The Brief

In recent weeks, students at colleges and universities across the United States have taken part in protests against the Israel-Hamas war. The United States has had a long and storied history of student activism, the earliest accounts of which can be traced to the American Revolution.

“We have complaints about harsh grading, we have complaints about dining hall food, we have complaints about living conditions on the campus, which lead to not just protests, not just occupations, but actual rioting in the period around the American Revolution,” explained Professor Angus Johnston, a historian of student activism at Hostos Community College in New York.

Johnston joined LAist's daily news program AirTalk, which airs on 89.3 FM, to explain how student protests of the past can inform our understanding of the ones going on across the U.S. today.

How Vietnam War protests shaped student activism

As the concept of the modern university developed in the 20th century, so did student activism.

By the 1960s, students adopted more radical approaches to protests. A consequence of this was that colleges responded with harsher crackdowns that often involved law enforcement. Clashes between students and law enforcement came to a head during the Vietnam War protests.

On May 4, 1970, the Ohio National Guard opened fire on unarmed anti-war student protesters at Kent State University. The Kent State Shootings garnered national attention and would be one of four incidents that resulted in student deaths between 1968 and 1970, Johnston said.

Police arrest student during riots against closure of "People's Park" on June 3, 1969 in Berkeley.

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The others were the Orangeburg Massacre at South Carolina State College in 1968, the People’s Park Protest at Berkeley in 1969, and the Jackson State Killings at Jackson State College in 1970.

Evolution of campus response

The violence of the Vietnam War protests forced college and university administrators and government officials to reconsider how they responded to student activism. In 1970, President Richard Nixon commissioned The President’s Commission on Campus Unrest.

“One of their conclusions was that a nation that is driven to use the weapons of war against its children, as the United States was doing on American campuses at that time, is a nation on the brink of chaos,” said Johnston.

Following the release of this report, college administrators began to negotiate with students, agree to concessions and became hesitant to send in law enforcement.

Johnston says the ratification of the 26th Amendment in 1971, which changed the voting age from 21 to 18, also impacted the dynamics of student activism as they related to state politics.

“Suddenly, students have for the first time the ability to organize and lobby within the electoral system around their own interests, particularly at public colleges and universities, which are governed in large part by the governor and the state legislature.”

In turn, he said, students had more power on campus in the 1970s and 1980s. This meant fewer arrests and more productive protests.

Johnston said he believes what is happening now is a result of backsliding from the policies that had been implemented in the last third of the 20th century.

The trouble with comparing protests then and now

On social media and in the press, people have been quick to draw comparisons between student activism during various points of history and today, especially as it relates to the anti-apartheid movement.

Johnston said protests today generally have demands that can be divided in three categories: Divestment, disentanglement from contractual relationships, and transparency. The demands of protesters, he added, are similar to demands during the anti-apartheid movement. But at the same time, that public memory of the anti-apartheid movement does not paint the full picture.

American students at the University of Maryland protest against US President Richard Nixon's decision to send US troops to Cambodia, in Riverdale, May 5, 1970. The Vietnam war opposed from 1955 to 1975, North Vietnam, supported by both China and USSR, and the South Vietnam, supported by the U.S. and greatly impacted Laos and Cambodia. Opposition to U.S. involvement in the Vietnam war began with demonstrations on college campuses in 1965 and grew into a broad social movement over the ensuing several years, as US casualties grew bigger every day while army's abuses were widely reported in the media.

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“There is a level of unanimity that we tend to ascribe to the past that isn’t always there.”

The public memory that anti-apartheid movement on campus arose during Nelson Mandela’s imprisonment, alongside a "wave of international opposition” in the 1980s, is an oversimplification, according to Johnston. He said students were protesting against apartheid in South Africa on campus as early as the 1950s with the divestment movement emerging in 1976.

Johnston said a lot of people have been asking him if he thinks this wave of protests will be successful, and whether protesters' demands will be met.

“I would say that there are some issues that may be won on a few campuses in the short term. I suspect that a lot of these students understand that they're in for the long haul.”

Listen to the conversation

For decades, people applying for Medicaid were told their personal information — including their names, addresses and immigration status — would not be used for immigration enforcement.

But a December court ruling changed that. And that change has sent ripples of fear through families and communities.

"My daughter's life depends on Medicaid," says P., who asked that NPR identify her by her first initial only.

