The Brief

Donors have contributed more than $128.8 million so far in the fight over whether to redraw California’s congressional lines with supporters of the ballot measure raising over twice as much as opponents.

The fundraising so far marks one of most expensive ballot measure efforts in California's history.

Proposition 50, the statewide proposition slated for a Nov. 4 special election, would allow new congressional maps that would benefit Democrats to stand through 2030. (You can check here to see if where you live is affected.) If approved, the ballot measure would temporarily upend California’s nonpartisan approach to drawing congressional lines that’s been in place since 2008.

The ballot measure was approved by the California Legislature back in August, escalating tensions between California Democrats and President Donald Trump, who first urged Texas lawmakers to redraw their state’s maps to favor Republicans.

Five of the districts that would be most heavily impacted under the plan are in Southern California.

Last Thursday was a key filing deadline for Prop. 50 campaign finance disclosures, giving us the clearest picture yet of how much money is flowing in this race and who’s been donating to each side.

Here’s what the numbers show as of Tuesday.

How much money has each side raised?

Out of the total $128.8 million raised, the “yes” campaign has raised more than $88.6 million, while the “no” campaign has raised about $40.1 million.

Multi-million dollar fundraising is pretty common for high-stakes statewide propositions, and this is no exception. For comparison, here are some of the most expensive ballot measure campaigns in recent years. You'll see in every case below, the side that raised more money was successful:

• $176 million for Prop. 33, a failed 2024 measure that would have allowed cities to pass stronger rent-control laws. The “yes” campaign raised nearly $51 million while the “no” campaign raised $125 million. 
• $408 million for Prop. 27, a failed 2022 measure that would have legalized online sports betting in California. The “yes” campaign raised more than $170 million while the “no” campaign raised more than $238 million, making Prop. 27 the most expensive ballot measure campaign in California history.
• $225 million for Prop. 22, a successful 2020 measure that created a carve-out for app-based drivers, like those working for Uber and Lyft, to work as independent contractors rather than employees. The “yes” campaign raised more than $205 million while the “no” campaign raised just under $20 million. 

Who’s donating money to the Prop. 50 campaigns?

The “no” campaign: The largest individual donor to this campaign so far is Charles T. Munger Jr., who's donated $32.8 million. He’s a Palo Alto-based physicist, former chair of the Santa Clara Republican Party and son of the late billionaire Charles Munger, former vice chair of Berkshire Hathaway. Earlier this month, he wrote an op-ed for the New York Times detailing his reasons for opposing Prop. 50.

“I oppose gerrymandering in any state, regardless of the party responsible for initiating it,” he wrote.

Another $5 million came from the No on 50 Congressional Leadership Fund, a Washington, D.C.-based Super PAC (an independent group allowed to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money on political campaigns) dedicated to electing Republicans to the House of Representatives.

Outside of Munger and the Congressional Leadership Fund, there are more than 190 donors to the “no” campaign so far, some of them individual contributors and others ballot measure committees.

The “yes” campaign: Fundraising in support of Prop. 50 is made up of more than 65,000 different funders so far. This is quite a list to unpack, so here are some highlights among top spenders:

• The Fund for Policy Reform: This is the biggest contributor to date for the “yes” campaign, with $10 million in donations. It’s a Delaware-based lobbying firm founded by billionaire George Soros. The fund has contributed to California state ballot measure campaigns before, notably to support Prop. 64 (a 2016 measure voters approved to legalize recreational marijuana) and Prop. 10 (a failed 2018 measure that would have expanded cities’ abilities to enact rent-control laws). 
• HMP: This stands for the House Majority PAC, a Super PAC dedicated to electing Democrats to the House of Representatives. This group has contributed a total of about $10 million so far.
• Labor groups: Top contributors include the California Teachers Association Issues PAC ($3 million), the California Nurses Association ($2.6 million) and Dignity California SEIU Local 2015 ($2 million). These groups have traditionally contributed large sums to the California Democratic Party and party-endorsed ballot measure campaigns or candidates. 
• Billionaires: Sequoia Capital chairman Michael Moritz ($2.5 million), Cargill heiress and philanthropist Gwendolyn Sontheim ($2 million) and Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings ($2 million) are all among top donors. All three have previously contributed to campaigns supported by the California Democratic Party.

