same as a no vote.
The lawmakers who voted “no” or who didn’t vote did not explain their rationale during the nine minutes the bill was discussed.
According to the Digital Democracy database, the bill’s opponents included the California Association of Community Managers, the Inner City Law Center, the San Diego Housing Commission and the Community Associations Institute, which advocates on behalf of HOAs.
The institute’s lobbyist, Taylor Triffo, told the committee that existing laws already provide accountability and transparency.
The committee’s Democratic chairperson, Matt Haney of San Francisco, voted for the proposal, but it wasn’t enough to keep it alive.
Patterson said he thinks the bill largely died because of its author: DeMaio. He’s a conservative firebrand and San Diego talk radio host with a brash, Donald Trump-esque, “own-the-libs” style.
“Honestly, it was Carl’s bill, and it going down in flames had nothing to do with the policy,” Patterson said. “I think if that was Joe Patterson’s bill, it would have had a different fate.”
DeMaio agreed that his name was probably its kiss of death.
“It probably has a lot more to do with the Democrats’ pettiness of just trying to kill any bill associated with me,” DeMaio said. He was unable to present his bill due to a conflict that arose from a radio-hosting gig, he said.
The two Democratic lawmakers who voted “no” on the bill, Alex Lee of Milpitas and Robert Garcia of Rancho Cucamonga, couldn’t be reached for comment Thursday.
Assemblymember Carl DeMaio speaks during an Assembly floor session at the state Capitol in Sacramento on Jan. 23, 2025.
(
Fred Greaves
/
CalMatters
)
DeMaio owns two properties that are in HOAs. He said those paying into the associations deserve transparency from what he describes as “quasi-governmental entities.” That’s why he said he wanted to add new requirements despite normally having a distaste for more regulation of private property.
“If they can tax you, if they can encumber your property rights, they’re governmental decisions,” DeMaio said. “And so they should be subjected to the open meetings and public records laws like any other public entity.”
DeMaio said he would support Patterson’s plan to reintroduce the measure next year to give the bill a better shot. Patterson said he’s already gotten interest from Democratic colleagues wanting to sign on to give the bill a bipartisan boost. He declined to name them.
Patterson said his homeowners association doesn’t charge that much – only $85 a month. But given that there are 2,800 homeowners paying the fee, that’s a significant amount of money for which the HOA board is responsible. Plus, he said if he doesn’t pay to protest the alleged “harassment” or for other reasons, the HOA can put a lien on his house.
“If you’re going to take my house from me and have a recorded lien on my home, then you damn well better provide very transparent financial records to your community,” he said.
New TSA program looks to increase private security
By Bill Chappell | NPR
Published May 21, 2026 9:30 AM
(
Scott Olson
/
Getty Images
)
Topline:
Under the Transportation Security Administration's new program called TSA Gold+, private companies would play a much larger role in airport security than they have in decades.
More details: The agency is billing the program as an update to the Screening Partnership Program, or SPP, in which 20 U.S. airports currently use private security screeners rather than federal workers.
Why now: The agency says airports that opt into the program would be able to tailor security systems for their facility — and avoid the TSA staffing shortages that became a very public headache at airports during the recent government shutdown over Homeland Security funding.
Read on... for more on the program.
Federal officers handle security screening at all but a small fraction of U.S. airports, but the Trump administration is hoping to change that. Under the Transportation Security Administration's new program called TSA Gold+, private companies would play a much larger role in airport security than they have in decades.
The TSA is set to host officials from airports and security contractors to an "industry day" at its Springfield, Va., headquarters on Thursday, as it looks to develop TSA Gold+, a public-private program that the agency calls "transformative."
The agency is billing the program as an update to the Screening Partnership Program, or SPP, in which 20 U.S. airports currently use private security screeners rather than federal workers.
"TSA Gold+ marks a significant evolution in the agency's approach to aviation security," a TSA spokesperson told NPR via an emailed statement.
The agency says airports that opt into the program would be able to tailor security systems for their facility — and avoid the TSA staffing shortages that became a very public headache at airports during the recent government shutdown over Homeland Security funding.
