The Brief

WASHINGTON, D.C. — After three days of competition, 18 total rounds and one nail-biting, rapid-fire "spell-off," the Scripps National Spelling Bee has crowned its champion: 14-year-old Shrey Parikh from Rancho Cucamonga.

Over the course of two hours Thursday night, the pool of nine finalists dropped to two: Parikh and 12-year-old Ishaan Gupta from Jersey City, N.J. After each nailed their eighth respective word, officials carried a sleek silver podium — with a buzzer on top — onto the stage, prompting huge gasps from the crowd. It was time for a spell-off.

"I was not excited at all because to be honest, regular spelling I feel like is a much better show of what spelling is meant to be," Parikh told reporters immediately after his win. "But I accepted the fact that there was going to be a spell-off, I calmed my mind, I got some water … and I just tried to take it all in stride and do the best I could."

As the top two finalists, Ishaan Gupta (L) and Shrey Parikh each had 90 seconds to spell as many words correctly as possible.

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Parikh and Gupta each had 90 seconds at the buzzer, alone on the stage, to spell as many words correctly as possible. Then, after a few minutes of careful counting, judges made it official: Parikh had crushed 32 words to Gupta's 25, ending in "cashaw" (a type of plant) and setting a new spell-off record.

"Once I get the word I'm not really nervous anymore, because then it's all in my control," Parikh reflected from center stage at DAR Constitutional Hall, a grand concert hall a stone's throw from the White House.

Parikh will leave D.C. with $52,500 in cash and a slew of other perks, including hundreds of dollars' worth of reference works, flight credits and an astronaut meet-and-greet at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida.

He's also coming into some considerable free time: The eighth-grader estimates he's spent about five hours a day working on spelling in the past year alone. He's excited to dive deeper into his other hobbies, especially tennis and math competitions. And, even before his win set in, he knew what message he wanted it to send.

"I would say, definitely, just keep trying," he said. "Trying is the best thing you can do, and it's the most important thing you can do."

This is Parikh's third bee: He placed 89th in 2022 and third in 2024.

The bee returns to its D.C. roots

This is the first time in 15 years that the competition has been held in D.C., after a long stretch in Maryland and a year in Florida during COVID. Organizers decided to return the competition to its roots in its 101st year, citing the "prestige and honor that D.C. brings to this experience for spellers," plus access to the city's free museums and monuments.

"We think it's a fitting national-level prize to be able to go and see the nation's capital, especially now as the country celebrates 250 years," said Executive Director Corrie Loeffler.

A total of 247 competitors arrived in D.C. for "Bee Week" on Sunday, hailing from all 50 states and as far away as Guam. The competitors ranged from 9 to 15, though most were middle-school age.

Several contestants and family members told NPR they appreciated the chance to explore D.C., with many planning to tour historical sites over the weekend. Though not everyone welcomed the change: 13-year-old Harini Jayakumar of Charlotte, N.C. — who made it to the semifinals of her third and final bee — said she enjoyed the hotel and overall experience more when it was in Maryland.

Spellers who didn't make it to the final still packed into the 3,700-seat venue on Thursday, along with families, journalists and curious locals. Outside the auditorium, they wandered through a timeline of the bee's history, admired a display-case trophy and posed for photos with two human-size, costume-clad bees.

Maryland resident Christy Kim, 35, got hooked after attending a county-level spelling bee last month for fun, as she looked for free activities in the area. She even convinced her friend Maia Owens to travel two hours from Baltimore for the final, promising a wholesome evening. Owens was sold too.

"We honestly might be bee people now," Kim said with a laugh.

Erika Minor, who helped sell t-shirts at the merchandise table, said the most popular item — stuffed bee plushies — sold out on the very first day of competition. Minor, a D.C. local, who works for the venue, hadn't paid much attention to the bee in the past, quickly saw what all the buzz was about.

"It is so cool and exciting to see, and also just to talk to, the participants and hear where they came from, and then also to peek my head [in] … and just see how like the kids go through the process of remembering how to spell certain words," Minor said, adding that she will follow the contest in the future.

From nine finalists to one champion

All told, there were seven spelling rounds and one multiple-choice vocabulary round, which was added to the onstage competition in 2021 to put less emphasis on rote memorization.