The takeaway

There is a lot of money flowing in the Prop. 50 race, much of it coming from outside California and falling heavily along partisan lines — largely Democrats support Prop. 50 and Republicans oppose it. And with more than a month to go before the election, there’s still a lot of time for more fundraising.

Need more information about Prop. 50 to make your choice for the election? Here’s our full voter guide. You can also ask us any of your election questions below, and we’ll follow up by email with an answer.

It’s the benchmark of success, a milestone of responsible adulthood, a time-tested way to amass wealth for you and your progeny. Homeownership, we’re told again and again, is a status that every right-thinking person should aspire to — the white-picket-fence-fronted embodiment of the American Dream.

But what if it’s also a little overrated?

For generations it has been taken as a near article of faith across the country that ownership is both the financially and socially superior way to inhabit a home and that public policy makers should always promote it. California legislators and housing advocates spent this past year enacting sweeping policies aimed at making it easier to build housing of all kinds. This coming year, many of them indicate that they plan to focus specifically on providing more plentiful paths to homeownership.

They’ll have their work cut out for them.

The state’s homeownership rate of roughly 55% is second lowest in the nation, above New York, and a full 10 percentage points beneath the national average. Most of that gap, both common sense and researchers at UC Berkeley tell us, isn’t the result of an atypical fondness for the freedoms of renting but comes down to the price tag. The median price of a detached single-family home across in the United States is $426,800. In California, it’s $852,680. In San Francisco it’s well over $1 million.

With borrowing rates still hovering above 6%, those prices translate to estimated monthly mortgage costs between $4,000 to $6,000 or more. Even in all but the toniest neighborhoods of coastal California, that’s far above the cost of renting a typical apartment.

In Orange County, the estimated all-in monthly costs on a home (including taxes, insurance, maintenance and any association fees) is four times the average rent, according to a recent analysis by the commercial real estate firm CBRE. In Los Angeles and San Francisco, the “buying premium” is three times greater than renting. Nationally, it’s twice as much.

Is the extra cost worth it?

Economists and housing finance experts are careful to note that it depends — on a person’s financial circumstances, the particulars of their preferences and the market in which they want to live, how long they plan to occupy a home and, most challenging of all, what the future holds.

But across the country, the gap between renting and owning is “way out of line” with the historic norm, said Laurie Goodman, an economist at the Urban Institute, a liberal-leaning thinktank in Washington D.C.

In 2018, Goodman co-authored a paper on homeownership in the United States, which came to the fairly unambiguous conclusion that most people most of the time would be better off buying a home (assuming they can afford the monthly payments) compared to renting.

“Homeownership is not the universal panacea, but the financial returns on homeownership have been more beneficial than renting for most homeowners and will likely remain so if current patterns continue,” Goodman wrote in a corresponding blog post at the time.

Current patterns did not continue: Today we see dizzying prices and interest rates and flat rents in most places. Homeownership isn’t nearly the financial slam dunk it once was, she said.

Take a market like San Francisco. The average price of an admittedly rare single-family home in the city is $1.38 million, according to Zillow. Depending on the size of a buyer’s downpayment, that would work out to a monthly loan payment of roughly $6,500. The average rent for one is $4,350.

In order for all those extra monthly payments to eventually pay off, the value of the house will need to soar vertiginously into the indefinite future. Or rents, which determine how much a person can save by not buying, will need to shoot up as well. Or the stock market or other possible places a well-heeled renter could park all the extra money they aren’t spending on a mortgage, will need to flatline.

Or a combination of all of the above.

A person buying into that market is assuming a very specific and by no means certain version of the financial future, said Goodman.

Either that, or they’re just “desperate to own in San Francisco because they’re just desperate to own in San Francisco,” she said. “For whatever reason.”

The case for renting forever

For many Californians, this isn’t actually a decision. The number of renters who can buy locally and get away with spending anything less than 40% of their income on monthly homeownership costs are in the single digit percentages in Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside, Sacramento, San Jose and Ventura, according to the CBRE report. Being a tenant in California is hard enough. More than half of California renters are spending more than 30% of their income on rent as it is.

