The Brief

The Los Angeles City Council has chosen its next president — and city hall observers say the decision represents another step left in an ongoing progressive shift within local politics.

Fourteen members voted Tuesday to elect Marqueece Harris-Dawson as the council’s next leader. The body’s 15th member, Monica Rodriguez, was absent. Harris-Dawson will assume the role on Sept. 20, when current council President Paul Krekorian is set to step aside.

“Until September, expect to see me with my head down, studying as hard as we can so we can be as prepared as possible when we take leadership of this council,” Harris-Dawson said after the vote.

Harris-Dawson has represented the 8th district in South L.A. since 2015. He was nominated for council president last week by seven council members, including those in the council’s progressive wing.

Progressives further cement power in city hall

Fernando Guerra, a political science professor at Loyola Marymount University, said the decision to elevate Harris-Dawson shows that the council is starting to catch up with L.A.’s increasingly left-wing voters.

“This is the most progressive city council in the history of Los Angeles,” Guerra said. “And Marqueece Harris-Dawson will be the most progressive president of the city council in L.A. history.”

(Guerra is an honorary lifetime trustee for Southern California Public Radio, which owns and operates LAist.)

As chair of the planning and land use committee and a member of the housing committee, Harris-Dawson has generally supported expanded tenant rights and eviction protections. On Tuesday, he presented a motion with two of the council’s progressives, Nithya Raman and Eunisses Hernandez, aimed at pushing the city to explore new social housing models.

Guerra said he expects Harris-Dawson to increase the council’s focus on housing, renter protections and climate change.

“The emerging progressive coalition will put meat into a lot of the general policies that have already been articulated,” Guerra said.

Expect more budget debates

Progressive candidates have won significant victories in recent elections, including Hugo Soto-Martinez’s 2022 victory over incumbent Mitch O’Farrell in a district covering much of Hollywood. Raman successfully defended her seat against a well funded challenger in this year’s primary election. And tenant rights attorney Ysabel Jurado is hoping to secure another progressive victory in her campaign to unseat Kevin De Leon this November.

Raphe Sonenshein, executive director of the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation, said Harris-Dawson’s presidency could bring budgetary disagreements to the fore, including the police budget, “which have sort of divided some of the progressive members from some of the more centrist members of the council.”

Raman, Hernandez and Soto-Martinez — who all backed Harris-Dawson for the council presidency — voted against Mayor Karen Bass’ proposed budget last week, with some citing concerns over increased spending on the LAPD.

Harris-Dawson and Bass go way back

However, Harris-Dawson will have to balance the progressive agenda with the demands of the council’s more moderate liberal wing. City hall watchers expect him to remain close allies with Bass. They each began their careers as community organizers, both serving as president of the South L.A.-based nonprofit Community Coalition.

“The new council president is very close to the mayor,” Sonenshein said, and that’s significant because “the most important relationship at city hall for getting things done is the mayor and the city council president.”

Krekorian — who as president attempted to stabilize the council in the wake of the seismic L.A. Fed tapes scandal — is stepping down because he is termed out and will exit the council later this year. During Tuesday’s meeting he wished Harris-Dawson success in the new role.

Thousands of volunteers will fan out across Los Angeles County this week to survey unhoused people, an annual event that determines how millions in funding is directed across the region.

The Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count, which starts Tuesday, is the largest of its kind in the country, according to officials, with volunteers covering more than 4,000 square miles in three days. Small groups in assigned areas will tally the number of people, tents, shelters and vehicles they see on the streets.

Typically, the results are released in the spring or early summer.

The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, which leads the count, says the data volunteers collect is essential for understanding homelessness in the region and for sending resources where they're needed most.

“The information gathered by volunteers strengthens our data and helps our system better understand where our unhoused neighbors are, the services they need most, and what it will take to bring them inside,” Gita O’Neill, LAHSA’s interim CEO, said in a statement.

In past years, the annual count has seen a serious shortage of volunteers in some areas, an app plagued by reported technical issues and doubts about data collection, which LAHSA says it’s taken steps to address this year.

When last year's count showed a drop in homelessness for a second year in a row, many officials celebrated the region’s progress in getting people off the street and bucking the trend of years of increases.

But it’s unclear if that trend will continue.

Both the city and county are facing funding losses that are expected to affect homeless services and housing programs, including more than 4,000 Angelenos who are at risk of losing housing vouchers later this year.