Logan Bailey skips back to his seat — and the other contestants — after making it through another round at Thursday's final.

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The elimination-style spelling rounds are the bee's bread and butter. Dr. Jaques Bailly, who won in 1980 with the word "elucubrate," has been the head pronouncer for over two decades. He reads each speller one word per round.

Spellers have 90 seconds and the chance to ask for some basic information, like origin and definition. If they get it wrong, there is a heavy pause before the head judge, Mary Brooks, rings a bell, an antique family heirloom, and delivers some praise on their way out.

"You are pure joy," she told 12-year-old Logan Bailey, who had gotten the crowd on his side with his shocked, cheerful scamper back to his seat after each successful turn. "As a speller, you absolutely brought happiness to everyone in this room. You come back."

Attendees' stress and suspense was palpable with every letter — as were their relieved sighs and sympathetic gasps as each speller took the mic.

"And you also don't know how to spell these words, so you don't know if they got it right or wrong," said Kim. "So when you hear that bell, it's very discouraging because you know how hard they worked for it. But it's still great because the spellers are really encouraging to one another and the audience is really supportive of the spellers."

All of the competition words come from the Merriam-Webster Unabridged dictionary. Some of Thursday's sounded too whimsical to be real — Kadohadacho, quillai, hwyl, Quincke tube — while others sounded too straightforward to be true, like potto, Kolami and cere.

The dreaded bell didn't ring until the third round, which saw four contestants eliminated in a matter of minutes. By the end of the seventh round, only Parikh and Gupta were left — and their success in the subsequent round brought them to the dreaded spell-off.

Competitors had to hit a flashing buzzer in order to hear the next word during the spell-off rounds.

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It's the third time one has decided the spelling bee since it was introduced in 2021.

Harini Logan won the first spell-off, in 2022, by spelling 22 words in 90 seconds. In 2024, Bruhat Soma won with 29.

After his win, Parikh said the word that stumped him the most the entire night was "Bhubaneswar," a city in India.

"I was 99% sure it had a 'B,' but always doubt creeps into your head, especially in the moment," he said. "I knew I just had to stick with my gut and stick with my instincts on that word."

Just as winning spellers get their names in the history books, so too do the winning words.

Some of them may surprise modern-day listeners — like "croissant" in 1970, "luge" in 1980 and "Purim" in 1983. More recent words have been less of the household variety. In the last five years, we've seen: éclaircissement (an explanation), abseil (basically rappelling), psammophile (an organism that thrives in sand), moorhen (a type of water bird) and Murraya (a genus of plants).
Copyright 2026 NPR

California hospitals and the state’s largest health workers union reached an agreement Thursday to pull two competing initiatives from the November ballot hours before a state deadline. But a separate measure to impose a one-time tax on billionaires remains headed toward voters, potentially reshaping how California funds healthcare.

That measure would levy a one-time 5% tax on California billionaires if approved by voters. Supporters estimate the tax would bring in $100 billion to replace recent state and federal healthcare cuts. The union accused Gov. Gavin Newsom, who tried to strike a last-minute deal to kill the ballot measure, of having “no plan” to prevent cuts projected to lose jobs and leave millions of Californians uninsured, according to recent projections.

“We thought it was important to do everything we could to try to solve that problem,” said Dave Regan, president of Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West.

In addition to the wealth tax, SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West had qualified an initiative to limit how much hospital executives are paid; while the California Hospital Association hit back with a proposal to limit the union’s political spending without member approval. Those two measures will no longer appear on the ballot under a deal brokered by the California Federation of Labor Unions, AFL-CIO.

Union members argued that money has been siphoned away from patient care through federal and state budget cuts as well as business decisions that support costly executive salaries. In turn, hospitals and some experts contended that capping leadership salaries would drain talent from pricey California and result in worse patient care.

Initially the two sides were adamant that they weren’t interested in negotiating, but Thursday’s agreement is the latest reminder that few things are fixed in Sacramento politics. Both sides had raised tens-of-millions of dollars to support their proposals.

Carmela Coyle, hospital association president and CEO, said in a statement that the agreement would “ensure high-quality health care services are accessible throughout California.”

