State Senators meet during a Suspense File hearing at the Capitol Annex Swing Space on O Street in Sacramento, on Aug. 15, 2024.
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Fred Greaves
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CalMatters
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Topline:
More than 100 California bills moved to the “suspense file” last week, the start of a process where consequential decisions are made out of public view.
Why now: In just 24 minutes and without any debate, the most powerful committee in the state Senate last week moved 33 bills from public view into a secretive process that will decide whether the measures live or die. Two days later, its sister committee in the Assembly moved 82 of its bills in under two minutes to the same secretive, uncertain future. If history is any guide, between a quarter to a third of those bills will be killed next month.
What happens? So it goes with the Senate and Assembly’s appropriations committees, the gatekeepers for bills proposing to spend taxpayer money. The committees’ “suspense files” are where hundreds of bills die quietly each year. The fates of the bills that were moved to the file last week – along with dozens of others that will be added later – will be announced in a single hearing on what’s known as “suspense day” scheduled for May.
Why it matters: As CalMatters has reported, members of the Legislature almost never vote in public hearings to kill bills by attaching their names to a formal “no” vote. For instance, of 2,403 bills that died in the two-year session that concluded last fall, only 25 were killed by a majority of lawmakers voting “no.” Instead, bills tend to die behind the scenes. It can be incredibly difficult for members of the public to learn who killed a measure and why.
Read on... for more details about the process and issues that come up.
In just 24 minutes and without any debate, the most powerful committee in the state Senate last week moved 33 bills from public view into a secretive process that will decide whether the measures live or die.
If history is any guide, between a quarter to a third of those bills will be killed next month. For most of the bills, no one but lobbyists, a handful of capital staffers, lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s policy team will know exactly why.
So it goes with the Senate and Assembly’s appropriations committees, the gatekeepers for bills proposing to spend taxpayer money. The committees’ “suspense files” are where hundreds of bills die quietly each year. The fates of the bills that were moved to the file last week – along with dozens of others that will be added later – will be announced in a single hearing on what’s known as “suspense day” scheduled for May.
As CalMatters has reported, members of the Legislature almost never vote in public hearings to kill bills by attaching their names to a formal “no” vote. For instance, of 2,403 bills that died in the two-year session that concluded last fall, only 25 were killed by a majority of lawmakers voting “no.” Instead, bills tend to die behind the scenes. It can be incredibly difficult for members of the public to learn who killed a measure and why.
The appropriations committees’ suspense files are the most notorious example.
The opaque process frustrates some lawmakers, including Assemblymember Corey Jackson, a Democrat representing Moreno Valley. He has criticized Democratic leadership for not doing more to address homelessness, inequality and people moving out of state.
“The way we treat the appropriations process is a non-democratic process; I believe that it’s a corrupt process,” Jackson said.
Per decades-old policy, any bill that’s estimated to cost taxpayers at least $50,000 gets placed on the suspense file. Twice a year – once in May and again in August – the committees announce which bills move bills off of “suspense” and can advance through the Legislature.
Last summer, the committees culled about a third of the 830 bills that had been placed on suspense. Some of them were controversial.
Republicans were outraged that the committee didn’t vote on their bill seeking to add new requirements before state officials could place “sexually violent predators” in communities.
The Senate’s top Republican, Sen. Brian Jones of San Diego, accused Democratic leaders of protecting “predators over families.”
But some Democrats, including Jackson, also were frustrated. Jackson had a child tax credit bill die in the suspense file. Asked last week if he knew who was responsible for killing the bill, Jackson said, “That’s part of the process. You don’t know in many cases.”
When cost estimates kill California bills
Other Democrats last summer also accused the Newsom administration of inflating cost estimates to kill health care legislation the governor’s team didn’t like through the suspense process. The Newsom administration insisted its estimates were accurate.
“The administration looks forward to tackling some of the most pressing policy challenges with the Legislature, but doing so within the confines of our budgetary constraints,” Christian Beltran, legislative director for Newsom’s Department of Finance, told the Senate Appropriations Committee last week.
Now the behind-the-scenes work begins for lobbyists such as Chris Micheli, who is advocating for a bill that was moved last week to suspense.
“You’re going to have conversations with the staff of the committee and the members of the committee, particularly the chair, who is most influential in terms of what bills, you know, stay or go,” Micheli said.
Appropriations chairs make hard calls
Former chairs of the appropriations committees – called “approps” in Capitol shorthand – told CalMatters it can be a difficult position to be in. The chairs often have to make tough decisions to kill particularly controversial, poorly thought out or expensive bills that the leaders of the other legislative committees didn’t want to make.
Assemblymembers meet during a Suspense File hearing at the Capitol Annex Swing Space in Sacramento, on Aug. 15, 2024.