How it works

The annual point-in-time count is conducted each year at the end of January, as required by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Last year was an exception. It was moved to February because of the fires in L.A.

The 2025 count showed homelessness dropped by 3.4% in the city of L.A. and by 4% countywide, including the number of people in shelters and sleeping outdoors.

LAHSA said several factors contributed to those changes, including the clearing of encampments and nearly 28,000 people being placed into permanent housing last year — a record high.

But the accuracy of the numbers has been questioned. A RAND Corporation report released in October found that L.A.’s annual tally increasingly undercounts people on the streets and decreased in accuracy over the past two years.

"In 2022 and 2023, at least in the areas where we count, the [Point-in-Time count] was, as far as I can tell, excellent,” Louis Abramson, lead author of the RAND report, said previously. “I don't know what has happened afterwards."

On Tuesday, the count will start in the San Fernando Valley, Santa Clarita Valley and Metro L.A. area, including downtown and Skid Row. On Wednesday, volunteers will turn their attention to East L.A. and the San Gabriel Valley.

The count is expected to wrap up Thursday in the Antelope Valley, West L.A., South L.A., South Bay and Harbor region.

The 2026 homeless count dates and map.

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Teams typically head out after 8 p.m., when people experiencing homelessness are more likely to have settled down for the night, especially those living in cars or RVs.

But some are done during the day because of visibility or safety concerns, according to LAHSA. The Antelope Valley and parts of West L.A. will be counted Thursday morning like last year while the rest are counted at night.

Areas that may be heard to reach, including river embankments, parks or deserts, are assigned to special teams of outreach workers, according to LAHSA.

The count is conducted visually, meaning volunteers are supposed to tally only what they see in front of them. For example, if a volunteer does not see anyone but hears voices coming from a makeshift shelter, they’re instructed to count the shelter instead of the voices.

Marina Flores, left, and Helde Pereira document homeless sightings during LAHSA's annual count last year.

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A Shelter Count and Housing Inventory Count will also be held Wednesday. The Housing Inventory Count is a point-in-time tally of projects or sites that provide beds and units for the unhoused or formerly unhoused community.

The Youth Count, an estimate of the county’s unsheltered youth population, is conducted throughout the month with service organizations. It’s a survey-based tally where young people are asked about their housing status, rather than a visual count.

A separate demographic survey is also being done by the University of Southern California to gather details like age, gender, race and veteran status, among others. The survey started last month and runs through March, according to LAHSA.

Glendale, Pasadena and Long Beach conduct separate counts on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

What’s new

This will be the first count conducted since Measure A went into effect last spring.

The new voter-approved half-cent sales tax is expected to generate about $1 billion annually for homeless services and affordable housing in L.A. County. The specific funding formula that determines which all 88 cities get what is based mostly on each city’s homeless count results from the past two years.

LAHSA said it has made several improvements for this year’s count, including simplified volunteer training and better maps created in partnership with people in the community.

The agency will be working with additional outreach staff from the L.A. County Department of Health Services and L.A. County Emergency Centralized Response Center to boost counting efforts in hard-to-reach areas that are too dangerous or inaccessible for volunteers, according to officials.

LAHSA is again using an app made by Esri, a software company based in Redlands, to collect volunteer data for a fourth year.

Helde Pereira documents sites of homeless encampments during LAHSA's annual homeless count last year.

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Technology problems have popped up with the app before. Volunteers from the 2024 count told LAist previously that data entry errors were common, and several said they had to wait hours to start counting when they had trouble logging in.

Teams from Councilmember Bob Blumenfield’s office regularly volunteer for the count.

Representatives from that office told LAist recently that the council member has been vocal about his concerns over logistics, specifically glitches with the app over the years. Blumenfield’s team usually does a paper count in addition to using the app in case there are any discrepancies, his office said in an email.

LAHSA said more of its staff will be assigned as technical support at deployment sites this year.

Ahmad Chapman, LAHSA’s director of communications, told LAist the agency has also made several changes to the Housing Inventory count to improve data collection and make it easier to validate responses.

Last summer, LAist reported that LAHSA revised the locations of more than 400 sheltered people in the 2025 count, moving them out of the city of L.A., days before the results were released publicly.

At the time, Chapman told LAist the revisions were made because the agency discovered that its new housing inventory system had incorrectly tagged several hundred interim housing units as being within the city of L.A. The agency said it fixed the problem in July.

