The Brief

The Senate voted 88-9 to approve a stopgap spending bill to fund the federal government through Nov. 17, narrowly averting a shutdown by a midnight deadline. President Biden signed the bill into law shortly afterward.

The legislation also includes $16 billion in emergency disaster assistance requested by the White House and extends authorization for the Federal Aviation Administration through the end of the year. It does not include any additional aid to Ukraine, despite widespread bipartisan support for that funding in the Senate.

Biden praised the legislation before signing it and called for Congress to move quickly to address the lack of funding for Ukraine.

"We cannot under any circumstances allow American support for Ukraine to be interrupted," Biden said in a statement. "I fully expect the Speaker will keep his commitment to the people of Ukraine and secure passage of the support needed to help Ukraine at this critical moment."

The sudden agreement in Congress on spending was a major reversal after House Republicans remained at an impasse for weeks. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., unveiled the bill Saturday morning after a closed-door meeting with House Republicans.

The vote came after an hours-long delay led in part by Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., who demanded a firm commitment from leaders in both parties on the Ukraine aid.

"I think it's really important for us to send a message that the dysfunction that we have, in terms of this immediate question about opening or closing the government, doesn't reflect on our bipartisan commitment to make sure that the United States stays in this battle and that we continue to support the Ukrainian people in their fight," Bennet told reporters outside the Capitol.

The Senate vote capped a day of dramatic swings in Congress ahead of the shutdown deadline.

Earlier in the day, the House voted 335-91 to approve the extension. McCarthy has refused for weeks to consider any spending bill that would require the support of Democrats. But facing the potential for a politically and economically harmful shutdown, McCarthy reversed course, specifically calling on Democrats for help passing the bill.

"What I am asking, Republicans and Democrats alike, put your partisanship away, focus on the American public," McCarthy told reporters before the vote.

In the final vote of 209-126, more Democrats than Republicans supported the measure.

No funding for for UkraineThe White House, congressional Democrats and many Senate Republicans have insisted on including financial support for Ukraine, because current funding is set to run out at the beginning of October. However, a bloc of House Republicans strongly oppose more funding for Ukraine, and lawmakers abandoned those plans in order to pass a deal on spending.

Senate Democrats lamented the lack of Ukraine funding but said there is a bipartisan commitment to find a path for funding. House Republicans have suggested the only way to do that is to pair the funding with money to address illegal immigration at the U.S. border with Mexico. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., rejected that idea.

"I just think it's much better for all of us, much better for the world if we separate the question of Ukraine from any other political question," Murphy told reporters in the Capitol.

He said lawmakers are "going back to the drawing board" to figure out what would go in a Ukraine assistance package but "that can't happen overnight."

Many Republicans in the House and some in the Senate oppose new funding for Ukraine without further accounting of how the previous funds have been spent.

"We're going to have a really, really tough conversation about whether and how we're going to fund Ukraine," said Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio. "I think this is a victory for those of us who are skeptical of indefinite funding for Ukraine. But there's going to be another fight, whether it's next week or three weeks from now."

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., speaks with members of the media following a meeting of the Republican House caucus on Saturday in Washington, D.C.

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McCarthy's reversal

The sudden rush of action came after House Republicans huddled in the basement of the Capitol to discuss strategy.

Some McCarthy allies, like Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., argued a temporary fix to funding the government was needed so House Republicans can continue to push for conservative spending policy without the threat of a shutdown. Leaders stressed that with continued resistance from a group of conservative GOP members, there was no way to move a bill with just Republicans. McCarthy holds a narrow majority and can't lose any more than four votes.

Johnson pointed to the 21 far right Republican members who blocked a GOP bill on Friday as the reason why the speaker moved to this new plan. Those members "put us in a position to unfortunately pass something a little less conservative. Now the good news is this is still a pathway to get the kind of conservative wins we need through the appropriations process."

House Republican leaders canceled the planned district recess for the beginning of October and said the House will continue to move their own spending bills — they passed four of the 12 that fund federal agencies.

Conservatives pushed back against the stopgap bill. Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., told reporters he would vote no against a continuing resolution. "There's no such thing as a clean CR." He argued if one passed he didn't believe the House would continue taking up the rest of the annual spending bills.

Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida speaks to the press outside the U.S. Capitol on Saturday.

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The threat to McCarthy's leadership

McCarthy's move opens him up to a challenge for his gavel. Florida GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz has been hinting for days he was planning to file a resolution to oust the speaker. Under rules McCarthy agreed to in January when he was elected, only one lawmaker is needed to file a "motion to vacate" — a resolution that calls for a vote of confidence in the speaker.

Asked by reporters if he was worried about his job, the speaker said, "you know what, if somebody wants to remove because I want to be the adult in the room, go ahead and try."

Democrats join with McCarthy's plan

Democrats join with McCarthy's planThere was drama early in the day as House Democrats attempted to stall progress on the House bill in order to give the Senate time to vote first on their own version of the legislation that would have provided roughly $6 billion for Ukraine.

As senators crept toward their own vote, across the Capitol, the House Appropriations Committee's Democratic staff members released an analysis criticizing the bill for not including money for Ukraine.