It also says the program would bring "the latest technology" such as AI tools to airport screening operations, to increase capacity and cut wait times, although the agency did not specify how those gains would be achieved. From the details shared so far, the equipment would be the contractors' responsibility — a departure from the current SPP system, in which TSA controls the equipment and oversees the security contract. The TSA says it would perform the oversight role it currently does.
"Industry partners can manage equipment and introduce innovations, while travelers enjoy a smooth, predictable, and bespoke experience," the TSA said as it unveiled TSA Gold+.
Airports currently using the private Screening Partnership Program range from San Francisco and Kansas City to Sarasota, Fla., and Atlantic City, N.J., along with smaller facilities in Montana, Wyoming and other states.
Calls for privatizing airport security screening have come from President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress, echoing a recommendation in the conservatives' Project 2025 handbook for a second Trump term. But there are also signs of bipartisan interest in some level of private control over airport security, as seen in Atlanta, where city leaders recently voted to explore joining the Screening Partnership Program.
Rep. Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security, touted that bipartisan interest on Wednesday during a hearing on TSA Modernization. But Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees union, which represents TSA officers, said he opposes further privatization — including the TSA Gold+ program, warning that it would hamper accountability and transparency.
Under the new program, Kelley said, contract workers would earn less than TSA officers. He added that while many transportation security officers hold security clearances, under the new plan, the government "would be ceding direct operational control of the most sensitive technology in the aviation security enterprise to private vendors."
The White House budget released last month promises to save some $52 million by privatizing airport screeners and requiring small airports to enroll in the SPP.
But officials at the hearing urged lawmakers to preserve airports' ability to choose.
Chris McLaughlin, CEO of Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, noted that the SPP has been in place since aviation security underwent drastic changes following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which led to the creation of the TSA and the SPP system.
"We've had federalized screening for 25 years, almost," McLaughlin said. "Large airports like San Francisco have had an SPP program for 25 years."
Both airports' arrangements work well for them, he told Garbarino.
"The system has been safe for 25 years," he said. "It's important that airports have options."
The new "Gold+" program echoes the Trump administration's promise to bring a "golden age of travel" to the American public. Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy touted those plans earlier this week, as he unveiled $970 million in funding to improve passengers' experiences at airports, from adding family-friendly security screening lanes to improving restrooms and children's play areas.
The money for those projects comes from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a Biden-era law aiming to update airports' aging infrastructure.
Copyright 2026 NPR
May gray skies return this morning for coasts and some valleys.
(
Mel Melcon
/
Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
)
QUICK FACTS
Today’s weather: Cloudy beaches sunny elsewhere
Beaches: Mid-70s
Mountains: Mid-70s to 80s
Inland: 83 to 91 degrees
Warnings and advisories: None today
What to expect: A marine layer will cover SoCal coasts today, bringing some cooling to the region. Elsewhere expect mostly sunny skies and highs around the mid 80s.
Read on ... to learn more.
QUICK FACTS
Today’s weather: Partly cloudy then sunny
Beaches: lower 70s degrees
Mountains: Mid-70s to 80s
Inland: 83 to 91 degrees
Warnings and advisories: None today
A marine layer will cover mostly the coastal areas today, lowering temperatures a degree or two. Otherwise expect a sunny afternoon elsewhere across SoCal.
L.A. County beaches will see temperatures in the lower 70s today, whereas Orange County could reach up to 79 degrees along the coast.
More inland, the valleys will see highs in the mid 80s. The Inland Empire will see highs from 83 to 91 degrees. In Coachella Valley, temperatures are expected to reach up to 100 degrees.
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.
Fleet Week, Exit the King at A Noise Within, the UCLA JazzReggae Festival, MAINopoly in Santa Monica and more of the best things to do this Memorial Day weekend.
Highlights:
Tour the U.S.S. Iowa and check out the three visiting battleships at San Pedro’s Pacific Battleship Center during L.A.’s annual Memorial Day weekend Fleet Weekon the waterfront. Plus, there are exhibits to walk through, food stands to try, and music for the whole family.
The name of this Eugène Ionesco classic alone — Exit the King— should give you some sense of where the always-on-point folks at A Noise Within were going when they chose it at this moment. The political satire borders on the absurd, with the L.A. Times likening the vibrant characters to “those in a deck of wild cards designed by Salvador Dalí.”