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Fred Greaves
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CalMatters
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“I would get angry with people,” said Lorena Gonzalez, a former Democratic assemblymember from San Diego who is now president of the California Labor Federation. “I’d have policy (committee) chairs come to me and they’re like, ‘Oh, I couldn’t kill these. But here are the bills I think you should kill.’ I'm like, you know, ‘Grow some balls.’ ”
Plus, chairs also have to deal with colleagues who take it personally when their favorite bills are killed.
Mike Gatto, a former Democratic Assembly appropriations chair from Los Angeles, said he faced intense blowback from some colleagues. He said one fellow Democrat targeted him during a reelection campaign after Gatto killed his bill in suspense. Another retaliated by killing one of Gatto’s bills in a different committee.
“My mandate was to engage in a cost-benefit analysis for the good of the state, to make sure that we did not spend any more than we had,” Gatto said. “Maybe I took the mandate too seriously, or maybe I was not that great with managing human relationships, but I ended up having a number of very upset colleagues.”
Gonzalez said she didn’t think it was fair to call the suspense file process secretive. She said anyone can review the committee’s fiscal estimates and its analyses and weigh in.
But in the end, it’s the chairperson who usually has to take the heat.
“‘I think everybody leaves being approps chair with a lot of people upset with them,” she said.
Digital Democracy transcription manager Hans Poschman contributed to this story.
Makenna Cramer
covers the daily drumbeat of Southern California — events, processes and nuances making it a unique place to call home.
Published April 29, 2026 5:01 PM
Workers repair potholes and skim a large portion of street in Los Angeles on Jan. 13.
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Genaro Molina
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Getty Images
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Topline:
MyLA311, the system designed to help residents access city services for graffiti removal or streetlight outages, had a makeover last year, but since then, some Angelenos and Los Angeles city staff have reported it has been plagued by problems. City officials say they're working to make fixes.
Why now: Councilmembers Imelda Padilla and Monica Rodriguez led a motion aimed at addressing the issues concerning the system’s overall functionality and accountability. The City Council approved that motion Wednesday.
Why it matters: “Reports and individuals are telling us that because of this broken 311 app, folks are once again going back to using Excel sheets, phone calls, paper and pen in order to engage in service delivery, and I think that that's a problem,” Padilla said during the council meeting.
The backstory: MyLA311 is set up so residents can report non-emergency issues and track requests for tree inspections, homeless encampment services and illegal dumping, to name a few. There are 86 options in neighborhoods, according to Mayor Karen Bass’ office, which helped launch the new system.
What's next: The motion instructs Public Works to make a formal report of any problems with the system, including how they may be affecting service timelines and completion rates, and asks the city’s IT agency to come up with potential solutions.
MyLA311, the system designed to help residents access city services for graffiti removal or streetlight outages, got a makeover last year, but since then some Angelenos and Los Angeles city staff have reported it has been plagued by problems.
The city has received “numerous complaints” about the updated website and app, including issues with GPS and logging work, according to officials.
MyLA311 is set up so residents can report non-emergency issues and track requests for tree inspections, homeless encampment services and illegal dumping, to name a few. There are 86 options in neighborhoods, according to Mayor Karen Bass’ office, which helped launch the new system.
Staffers within the city’s Department of Public Works have said they’ve been frustrated by the rollout, according to city officials. They say it now takes longer to add their responses to service requests, and the city can’t record completed work that doesn’t have a service request connected to it.
City Council members Imelda Padilla and Monica Rodriguez led a motion aimed at addressing the issues, saying they’ve caused concerns about the system’s overall functionality and accountability.
“Reports and individuals are telling us that because of this broken 311 app, folks are once again going back to using Excel sheets, phone calls, paper and pen in order to engage in service delivery, and I think that that's a problem,” Padilla said during Wednesday’s council meeting.
The motion instructs Public Works to make a formal report of any problems with the system, including how they may be affecting service timelines and completion rates, and asks the city’s IT agency to come up with potential solutions.
It was approved in a 12-0 vote Wednesday. Councilmembers Bob Blumenfield, Eunisses Hernandez and Adrin Nazarian were absent.
How we got here
Bass announced the launch of the new MyLA311 last year, saying the previous website and app were outdated and had lasted years past their lifecycle.
In a 2023 directive, she’d called for the system to be modernized with the goal of providing better customer service and communication about the status of residents’ requests.
“This new and improved way to request and receive city services is another example of how we are breaking away from the old way of doing things to make our neighborhoods cleaner and safer,” Bass said in a March 2025 statement.
But some people say the new system is falling short.
The Sylmar Neighborhood Council agreed the system needs improvements, writing in a community impact statement that MyLA311 fails to serve L.A. taxpayers effectively if it’s difficult to use or inaccurate.