P. and her family have legal immigration status, but she fears that the health insurance keeping her medically fragile daughter alive could also put her family at risk of being detained or deported by immigration authorities.

For decades Medicaid promised eligible immigrants they wouldn't share information with immigration authorities. It was even explicitly written on government websites. Those commitments are no longer on the Medicaid website.

The promise was meant to assure eligible immigrants "to feel comfortable that they can access their care without fear of putting their immigration status into jeopardy," says Cindy Mann, who oversaw Medicaid during the Obama administration and now works at the legal and consulting firm Manatt Health.

Mann calls the change, which the Trump administration began quietly last year, a "180-degree reversal of longstanding policy."

'Anxiety every day'

P.'s 11-year-old daughter has Rett Syndrome, a rare neurological condition that makes it hard for her to eat, breathe, walk and talk.

"She receives in-home support," P. says, along with frequent visits to cardiologists, pulmonologists and other specialists. "She also receives [physical therapy], [occupational therapy], speech, aquatic therapy on a weekly basis."

All this care would cost tens of thousands of dollars without Medicaid — the joint state and federal health insurance program for more than 70 million people with low-incomes or disabilities.

P. says she and her husband are allowed to work in the U.S. legally and have private health insurance through their jobs. They have two children who qualify for Medicaid coverage because of disabilities.

"It brings us an amount of anxiety every day," P. says. She's had friends detained by immigration authorities and she worries about her family's safety. This is the case even though everyone in P.'s family has legal status, including two of their children who are citizens.

Unusual requests 

Twenty-two states have sued to stop federal health agencies from sharing Medicaid data with the Department of Homeland Security, including Arizona, Michigan and New Jersey. At the moment, following the December ruling in federal court in San Francisco, Medicaid can share names, addresses and other identifying information for people who are in the country unlawfully with immigration officials. In the remaining 28 states including Texas, Kentucky and Utah, there are no limits on what Medicaid data can be shared with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other entities.

Some other recent federal actions are raising new alarms.

One former state Medicaid director told NPR they received what they described as a highly unusual request from the federal government in summer 2025 — a list of mostly Latino-looking last names, with instructions to check only immigration status.

The director, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss federal communications, said that's not how these reviews typically work. Usually, states are asked to review all criteria — income, disability and immigration status — to determine eligibility for the program, not single out one factor.

The director says they were floored. After reviewing the cases, they found everyone on the list remained eligible to continue with Medicaid.

Last August, the federal agency that oversees Medicaid, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), started a new initiative to review immigration status of Medicaid enrollees. The agency said in a press release it would start sending monthly enrollment reports with names of people it needed states to verify.

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to NPR's questions about whether the data has been used for immigration enforcement. In the Federal Register and in a memo issued in October 2025, ICE says that it is rescinding a 2013 policy that said CMS and HHS data would not be used for immigration enforcement. The Associated Press first reported on the Trump administration's change in July 2025.

Choosing between care and fear

At Venice Family Clinic in Los Angeles, staff say patients are increasingly asking whether it's safe to remain on Medicaid.

Pattie Lopez manages the clinic's health insurance department. She says one patient became so worried about the policy change that she dropped her coverage — only to return after struggling without it.

"She found it incredibly hard to go without health coverage," Lopez says. "Now she's here taking a risk because she needs her medication."

Venice Family Clinic is qualified to receive special federal funding to take care of vulnerable communities, and 80% of its 45,000 patients rely on Medicaid. If people drop coverage but still need care, the clinic could face financial strain. It has already frozen hiring and is looking for other ways to cut costs.

Andrew Cohen, an attorney with Health Law Advocates in Massachusetts, said that for people already enrolled in Medicaid or other programs, the federal government likely has their information already.

"So remaining on coverage may be no additional risk," he said. "But there are instances where it may not be safe for everybody."

Some immigrants may be weighing whether to sign up or continue coverage. For P., though, walking away from Medicaid isn't possible.

"We don't have any other option," she says about dropping coverage for her severely disabled daughter. "We will have to risk that."

Without the coverage, she says, it's her daughter's life that would be at risk.

When Kate Morrow gave birth to twins eight years ago, they were very premature, with compromised immune systems.

"We counted on the community to keep our children safe," Morrow says. She trusted that her neighbors were vaccinating their children to protect other vulnerable people in her community — including her twins. But that's no longer the case.