The nouveau bard of Kansas City, Kevin Morby, returns to his once-adopted hometown of Los Angeles on the heels of his newest release, Little Wide Open. Brooklyn-based Liam Kazar opens for him at The Wiltern.
Eat your way down Main Street in Santa Monica at MAINopoly, the annual Monopoly-themed food festival, which will allow drinks while you walk and eat thanks to a new city permit. The popular food-and-bar stretch near the beach is experiencing a little revival with the reopening of dive bar favorite Circle Bar, plus newish hot spots like Triple Beam Pizza and June Shine.
Happy long weekend! The Late Show with Stephen Colbert plays the funnyman’s swan song tonight, so my calendar is booked to stay up past my bedtime. Closer to home, the Yoko Ono exhibit (which comes to us straight from the Tate Modern in London) opens just in time for Memorial Day weekend, so watch this space for more on that.
There’s music for lovers of every genre this week, according to our friends at Licorice Pizza. On Friday, Yungblud and special guests Warning rock the Greek, and Dethklok plays the Palladium; jazz trumpeter Chris Botti begins his residency at the Blue Note.
Saturday, Bright Eyes performs I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning and Digital Ash in a Digital Urn in their entirety at the Hollywood Bowl with openers the Moldy Peaches; American Football is at the Wiltern; Belgium’s Ultra Sunn plays the Belasco; Italy’s Mina is at the Echoplex; DJ KSHMR plays the Palladium; and then, for a different sort of “Kashmir,” Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Evening takes over the Greek.
On Sunday, brush your teeth with a bottle of Jack for the millennial dance party of the week at the Forum with Kesha, Chromeo and Sizzy Rocket. There’s also the big Day Trip afternoon concert at L.A. State Historic Park with Joseph Capriati, Toman and Cole Terrazas. For a more mellow Sunday, singer-songwriter Katelyn Tarver is at the Echoplex, R&B singer-songwriter Eric Bellinger plays the Novo, or classic crooner Paul Anka is doing it his way at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts.
Through Monday, May 25 Pacific Battleship Center 250 S. Harbor Blvd., San Pedro COST: FREE; MORE INFO
(
Courtesy L.A. Fleet Week
)
Tour the U.S.S. Iowa and check out the three visiting battleships at San Pedro’s Pacific Battleship Center during L.A.’s annual Memorial Day weekend Fleet Week on the waterfront. Plus, there are exhibits to walk through, food stands to try and music for the whole family. Not to mention those cute sailors in their whites.
Topanga Days
Saturday to Monday, May 23 to 25, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. 1440 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga COST: ADULTS $31.80; MORE INFO
(
Fadeout Media
/
Topanga Days
)
Topanga Days is the easiest way to time-travel back to a simpler time when folk musicians roamed the hills, winning a yodeling contest was the biggest bragging right and you spent all year coming up with your parade costume. Those days are here once a year at Topanga Days, headlined on Saturday by New Orleans icon Cyril Neville and peppered with cherry-seed-spitting and bubble-gum-blowing contests, tons of other music, food, and, of course, the parade.
Exit the King
Through Sunday, May 31 A Noise Within 3352 E. Foothill Blvd., Pasadena COST: FROM $49.75; MORE INFO
(
Craig Schwartz
/
Lucy PR
)
The name of this Eugène Ionesco classic alone — Exit the King — should give you some sense of where the always-on-point folks at A Noise Within were going when they chose it at this moment. The political satire borders on the absurd, with the L.A. Times likening the vibrant characters to “those in a deck of wild cards designed by Salvador Dalí.”
K-Expo
Saturday and Sunday, May 23 to 24 L.A. Live 1005 Chick Hearn Court, Downtown L.A. COST: FREE; MORE INFO
(
Courtesy BLND PR
)
K-Pop fans will flock to the K-Expo at L.A. Live, where you can see free exhibitions and events featuring 100 Korean brands and companies across content, beauty, food and technology all weekend long. Stick around Saturday night and grab a ticket (from $47) to the mega K-Pop concert at the Peacock Theater, featuring Jay Park and P1Harmony.
