The Brief

The sparks started flying between U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff and former L.A. Dodgers star Steve Garvey minutes into their only one-on-one debate, as both accused each other of failing Californians.

In an hour-long televised forum Tuesday evening for the U.S. Senate seat — held by Dianne Feinstein until her death last year — the two traded verbal jabs and clashed over a range of issues, including reproductive rights, gun control and immigration.

Garvey, a Palm Desert Republican, portrayed Schiff as a “career politician” who has done little to serve California residents during his tenure. “This man hasn’t done anything over the last 24 years on any of these things that have given us any consistency in life,” Garvey said.

Schiff, a Burbank Democrat who has served in Congress since 2001, in turn depicted Garvey as a supporter of former President Donald Trump who has experience in professional sports, not politics. “While Mr. Garvey was signing baseballs for the last 37 days, I was seeing presidents of both parties and governors of both parties sign my bills into law,” Schiff said.

The heated exchanges contrasted with the dynamic of the race, which has largely been quiet and static after the March primary, in which Schiff spent millions boosting Garvey to elbow out his Democratic opponents, U.S. Reps. Katie Porter and Barbara Lee. Schiff has consistently dominated Garvey in statewide polls in deep-blue California and has raised more money than his GOP opponent overall — enough to fund other Democrats in toss-up races across the country.

Garvey, on the other hand, has run a much more low-key campaign and stayed close to home — except for a summer trip to Israel. He fundraised for his own campaign while skipping out on the California Republican Party convention and the Republican National Convention. He’s also conducted interviews with local TV stations and appeared at local festivals.

Here’s more on some of the key issues during the debate hosted by ABC7 in Los Angeles and the League of Women Voters of California:

Abortion

Garvey, noting that he is Catholic, said he pledged to support the will of Californians on reproductive rights. In November 2022, California voters enshrined the right to abortion and contraception into the state constitution, which Garvey acknowledged.

Garvey has said he believes reproductive freedom is a state-by-state issue. In January, Garvey said he opposed a nationwide abortion ban. And in July, he said he supported the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which ended decades of federal protection for abortion and relegated the decision making power to the states.

Schiff said he supports making the right to abortion a federal law and hammered Garvey for supporting the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade.

“If my colleague was listening to the voices of Californians as he claims, he would hear their voices loud and clear: Californians want a national right to reproductive freedom and they don’t want the government in the business of making that decision for women,” Schiff said. “I’m for reproductive freedom, Mr. Garvey. You are not.”

‘Court packing’

Schiff has blamed the decision overturning Roe on the high court’s conservative majority and supported expanding the court from nine justices to 13.

“What I care about is that a small number of conservative justices, who lied about their plans to the Senate, intend to deprive millions of women of reproductive care,” he said.

In response, Garvey repeatedly accused Schiff of supporting court packing — a partisan ploy to change the number of justices to achieve a desired outcome. It can be done in theory, but past efforts have failed amid steep opposition, ABC News reported.

Garvey argued that Schiff’s support for nationwide abortion rights, gun control measures and abolishing the filibuster — which in effect requires 60 votes to pass legislation in the U.S. Senate — show that Schiff wants to pack the court and “deconstruct” the Constitution.

In response, Schiff said U.S. Supreme Court justices should be “rebalanced” and term limited, held by a stronger set of ethics code.

“As for packing the court, Mr. Garvey, in case you weren’t paying attention, it’s already been packed,” Schiff said, referring to the conservative majority.

Guns

Garvey, who told CalMatters last year he supported an assault weapons ban, did not say whether he changed his position tonight. Instead, he focused solely on pre-sale background checks.

“I think that the most important thing is a stringent background check that goes much deeper than it is today in order to preserve the integrity of the Second Amendment and to be able to provide for people to defend themselves,” he said.

Schiff said he supports a universal background check law, as well as a ban on assault weapons and extended ammunition clips. He would also “strip away the (National Rifle Association)’s immunity from liability,” he said.

Donald Trump

Schiff — who led the first impeachment against Donald Trump — has continued to slam the former president as an unfit leader. In his own race, he has attempted to tie Garvey — who has voted for Trump twice and who plans to vote for him again — to Trump, accusing Garvey tonight of being a “MAGA Mini-Me in a baseball uniform.”

Garvey, on the other hand, said Schiff’s focus on his impeachment effort against Trump prohibits him from addressing the needs of Californians, arguing that it would be the “most toxic” Senate if Schiff got elected.