Morrow and her family moved to Spartanburg County, S.C., in 2019. The area is the epicenter of the biggest measles outbreak in the U.S. in more than three decades, with nearly 1,000 confirmed cases. Measles — one of the world's most contagious diseases — was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000, thanks to widespread vaccination and school vaccine requirements.

But with the current resurgence of measles, the country is at risk of losing that elimination status.

In Spartanburg County, school vaccination rates have fallen to just under 89% — well below the 95% threshold needed to prevent community outbreaks.

And it's not just Spartanburg. There are places around the country where vaccination rates have sunk to levels low enough to allow outbreaks to flare, says Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.

"There are a lot more South Carolinas waiting to happen," he says.

Morrow says it's hard for her to understand why so many parents in her community are turning against vaccines.

"How did we get here?" she asks. "How did we get to a place where we don't trust our doctors to do the very best thing for our children? How did we get to a place where vaccinations have become political?"

The answer is a mix of widespread misinformation, lingering resentment over COVID mandates and politicians at the local and national level who are sowing mistrust of vaccines.

'I don't trust anything anymore'

Margarita DeLuca says she didn't give much thought to vaccines until COVID hit. She has three children and lives in neighboring Greenville County. When the COVID vaccine was first rolled out, DeLuca was scared that it had been developed too quickly to be trustworthy, and she was opposed to vaccine mandates.

"I think it should have been a choice. It shouldn't have been shoved down your throat like you have to do it," DeLuca says.

DeLuca is not alone. Resentment over vaccine mandates and other public health measures during the pandemic prompted more parents to question vaccine requirements, says Dr. Martha Edwards, president of the South Carolina chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

"COVID hit and people really didn't like the mandates and that was a big boiling point," Edwards says. "And in South Carolina, that really has caused a lot of people to escalate their feelings of 'don't tell me what to do.' "

Still, when DeLuca's eldest child, Nikko, was born in the summer of 2021, she got him his routine shots for the first couple of years of his life.

But about a week after he got his 2-year-old vaccinations, Nikko spiked a fever and experienced a seizure.

"He froze up and then he started convulsing right in my arms — the scariest thing ever," DeLuca recalls.

Nikko recovered. Her pediatrician at the time told her these seizures can happen when toddlers get high fevers, and it's unlikely vaccines played a role. But DeLuca remains dubious.

"He hasn't had any seizures since. But he hasn't had any vaccines either. I'm not saying it's from that, but there is a chance," she says.

So, like a growing number of parents nationwide, DeLuca decided to forgo vaccinations for Nikko, now 4, and his twin infant siblings.

"I'm grateful that I did not vaccinate them right now," she says. "Maybe at 5 years old, their bodies are bigger and they have a higher immune system. They can handle things."

Local pediatrician Stuart Simko with Prisma Health in Greer, S.C., says he hears this from other parents. And he tries to explain why delaying vaccinations is risky.

"This is the time where your child is at a higher risk, the younger they are, for complications from many of the things that we vaccinate against," he says.

For instance, the measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccine can prevent serious complications from measles like brain swelling and pneumonia, both of which have been documented among children in this outbreak. Vaccines can also prevent immune amnesia, a phenomenon where the virus wipes out parts of the immune system, leaving kids vulnerable to new infections for several years.

And the virus can be deadly. Before the first vaccines were developed in the 1960s measles used to kill hundreds of U.S. children every year.

Simko says he tries not to judge parents but to listen to their fears.

"The parent who's choosing not to vaccinate their child, they're not trying to make a bad medical decision. They want what's best for their child. And we have to understand where they're coming from," he says.

Social media is a big problem. Many of Simko's patients are overwhelmed by information; some of it is good, he says and some is just not backed by science.

DeLuca says she no longer knows what to believe when it comes to online information.

"I don't trust anything anymore. I really don't."

Exemptions rise, vaccination rates fall 

Spartanburg County is a solidly conservative part of South Carolina. Dotted with small towns, its sprawling countryside is home to rural communities, conservative faith groups and a sizable Slavic immigrant population. All of these groups tend to have lower vaccination rates across the U.S.

In the majority of states, parents can apply for nonmedical exemptions to required vaccines for religious, personal or philosophical reasons. In Spartanburg County, the use of religious exemptions has skyrocketed since the pandemic. Today, nearly 10% of students in the county have a religious exemption — up from 3.4% at the start of the 2020-21 school year.