MAINopoly
Sunday, May 24, 1 p.m. Main Street, Santa Monica COST: FROM $28.01; MORE INFO
(
Courtesy MAINopoly Santa Monica
)
Eat your way down Main Street in Santa Monica at the annual Monopoly-themed food festival, which this year will allow drinks while you walk and eat thanks to a new city permit. The popular food-and-bar stretch near the beach is experiencing a little revival with the reopening of dive bar favorite Circle Bar, plus newish hot spots like Triple Beam Pizza and June Shine. I also heard a rumor that something new is finally coming into the old World Cafe space (!!).
Arroyo Secodelic Festival
Friday to Monday, May 22 to 25 Various locations, Highland Park COST: VARIES; MORE INFO
(
Courtesy Arroyo Secodelic
)
As LAist's Robert Garrova reports, a new four-day music festival takes over Figueroa Street in Highland Park this weekend. The Arroyo Secodelic Festival will feature 65 bands, with acts hailing from Los Angeles, Mexico and as far as France and Holland. Highlights include Flamin' Groovies, Fear and Adolescents.
Angel City Chorale Spring Concert
Sunday, May 24, 4 p.m. Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center 1935 Manhattan Beach Blvd., Redondo Beach COST: FROM $17; MORE INFO
(
Mel Stave Photography
/
Angel City Chorale
)
Enjoy the healing sounds of Angel City Chorale as they perform a new show with the theme "The Red Thread" as “a tribute to the beloved age-old parable and celebration of the invisible threads that connect as humans, our hopes, joys, resilience in the face of adversity, connection to nature and a shared planet Earth.”
Kevin Morby
Friday, May 22, 8 p.m. The Wiltern 3790 Wilshire Blvd., Koreatown COST: $50-$60; MORE INFO
Kevin Morby plays the Wiltern on Friday.
(
Jim Bennett
/
Getty Images
)
The nouveau bard of Kansas City returns to his once-adopted hometown of Los Angeles on the heels of his newest release, Little Wide Open. Morby's latest effort might be his most realized, fully embracing the Technicolor sweep of his indie-Americana sound — striking the sonic equivalent between a Terrence Malick film and Robert Frank's roadside photographs, seen through a passenger car window of a cross-country train. This time, Morby tapped Aaron Dessner of The National to serve as producer — who has most recently done the same for Taylor Swift, Gracie Abrams and Sharon Van Etten — alongside a constellation of collaborators, including Justin Vernon, Lucinda Williams, Katie Gavin, Mat Davidson and Meg Duffy. Brooklyn-based Liam Kazar opens. –Gab Chabrán
UCLA JazzReggae Festival
Monday, May 25, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. UCLA Wilson Plaza COST: $26.14; MORE INFO
Three little birds told me to get down to the UCLA JazzReggae Festival on Memorial Day. The yearly music fest draws students and neighbors alike for a full day of sunshine, food, music and jammin’. The fest is fully organized and run by student volunteers, and has been since its founding 40 years ago.
Forest Lawn Memorial Day remembrances
Monday, May 25 Various locations COST: FREE; MORE INFO
Forest Lawn in Glendale is one of several locations hosting Memorial Day events.
(
David McNew
/
Getty Images
)
Honor veterans across Los Angeles as Forest Lawn hosts Memorial Day remembrances at each of its six Southern California locations: Cathedral City, Covina Hills, Cypress, Glendale, Hollywood Hills and Long Beach. The parkwide events will celebrate the lives of those who served, with patriotic music, wreath layings, presentations and retirings of the flag, keynote addresses, presidential proclamations, invocations, giveaways, coffee and sweet treats. All events will include American Sign Language interpreters.
Monica Bushman
produces arts and culture coverage for LAist's on-demand team. She’s also part of the Imperfect Paradise podcast team.
Published May 21, 2026 5:00 AM
Edward Furlong and Arnold Schwarzenegger in a scene from the 1991 film 'Terminator 2: Judgment Day.'
(
via film-grab.com
)
Topline:
Terminator 2: Judgment Day is back in select theaters this weekend, in celebration of the movie’s 35th anniversary. Considered one of the best action films and best sequels of all time, it’s also celebrated among film experts for its groundbreaking use of CGI visual effects — most notably for the T-1000 character, a liquid metal cyborg masquerading as an LAPD officer.
