The Brief

The contractor building the long-awaited LAX People Mover project has filed a lawsuit alleging the city of L.A. breached its contract in several disputes.

In the suit, filed with the L.A. County Superior Court on July 9, LINXS alleges the city is misplacing blame in construction-related disputes and refusing to extend contract deadlines. LINXS also alleges it’s owed additional payment for the work as a result of the delays.

The project, a 2.25-mile-long elevated train designed to transport riders between airport terminals and local transit, is currently undergoing testing. Work on the train is scheduled to be complete “in a few months,” according to a June interview with Los Angeles World Airports CEO John Ackerman on the L.A. in a Minute podcast.

Chief among the disputes detailed in the lawsuit is one involving repairs to faulty electrical equipment in the system that powers the train, resulting in testing delays last year. LAist reported on this dispute last November and in April.

A spokesperson for LINXS said it has attempted to engage in “extensive good-faith efforts over the past two years” to resolve the ongoing contractual disputes.

A spokesperson for Los Angeles World Airports, the city agency that manages LAX, said the agency does not comment on pending litigation. They added that the agency remains committed to “delivering a safe, durable and reliable” train as soon as possible.

The L.A. City Attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In its lawsuit, LINXS said that by not granting the contractor’s compensation and time-extension requests, the city is attempting to evade accountability for the delayed train, which was once expected to open in 2023 and is nearly a billion dollars over budget.

The contractor warned in its lawsuit that without an extension of contract deadlines, it might be forced to repay lenders who financed the project as soon as this fall. In that case, the contractor said in its lawsuit that it could become “insolvent and unable to perform,” adding that possibility would have “catastrophic consequences.”

Dispute over metering cabinet

Last February, staff from Los Angeles World Airports and the city’s Department of Water and Power directed LINXS to repair equipment in a metering cabinet that had degraded due to moisture and debris, as LAist previously reported.

LINXS completed the repair work, which required power to be partially shut down between February and July 2025. That temporary power disruption delayed critical testing of the technology that allows for central control of the People Mover’s systems.

LINXS said last year, and also in the current lawsuit, that the repair work is not in its scope of work. As a result, the contractor has said it's owed compensation and a minimum of a 141-day extension to complete construction.

“Since then, [Los Angeles World Airports] has stonewalled the discussions of [LINXS’] compensation and a time extension,” the contractor alleges in its lawsuit.

LINXS, citing information it received from a public records request, alleges the issue stemmed from an instance where LADWP opened the metering cabinet in September 2024 to rectify design issues with the equipment contained in it.

Whereas past disputes between LINXS and the airport were resolved through settlements that have so far totaled hundreds of millions of dollars and resulted in schedule extensions, the dispute over maintaining electrical equipment has been uniquely contentious.

“Other relief events that we’ve dealt with up to this point … we could agree there were some things that were not totally within LINXS’ control,” Jake Adams, an airport executive who is overseeing $5.5 billion in LAX upgrades, said in an interview with LAist in April. “This relief event is very different. We believe there is absolutely no merit to this claim.”

The lawsuit also alleges that the contractor is owed additional time and money for several other ongoing disputes, including that Los Angeles World Airports is refusing to sign a power agreement with LADWP for solar panels installed as part of the People Mover project and that workers on separate airport projects have “demolished” work LINXS completed for the train.

What’s the status of the People Mover?

The People Mover is operating in a testing phase where it simulates how the train will operate when it begins shuttling travelers between airport terminals and the L.A. Metro system.

The testing of the train won’t be impacted by the lawsuit, a spokesperson for Los Angeles World Airports told LAist.

A hearing on the case filed last week has been scheduled for December, according to the L.A. County Superior Court’s website.

"Who here loves Bikini Kill?" asked the feminist organizer Sonya Passi on-stage at Olivia Rodrigo's Daisy Chain Fields festival in Irvine, Calif., on Saturday. Under a merciless, 94-degree sun, the crowd roared.

Passi had just identified herself as the founder of FreeFrom, a non-profit working to end gender-based violence by providing survivors with material support. It's one of 10 organizations benefitting from the $20 million raised by the inaugural edition of Rodrigo's one-day, women-led concert, which brought together the likes of Chappell Roan, The Breeders, Stevie Nicks and Doechii for an intergenerational audience of about 45,000. "Bikini Kill helped teach an entire generation that you don't wait for permission to be loud about what matters," Passi said of the '90s feminist punk icons, who now faced thousands of girls for whom the band's galvanic anthems, like "Double Dare Ya" and "Rebel Girl," were designed.

Frontwoman Kathleen Hanna didn't waste a second cutting through to them. "A lot of us feel like this government f****** hates us and wants us dead," she said before Bikini Kill played a note. "They don't give a s*** about anybody's healthcare. They don't care if we die in parking lots of curable illnesses. They don't care if our rights are taken away. They're ripping people off the streets. It makes it hard for me in my body sometimes to have a good time 'cause it's hard to turn it off. And I was thinking on the way here, what a gift to be able to play for you. What a gift Olivia has given all of us to do this festival." Then Bikini Kill instigated its intervention of Revolution Girl Style Now! as young women in T-shirts proclaiming "Girls to the Front" and "F*** AI" screamed.

With proceeds going to organizations like Center for Reproductive Rights and National Women's Law Center, the first Daisy Chain was an extension of Rodrigo's consistent outspokenness about both abortion access and her musical heroes, who've influenced the pop star's emotional clarity and ripping sound. For the artist's Guts tour in 2024, Rodrigo donated ticket proceeds to abortion funds and advocacy groups passed out emergency contraceptive pills to concertgoers. On the Daisy Chain grounds, branches of a Yoko Ono "Wish Tree" were tagged by attendees with hopes for universal healthcare and a free Palestine; one tag simply read "Girlhood is healing." A concrete walkway was painted with quotes from Angela Davis, Audre Lorde and Maya Angelou, a literal path paved by the achievements of historic women.

