The Brief

David Huerta, who leads California’s largest union — Service Employees International Union California — pleaded not guilty in federal court Tuesday to obstructing an ICE operation in Los Angeles this summer.

Prosecutors are charging the labor leader with a misdemeanor, accusing him of obstructing, resisting, or opposing a federal officer during the first day of immigration sweeps across the region.

The federal government originally charged Huerta with a felony, which carried a maximum sentence of six years in prison.

After entering his plea, Huerta spoke outside the courthouse, calling the charge against him a "weaponization of the justice system."

"These charges are baseless," he said. "They are an attempt to silence anyone who dares to speak out, organize, or demand justice. I will not be silenced."

The charge against Huerta goes back to June 6, when he showed up at Ambiance Apparel in downtown L.A., a workplace where federal authorities were executing a warrant. He was arrested and held for three nights in the Metropolitan Detention Center Los Angeles.

According to SEIU, Huerta was injured during his arrest and treated at a hospital while in federal custody. The union said that he was exercising his First Amendment right to document law enforcement.

In the original criminal complaint filed in June, a federal agent described Huerta and others gathering outside of a gate at the workplace "effectively preventing law enforcement vehicles from entering or exiting the premises through the gate to execute the search warrant."

The complaint claims Huerta blocked the path of a white law enforcement van into the workplace.

"Because Huerta was being uncooperative, the officer put his hands on Huerta in an attempt to move him out of the path of the vehicle," the federal agent wrote in the complaint.

The U.S. Attorney's Office declined to offer further comment.

The immigration enforcement actions on June 6 kicked off a summer of raids and protests across Southern California. Since then, federal prosecutors have charged a number of people who joined protests against ICE.

A trial is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Jan. 20.

Greystar, which manages hundreds of properties in California, has agreed to pay $7 million to settle a lawsuit alleging the company and other landlords used a price scheme to raise rents artificially high.

In January, Greystar was named as a defendant in an antitrust lawsuit filed by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, the U.S. Department of Justice and several other states against software company RealPage, which officials say uses algorithmic models to recommend price increases to subscribers.

Bonta alleges Greystar used RealPage’s system to coordinate rental prices with other landlords by illegally sharing and gathering confidential information. According to his office, RealPage’s “price alignment scheme” affected rentals across the country, especially in multifamily buildings in Southern California, including in Los Angeles, Orange County and San Bernardino.

"Whether it's through smoke-filled backroom deals or through an algorithm on your computer screen, colluding to drive up prices is illegal,” Bonta said in a statement. “Companies that intentionally fuel this unaffordability by raising prices to line their own pockets can be sure I will use the full force of my office to hold them accountable.”

Details on the settlement

Greystar is the largest landlord in the U.S., according to the Department of Justice, managing nearly 950,000 rental units across the country. In California, the company manages about 333 multifamily rental properties that use RealPage’s pricing software, according to Bonta’s office.

Bonta announced last week that as part of the settlement, Greystar has agreed to stop using software that uses competitively sensitive information to set rent prices, including from RealPage.

The company also has agreed to cooperate in the federal prosecution of RealPage and the other landlords named as defendants, such as Camden and Willow Bridge.

Greystar said in a statement to LAist that it’s “pleased this matter is resolved” and the company “remain[s] focused on serving our residents and clients.”

Settlement with RealPage

The U.S. Justice Department’s Antitrust Division filed a proposed settlement with RealPage on Monday to resolve its claims against the company.

If the settlement is approved by the court, RealPage would be required to stop using competitors’ private, sensitive information to set rental prices and remove or redesign features in its software that limited price drops or aligned prices between competitors, according to the Justice Department.

RealPage also would be required to cooperate in the lawsuit against property management companies that have used its software and agree to a court-appointed monitor to make sure it complies with the proposed settlement.

Dirk Wakeham, president and CEO of RealPage, said in a statement Monday that the proposed resolution marks an important milestone for the company and its customers.

"We are pleased to have reached this agreement with the DOJ, which brings the clarity and stability we have long sought and allows us to move forward with a continued focus on innovation and the shared goal of better outcomes for both housing providers and renters,” Wakeham said.