In public comments, some residents cited “major issues” with the system, including GPS and location accuracy, invalid addresses and missing or incomplete service categories. One commenter wrote that addresses were being routed to other areas, some of them outside the city.
“As a result, they frequently lead to confusion in the field, delays in response and, in some cases, requests going unaddressed due to the difficulty in locating the reported issue or misdirection caused by inaccurate data,” the commenter said.
What’s ahead
The City Council approved several instructions aimed at improving MyLA311, including the following:
Public Works is expected to report back on its issues with the system.
The city’s Information Technology Agency is expected to report on system performance, including operational issues, and provide solutions as needed.
Public Works and IT are expected to provide quarterly reports on service request data, including backlogs, average response times and requests received and closed.
The Supreme Court's conservative majority seemed ready Wednesday to allow the Trump administration to potentially proceed with mass deportations of more than a million foreign nationals, including those from Haiti and Syria, who live and work legally in the United States.
How we got here: Until now these individuals have been accorded temporary legal status because their safety is imperiled by war or natural disasters in their home countries. Congress enacted the Temporary Protected Status program in 1990, and every president since then — Republican and Democrat — has embraced TPS. President Trump, however, is trying to end it. On Wednesday his solicitor general, D. John Sauer, told the justices that the statute clearly bars any court review of the administration's decisions. And he dismissed the idea that a separate law established to provide procedural fairness does not allow the courts to review the Homeland Security agency's decision-making either.
Read on . . . for more on today's court proceedings.
The Supreme Court's conservative majority seemed ready Wednesday to allow the Trump administration to potentially proceed with mass deportations of more than a million foreign nationals, including those from Haiti and Syria, who live and work legally in the United States.
Congress enacted the Temporary Protected Status program in 1990, and every president since then — Republican and Democrat — has embraced TPS. President Donald Trump, however, is trying to end it.
On Wednesday his solicitor general, D. John Sauer, told the justices that the statute clearly bars any court review of the administration's decisions. And he dismissed the idea that a separate law established to provide procedural fairness does not allow the courts to review the Homeland Security agency's decision-making either. Pressed by the court's three liberal justices, Sauer insisted that the courts cannot review anything.
"None of those procedural steps required by the statue are reviewable. That's your position?" asked Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
"Correct," responded Sauer.
"What you're basically saying is that Congress wrote a statute for no purpose," Sotomayor said.
Justice Elena Kagan noted that under the statute the secretary of Homeland Security is supposed to consult with the U.S. State Department about what the conditions are in those countries that people have been forced to flee. What if she didn't do that at all, Kagan asked. Or what if she asked, but the response from the State Department came back: "Wasn't that baseball game last night great!"
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson asked what would happen if the secretary used a Ouija board to make decisions?
To all these hypotheticals, Solicitor General Sauer stood firm. That prompted this from Sotomayor: "Now, we have a president saying at one point that Haiti is a 'filthy, dirty, and disgusting s--thole country.' I'm quoting him. He declared illegal immigrants, which he associated with TPS, as poisoning the blood of America. I don't see how that one statement is not a prime example … showing that a discriminatory purpose may have played a part in this decision."
Sauer pushed back, noting that Kristi Noem, the then-DHS secretary, had not mentioned race at all. That prompted this response from Justice Jackson, the only Black woman on the court, "So the position of the United States is that we have an actual racial epithet that we aren't allowed to look at all the context."
Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the mother of two adopted Haitian children, interjected at that point to clarify the administration's position. Are you conceding that individuals with TPS status could bring a challenge based on race discrimination? she asked.
Sauer appeared to concede the point.
Representing the Haitians, lawyer Geoffrey Pipoly described the administration's review as "a sham."
"The true reason for the termination [of TPS status] is the president's racial animus toward non-white immigrants and bare dislike of Haitians in particular," Pipoly said. "The secretary herself described people from Haiti" and from other non-white countries as "killers, leeches, saying, 'We don't want them, not one,'" while "simultaneously enacting another humanitarian form of relief for white and only white South Africans."
That was too much for Justice Samuel Alito who asked Pipoly, "Do you think that if you put Syrians, Turks, Greeks and other people who live around the Mediterranean in a line-up, do you think you could say those people are … non-white?"
An uncomfortable Pipoly resisted categorizing each group until Alito got to his own roots.
"How about southern Italians?" Alito inquired, prompting laughter in the courtroom.
Responded Pipoly: "Certainly 120 years ago when we had our last wave of European immigration, southern Italians were not considered white. … Our concept of these things evolves over time."
At the end of Wednesday's court session, one thing was clear: President Trump may be furious at some of the conservative justices he appointed for invalidating his tariffs, but for the most part, he is getting his way. Especially in light of the court's 6-to-3 decision, announced Wednesday, which effectively guts what remains of the landmark Voting Rights Act, once celebrated as a signature achievement of American Democracy.