But it quickly became clear that Senate Republicans were on board with McCarthy's plan and House Democrats relented.

Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., the top Democrat on the Rules Committee, said he was disappointed with the decision to remove Ukraine aid, but Congress needed to move ahead with the deal they could reach.

"There's bipartisan consensus on [Ukraine], we've had overwhelming votes on this, so I think we will work that out," McGovern told reporters. "But right now this is a bill — I mean I would have written the bill a little bit better, but this is a bill that Democrats can support and I think we won some important victories."

NPR's Deepa Shivaram contributed to this report.

In 2021, Governor Newsom and state leaders set in motion a plan to make a public preschool program — transitional kindergarten — available for all 4-year-olds by this fall. The plan was touted as an effort to improve learning outcomes for lower-income families and break “cycles of intergenerational poverty.”

According to a new report from UC Berkeley, however, more affluent neighborhoods in L.A. County are leading enrollment in transitional kindergarten.

The report found that enrollment growth in the richest quarter of ZIP codes in the county — places that include Palos Verdes and Brentwood — climbed at three times the rate of growth in the poorest parts of the county from 2021 to the spring of 2024.

“We were surprised by the magnitude of that gap, and that raises all sorts of questions,” said Bruce Fuller, professor emeritus of education and public policy at UC Berkeley and co-author of the report, which is based on state data. “Is TK expansion really going to narrow disparities in young children's early development, or will TK actually exacerbate or reinforce these inequalities?”

The report shows that middle- to upper-income families are gaining the most from transitional kindergarten.

“They were paying through the nose for expensive preschool, and now they have free pre-K for their 4-year-olds,” Fuller said.

A number of publicly funded preschool programs already are options for lower-income families, like Head Start and school district-based early learning centers.

Neighborhoods where TK is growing rapidly also are in school districts that have more resources to renovate their facilities and hire more teachers for TK, Fuller said.

Preschool closures an unintended consequence 

The report also found that the growth of enrollment of 4-year-olds in the public school system correlated to the shrinking number of preschools in the community — areas with the highest growth in TK also had a higher number of preschool closures.

“ We found that as TK was growing, it's actually eroding the vitality of nonprofit, community-based preschools,” Fuller said. “They're hemorrhaging the 4-year-olds.”

Preschools haven’t been able to make the quick pivot to serving younger kids, like infants, to compensate, as state leaders intended in a 2020 roadmap for early education.

Between 2020 and 2024, Berkeley researchers found 167 pre-K centers across L.A. county closed.

Susie Leonard’s preschool in Mar Vista was one of them. The school, A Kid’s Place, closed in August 2023 after 20 years of operating.

“ We were very proud of our school and the families that we were able to help and the kids that we were able to help, so the fact that it was kind of a forced closure, it makes us sad,” Leonard said.

She said the nonprofit school already had been reeling from COVID when TK started expanding. Without the 4-year-olds, she said enrollment dropped from as many as 90 students to around 30.

“It was a double hit,” she said. “We didn't have a huge financial cushion to allow us to ride out a couple of years and to really attempt to get to enroll on the younger side. We were kind of functioning on fumes.”

Can private preschools adjust?

Champa Perera’s preschool, Kidzhaven in Sun Valley, closed in 2021 due to COVID. Now, she’s a professor in early childhood education and consults preschools trying to switch to serve younger children.

“That is where the market is right now,” she said.

But it’s a significant change: Switching to serving children 2 and under requires a different license from the state and also requires a higher adult-to-child ratio. And it can be challenging to find enough teachers, Perera said, which the report echoed. Teachers also are better paid in transitional kindergarten than their peers in private or publicly subsidized preschools.

Fuller said the expansion of transitional kindergarten has created competition in the early childhood landscape as birth rates decline.

“When we have this fragmentation, it sets up this competition for a shrinking number of kids, and that doesn't really serve anybody,” he said.

L.A. County leaders on Tuesday greenlit public transparency about payouts to county executives in response to LAist revealing a secretive $2 million settlement with the county’s CEO.

County supervisors unanimously approved a proposal by Supervisor Lindsey Horvath to have the county proactively inform the public about such settlements once they’re finalized and to look into creating a public website to describe them.

Among other things, the approved motion requires that all future settlements with county executives include language making it clear the agreement will be proactively disclosed to the public.

The backstory

The directive cited coverage by LAist revealing that two months ago, county CEO Fesia Davenport had quietly gotten a $2 million settlement payment from the county. As reported by LAist, Davenport’s settlement deal was labeled “confidential” and was not publicly reported out by the county.

The settlement was in response to her claims the supervisors harmed her reputation and caused her distress by putting a measure before voters — which was approved — that will create an elected county executive position. It’s among multiple reforms to restructure county government under last year’s voter-approved proposition, known as Measure G.

Davenport did not return a message for comment.

‘Public trust’ cited

“Transparency is central to strengthening public trust, without exception,” Horvath said in a statement after Tuesday’s vote. “Since joining the board, I have actively taken steps to ensure the public is included in the work of the county, especially concerning the use of public funds.