RealPage denies any wrongdoing, attorney Stephen Weissman said in a statement.

Newport Beach voters will decide if they want to replace a state-approved housing plan with one that allows for far fewer new homes in 2026.

Proponents of the plan, called the Responsible Housing Initiative, say the current plan will make the city overcrowded and negatively affect quality of life.

“This isn’t downtown Los Angeles,” said Charles Klobe, president of Still Protecting Our Newport, which backs the Responsible Housing Initiative.

Last week, city leaders voted to put the initiative in front of voters after the Newport Beach Stewardship Association submitted the Responsible Housing Initiative petition with more than 8,000 signatures. The initiative rejects the city’s current housing plan and instead proposes an amendment to the general plan to facilitate the development of 2,900 homes exclusively for extremely low-, very low-, low- and moderate-income households.

The city’s current housing plan, which has the backing of the state, allows for more than 8,000 homes, including the required affordable housing units.

“ We're against the city building more market rate than the state required. We believe it's a giveaway to developers who will fund re-election campaigns of the council,” Klobe said.

What does California law require?

California’s Housing Element Law sets housing targets for local governments to meet, including for affordable units. It allows the state to intervene every eight years to let cities know how much housing they must plan for. The law also requires cities to put together a housing element showcasing how they will achieve the state’s plan. The state then approves of the element or sends it back to cities to reconfigure according to the requirements.

According to California law, Newport Beach needs to build 4,845 new units — 3,436 of which must be affordable for very low-, low- and moderate-income households. According to the city, Newport Beach can’t just plan for affordable housing units “because that would assume all future projects would be 100% affordable, which is not realistic based on previous development experiences.” And so, the city’s rezone plans include more than 8,000 units.

Councilmember Robyn Grant said during the council meeting that she’s not in favor of the state mandate. But, she added, “After extensive legal analysis and public outreach and workshops and hearings and meetings and more meetings, this council approved an updated general plan to bring Newport Beach into compliance and avoid serious penalties, including the loss of local land use control."

Newport Beach did appeal the state’s housing mandates on the grounds that it did not take into account how some of the city’s coastal lands are protected from urban development, but the appeal was rejected.

To learn more about how Newport Beach arrived at its state-approved housing plan, click here.

What is the Responsible Housing Initiative proposing?

The Responsible Housing Initiative counts the number of housing units already in development and proposes an additional 2,900 affordable housing units to meet the state mandate.

Klobe said they believe the initiative will receive state backing because “they claim to want affordable housing and our initiative requires it.”

Supporters of the measure contend the city’s current plan will increase the population, result in excessive traffic and disrupt the quality of life. They also sued Newport Beach for not first going to voters, but they failed in court.

To learn more about the Responsible Housing Initiative, click here.

What’s next

Voters will have a chance to weigh in on the Responsible Housing Initiative in November 2026.

Millions of people use injectable drugs like Wegovy to reach a healthier weight. But the weekly injections aren't for everybody — or every wallet.

That's why experimental pills that could achieve similar results are drawing so much attention.

The medicines haven't yet won approval from the Food and Drug Administration, but the first one could get the green light by the end of the year.

"The patient community in the obesity space has … gone without treatment for so long," says Tracy Zvenyach, director of policy strategy and alliances at the nonprofit Obesity Action Coalition. "So new innovations, new treatments to treat this chronic disease — all are welcome. All are exciting." The coalition receives financial support from multiple drugmakers, including Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly and Pfizer.

Here's what you need to know — from how much the pills might cost to how they work.

1. Two new pills are (probably) coming

Novo Nordisk's obesity pill is expected to be approved first. It has the same ingredient — semaglutide — that's in Wegovy, Ozempic and also in Rybelsus, the company's Type 2 diabetes pill that was approved in 2019.

The difference between this new pill and Rybelsus is the dose. There's more semaglutide in the new pill.