This time around, Chapman said, LAHSA held live training sessions for providers on how to submit data, revamped forms so information is provided by site location instead of by project and added ways to let LAHSA staff look at submissions in “near real-time.”

Volunteers at the 2023 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count go over a map of Westwood before heading out.

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Volunteers

LAHSA says it hopes to have about 4,200 volunteers help complete the count from roughly 150 deployment sites, which are like base camps for each neighborhood.

L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis, chair of the Board of Supervisors, said volunteer participation is essential for capturing a complete picture of homelessness.

“These counts help us see where progress is being made, where additional resources are needed, and how we can better serve our most vulnerable residents,” Solis said in a statement.

Multiple L.A. councilmembers and their staffers are volunteering in their districts this week, including Blumenfield in Reseda, Eunisses Hernandez in Highland Park and Hugo Soto-Martínez in Rampart Village, their offices confirmed to LAist.

About 4,000 volunteers registered as of Monday, which was up from 2,200 volunteers the week before. Some deployment sites, including Westwood and Avocado Heights, had more vacancies than volunteers, according to LAHSA’s live tracker.

O’Neill said in a statement ahead of the count that LAHSA was still looking for more sign-ups, especially in East L.A., the South Bay and the San Gabriel Valley. All ages can register, but volunteers under 18 must be with an adult at all times. You can learn more here.

The agency usually sees the largest surge in registration the week leading up to the count, according to Chapman. He also said any areas not counted the next three nights will be considered a “make-up” and tallied shortly after as part of the agency’s data quality assurance process.

The Los Angeles Police Department is requesting nearly $100 million in city funds for vehicles and equipment for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, more than two years out from the world's largest sporting event coming to L.A.

LAPD wants to buy around 500 vehicles and "mobile units," including 300 patrol vehicles, vans and an armored SUV worth half a million dollars. It also is requesting funds for an upgraded radio network and equipment including new computers and more than 1,600 body cameras. In total, it's asking for around $96 million.

The request raises questions about promises that the Olympics will be "no-cost" for taxpayers. The spending laid out in the police department's proposed budget for 2026-2027 names the city as the funding source.

The federal government has set aside $1 billion for Olympics security spending, some of which is expected to flow to local and state law enforcement. But the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is tasked with distributing those funds, hasn't yet shared details on the scope or timeline of the application process.

LAPD officials told the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners at a meeting in November that they will need the funds before there are details on what will be reimbursed by the federal government.

"It's not clear as to what specifically will be recovered at all," Lt. Joseph Fransen with the department's major events group told the commissioners. "But if it is, the city may still have to come up with the capital investment up front."

The police department's request for next year is an early part of the overall budgeting process. Mayor Karen Bass has until April to outline her own budget for the coming year. Her office did not respond to questions about where the money for LAPD's Olympic spending would come from.

"The Mayor's Office is reviewing the request and will continue working with the LAPD as the City prepares to deliver a balanced budget and a safe 2028 Games," a spokesperson said via email.

LAPD says it needs funds

At the police commission meeting in November, police department staff said the additional vehicles and equipment would be necessary to police the eight Olympic venues within city bounds and continue normal operations elsewhere. According to the budget request, the new vehicles will take 12-20 months to be delivered.

But the budget request indicates that the Olympics also present an opportunity to get new gear that would long outlast the Games. According to the request, the additional vehicles would be used to temporarily expand the department's fleet for the Games and then replace outdated vehicles after 2028.

Some commissioners questioned if the new vehicles in the budget proposal were necessary, or the most economical.

"I just want to make sure that when we're saying, look, we need new cars, is this truly a need or is it a it would be nice to have," said Commissioner Rasha Gerges Shields, referencing the city's fiscal crisis. "Because I think every department in the city is going to have to be struggling for funds and I don't want the department to ask for something that isn't truly essential at this stage."

Tension in City Hall

The request for Olympics funding presents a new area for potential dispute in the city's upcoming budget cycles.

City Hall is already at odds over the police department's budget. Last year the Los Angeles City Council voted to cut Mayor' Bass's request to hire 480 new LAPD officers to 240, citing the city's $1 billion budget shortfall.

The mayor has continued to seek funds from the city council for more LAPD new hires. The city council approved additional funding for up to 40 officers in December, but some council members pushed back on requests for even more new hires.

At the time, budget committee chair Katy Yaroslavsky said the money wasn't there.