Lorena Gonzalez, president of the labor federation, said the deal would support “quality healthcare and good union jobs to Californians.”

SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West declined to comment on the agreement.

A history of dealmaking

This marked the sixth time the union has attempted to cap healthcare executive salaries at $450,000 through state or local ballot measures.

For decades the union led by Regan has used ballot initiatives to gain leverage over the healthcare industry, broker deals with lawmakers and push its political agenda forward.

Voters may remember dialysis center initiatives appearing on three back-to-back ballots in 2018, 2020 and 2022. All three failed, and the dialysis industry spent hundreds of millions of dollars to defeat them.

That strategy is what SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West does — and what it’s doing this year.

Since 2012, the union has sponsored 48 state and local ballot initiatives spending $120 million. Most of the measures have been withdrawn or voted down. Despite those specific failures, the strategy has yielded major wins, including a $25 per hour health worker minimum wage. On that issue, the union asked voters across multiple cities to increase salaries before striking a deal with lawmakers and hospitals that included a 10-year moratorium on local minimum wage ballot measures.

That strategy is shaping debate over this year’s most contentious measure, which would put a major question before voters: whether California should impose a new tax on its wealthiest residents to help fund healthcare.

The proposal has drawn opposition from an unusual mix of business interests, Newsom, billionaires and progressive groups like Planned Parenthood and the California Teachers Association.

“We have to use all of the tools in our toolbox,” union spokesperson Renée Saldaña said prior to the agreement. “We see the ballot initiative as one way to take it directly to California voters.”

Good policy or ballot blackmail?

It’s a game of cat-and-mouse dating back to the early 1900s. California special interests spend millions to place a ballot initiative before voters; use it for political leverage; and ultimately strike a deal with lawmakers or political rivals to pull the measures in exchange for some other benefit.

Dan Schnur, a longtime Republican analyst and political communications professor at USC, said special interests have always taken advantage of ballot initiatives to try and advance their agendas. What makes SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West unusual is how often it repeats initiatives that fail, but the willingness to do so may be what gives the union so much political leverage.

“A ballot initiative is the ultimate blunt instrument,” Schnur said. “The threat of a ballot measure can help shape negotiations in the Legislature on the same subject.”

John Matsusaka, a USC law professor and executive director of the Initiative and Referendum Institute, said ballot initiatives are intended to allow voters to decide directly whether a proposal should become law. This helps bypass a Legislature that constituents may feel doesn’t actually reflect their interests.

California groups have attempted to pass more initiatives than any other state, Matsusaka said, but wielding them for leverage is an unhealthy way to view the law.

“Laws shouldn’t be used as bargaining chips in your negotiations in my opinion,” he said.

Supported by the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF), which works to ensure that people have access to the care they need, when they need it, at a price they can afford. Visit www.chcf.org to learn more.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Following the Logistics warehouse fire in Boyle Heights, many residents have expressed concerns about contaminants from smoke and ash settling into the soil. 

The Contaminant Level Evaluation and Analysis for Neighborhoods (CLEAN) project at USC is offering free soil testing for Boyle Heights and East L.A. residents. 

CLEAN is a rapid response soil testing program from the USC Department of Earth Sciences and Public Exchange developed by USC faculty, students and staff to assist local communities impacted by fires in L.A. County.

Residents can collect soil samples and drop them off at Boyle Heights City Hall for CLEAN to collect. 

Below is a step-by-step guide.

How to collect your sample: 

1. Review USC’s CLEAN project guide
2. Submit this survey– Your sample ID will be provided upon completing the survey. Make sure to save your ID as this is how the CLEAN team keeps track of your sample and provides results to you. 
3. Before getting started, gather your materials and protective equipment. (ADD points)
   
   1. Disposable gloves and an N95 or KN95 facemask
   2. Plastic spoon or shovel
   3. Ziploc bags (2 per composite samples)
   4. Permanent marker 
   5. Masking tape (for bag label)
   6. 9-digit sample ID code (from your survey)
4. Select your sampling zones
   
   1. Your sampling zones are where you will be collecting the soil from. Your zones can be your front or back yard, garden, etc. The picture on page four of the guide shows the different zones in a home and though your home may not have all zones, what’s important is that you understand what zones you’re collecting from and labeling them accordingly.
5. Once you’re wearing your protective gear and have your equipment, you are now ready to collect the sample.
   