Novo Nordisk's main competitor is Eli Lilly, which makes Zepbound and Mounjaro. And it's working on an obesity pill, too. But instead of using the same ingredient that is in its blockbuster injectables, tirzepatide, the company is working on a new one for its obesity pill that is called orforglipron.

2. Patients will take the pills daily, not weekly

The pills need to be taken every day, but the injectables are once a week.

For Novo Nordisk, it was a challenge making a semaglutide pill that wasn't immediately broken down in the stomach before the medicine could be absorbed. So the scientists there added an ingredient that would protect the pill for 30 minutes while it is being absorbed. It's a mouthful: sodium N-(8-[2-hydroxybenzoyl]amino)caprylate, or SNAC for short.

"If you think about dropping an Alka-Seltzer tablet in a glass of water, that immediate fizzy reaction that occurs, that is what happens in your stomach," says Andrea Traina, one of Novo Nordisk's obesity directors. "It creates this little foamy environment directly around the tablet."

That foam prevents a stomach enzyme from breaking the tablet down, lowers the stomach's acidity ever so slightly, and makes the cells under the pill a little bit more permeable so the semaglutide can get absorbed into the bloodstream more easily. The process takes about 30 minutes. It has to be taken on an empty stomach.

Eli Lilly's orforglipron is a little different. It's not as vulnerable to being broken down in the stomach.

"It has no food or water restrictions," says Dr. Max Denning, one of Eli Lilly's senior medical directors. "You can take it orally, and it's very effectively absorbed without any additional absorption enhancers or administration restrictions."

3. They both work, but one appears to have an edge

In a study published in September in the New England Journal of Medicine, a 25 mg semaglutide pill led to a 16.6% reduction in weight on average over 64 weeks. That's about the same as Wegovy.

Eli Lilly's obesity pill, orforglipron, had a 12.4% average weight loss at its highest dose over 72 weeks, which means it's less effective than injections on the market.

The drugs have similar side effects to the injectables, including nausea and diarrhea.

4. These pills should cost less than the injectables

Pills tend to be cheaper than injectables, so patients are hoping they'll be more affordable than the brand-name injected medicines with list prices of over $1,000 a month — and that insurance companies will be more likely to cover them.

"It's easier to manufacture and the cost ultimately should be lower," says Dr. Richard Siegel, co-director of the Diabetes and Lipid Center at Tufts Medical Center. "One of the big problems with all of the medicines in this arena has been the cost. And can we equitably get these medicines to the millions, really, of people who might benefit from them?"

According to a recent poll by KFF, a nonprofit health policy research organization, 1 in 8 people is currently taking an injectable drug in this class. While most of them have at least some insurance coverage, more than half said they had difficulty affording the drugs.

Since early 2025, the drugmakers have made these medicines available at a discount to patients not using their health insurance, and the prices have come down a bit over time. As of early November, when Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly announced deals with the Trump administration, the starting dose of Zepbound will be available for $299 a month for people buying without using insurance. And Wegovy will now be available for $349 a month.

While neither company has announced an official list price for the experimental pills, their Trump administration deals say that if their oral obesity medicines are approved, they'll sell them directly to consumers for $149 a month. That means patients can get this price if they don't use their health insurance.

Still, if the pills get better insurance coverage, copays could be significantly lower than that.

5. The FDA could act soon on the first two, and more new drugs are in the works

Novo Nordisk's obesity pill is expected to win approval before the end of the year.

Eli Lilly, on the other hand, has said it will submit orforglipron for FDA approval this year. The drug won a priority review voucher from the agency, which could mean the agency will make a decision "within months."

Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly are also working on the next generation of these drugs, which could prove to be even more effective than the ones already on the market.

Novo Nordisk is studying another compound called cagrilintide and a combination of cagrilintide and semaglutide. And Eli Lilly is studying retatrutide. Both are in Phase 3 clinical trials.

Meanwhile, another company, Metsera, has several obesity drugs in its pipeline, though none is in late-stage clinical trials yet. Novo Nordisk tried to acquire the company, but it ultimately lost out to Pfizer, which completed the acquisition that could ultimately be worth more than $10 billion.

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