Where to see the film in LA: American Cinematheque, The Academy Museum and The Vista are hosting screenings of Terminator 2: Judgment Day starting on May 22, but they’re already selling out. Additional screenings are on May 29 at Los Feliz 3, May 30 at Aero Theatre in Santa Monica and June 6 and 7 at The Vista in Los Feliz.
Read on ... for behind-the-scenes details from the film's Oscar-winning visual effects supervisor.
You could call it a fulfillment of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s famous promise from the first Terminator movie in 1984: “I’ll be back.”
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), the bigger budget, multi-award winning follow-up to that first film is coming back to theaters in Los Angeles starting this weekend, in celebration of the film’s 35th anniversary.
Considered one of the best action films and best sequels of all time, it’s also celebrated among film experts for its groundbreaking use of CGI visual effects — most notably for the T-1000 character, a liquid metal cyborg masquerading as an LAPD officer, played by Robert Patrick.
Where to watch ‘T2’ on the big screen
While the American Cinematheque’s first two 35th anniversary screenings of Terminator 2 are already sold out, as of this article’s publishing time, tickets to screenings on May 29 (at Los Feliz 3) and May 30 (at Aero Theatre in Santa Monica) are still available.
Tickets for screenings on May 22 at The Ojai Playhouse and June 6 and 7 at The Vista in Los Feliz are also still available, and Rialto Pictures also lists screenings on July 2-5 at The Frida Cinema in Santa Ana.
And while the screening at The Academy Museum on May 27 (with the film’s Oscar-winning visual effects supervisor Dennis Muren in person) is sold out, we have you covered with some highlights from Muren’s interview with LAist below.
Making the impossible possible with CGI
Terminator 2, director James Cameron’s follow up to his surprise 1984 hit, The Terminator, was the first (and still only) movie in what would become the six-film Terminator franchise to earn an Oscar win or nomination.
Ultimately, the film took home four Oscars — for visual effects (for Dennis Muren, Stan Winston, Gene Warren, Jr. and Robert Skotak), makeup, sound, and sound effects editing — and also earned nominations for cinematography and film editing.
The visual effects studio responsible for the T-1000 character’s CGI effects was Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), founded in 1975 by Star Wars creator George Lucas. Dennis Muren headed up their Terminator 2 team, which consisted of about 35 artists.
Muren remembers first being taken with visual effects at the age of 6 or 7, watching The War of the Worlds (1953) in Los Angeles. He made his first film — a “creature feature” called Equinox — the summer between his freshman and sophomore years at Pasadena City College, and would go on to work for ILM on visual effects for movies like Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Terminator 2, Jurassic Park, and (fittingly) the 2005 version of War of the Worlds.
A scene from 'Terminator 2' (1991).
(
via film-grab.com
)
ILM and Muren began development on the CGI techniques that would be needed to pull off Terminator 2’s T-1000 character in movies like 1985’s Young Sherlock Holmes and 1989’s The Abyss, which was also directed by James Cameron.
“ILM has been so good at being able to really do the impossible,” Muren said. “And we kind of joke about that, but we've got many different ways of doing things.”
When the opportunity for Terminator 2 came up, Muren had also just returned from a year-long sabbatical he spent studying computer graphics, and said he was confident ILM had the tools needed to make the T-1000 character a reality.
“We were ready to input the film digitally,” Muren explained. “[To] do all the manipulation in a computer instead of with optical film running through printers and going to labs for processing.”
And when ILM got that digital system for “compositing” — combining live-action images, practical and CGI effects — working seamlessly, Muren says, “That was an incredible tool.”
But that didn’t mean that pulling off a shiny, shape-shifting, liquid metal character successfully would be easy.
“It's just complicated,” Muren explained. “You've just got this reflective material [and] how are we supposed to be able to see depth or shape when it's deforming?” But at the same time, Muren said, “that's what was exciting about it.”
Muren says the trickiest scene for the team to figure out is when the T-1000 walks through a cell door made of metal bars. While it happens in a matter of seconds on screen, it amounted to 14 to 16 weeks of work for the visual effects team.
“I always said that shot, even as we were doing it, and we got close to finishing, I said, ‘This is an absolutely impossible shot,’” Muren explained. So when they got it right, he said, “It was like a new world.”
Today, while he says Jurassic Park (1993) is the film he’s now asked about most often, he always reminds people: “T2 was really the breakthrough film.”