“I want to grow the police department, but I have yet to see a proposal that identifies an ongoing funding source to pay for more officers," Yaroslavsky told LAist in an emailed statement in December.

Tensions over the police department's staffing and funding – and who will pay for additional costs – are likely to increase as the Olympics approach. Another major coming expense for the L.A. police department will be staffing and overtime for policing the Games.

LA28, the private non-profit putting on the Olympics and Paralympics, has agreed to pay the city for the needed additional services and staffing. However the two sides have not yet agreed on the scope of that commitment, despite an Oct. 1 deadline.

That deal is now nearly four months late. If it leaves L.A. exposed to unexpected or additional expenses, taxpayers could end up paying many millions.

President Trump once insisted he had "nothing to do with Project 2025," the right-wing policy plan that became a key flashpoint during the presidential campaign.

The Democrats tried to turn the 900-page Heritage Foundation-led blueprint to remake the government into a political boogeyman, and succeeded to some degree, but it wasn't enough to win the election.

A year later, many of the policies have been implemented, from cracking down on immigration to dismantling the Department of Education.

"A lot of the policies from Day 1 to the last day and in between that the administration has adopted are right out of Project 2025," said Rob Bonta, the attorney general of California, who has used Project 2025 to prepare legal papers against the administration.

Concerns about the project started to bubble up over the spring of 2024, but really caught fire a few months later when actress Taraji P. Henson singled out Project 2025 while hosting the BET awards.

"Pay attention. It's not a secret. Look it up!" she said, speaking directly into the camera during the show. "They are attacking our most vulnerable citizens. The Project 2025 plan is not a game."

'Ridiculous'

Then-candidate Trump tried to dismiss the hysteria, calling the ideas "ridiculous" — and claiming he did not know who was behind it — even though key people involved in developing the plans served in his first administration.
And when it was clear the firestorm would not go away, Trump went on the attack against those allies who wrote the playbook.

"They're a pain in the a--," said Chris LaCivita, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, who tore into the organizers of Project 2025 at an event hosted by CNN and Politico during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

"Look, I think that in the perfect world, from their perspective, they would love to drive the issue set, but they don't get to do that," he added.

Yet days after winning, Trump tapped Russell Vought, an architect of Project 2025, to lead the Office of Management and Budget — considered the nerve center of the White House. Other contributors followed.
Trump soon unleashed a flurry of orders reshaping the government, many of which were outlined in Project 2025.

"As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female," he said during his inaugural address.

Trump ended diversity, equity and inclusion programs. He launched massive immigration enforcement and took the first steps to overhaul the federal workforce.

Bonta, the attorney general of California, said Project 2025 defined Trump's first year back in office. The country's 23 Democratic attorneys general studied Project 2025, consulted with each other and, he said, prepared a response for every potential action should it be taken.

"The existence of Project 2025 was the Trump administration telling us exactly what they were going to do and sending it to us in writing," Bonta said.

Bonta has filed or joined lawsuits that have successfully blocked Trump's policies requiring states like California to join his immigration crackdown, freeze of domestic federal funding and layoffs at agencies such as the U.S. Department of Education.

The White House dismissed concerns about Project 2025, calling them irrelevant theories from Beltway insiders.

"President Trump is implementing the agenda he campaigned on and that the American people voted for," said Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman.

Jackson said the president focused on implementing the agenda he campaigned on — lowering gas prices, accelerating economic growth and securing the border.

Fueling controversy

Trump may have actually fueled the controversy by rejecting Project 2025 during the campaign, said Tevi Troy, a presidential historian and former White House aide to George W. Bush.

"I would say that Project 2025 was largely standard conservative fare, but with a bit more of a MAGA flavor than previously."

Troy sees little difference between what the Heritage Foundation did with Project 2025 and what think tanks on the left and right have been doing for years compiling policy proposals for incoming presidents.

He pointed to the personnel and policy ideas of the Hoover Institution that helped shape the George W. Bush administration and the Center for American Progress' influence on the Obama administration.

"If the Trump campaign had leaned into it and said, 'sure, this is an agenda that has been put out as a think tank. This happens all the time. We will look at them in due time when the election is over,' " said Troy. "By criticizing and disavowing Project 2025, it suddenly became more radioactive."

Paul Dans, the director of Project 2025, says he never took the attacks personally, which he chalked up to political calculus. 