“I can’t imagine, Mr. Schiff, how you can get up every morning and have one mission, and that’s to go after Donald Trump,” Garvey said. “How can you think about one man every day and focus on that when you’ve got millions of people in California to take care of?”

But Schiff wore his outspokenness against Trump as a badge of honor, arguing he “stood up to a corrupt president” and witnessed as Trump “incited” a mob storming the Capitol building.

Immigration

Tonight, Garvey described the border as “an existential crisis” created by President Joe Biden. While border crossings spiked under Biden, he has pushed for tougher border restrictions, including expanded executive authority to shut down the border and restrict asylum seekers.

But Garvey penned an op-ed in La Opinión against mass deportation of illegal immigrants, which Trump has pledged to do if he returns to the White House. Instead, Garvey argued the federal government should increase funding to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, strengthen border security and expedite family-based green card applications. He advocated for shutting down the border “temporarily.”

Additionally, Garvey said he supports reinstating the Trump-era policy keeping asylum seekers in Mexico while their applications are pending. He opposed “catch and release,” which, instead of detaining a migrant, allows them to return to the community while they wait for an immigration court hearing.

Schiff said tonight the government needs to “get control of the border,” advocating for more personnel and technology to help with border patrol while also ensuring humane treatment of migrants.

“We can have both a strong border but also treat people as human beings,” he said.

Schiff has criticized policies detaining migrants, calling the conditions at some detention centers “incredibly disturbing.” He has supported increased funding to add more judges and interpreters at immigration courts, more resources to enhance border inspections and expanded humanitarian support for asylum seekers.

He also supports the U.S. Citizenship Act, which would create a pathway to citizenship for some Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients and undocumented immigrants if they pass the background checks and have worked in the country for at least five years.

Schiff and Garvey are vying for the support of Latino voters, who are the least likely to vote despite comprising the largest racial and ethnic group statewide. As part of an “all-in Latino community strategy,” on Oct. 4, Garvey’s campaign aired its first statewide TV ads — only in Spanish — as part of a $5 million ad buy.

More on the race and candidates

Check out our full voter guide on this race ▶

An employee of Los Angeles County’s Office of Emergency Management has sued his employer, alleging he was retaliated against for making whistleblower complaints about the response to the deadly Eaton Fire.

Nicholas Vaquero, an associate director in the Office of Emergency Management, alleges that officials leading the office failed to properly staff the response to the fire, which killed at least 19 people and burned thousands of homes and businesses in January 2025.

He also alleges the county’s emergency alerts were inadequate and that it submitted fraudulent data in order to receive FEMA reimbursement. Vaquero says in the suit that he used official county whistleblower channels to raise his concerns, in addition to speaking to OEM’s top two officials, Director Kevin McGowan and Deputy Director Leslie Luke.

Vaquero’s lawyers and the county declined to comment on the substance of the lawsuit. “L.A. County is going to address the allegations in court,” spokesperson Elizabeth Marcellino wrote in a statement to LAist.

LAist previously reported on Vaquero’s whistleblower complaint, in which he alleged that a now-retired employee with “a long history of sleeping on the job” was put in charge of emergency workers sending evacuation alerts and was asleep during critical moments of the first night of the Eaton Fire, when many of the deaths and much of the devastation occurred.

In the lawsuit, Vaquero alleges he has faced retaliation after raising his concerns, including being excluded from meetings he previously was a part of and being treated with hostility by the department’s leadership, among other things.

The complaint comes after county leadership launched a three-year restructuring of the Office of Emergency Management, which includes working to add staff and to conduct regular training for all staff on emergency alert software.

An after-action report from the McChrystal Group highlighted that the emergency management office was severely short-staffed during the fire. The department, which serves 10 million people, had a staff of 37 people at the time the fires broke out. Meanwhile, New York City has a population of 8.5 million and an emergency management staff of about 200 people, the report noted.

For the last three years, the record store and music venue Healing Force of the Universe has been operating on a sleepy street corner not far from Pasadena City College. Nearby businesses include a shoe repair store, a nail salon and several auto shops.

“We're kind of in a dead corner,” owner Austin Manuel said. “No offense if anybody lives here, but not a very foot-trafficked area, kind of a hard place to have a store.”

In spite of the location, Manuel said Healing Force has become a home away from home for musicians and music fans. One of them is Bobby Bradford, a jazz trumpet legend who lost his house and personal archive in the Eaton Fire. He performs regularly at the venue. (Healing Force has also partnered with LAist on fire recovery events.)

