The Brief

The Department of Homeland Security says Transportation Security Administration employees could receive paychecks as soon as Monday, following a memo signed by President Trump. Trump's unilateral action comes as House Republican leadership rejected the latest deal to end the DHS shutdown.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., says House Republicans will not accept a Senate-passed bill to fund the majority of the Department of Homeland Security.

The Senate bill does not include additional funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement or Border Patrol — and it does not include any of the demands Democrats made to limit the tactics of federal immigration officers. Republicans in the House met Friday after the legislation passed and rejected the plan.

Johnson said the House will vote instead on a stop-gap spending bill to fund the entire Department of Homeland Security until May 22.

"I spoke to the president a few moments ago, he understands exactly what we're doing and why. And he supports it," Johnson said.

Johnson said he expects Republicans will pass the bill in the House, leaving the Senate to take up the measure. However, is very unclear if the stop-gap could pass in the Senate. Senators have already left Washington for a planned recess, and Democrats have refused to vote for any spending bill that funds ICE.

Johnson also referred to Trump's promise to pay TSA agents through executive action as a near-term way to alleviate backups at airports across the country. In a post on X Friday afternoon, DHS blamed the shutdown on Democrats and said that following Trump's directive, "TSA has immediately begun the process of paying its workforce." It was not immediately clear where that money would come from — and whether such a move was legal.

The DHS funding lapse forced tens of thousands of employees to work without pay or quit, and resulted in long waits at some airports amid peak spring break travel.

Ha Nguyen McNeill, the TSA acting administrator, told lawmakers at a hearing on Wednesday that absences are as high as 40% in some airports and more than 480 TSA officers have quit during the shutdown. "We are really concerned about our security posture and what the long term impacts of this shutdown is going to have on the workforce and our ability to carry out this mission," McNeill said.

Where Democrats stand

For weeks, Democrats have refused to support funding for DHS after federal officers killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis.

The latest Senate package would have allowed Democrats in that chamber to fund operations like TSA, the Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, while still pressing for additional guardrails on immigration enforcement officers.

"Democrats held firm in our opposition that Donald Trump's rogue and deadly militia should not get more funding without serious reforms, and we will continue to fight for those reforms," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the floor. "I'm very proud of our Democratic caucus. Throughout it all, Senate Democrats stood united — no wavering, no backing down. We held the line."

Even some Democrats have warned that a funding agreement without the policy changes they are seeking diminishes their leverage. Senate Republicans have indicated that the time to negotiate has now passed.

"We could be standing here right now passing a funding bill with a list of reforms if Democrats had made the smallest effort to actually reach an agreement, but they didn't," Senate Majority Leader John Thune said on the floor early Friday morning. "It is now clear to everyone that Democrats didn't actually want a solution, they wanted an issue."

The department has been operating without regular appropriations for more than a month. But some divisions, like ICE, have continued to function thanks to about $75 billion provided by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Republicans passed last summer. Others, including the TSA, have relied on employees working without pay.

Negotiations under pressure

All week, top Republicans opposed funding DHS piecemeal. On Thursday, Thune said Republicans had delivered Democrats a final offer: fund all of DHS, including ICE, except the division responsible for enforcement and removal operations.

At least a handful of Democrats seemed open to this option, but worried the administration would use funding for other ICE divisions for enforcement and removal operations. Throughout the day, negotiators shuttled between the Senate chamber and Thune's office, trading language.

But by the evening, lawmakers were still struggling to reach an agreement to end the impasse, even as many viewed the worsening situation at the nation's airports as untenable.

Earlier in the week, Trump insisted that any DHS funding deal also include the voting law overhaul he wants ahead of the midterms, known as the Save America Act.

Not long after Trump's TSA announcement Thursday night, Thune told reporters about an agreement to fund most of DHS except for ICE and Border Patrol. The legislation was approved by voice vote after 2 a.m. with just a few Senators on the floor.

Southern California was built on radio.

"I can still hear the jingle KFWB News 98,” wrote  Taline in Los Feliz, during a recent conversation on LAist's daily news show, AirTalk, which airs on 89.3 FM. “I grew up hearing that in my dad's minivan on the way to and from school. It has a special place in my heart.”

Back in April, broadcast company Audacy announced KNX News — one of the last-remaining all-news FM stations — was leaving the FM dial where it had simulcast on 97.1 FM since 2021. The station, which is also one of the oldest in L.A., is not budging from 1070 AM where it has been on the air for more than 100 years. The move away from FM officially happened in May to make way for a new sports talk station, which Audacy officials called an area of growth for advertisers in today’s media landscape.

The move is one in a long line of changes for radio and a reminder that before podcasts, playlists and algorithms, many Southern Californians built their days around radio broadcasts.

Radio, a daily ritual

The construction of KNX

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Herman J. Schultheis

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Los Angeles Public Library

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Michael Jackson, a well-known KNX, personality

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Los Angeles Public Library

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Larry Mantle, now in his 41st year hosting AirTalk, remembers being a kid and dreaming of what it might be like to be behind the mic at one of these radio stations.

“ I grew up with KNX," he said. “My dream job as a kid was to be an anchor on KNX or KFWB, the two local all-news radio stations, 'cause there was nothing like hosting AirTalk that even existed at that point.”