Copyright 2026 NPR
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Fiona Ng
is LAist's deputy managing editor and leads a team of reporters who explore food, culture, history, events and more.
Published April 29, 2026 4:14 PM
Artemis the German Shepherd is the last dog from Eaton Fire at Pasadena Humane to get adopted.
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Courtesy Pasadena Humane
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Topline:
The last dog from the Eaton Fire taken in by Pasadena Humane has now been adopted.
Why it matters: The Eaton Fire destroyed nearly 9,500 structures, including about 6,000 homes. Two days after the first broke out, Pasadena Humane reported receiving more than 350 pets from displaced residents.
The backstory: Artemis the German shepherd was originally taken to the Pasadena animal shelter for emergency boarding. His family, which lost its home in the January fire, ultimately decided to put him up for adoption.
The last dog from the Eaton Fire taken in by Pasadena Humane has now been adopted.
Artemis the German shepherd was originally taken to the Pasadena animal shelter for emergency boarding. His family, which lost its home in the January fire, ultimately decided to put him up for adoption.
"The silver lining to all of that is — with all this tragedy — this incredible story of hope where we were able to help foster these animals we’re returning home," said Sarie Hooker, communications manager at Pasadena Humane.
During his stay at Pasadena Humane, the cream-color pup won over many hearts.
"He's just such a striking boy. He's got this really fun, loving personality. He's very regal," Hooker said.
Hooker said Artemis was adopted by a family through the shelter's foster-to-adopt program.
"He just did amazingly. And the next thing we knew, he was adopted," Hooker said. "So it's a happy story."
Artemis says hello to a new family.
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Courtesy Pasadena Humane
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The Eaton Fire destroyed nearly 9,500 structures, including about 6,000 homes. Two days after the fire broke out, Pasadena Humane reported receiving more than 350 pets from displaced residents.
By the second week of the fire, the shelter had taken in some 600 pets, Hooker said.
" In totality, we were able to help with thousands of animals specifically for emergency boarding," Hooker said, including every kind of pet you can think of, as well as wild animals.
" We were seeing skunks, squirrels, hawks, owls, peacocks, raccoons, possums," she said.
Artemis isn't just the last dog to find a home — or return home — from the Eaton Fire.
He is the last animal.
" Artemis was our final, final animal — like dog, cat, critter. Anything else under the sun. He was the last boy. So we're very happy," she said.
Mariana Dale
reports on K-12 education, including how students exercise their civic power.
Published April 29, 2026 2:31 PM
People gathered in downtown L.A. for May Day in 2025.
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Frank Stoltze
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LAist
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Topline:
Southern California and national organizers are calling on communities to abstain from work, school and shopping Friday in recognition of May Day.
The backstory: May Day started after an 1886 strike tied to the fight for an eight-hour work day. The protest turned violent after police attacked workers. In the 1990s, L.A. organizers started to connect the labor movement with advocacy for immigrant rights.
What's new: This year’s “economic blackout” is modeled after January protests in Minnesota following the surge of immigration enforcement and shooting deaths of two U.S. citizens. “ Our vision includes an economy that works for everyone with a living wage, strong labor protections and programs that keep families housed, fed, educated and healthy,” said Francisco Moreno, executive director of the Council of Mexican Federations in North America, in a Tuesday press conference.
Find a rally: What’s typically the region’s largest May Day gathering starts Friday morning at MacArthur Park, and events are planned throughout the region.
The “economic blackout” is modeled after January protests in Minnesota following the surge of immigration enforcement and shooting deaths of two U.S. citizens.
“Our vision includes an economy that works for everyone with a living wage, strong labor protections and programs that keep families housed, fed, educated and healthy,” said Francisco Moreno, executive director of the Council of Mexican Federations in North America, in a Tuesday press conference.
The organization is one of more than 100 involved in planning a Los Angeles May Day rally with the theme, “solo el pueblo shuts it down: no school, no work, no shopping.”
“Starting there really sends a message that we're here,” said Kristal Romero, press secretary for the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. “We're standing with this community, and if you take on one of us, you take on all of us.”
May Day’s history in LA
May Day, sometimes called International Workers' Day, started after an 1886 strike tied to the fight for an eight-hour work day. The protest turned violent after police attacked workers. In the 1990s, L.A. organizers started to connect the labor movement with advocacy for immigrant rights.
Romero said the Federation has offered training on de-escalation, conflict resolution and non-violent protests and that hundreds of people will act as “peacekeepers” during Friday’s rally and march.
“ A lot of times, folks can get caught in echo chambers and it may really feel hopeless,” Romero said. “The big point of these events is to inspire hope to show people we're all here, we're all fighting for the same thing.”