But for those lucky enough to rent by choice, it’s not necessarily a bad choice to make.

Remember that yawning “buying premium” between the monthly cost of owning and renting? A wealthy tenant is in a position to save and invest the difference. Though homeownership is often touted as the best way to build wealth, it’s not the only way. It might not even be the best way: On average and over long stretches of time, the stock market regularly outperforms median home prices — albeit, without quite so many tax benefits and other boosts that federal and state governments shower upon homeowners.

Rather than pouring every last dollar in disposable income (and then some) into a single depreciating asset that threatens to leak when it rains, parking that money elsewhere also allows a renter the option to diversify.

“I think more people are starting to be interested in renting and saving at the same time, because they've been priced out of owning a home, but they still want to achieve their financial goals and they're looking into those alternatives and getting more savvy about it,” said Redfin economist Daryl Fairweather.

Running the numbers on whether renting and saving is, in fact, the better financial call gets very “murky,” she said. Much of it depends on the future of home prices, local rents, stock prices, interest rates and how long a person plans to stay put. It’s a hugely complex and individual choice and it’s not risk-free. Fairweather touted an online rent-vs-buy calculator produced by the New York Times.

But California’s specific conditions — high prices relative to rents, high maintenance and insurance costs, the relatively large number of tenants protected by rent control policies of one kind or another — the financial argument for renting may be about as good as it's ever been.

The perks of owning property

Even if renting is a better deal on paper, there are plenty of reasons someone might want to buy that have nothing to do with money.

Space is one: For a host of regulatory and financial reasons, the vast majority of rental units are apartments while detached single-family houses are predominantly reserved for owners. Especially for growing families, the option is often either to cram your spouse and kids into an urban apartment or drive out of the city (and possibly out of the state) until you can afford to buy.

Education is another. Rentals are also more likely than owner-occupied units to be in neighborhoods with poorly performing public schools and elevated crime rates.

For some, homeownership also comes with an entirely non-monetary warm and fuzzy factor, whether it’s independence — deciding when and what color to paint your walls, for instance — or a sense of security.

Finally, just because someone can save and invest the extra hundreds or thousands of dollars a month that would have gone to a mortgage payment, that doesn’t mean they will. No one likes making a mortgage payment, but by converting part of your paycheck each month into home equity, it acts as a kind of forced savings plan. It's perpetually tempting not to save.

“It takes more discipline to go against the social trend,” said Fairweather.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

President Donald Trump suspended the green card lottery program on Thursday that allowed the suspect in the Brown University and MIT shootings to come to the United States.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a post on the social platform X that, at Trump's direction, she is ordering the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to pause the program.

"This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country," she said of the suspect, Portuguese national Claudio Neves Valente.

Neves Valente, 48, is suspected in the shootings at Brown University that killed two students and wounded nine others, and the killing of an MIT professor. He was found dead Thursday evening from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials said.

Neves Valente had studied at Brown on a student visa beginning in 2000, according to an affidavit from a Providence police detective. In 2017, he was issued a diversity immigrant visa and months later obtained legal permanent residence status, according to the affidavit. It was not immediately clear where he was between taking a leave of absence from the school in 2001 and getting the visa in 2017.

The diversity visa program makes up to 50,000 green cards available each year by lottery to people from countries that are little represented in the U.S., many of them in Africa. The lottery was created by Congress, and the move is almost certain to invite legal challenges.

Nearly 20 million people applied for the 2025 visa lottery, with more than 131,000 selected when including spouses with the winners. After winning, they must undergo vetting to win admission to the United States. Portuguese citizens won only 38 slots.

Lottery winners are invited to apply for a green card. They are interviewed at consulates and subject to the same requirements and vetting as other green-card applicants.

Trump has long opposed the diversity visa lottery. Noem's announcement is the latest example of using tragedy to advance immigration policy goals. After an Afghan man was identified as the gunman in a fatal attack on National Guard members in November, Trump's administration imposed sweeping rules against immigration from Afghanistan and other counties.