The result is that vaccination rates among school children are dropping. The majority of schools in Spartanburg County now have vaccination rates below the 95% threshold required to prevent measles outbreaks. In one public charter school — which has seen dozens of students quarantined for measles — the vaccination rate is a shockingly low 21%.

Republican state Sen. Josh Kimbrell, a lifelong Spartanburg resident, says he understands why parents have grown more skeptical of vaccines in the wake of what he calls the government's "overbearing" response to COVID. But he says the distrust has gotten "out of control."

The exemptions have become easy to obtain — parents can download a form and they don't have to state their religious reasoning. All they have to do is get it notarized.

"I know people who haven't set foot in a church in five years who suddenly decide it's a religious liberty exemption and don't have a religious reason," Kimbrell says. "They just don't want to do it. And that's fine but just say that."

Public health researchers say eliminating nonmedical exemptions to vaccine requirements could help raise falling vaccination rates. But in South Carolina, where opposition to government mandates is firmly entrenched, that's unlikely to happen. Last week, the state legislature shot down a bill that would have kept unvaccinated children out of schools.

And it's not just South Carolina. A recent study found the rate of nonmedical exemptions to vaccines has risen steadily in the majority of U.S. counties, and this trend has accelerated since the pandemic.

Parents changing their minds

Gene Zakharov is one of those Spartanburg parents who got religious exemptions for his children. He owns a cafe, 121 Coffee, in sight of Emmanuel Church where he's an active member of the leadership team.

Zakharov is part of the large Slavic community drawn to Spartanburg by its conservative politics and sunshine. He says many people from the former Soviet Union who settled here "don't believe in vaccines."

"People who lived there have a big distrust in the government, to say the least," he says.

He and his wife didn't vaccinate their two youngest children. They worried about potential side effects from vaccines. But they changed their minds after their 13-year-old daughter was exposed to measles at a friend's house and spent time in quarantine.

"It doesn't hit you until you actually come in contact with something like this. You're like, well, thank God my kid is all right. But you know, what if she wasn't?"

Zakharov is not the only parent questioning earlier decisions. As the measles outbreak exploded in January, pediatrician Stuart Simko says his phone started ringing.

"I've had several patients who've said no to vaccinations in the past who've said, 'Hey, what do you think of the MMR?' " he says. "What do you think about measles? It's in our backyard."

He explains how dangerous the measles virus can be. And "a lot of people are changing their minds," Simko says.

Combatting myths and fears

Tracy Hobbs changed her mind recently.

Last month Hobbs brought her 5-year-old twins, Joseph and Alice, to a mobile vaccine clinic to get their first dose of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. The twins should have gotten their first shots around 12 months of age, but Hobbs decided against it at the time. That's because her oldest child, now 7, was diagnosed with autism shortly after he got his first measles vaccine.

Hobbs says she saw conflicting information about whether the vaccines were to blame.

"We were afraid that if we had gotten the kids the vaccines, that it might actually cause autism," Hobbs says. "And that's really messed us up because what are you supposed to believe?"

Claims linking the vaccine to autism stem from a 1998 study that has been thoroughly debunked by a large body of research, but this misinformation still circulates widely. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has long promoted the discredited claim and he recently directed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to change its website to say the link can not be ruled out. Hobbs says all the conflicting information out there is confusing.

"You have one person saying, hey, this could cause the kid to get autism. And then you have somebody saying, no. I've gotten conflicting information since the day they were born," she says.

But when her twins were also diagnosed with autism, even though they weren't vaccinated, Hobbs changed her mind. With measles spreading rapidly around her, she decided to get them the shot. "The measles aren't really something to play with," Hobbs says.

'Not an outlier'

Spartanburg mom Kate Morrow says it pains her to know this kind of misinformation about vaccines and autism still circulates. One of her twins has autism. Both are fully vaccinated.

She wants to encourage parents to trust the science and to speak openly with their pediatrician about their fears.

She feels so strongly about this that she's helping a pro-vaccine advocacy group called South Carolina Families for Vaccines get off the ground. "I'm rooting for the mom in the middle that's feeling lost and scared and doesn't really know what to do," Morrow says.

There's some evidence that outreach efforts are working. State epidemiologist Linda Bell says vaccination rates in Spartanburg County were up by 133% in February compared to the previous year. And new measles cases have slowed significantly.

But the danger hasn't disappeared altogether, says Scott Thorpe, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Public Health Leadership.