   1. Collect two spoonfuls of soil for 2-5 different spots within a single zone
   2. Drop all spoonfuls from the zone into one Ziploc bag. By the end of collecting, the bag should have about a cup size of soil in it.
   3. Seal your Ziploc bag and for extra protection, put it over another Ziploc bag. This bag will now contain the zone’s composite sample. 
   4. Then repeat for every other zone you want to test. You should have one composite sample per zone you test. (e.g. one for the garden, one for the front yard, etc.)
6. Using a permanent marker, label each Ziploc bag with your unique sample ID and the zone name either on tape or directly on the bag. 
7. Then you repeat steps 5 and 6 for each zone you are testing. 

After collection 

Once you have finished collecting your samples, make sure to wash your hands. If you suspect your soil to be contaminated, CLEAN suggests limiting access to that area, wiping or taking shoes off before entering your home, and preventing children from playing in bare soil.  

CLEAN will test all samples for lead and some select samples will be tested for Arsenic, Chromium(VI), and Mercury. Testing for lead can take up to four weeks, while tests for other materials may take longer.

Where to submit your sample

After collecting and labeling your soil samples, you can submit them using one of the following methods:

Option 1: Drop Off Your Sample

Option 2: Mail Your Sample

Who to contact: 

If you have any questions or concerns, contact cleanproject@usc.edu

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Inglewood’s video billboards just secured a big legal victory.  

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday that the city of Inglewood can, for now, continue its deal allowing WOW Media to run its digital billboards along the city’s major roads. 

Last summer, companies tied to SoFi Stadium, Kia Forum and Intuit Dome sued to block the agreement, arguing that the city had violated competitive bidding rules and policies governing the use of public roads and sidewalks.

The stadiums, which run their own massive digital billboards on its properties, also claimed the city’s dealings with WOW breached their contracts with the city. Court records previously reviewed by The LA Local suggested the yearslong relationship between Mayor James Butts and SoFi Stadium owner Stan Kroenke was fraying.

At one point, Butts claimed the city’s SoFi Stadium development agreement was void.

The dispute also moved beyond the courts and onto the streets when stadiums launched a ballot initiative aimed at banning WOW’s billboards. WOW fired back with a pair of its own ballot initiatives aimed at stadium taxes and parking fees.

Superior Court Judge Joseph Lipner rejected several claims brought by the stadiums, saying in a 25-page ruling that WOW’s agreement with the city adhered to rules governing the public right–of-way, the legal term for publicly accessible roads, sidewalks and other paths.

The judge also ruled that the city was not required to open a competitive bidding process for the agreement because WOW and its patented spiral video kiosks were uniquely positioned to fulfill the contract. 

But Lipner said he did not have jurisdiction to rule on allegations by the Forum and Intuit Dome that the city breached their development contracts.

A spiral video kiosk is seen on Prairie Ave. in Inglewood on Saturday, April 18, 2026, in Los Angeles, Calif.

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Butts told The LA Local that the court’s findings speak for themselves and touted the revenue the billboards bring the city. Inglewood has made as much as $7.4 million in billboard revenue in a year, according to budget documents. 

WOW celebrated Lipner’s ruling in a statement to The LA Local, calling the stadiums’ court case and ballot initiative part of an “expensive misinformation campaign.” 

“The court’s ruling makes clear that the city followed the law and acted in the best interests of its residents,” WOW CEO Scott Krantz said. “It has become abundantly clear that the stadium duopolists want complete control of every facet of Inglewood life.” 

A spokesperson for Hollywood Park, the complex that includes SoFi Stadium, said it plans to appeal and that the case raised important questions.

“We respectfully disagree with the court’s decision regarding the city’s long-term agreement with WOW and continue to believe that leasing public rights-of-way in this manner is inconsistent with state and municipal law,” the spokesperson wrote. 

Beyond a possible appeal by the stadiums, Lipner wrote that the parts of the case he did not rule on will be transferred to another court department to be calendared for future proceedings.