The Brief

Tuesday is the final day for constituents of Santa Ana Councilmember Jessie Lopez to vote on whether she should remain in office. The outcome of the controversial recall — which is mired in legal dilemmas — could determine whether Orange County's second-largest city continues to lean in favor of policies like rent control and police oversight, or does an about-face.

Here's what you need to know:

Why is Jessie Lopez facing recall?

The recall is primarily backed by the Santa Ana Police Officers Association, which has spent more than $500,000 on the recall effort since January. Real estate groups have also kicked in at least $223,000 for the effort, including $100,000 from the National Association of Realtors.

Tim Rush, a real estate executive who chairs the recall campaign, cited Lopez's voting record in favor of rent control and cutting the police budget as primary reasons for the recall. Rush told LAist that Lopez's politics were "very, very liberal" and that she had an "anti-business sort of philosophy."

"[Lopez] wants to portray it that it's the corrupt police union [funding the recall effort]," Rush said. "But that isn't, by any means, all of it. … The money that's poured into this campaign has a lot to do with business owners and property owners who are upset over rent control."

Santa Ana is the only city in Orange County with a rent control ordinance. Its policy restricts rent increases to 2.54% through the end of August 2024. A handful of cities in L.A. County also cap rent increases under 3%.

You can read more from recall proponents here.

Santa Ana Councilmember Jessie Lopez was elected in 2020 to represent the city's Ward 3.

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City of Santa Ana

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What do her supporters say?

Lopez's supporters say her actions on the city council have led to greater police oversight and helped low-income residents fight unjust evictions and steep rent hikes. She has also noted that she voted in favor last year of increasing the number of police officers by 24 positions.

Lopez's effort to fight the recall is backed by community members, local Democratic leaders, including county Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento, and several unions. These include the United Food and Commercial Workers, which has contributed close to $25,000.

In all, Lopez has raised around $200,000 to fight the recall.

Hairo Cortes, executive director of the Latinx youth advocacy group Chispa, said if Lopez loses her seat on the Santa Ana City Council, it could also mean the end of the council majority that championed policies like rent control, for which his group has advocated for years.

"It really is about losing the gains that the community has made if this recall were to be successful," Cortes told LAist.

You can hear more from Lopez and supporters here and here.

What are the legal issues with the recall?

A couple of weeks ago, the Orange County Registrar of Voters made a late discovery that the recall election was based on bad data.

Specifically, the city used population data and geographic boundaries from Lopez's current district when it should have used information from when voters first elected her in 2020, before redistricting took place.

Using the correct data, the registrar determined that the recall petitioners didn't actually collect enough signatures to trigger an election. And nearly 1,200 voters who should be able to vote didn't get ballots.

A Santa Ana voter who said they should have gotten a ballot filed a legal complaint asking for an injunction. But an O.C. Superior Court judge denied that request last week and said he won't make a ruling until after the election.

So, the election is going forward according to its original parameters.

Lopez told LAist she and her legal counsel are still considering options for challenging the election. And she noted that she and her supporters already have one previous legal claim pending in which a supporter alleged that recall proponents were lying to voters to get their signatures for the recall petition.

"This election is not about me anymore. The issues are so much bigger," Lopez told LAist last week. "The voters need to make a decision who they really want to represent them, special interests that push policies that harm working class people, or people who were born and raised in this city who are always willing to listen to their concerns."

Who gets to vote?

Lopez is encouraging constituents who didn't get a ballot to request a provisional ballot and vote.

It's unclear whether those ballots would be counted — O.C. Registrar Bob Page told LAist last week he intends to administer the election based on the current district boundaries and voter population initially approved by the city. That means voters who live in the city's current Ward 3.

You can look up your address on the city's interactive map.

How can I vote?

Mail-in ballots must be postmarked by Nov. 14.

Two vote centers are also open on Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the following addresses:

• O.C. Health Care Agency - Public Health Learning Center, 1729 W. 17th St., Building E, Santa Ana
• O.C. Registrar of Voters, 1300 S. Grand Ave., Building C, Santa Ana

Voters can also take ballots to one of three official drop boxes up until 8 p.m. Tuesday:

• O.C. Health Care Agency, 1725 W. 17th St., Santa Ana
• Orangewood Foundation, 1575 E. 17th St., Santa Ana
• O.C. Registrar of Voters, 1300 S. Grand Ave., Building C, Santa Ana

The Los Angeles World Cup host committee has quietly posted its guidance on human rights after months of speculation over where the plan was and when it would be published.

Advocates had pushed the committee, an arm of the Los Angeles Sports & Entertainment Commission, to produce its plan. But now that it's out, they're not satisfied with what they're seeing.

The human rights guidance is required by FIFA and outlined on the host committee's website. It includes a list of online resources including where to file complaints with various local and state level agencies and a summary of local, state and federal laws protecting human and civil rights. The committee is also touting a partnership with L.A. County in which people can call 211 to report a concern during the tournament.

"Los Angeles is weeks away from hosting one of the largest sporting events in the world, and yet what has been posted is not a plan,” Stephanie Richard, director of the Sunita Jain Anti‑Trafficking Initiative at Loyola Law School, said in a statement. “It is a list of laws and hotline numbers."

The human rights document also skirts fears around ICE and its potential presence at the tournament and surrounding celebrations. Todd Lyons, the agency's head, said earlier this year that ICE's investigatory branch will play a key role in security for the tournament.