While pursuing mass deportation, Trump has sought to limit or eliminate avenues to legal immigration. He has not been deterred if they are enshrined in law, like the diversity visa lottery, or the Constitution, as with a right to citizenship for anyone born on U.S. soil. The Supreme Court recently agreed to hear his challenge to birthright citizenship.
Copyright 2025 NPR

A top Justice Department official says the government will not fully release its files on the life and death of Jeffrey Epstein by Friday's deadline.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in an interview with Fox News Friday morning he expects "several hundred thousand documents" would be released today and hundreds of thousands more would come later.

"I expect that we're going to release more documents over the next couple of weeks," Blanche said. "So today, several hundred thousand, and then over the next couple weeks I expect several hundred thousand more."

Under the Epstein Files Transparency Act signed by President Trump last month, the attorney general is directed to "make publicly available in a searchable and downloadable format all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials in the possession of the Department of Justice, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and United States Attorneys' Offices" related to Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell.

More specifically, the law targets the release of information about individuals affiliated with Epstein's criminal activities, any decisions not to charge Epstein and his associates and "entities (corporate, nonprofit, academic, or governmental) with known or alleged ties to Epstein's trafficking or financial networks."

The files include "more than 300 gigabytes of data and physical evidence" in the FBI's custody and internal Justice Department records from criminal cases against Epstein. Some files include photos and videos of Epstein's accusers, including minors, and other depictions of abuse that will be withheld.

The text of the law that passed Congress with near-unanimous support also reads that "no record shall be withheld, delayed, or redacted on the basis of embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity, including to any government official, public figure, or foreign dignitary."

Ahead of the release, some members of Congress have expressed concern about what may be shared and when. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., a co-sponsor of the bill pushing for the release of Epstein files, shared a 14-minute video online Thursday explaining his expectations.

Massie said that he spoke with lawyers for some of Epstein's victims who allege that "there are at least 20 names of men who are accused of sex crimes in the possession of the FBI."

"So if we get a large production on December 19th and it does not contain a single name of any male who's accused of a sex crime or sex trafficking or rape or any of these things, then we know they haven't produced all the documents," he said. "It's that simple."

While the law gives the Justice Department 30 days after Trump signed it to publish the files, there is notably no mechanism to enforce the deadline or seek punishment if the deadline is not met or if lawmakers argue some redactions are improper.

There's also language in the law that allows redactions for classified national security or foreign policy purposes as well as anything "that would jeopardize an active federal investigation or ongoing prosecution."

Politics at play

But in recent weeks, Trump called on the Justice Department to investigate Democrats and financial institutions that have been mentioned in Epstein's private communications that have been released by the House Oversight Committee, complicating potential disclosures.

The attorney general is supposed to submit to the House and Senate a report listing the categories of records released and withheld, a summary of redactions made and "a list of all government officials and politically exposed persons named or referenced in the released materials" without redactions.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., told reporters Thursday that Democrats "expect compliance" with Friday's deadline.

"But if the Department of Justice does not comply with what is federal law at this point, there will be strong bipartisan pushback," he said.

After Friday morning's interview, House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., and House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md. issued a statement saying that Democrats were examining "all legal options."

"Donald Trump and the Department of Justice are now violating federal law as they continue covering up the facts and the evidence about Jeffrey Epstein's decades-long, billion-dollar, international sex trafficking ring," the statement reads. "For months, Pam Bondi has denied survivors the transparency and accountability they have demanded and deserve and has defied the Oversight Committee's subpoena. The Department of Justice is now making clear it intends to defy Congress itself, even as it gives star treatment to Epstein's convicted co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell."

In the meantime, there has been a steady drip of releases by Democrats and Republicans on the House Oversight Committee of documents from Epstein's private files, handed over by his estate under a subpoena.

The way the Trump administration has handled the Epstein files — including downplaying the information for much of the year — means that this release likely won't be the end of the story.

Democrats have used the files and Trump's changing message as one of the few levers of power they have to go after the Republican Party, which controls Congress and the White House.

Before returning to office, Trump and other key figures vowed to release the Epstein files as proof that a cabal of child predators was being protected by the government and working to undermine Trump. Now, some of Trump's base believes that he himself is part of the cover-up.