Its current location is set to close this month, but Manuel and his team are already raising funds to cover a move to another space: G-Son Studios in Atwater Village. The repurposed ballroom was the Beastie Boys' home base when they recorded their classic albums Check Your Head and Ill Communication. Run-DMC and Biz Markie stopped by at one point, and Beck also laid down tracks for his album Odelay there.

Inside Healing Force's space in Pasadena.

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The vibe

Healing Force sells records, of course, but these days it’s more of a nighttime performance space. Manuel said he wants people to feel comfortable striking up conversations after a show.

“I grew up in the church in the South, and I was like, ‘How do I design this so that it feels like a Southern church lady could come in here and feel welcome?’" Manuel said. “ I didn't want it to be too cool.  I wanted it to feel kind of suburban in a way.”

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Though the name might call to mind a cult slogan — and Manuel said they lean into that aesthetic on purpose — it’s actually a reference to the 1970 album Music Is the Healing Force of the Universe by saxophonist Albert Ayler.

At the venue, “people can kind of get … into a meditative zone,” Manuel said. “After the [January 2025] fires, it felt so good to come back together in this room and feel the healing of community.”

Healing Force's stage setup.

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The performances

The shows Healing Force puts on share a common thread: They’re meant to promote peace and relaxation, as well as deep, careful listening on the hi-fi sound system. But they’re an eclectic mix of genres. On one night, you might see L.A. spiritual jazz band Phi-Psonics, who turned a residency at the venue into a live album, Expanding to One.

On another night, you might catch a spaced-out electronic set, an up-and-coming singer-songwriter or a group of session musicians who’ve played with the likes of Paul Simon, Elton John and Lucinda Williams.

About the fundraiser

With the new space on Glendale Boulevard, Manuel said, Healing Force would triple its capacity for concerts, get a bar space and be closer to other venues in Northeast L.A.

“If 1,000 people gave $25, we would get there,” Manuel said – though he also said most people have been giving more.

You can read more about the fundraiser and donate at Healing Force’s GoFundMe.

See the Pasadena space before it closes

The venue is still open at 1200 E. Walnut Street and is holding events through this Halloween weekend. You can see their events calendar on their website.

The racist DNA of Jim Crow discrimination may be embedded in your housing documents.

The language in housing documents that restricts sale or use of a property only to a person of the white race is called a “restrictive covenant,” and in California the practice goes back to the 19th century and continued into the mid-20th century. While housing discrimination persists, the practice was found unconstitutional in 1948.

California counties are reporting mixed progress in meeting the demands of a 2021 law to excise the language from property records.

According to Sylvia Manzo, deputy recorder in the Orange County Clerk-Recorder’s office, the county finished the job in March of this year, removing racist language from more than 27,000 property documents with the help of computer software.

This 1924 property document from Bakersfield includes racist language limiting use of the property in question to people of "the white or Caucasian race."

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L.A. County is far from done. It says that with the help of an outside company hired in 2024, 50 million pages will be examined yearly, which would take about 10 years to finish the job.

Public agencies could use the public’s help.

Language examples

Here’s a 1924 example from a property in Bakersfield. The text reads, “That the lands herein conveyed shall never, at any time, be sold to or rented to or occupied by any person not of the white or Caucasian race.”

Or this language from a 1936 document relating to a Costa Mesa property: “That said premises shall not be sold, conveyed, rented, or leased to, or occupied by any person of African, Mexican, or Asiatic descent.”

How to get it taken out

The Restrictive Covenant Modification Form is at the heart of the effort to remove the racist language from housing documents. Each county has its own process. Some charge a fee; others don’t. Some require a notary certification for the signature; others don’t.

L.A. County:

Registrar-Recorder officials recommend these steps:

• Highlight or underline the unlawful provision on the recorded document
• Complete the Restrictive Covenant Modification Form
• Submit the form and the recorded document by email: RCM@rrcc.lacounty.gov or in person at the Norwalk headquarters at 12400 Imperial Highway in Norwalk
• Mail instructions are here.

Orange County:

The Orange County spokesperson says there may be some properties not caught by its software and urges the public to report them. Here’s the form

Riverside County:

Here’s the Riverside County form

San Bernardino County:

Here’s the San Bernardino County form

San Diego County:

Here’s the San Diego County form

Santa Barbara County:

Here’s the Santa Barbara County form

Ignoring the racist language in property documents, some say, reinforces the legacy of segregation, while taking steps to remove restrictive covenant language is a way individuals and organizations can repudiate policies that sought to discriminate.