"I think what keeps me up at night more than anything else is that Spartanburg is not an outlier," he says. He notes that just across the border in western North Carolina, there are lots of counties with lower vaccination rates. "And we've already started to see some cases there."

Across the U.S., there have been 12 new measles outbreaks so far this year, and more than 1,280 confirmed cases, according to the CDC.

"It's just kind of percolating in all these places," Thorpe says. "And eventually it's going to catch on and turn into a big outbreak, just like Spartanburg. And it's just going to keep on happening as vaccination rates get lower."

Several Republican lawmakers are ramping up anti-Muslim comments and facing little to no response from their leadership.

"Muslims don't belong in American society," Rep. Andy Ogles posted on Monday. "Pluralism is a lie."

The Tennessee Republican, whose seat is in a safe red district, has previously expressed support for banning immigration from Muslim-majority countries and said in a speech last year that "America is and must always be a Christian nation."

The United States was not established as a Christian nation.

"He didn't start this this week," said Sabina Mohyuddin, executive director of the American Muslim Advisory Council in Tennessee. "This has been building up."

Mohyuddin estimates Ogles has tens of thousands of Muslim constituents in his district.

"We know this kind of rhetoric leads to more bullying in school, discrimination in the workplace, hate crimes and vandalism against mosques," Mohyuddin said. "But it is an election year and these politicians believe if they spew this hateful rhetoric, they are going to get more votes."

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., was asked about Ogles' rhetoric during a press conference at the House GOP's annual retreat this week.

"Look, there's a lot of energy in the country and a lot of popular sentiment that the demand to impose Sharia law in America is a serious problem — that's what animates this," Johnson said Tuesday, adding, "It is not about people as Muslims."

Johnson's comments echo a growing chorus among Republican lawmakers, who've been increasingly vocal about denouncing Sharia law and raising questions about Muslims immigrating to the U.S. and those already in the country. There are now 50 Republicans in the "Sharia-Free America" caucus.

Republicans have also spent more than $10 million on political TV ads that mention "Sharia" or "Islam" in a negative way, most of it in Texas ahead of its primaries, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact. That's about 10 times what had been spent in each of the last four election cycles.

Sharia law — a religious framework — does not have standing over the U.S. Constitution.

"Because people don't really know or have any idea what Sharia law is, it's the boogeyman. You just throw the word out there and people get scared," Mohyuddin said. "This is how we practice our religion. And last I heard, the Constitution still protects the freedom of religion."

A handful of Congressional Republicans have denounced Ogles' comments.

"I have many Muslim constituents, neighbors and friends who have contributed greatly to our community and country. Freedom of religion is a pillar of our nation and broad brush statements like this are offensive and completely inappropriate," Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., said in a statement to NPR.

But the majority of House Republicans have stayed silent, with some choosing to double down on the rhetoric.

"No more Muslims immigrating to America," posted Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas on Thursday.

Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., who recently faced criticism for saying he'd choose dogs over Muslims, wrote: "We need more Islamophobia, not less. Fear of Islam is rational."

Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., posted a photo of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks side-by-side with a photo of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who is Muslim. The caption read: "The enemy is inside the gates."

These statements came in the wake of several attacks in the U.S., including a shooting at a Virginia college Thursday and an attempted attack on an anti-Muslim protest in New York held outside of Mayor Mamdani's home. Authorities say the suspects in the attacks were either inspired by ISIS or had supported the group in the past.

A far cry from previous political eras 

Johnson's office did not respond to a request for comment about the additional anti-Muslim posts from his members.

The lack of response from GOP leadership stands in sharp contrast to the swift and decisive condemnation from Republican House leaders in 2019 in the wake of an interview by Rep. Steve King in which the Iowa Republican questioned why the terms "white supremacist" and "white nationalist" were considered offensive.

Liz Cheney — then the No. 3 House Republican — reacted by saying King "should find another line of work."

"That language has no place in America," added then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

House leadership stripped King of his committee assignments.

Gregg Nunziata, executive director of Society for the Rule of Law, said the shift in response to King seven years ago and to lawmakers this week highlights two different political eras.

"There's this new energy on the right that kind of delights in provoking and offending and refuses to apologize," said Nunziata, who previously served as policy counsel to the Senate Republican Policy Committee and as policy advisor to then-Sen. Marco Rubio.