Throughout all of this, Epstein and Maxwell's accusers say they're disappointed that their allegations of abuse have been used as a political cudgel wielded by politicians in Washington.

"It's time that we put the political agendas and party affiliations to the side," Haley Robson, one accuser, said in a Nov. 18 press conference outside the Capitol. "This is a human issue. This is about children. There is no place in society for exploitation, sexual crimes, or exploitation of women in society."
Copyright 2025 NPR

If you’re lucky, an L.A. Christmas means you’re unwrapping some incredible tamales.

And if you’re really savvy, you probably have your go-to tamal lady.

If you’re both, you probably already know about Yesenia Trujillo Carranza.

“December is tamales season,” Carranza tells The LA Local. “It’s much busier for me, but I love it. I love anyone who really gets joy from my tamales.”

Carranza has been feeding the Boyle Heights community hot tamales, champurrado and café de olla for 20 years.

“I have a lot of enthusiasm for feeding the community,” she said from her tamales cart, located across the road from Roosevelt High School at the intersection of South Fickett and Fourth streets.

Carranza makes her Guerrero-style corn-husk tamales fresh each day — preparing about 50 pounds of masa and offering sweet tamales, classic chicken, pork and queso con rajas.

The stand-out is definitely the tamales de pollo served with a vibrant green salsa that has just the perfect hit of spice to make you shout, “It’s a wonderful life!” this Christmas.

But Carranza isn’t alone on these streets.

Some of the best chefs and eateries in Los Angeles are elevating the portable masa meal to Michelin levels.

Don’t get us wrong, tamales like the ones Carranza and your favorite tamales lady sell do not need the glow up.

But these tamal makers offer a unique and adventurous take on the ancient masa masterpiece.

Komal

3655 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles, Historic South Central

A tamal rojo from Komal.

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Marina Peña

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The LA Local

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Komal opened in September 2024 at Mercado La Paloma and immediately made headlines for being LA’s first craft molino, which basically means it makes some of the best masa this side of the border.

That masa excellence is on full display in their pretty and plump chuchito tamal, a staple on the menu. The chuchito is a ball of masa stuffed with pork and topped with roasted peppers, tomato sauce, and pickled vegetables.

“The chuchito is from Guatemala, and it represents my team. Most of the people who work with me in the kitchen are from Guatemala, so this dish is a way to represent them,” says Komal’s chef and co-owner, Fátima Juárez. “Without them, we truly wouldn’t be what we are today.”

The flavors feel like a heartfelt nod to traditional dishes found in Mexico City and Oaxaca. The tamales are made with Indigenous corn sourced directly from farmers in Mexico and nixtamalized on site.

“In general, the masa and its consistency make the tamal very light. It melts in your mouth, almost as if you were eating a savory or sweet cake. It’s not very dense; it’s juicy and has a lot of flavor,” Juarez says. “A big part of that has to do with how the masa is made, we don’t use lard; we use olive oil and grape-seed oil.”

For the holidays, Juárez has added some beautiful seasonal tamales. There’s a rojo that’s bursting at the seams with sweet corn and calabacitas, topped with a spicy red sauce. Komal also features a tamal verde with chicken and tomatillo sauce, along with a sweet tamal de leche made with oranges and strawberry jam.

Guelaguetza

3014 W. Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles, Koreatown

A mole tamal from Guelaguetza.

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Courtesy Guelaguetza

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Guelaguetza’s tamales are simply stunning to look at. Opening one is as close to unwrapping a Christmas present as it gets.

Founded by husband and wife Fernando Lopez and Maria Monterrubio in 1994, this ode to Oaxacan cuisine has become one of the most lauded restaurants in the country, thanks in large part to the late Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic Jonathan Gold, who once called Guelaguetza “the most accomplished Oaxacan restaurant in the United States.”

The tamales come carefully wrapped in a large banana leaf so that there is just enough of an opening to decorate the masa with the Lopez family’s legendary black mole. Inside, you will find a treasure of juicy chicken breast meat.

Lugya’h by Poncho’s Tlayudas

4301 W. Jefferson Blvd., Los Angeles, West Adams

Lugya’h by Poncho’s Tlayudas features a savory amarillo sauce.