But ICE and immigration enforcement aren't mentioned on the host committee's web page on human rights or in its outline of its approach to human rights. "Immigration status" only gets a mention in the list of existing anti-discrimination laws.

"It certainly could have been much stronger," Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights in Los Angeles, said of the plan. She added that her organization participated in a roundtable on the plan, and she was disappointed ICE and recent immigration sweeps weren't mentioned in the resulting document.

"In order for all of this to happen, immigrant workers are part of it," she said of the World Cup. "Your hotel workers, your service workers, stadium workers, drivers." 

LAist reached out to spokespeople for the host committee for comment via email, phone and text, but did not hear back in time for publication. FIFA's press team also did not respond to an email from LAist.

According to the host committee's website, the human rights plan is the result of coordination with the city and county of Los Angeles, the city of Inglewood, and 14 roundtable discussions held in the fall of 2025.

"As a non-profit organization, the Host Committee’s role is primarily and necessarily focused on aligning and collaborating with governmental and non-governmental organizations," the document sums up the committee's approach.

The plan also promises more actions, including "Know Your Rights" training for L.A. residents and visitors and "Know Your Responsibilities" training for businesses and vendors. The committee also says it will develop a "rapid response" strategy to respond to potential problems at the tournament.

Available details on those plans were scant. And with the tournament just 30 days away, labor unions and community groups are continuing to voice concerns about potential ICE presence at SoFi Stadium and other potential consequences of the tournament coming to town.

The mayor of Arcadia has agreed to plead guilty to a charge she acted as an agent for China, federal prosecutors announced Monday. She has resigned from her position with the city.

Eileen Wang, 58, faces one count of acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The charge carries a potential sentence of up to 10 years in federal prison.

What we know about the criminal case

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Wang and Yaoning “Mike” Sun of Chino Hills worked at the direction of the Chinese government and with individuals based in the U.S. to promote pro-People’s Republic of China propaganda in the United States. Those actions occurred between 2020 and 2022, prosecutors said.

According to federal prosecutors, Wang and Sun operated a website — known as U.S. News Center — billed as a news source for the local Chinese American community in Los Angeles County. They posted content on the site, described as "pre-written articles," based on directives from Chinese government officials.

Sun, 65, pleaded guilty in October 2025 in federal court to acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government. He is serving a four-year federal prison sentence.

Prosecutors also said Wang communicated with John Chen, whom they described as “a high-level member of the [Chinese government] intelligence apparatus,” in November 2021, and asked him to post an article from her website.

In a group chat, Wang referenced the article and wrote: “This is what the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wants to send,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Chen pleaded guilty in New York to acting as an illegal agent of the People’s Republic of China and conspiracy to bribe a public official. In 2024, he was sentenced to 20 months in federal prison.

What's next

Wang, who was elected to the City Council in November 2022, was expected to make her first appearance in U.S. District Court Monday afternoon.

Citing a plea agreement, prosecutors said she's expected to enter the guilty plea within the next few weeks.

Arcadia's mayor is selected from the elected council members. A post on the city's website announced that Wang had resigned her position as of Monday and that a new mayor would be picked from the remaining council members at the next meeting.

The Supreme Court on Monday gave itself more time to consider a national ban on telemedicine access to the abortion pill mifepristone.

Justice Samuel Alito extended an earlier order he issued by three more days, so rules for prescribing mifepristone online or through the mail remain in effect through Thursday at a minimum.

The case at issue

The tumult over the future of telemedicine access to mifipristone started on May 1 with a ruling from the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. That ruling re-instituted prescribing rules from before the pandemic that required patients to receive mifepristone in person in a doctor's office or clinic.

The Food and Drug Administration determined that the rule was medically unnecessary in 2021. The state of Louisiana sued last fall, arguing that telemedicine access undermines the state's abortion ban.

What is telemedicine abortion?

The telemedicine abortion process starts with a patient connecting with a healthcare provider on the phone or online. If the patient is eligible, that provider can prescribe two medications — mifepristone and another pill called misoprostol. Patients can pick up the medicine at a local pharmacy, or providers can mail the drugs to a patient's home.

That access is a big part of the reason why the number of abortions nationally has actually increased since the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion in 2022. Now, most abortions in the U.S. use this combination of medications, and one quarter happen via telemedicine.

After the 5th Circuit ruling, some providers said they would continue offering telemedicine access to abortion medication using a different protocol that involves higher doses of misoprostol and no mifepristone.

Researchers say that method is just as safe and effective, but tends to cause more pain for patients and more side effects, like nausea and diarrhea. Misoprostol has other medical uses, such as treating gastric ulcers and hemorrhage, and has been on the market longer than mifepristone. It is likely to remain fully accessible, even if mifepristone is restricted.

Since the FDA's prescribing rules for medications apply to the whole country, a change to the rules about how mifepristone can be accessed has national impact. That means it affects states with constitutionally-protected access to abortion, states with criminal bans, like Louisiana, and all states in between.

States' rights

Nearly two dozen Democratic-led states submitted an amicus brief in this case, writing that the appeals court decision put the policy choices of states with bans above the choices of states "that have made the different but equally sovereign determinations to promote access to abortion care."

There are also stakes related to the power of FDA and other expert agencies to set rules. While the Trump administration's FDA did not respond to the Supreme Court's request for briefs, a group of former leaders of the agency, who served under mainly Democratic and some Republican presidents, wrote about this in an amicus brief.

They defended the FDA's process in approving the medication and modifying the rules for prescribing it, and say the appeals court decision "would upend FDA's gold-standard, science-based drug approval system."

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