He draws a contrast between the leadership of former President George W. Bush, who in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks visited an Islamic Center and declared, "Islam is peace."

"Those who feel like they can intimidate our fellow citizens to take out their anger don't represent the best of America," Bush said. "They represent the worst of humankind, and they should be ashamed of that kind of behavior."

Nunziata rejected Ogles' assertion that "plurality is a lie."

"I think the failure to condemn this is morally cowardly, but it's also politically shortsighted," he said. "The MAGA movement and the coalition that elected Donald Trump itself was pluralistic. Republicans had a good election year in part because they significantly expanded their support in minority communities and communities that have traditionally not been open to Republicans."

Censure effort underway from Democrats 

Democrats have blasted the tweets and the response from GOP leaders.

"Islamophobia is a cancer that must be eradicated from both the Congress and the Country. The shocking silence from Republican leadership is deafening," said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.

"We already know that Randy Fine and Tommy Tuberville are vile bigots," wrote Katherine Clarke, House Democratic whip. "But what's even worse is the silence from GOP leadership."

Rep. Shri Thanedar, D-Mich., has introduced a resolution to censure Ogles and remove him from the Homeland Security Committee. Thanedar has not yet said if he will force a vote on the measure and his office did not respond to a request for comment.

Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz., the first Iranian American Democrat elected to Congress, posted on X that Fine's comments "should have already resulted in censure."

"I've asked before and I'm asking again: @SpeakerJohnson, will you reprimand Rep. Fine? Strip him of his committee assignments? Anything? Or does the Republican caucus condone racism?" she wrote.

The story first appeared on The LA Local.

For Los Angeles streetlight advocates, 2025 was another dark year, as calls to repair public lights remained nearly the same as the year before despite growing public and political scrutiny.

Malfunctioning streetlights are nothing new to Angelenos. For years, they have plagued neighborhoods and left residents to deal with darkened sidewalks, streets and parks — and the public safety challenges they pose.

An analysis by The LA Local of 311 calls for streetlight repairs showed that reports remained consistently high in 2025, with about 45,500 compared with 46,100 in 2024. That was an increase of roughly 10,000 calls from 2022 and 2023, when totals hovered around 35,000.

Downtown remained the neighborhood with the most streetlight calls: about 2,400 in 2025, an increase of about 200 from the year before.

While the total number remained relatively constant citywide, the locations of calls shifted. Some neighborhoods saw drops, while others saw surges – notably in some of LA’s higher-income neighborhoods.

Calls in Hollywood Hills tripled from about 300 to more than 1,000 in 2025. Silverlake calls similarly skyrocketed from 513 in 2024 to about 1,482 last year. Calls in Atwater Village and Los Feliz more than doubled.

Boyle Heights, once among the most affected neighborhoods, saw progress. The neighborhood had more than 1,900 calls for light repair in 2024 and about 1,100 in 2025.

Westlake saw a similar decrease, from 1,864 calls in 2024 to 1,042 in 2025. Calls in Pico Union and West Adams were cut in half.

According to the Los Angeles City Controller’s office, the LA Bureau of Street Lighting reported that copper wire theft has been trending down since last summer. Reported maintenance calls, however, doubled from about 2,000 in July 2025 to about 4,400 in January 2026.

The LA Bureau of Street Lighting, responsible for repairs and maintenance of the city’s 220,000 streetlights, saw a 5% budget cut in 2025. Its budget had long been among the smallest of public works departments.

Miguel Sangalang, the bureau’s director, told the City Council on March 4 that the department had a backlog of about 32,000 open service requests and that the average time to repair a light has grown to about a year. About a quarter of all installed lights were at the end stage of life, he said, and needed to be replaced.

“Theft and vandalism is our most glaring issue,” he told the city council. “This is the issue that takes out whole blocks and neighborhoods.”

The LA Local reported that the Los Angeles Police Department had disbanded a specialized unit — The Heavy Metal Task Force — investigating copper wire theft last July.

Sangalang said during the presentation that the department began fortifying streetlights, installing cages or shields to make the copper wiring more difficult to access. Installing battery- and solar-powered streetlights has helped, he added, because they use far less wire.

He noted that lights in areas that previously needed replacing multiple times per year had been replaced with solar-powered models and had remained intact for three years.

The bureau is expected to seek a tax increase to subsidize its budget, reduce the time it takes to repair lights and get back on track with its maintenance schedule.