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Erick Galindo

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The LA Local

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When the humble culinary genius Alfonso “Poncho” Martinez sunsetted his weekend pop-up Poncho’s Tlayudas for a six-day-a-week brick and mortar shop called Lugya’h inside the swanky Maydan Market, LA’s street food lovers both rejoiced and shed a tear. There was nothing like Friday nights feasting on Poncho’s tlayudas. But now we can get them all week long, and there are some added benefits like access to his beautiful Zapotec-inspired tamales.

“In the hills of Oaxaca, we wrap tamales with whatever kind of leaves we can find,” he tells The LA Local.

Lugya’h’s tamales are quite beautiful to look at, but they are also quite lovely to devour. They are turkey tamales wrapped in banana leaves and feature Poncho’s savory amarillo sauce, a blend of hot peppers, tomatoes and turkey broth.

A Tí

1498 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, Echo Park

A Tí serves a sweet dessert tamal.

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Erick Galindo

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The LA Local

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Chef Andrew Ponce says he opened his fine dining-style Mexican restaurant A Tí as a tribute to his father. “My father worked his whole life and still had time to make it to my little league games,” he explained. “So this is for him.”

Ponce admits he was never great at baseball, but he hit it out of the park with his dessert tamal. Ponce uses blue masa quebrada — a crumbly, more coarse masa from Kernel of Truth Organics — whipped butter and a blend of seasonal squash from the farmers market.

“It can be from kabocha green and red squash or red curry squash and honey nut squash,” Ponce tells The LA Local. “And I season it with piloncillo and warm spices.”

The sweet tamal is topped with soft whipped cream and a pecan crumble.

Tamales La Güera

Southeast corner of Broadway and West Vernon Avenue in Historic South Central

The guajolota by Tamales La Güera.

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Kevin Martinez

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LA Local community engagement director Kevin Martinez swears by Elisa Chaparro Garcia’s guajolota — a hot tamal stuffed inside a bolillo, creating a thick tamal torta — because it’s the closest thing to a Mexico City tamal experience you can find in Los Angeles.

The combination creates a perfect balance between the melty ephemerality of the tamal and the sweet stickiness of the bread. The tamales are served with pork, chicken, queso con rajas, strawberry, pineapple or mole.

“The bolillo allows the tamal to linger a little longer in the mouth,” Martinez explains. “It’s not too soggy, not too dry, creating the perfect bite.”

Tamales La Güera has been serving her Mexico City-style tamales in South Central for more than 20 years and has become so popular that she opened a second stand across the street.

La Flor de Yucatán

1800 Hoover St., Los Angeles, Pico Union

The colado from La Flor de Yucatán.

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Marina Peña

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The LA Local

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This family-owned fixture in Pico Union specializes in Mayan-style, banana leaf tamales.

“Our tamales come from a family recipe from the Yucatán because that’s where our specialty is. We chose bits and pieces from aunts and uncles and made it our own,” says Annie Burgos, co-owner of the bakery.

La Flor de Yucatán has been in the neighborhood for more than 50 years, serving homestyle baked goods like hojaldra — a flaky, sugar-topped pastry with ham and cheese — and regional tamales.

Her parents, Antonio and Rosa Burgos, started the business after baking in their home kitchen in Pasadena in the late 1960s, with Antonio selling the goods door to door and from his vehicle.

“Yucatán is so far down in Mexico, so our tamales have more in common with those from Central America and the Caribbean,” Burgos says. “The consistency of the dough is different, the flavoring is different because you get some of the flavoring from the banana leaf itself, and the tamales tend to be moist.”

Today, they offer three classic Yucatecan tamales wrapped in banana leaves: the colado, a moist, fluffy tamal filled with chicken and pork; the tortiado, a hand-patted tamal with chicken and pork; and the dzotobichay, a chaya leaf tamal often filled with pepper jack cheese.

“My favorite would be the tortiado, but in all the pop-ups that we do, everywhere that we go, the one that reigns supreme is the colado,” Burgos says. “You can scoop into the colado, the other tamales you have to cut into.”