“Creating a clear process for department executive settlements is a commonsense action fundamental to good governance.”

David Loy, legal director of the First Amendment Coalition, commented on the decision, calling transparency the "oxygen of accountability in government."

“There is no reason why the county should not be proactive about posting and disclosing settlements that have been reached, especially with former executives or staff,” Loy said.

Davenport was one of several county executives to receive sizable settlement payouts over the past few years. Four additional county executives received payouts, according to Davenport’s claims that led to her settlement.

Costco now is one of the largest companies to sue the Trump administration over tariffs, hoping to secure a refund if the Supreme Court declares the new import duties illegal.

The Supreme Court is weighing the future of President Donald Trump's tariffs on nearly all imports. Justices seemed skeptical about their legality during last month's oral arguments. Lower courts previously had found Trump improperly used emergency economic powers to set most of the new levies.

Dozens of companies across industries have filed lawsuits to seek refunds in the event the Supreme Court finds Trump's tariffs illegal. The list includes makeup giant Revlon, the canned foods maker Bumble Bee and Kawasaki, which makes motorcycles and more. Now Costco has joined the queue.

"This is the first time we're seeing big companies take their heads out of the sand publicly," said Marc Busch, a trade law expert at Georgetown University. For the most part, small companies have been leading the legal action against tariffs, he said, adding, "It's nice to finally see some heavyweights joining in the fray."

In its suit filed with the U.S. Court of International Trade, Costco did not specify how much it's already paid in tariffs, but the retail giant worries that even if the Supreme Court eventually unravels Trump's tariff regime, it may not be able to recoup all that money.

Costco executives in May had said that about a third of what is sold in the U.S. comes from abroad, predominantly non-food items.

NPR's Scott Horsley contributed to this report.
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The L.A. City Council voted 8-4 on Tuesday to continue allowing the Los Angeles Police Department to be armed with 40 mm foam bullet launchers and tear gas.

California law enforcement agencies are required to track and publicly document how they use military equipment, including less-lethal bean bag shotgun rounds, drones and armored vehicles, under state law AB 481 passed in 2022. The law also requires city leaders to approve or disapprove military equipment use annually. That vote came in front of the council Tuesday.

Another law passed after the George Floyd protests of 2020 restricted the use of crowd-control weapons, including tear gas and foam bullets, unless specific criteria are met. In 2020, a federal judge also imposed an injunction restricting LAPD’s use of force at protests, citing the “unfortunate history of civil rights violations by LAPD officers.”

Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez — who introduced an amendment asking city leaders to ban the LAPD’s use of 40 mm foam bullet launchers and tear gas — said military equipment use is allowed only in specific instances but that the police department has deployed the weapons “in ways that should make everyone here on this body pause.” He cited examples of weapons used against journalists and protesters during this summer’s protests against federal immigration activity in L.A.

“In recent months, we’ve watched this equipment deployed in ways that echo the same intimidation tactics we condemn in ICE raids — tactics that erode trust and violate basic legal protections,” he said. “Our residents should be able to exercise their rights without being met with [foam] bullets or tear gas.”

LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell countered that such weapons are "a de-escalation tool, short of using deadly force. The last thing we want to use is deadly force."

He continued: "Taking a tool like this away from us puts us in a very bad position relative to city liability and relative to protecting our officers and the public that we serve.”

In 2024, Los Angeles was liable for more than $50 million in payouts related to civil rights violations and unlawful use of force by the LAPD, according to the city controller’s office.

 ”Rather than be swayed by emotion or swayed by the loud voices of a relative few," McDonnell said Tuesday, "we're here to protect 4 million residents of Los Angeles and all the visitors who come here."

How we got here

After this summer’s anti-ICE protests, the LAPD once again came under scrutiny for its use of foam bullet launchers and tear gas.

An LAist investigation found LAPD used crowd-dispersal tools on people who did not appear to pose a threat and, in some cases, did not appear to be protesting at all. LAist reporters witnessed LAPD officers firing less-lethal munitions into crowds and at protestors running away from police. They did not hear clear warnings about the use of crowd-dispersal weapons during some of the protests and could not locate evidence that adequate warning was provided during subsequent protests.

But at Tuesday’s council meeting, McDonnell said, these weapons are deployed as “a last resort to be able to restore order” and after people have been given time to leave.

The Los Angeles Press Club sued the LAPD after June’s protests, citing violations of journalists’ rights while covering protests. After a judge issued an injunction in that case prohibiting the use of force against journalists, the LAPD filed an emergency motion asking the judge to lift the injunction, stating it required “operationally impracticable standards.” The judge denied the LAPD’s request.

How to watchdog your police department

One of the best things you can do to hold officials accountable is pay attention.

AB 481 requires police departments — including those at transit agencies, school districts and university campuses, sheriff’s departments, district attorney’s offices and probation departments — to provide reports about the use of military equipment.

So how do you know if they're in compliance? It’s simple. Search for the law enforcement agency name and "AB 481" on any search engine, and a public page should pop up. Here’s the LAPD’s.