He likened watching the president sign executive orders and directives that first came across his desk to being an animator who watches his or her sketchbook come to life on the big screen.

"I believe the proof is in the pudding," said Dans, who also served in the first Trump administration. "Every day that President Trump rolls out another Project 2025 item, it's really an endorsement of our work, myself and the work of thousands of patriots who came together."

Dans is now highlighting that work in a run for the Senate, against Trump-ally, Republican Lindsey Graham.

Trump did eventually embrace Project 2025 during the shutdown fight last fall.

He boasted of meeting with "Russ Vought, he of PROJECT 2025 Fame," while threatening to dismantle federal agencies.

"I can't believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity," he said.

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President Trump says his controversial push for U.S. control of Greenland comes after he failed to win the Nobel Peace Prize last year, adding he no longer feels obliged to think only of peace.

In a message to Norway's prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre on Sunday night, Trump criticized the European country for not giving him the prize.

"Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America," Trump said in the message.

"The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland," Trump added.

The message was reported by PBS NewsHour, and was later confirmed by Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre in a statement.

Gahr Støre said he received the message on Sunday in response to a text he and Finland's President Alexander Stubb had sent to Trump, in which they had conveyed opposition to Trump's proposed tariff increases on eight European countries over the recent Greenland dispute.

In their message to Trump, according to The New York Times, which received a copy of the exchange from the Norwegian prime minister's office, Gahr Støre and Stubb wrote: "We believe we all should work to take this down and de-escalate — so much is happening around us where we need to stand together."

The pair suggested a joint call.

"Norway's position on Greenland is clear. Greenland is a part of the Kingdom of Denmark, and Norway fully supports the Kingdom of Denmark on this matter," Gahr Støre said. "We also support that NATO in a responsible way is taking steps to strengthen security and stability in the Arctic."

Gahr Støre also pointed out that while President Trump claimed that Norway "decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize," the government of Norway is not responsible for the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded by a five member Norwegian Nobel Committee since 1901.

The Danish navy's inspection ship HDMS Vaedderen sails off Nuuk, Greenland, on Sunday.

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The Peace Prize, which was last awarded to Venezuela's opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, is also awarded for the previous year. That means the most recent prize was awarded for 2024, before President Trump commenced his second term of office. Machado gave Trump her prize last week as a symbolic thank you for his recent actions in Venezuela.

In a phone interview with NBC News on Monday, Trump again claimed that the Norwegian government has control over the Nobel Peace Prize. "Norway totally controls it despite what they say," he said. Trump also said he would follow through on his threats to impose further tariffs. When asked whether he would use force to seize Greenland, the president replied: "No comment."

The European Union is set to hold an emergency summit on Thursday, in which attendees will discuss how to respond to the threats. In a statement on social media, the EU's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the bloc had "no interest to pick a fight" but would "hold our ground."

Trump's message to Gahr Støre comes as tensions rise between Europe and the United States over the status of Greenland, an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark that is strategically important and rich in resources.

On Monday, the World Economic Forum said officials from Denmark would not be attending the meeting in Davos, Switzerland, this week. "We can confirm that the Danish government will not be represented in Davos this week," a spokesperson, Alem Tedeneke, told NPR.

On Sunday, in a collective rebuke to President Trump, the leaders of Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom issued a joint statement condemning recent U.S. tariff threats. The eight countries, which are all members of NATO, said that Trump's proposed tariffs "undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral."

On Saturday night, President Trump had written on his Truth Social social media platform that he would impose tariffs on imports from the countries, after they had deployed limited military personnel to Greenland to participate in a Danish-led Arctic exercise known as 'Arctic Endurance.'

Trump said America would levy a 10% tariff on goods from the eight countries starting on Feb. 1, which would rise to 25% on June 1, and remain in place "until such time as a Deal is reached for the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland" by the United States.

The open dispute comes after weeks of increasingly assertive U.S. rhetoric regarding Greenland, in which Trump has repeatedly said that Greenland is strategically vital to U.S. national security, citing its location and untapped mineral deposits.

In his text message, Trump questioned Denmark's right to claim Greenland. "Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a 'right of ownership' anyway? There are no written documents, it's only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also," Trump said.

Trump made similar comments last week, saying "the fact that they had a boat land there 500 years ago doesn't mean that they own the land," drawing mirth on social media, with comedians like Jon Stewart noting on The Daily Show "how do you think we got our land?"

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