Mantle opened up the phone lines on a recent show to hear from his fellow SoCal radio lovers about the shows they miss and the memories they have. Here's what they had to say:

A love for radio, then and now  

A pilot of KMPC's traffic alert helicopter pictured with his daughter and grandson.

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Los Angeles Public Library

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A 1963 picture of Valley State College (now Los Angeles Valley College) preparing to launch KVCM

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Larry Leach

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Los Angeles Public Library

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“When you'd walk down Hollywood Boulevard where the station was, you could hear it playing as you went down the street,” said  Olivia in Glendale about KLAC 570 with Al Jarvis.

 Larry in Yorba Linda shouted out KBCA Jazz for its 24-hour jazz, saying “When I first moved out here in '68 from Phoenix, which had like an hour a week, it was a real wonder.”

 Mark in Glassell Park emailed that he loves KCRW’s Henry Rollins, writing, “I used to bristle at his unique DJ persona, but over time, I came to love him and his crazy eclectic playlists. I find his knowledge in history and punk rock fascinating. He's a gem and a legend."

"I'd like to give a shout-out to all the DJs working at KXLU, the college station at Loyola Marymount University, said  Jeremy in Culver City in an email. “That station's been on the air for nearly 60 years. I believe it's one of the best examples of what's possible with radio."

"KFWB and KRLA back in the day when they were rock music stations —  Dr. Demento, one of my favorite on-air personalities, also had eclectic music taste," said  Carrie in Desert Edge.

“ Dr. Demento was must listening when I was a kid in junior high school at Le Conte Junior High in Hollywood,” Mantle added. “Every Sunday night on KMET, we would make sure we were listening to Dr. Demento and his funny records.”

The question remains…

An 11-year-old winning a car in a KMPC contest in 1963.

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Los Angeles Public Library

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Listener support is vital to any radio station, and it’s clear KNX has many lifelong fans. AirTalk listeners highlighted their support for household KNX names over the decades like Bill Keene, Melinda Lee, Mike Roy and Jackie Olden.

As KNX makes changes, many are watching closely and thinking about the future of radio.

Listeners like Tommy in La Quinta are left wondering if the radio dial will be the same…

“I’m a hardcore listener, but I don't know about casual listeners [and] if they'll tune to AM,” he said.

After months of hand-wringing, Los Angeles and LA28 have come to a tentative agreement on how Olympics organizers will reimburse the city for its expenses for the 2028 Summer Games.

According to the deal, the private Olympic organizing committee will pay upfront for the estimated cost of services that are not eligible for federal reimbursement, like trash pick-up and traffic control. Under another proposal, the city would also be able to tap an LA28 contingency fund if it isn't fully repaid by the federal government for policing costs at Olympic venues.

The agreement is nearly nine months overdue and still needs approval by Mayor Karen Bass and the City Council.

The 2028 Olympics are intended to be privately financed, and an existing city agreement with LA28 states that the Olympics organizers, not L.A., will pay for extra costs for public services in support of the Games. But L.A. is the financial back-stop for the Olympics, meaning if LA28 goes in the red, taxpayers will pick up the bill.

Beyond that, the city services agreement presents another area where L.A. could incur additional unexpected expenses for hosting the Games. L.A. City Councilmember Monica Rodriguez warned LA28 CEO Reynold Hoover earlier this year that a bad deal could "bankrupt" the city.

Jacie Prieto Lopez, an LA28 spokesperson, and Paul Krekorian, who leads the city's office of major events, said in statements that the freshly inked agreement would help deliver a fiscally responsible Games.

"Mayor Bass’ priority is that the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games be fiscally responsible, protect taxpayers, and benefit Angelenos for decades to come. This agreement helps deliver that commitment," Krekorian said.

But the contract between the two parties doesn't fully resolve one of the biggest areas of financial risk for the city: the enormous cost of security for an event as extensive and high-profile as the summer Olympics and Paralympics.

Organizers are counting on the federal government to pay for public safety at Olympic venues that are considered part of a "national special security event." That includes costs for LAPD staffing. LA28 has not included security costs in its $7.1 billion budget — a fact that City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto criticized earlier this year.

The federal government has so far allocated $1 billion for security costs for the Olympics. Exactly where those federal funds will go has not yet been determined, and there's no guarantee they will cover all of L.A.'s policing costs.

To address this, city officials have also proposed an amendment to a 2021 agreement between the city and LA28. That amendment would establish that if L.A. is not reimbursed by the federal government for all its eligible expenses, it could dip into LA28's contingency fund of $270 million before the private organizing committee could use those funds for any legacy projects.

But that bucket of money will first be used for any costs that Olympics organizers still owe if they run out of revenue — meaning if the Olympics don't turn a profit, the city's access to that money will depend on how much is left for the taking.

Civil rights attorney Connie Rice, who has been tracking the city's negotiations with LA28, told LAist the agreement was a "PR document" not a deal. She pointed out that if the federal government does not pay up for security spending as expected, L.A. could be in trouble.

" It leaves the taxpayers with a GoFundMe strategy," she said.

The city services agreement lays the groundwork for more negotiations between LA28 and the city. Each venue will require its own agreement, to be negotiated by July 1, 2027. Venues in the city of L.A. include Dodger Stadium, the L.A. Convention Center, L.A. Memorial Coliseum and the Venice Beach Boardwalk.

The City Council's ad-hoc committee on the 2028 Games will meet Tuesday afternoon to vote on the agreement.