Two stages — the rock-oriented "Marigold," where flower crowns, crochet and at least one mohawk swirled in gentle circle pits; and the bigger "Dandelion," which leaned pop — were both visually framed by giant buttons evoking the aesthetic of 1970s women's liberation, bearing slogans like "Bans Off Our Bodies" and "Reproductive Rights Are Human Rights." Tattooed mothers with pink-haired daughters sprawled on blankets. A shockingly long line formed for a sparkly Rodrigo-branded Taco Bell pop-up thing ("You Look Pretty Pink for a Baja Blast"). T-shirts abounded honoring the late Dolly Parton, patron saint Fiona Apple and the campaign for Dykes Against Deportation, not to mention Lilith Fair, the hugely successful, all-women touring fest of the late-'90s that served as an explicit inspiration to Daisy Chain. Over on Dandelion in the early afternoon, Santigold played her spiky 2008 classic "L.E.S. Artistes," then beamed: "I can't believe she pulled this s*** off!"

Two stages were both visually framed by giant buttons evoking the aesthetic of 1970s women's liberation, bearing slogans like "Bans Off Our Bodies" and "Reproductive Rights Are Human Rights."

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By mid-afternoon the $250-a-ticket festival began to feel perilously overcrowded, with unmanageable lines for food and a concerning lack of shade in extreme heat — that the collective electric mood seemed to prevail anyway was a testament to the sure-mindedness of this women-and-girl-dominated setting. I wondered too going into Daisy Chain whether its stated political mission would feel sidelined or effectually woven into the day, and I was moved to see the latter in action. Attendees could brave yet another long line to enter the expo of booths for the fest's benefiting nonprofits, earning free merch if they visited every table. Organizers took the stages between most sets. "Where a woman lives should never determine if she lives," stated a rep from women's health nonprofit Jhpiego before introducing pop-rock singer-songwriter Rachel Chinouriri. The executive director of Black Mamas Matter Alliance explained the org's mission to end maternal mortality before declaring, "everybody deserves healthcare and it is our human right," then joyfully proclaimed: "Now give it up for Doechii!" Daisy Chain's mission clearly incited artists to speak out onstage, too — the young, heavy rock band Die Spitz (its drummer in corpse paint) succinctly punctuated its set, growling, "Free Palestine, f*** ICE, thank you Olivia!"

During Bikini Kill's blazing set, Kathleen Hanna directly addressed the young people at Daisy Chain and told them to keep teaching the older people in their lives — "We have so much that we can learn from one another," she insisted — and to keep their diaries, which constitute their art, and which will create the world. A participatory spirit was stoked, too, by an exhibition, "Grrrl Germs: Punk feminism goes viral 1991-2026," curated by the artist Astria Suparak, presenting artifacts of DIY feminist punk with blown-up flyers, manifestos, zines, and listening stations (it also functioned as a desperately needed defacto cooling center). I spoke with two young women who were learning about riot grrrl's history for the first time and pointed out its relevance in an age of social media self-commodification and Ozempic. "Younger girls need to be exposed to this," said Claire Hendrick, 24. "You can read about empowerment, but it's so different when you're with people in community, actually doing it and being it."

When Lilith Fair founder Sarah McLachlan guested during Rodrigo's headlining set, it felt like a kind of act of historical justice, too — like a continuum strengthened. "Without Lilith Fair there would be no Daisy Chain," said Rodrigo, who was filmed for a 2025 Lilith documentary about a year before she began plotting to revive it in her own image. Rodrigo and McLachlan harmonized radiantly on "Building a Mystery" and "Angel," the latter of which McLachlan dedicated to Parton, who she called "the biggest philanthropist in the history of country music." Rodrigo reminded the crowd that McLachlan created Lilith during an era when the music industry insisted that two women could not co-headline a show or be played back-to-back on the radio; the tour's overwhelming success upended those bigoted notions.

During Bikini Kill's blazing set, Kathleen Hanna directly addressed the young people at Daisy Chain.

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Lilith was a festival that Sinead O'Connor called "very healing," that Emmylou Harris called "heaven," that Erykah Badu likened to a shared frequency changed. But after its run from 1997 to 1999, the misogynist backlash was instantaneous. Like Parton, Lilith Fair endured years in which its legacy was diminished to a punchline by some in the media (and maybe I would have written Lilith off as too mainstream in its day, too, when certain intellectual DIY bands would never have shared space at a festival with Starbucks-backed singer-songwriters). I personally came of age among a patriarchal, 2000s music industry that seemed hellbent on siphoning women's power. In hindsight, measuring the scale of the blowback to '90s cultural feminism feels like a reminder, in a sense, that equity for women at any level of our world, when not rigorously defended, risks disappearing.

Exiting the festival, I noticed the enormous number of girls carrying copies of the pink, stapled Daisy Chain Fields Zine. It was available at the merch stands for a suggested donation, filled with interviews, essays, and archival ephemera — a scan from Breeders bassist Josephine Wiggs' 1992 journal; a treatise from writer Rayne Fisher-Quann about female friendship that critiques pop-feminism and quotes Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci — plus instructions on how to create your own pocket-sized pamphlet. An intro letter from Rodrigo credits Hanna with inspiring the zine and thanks her for contributing all of the questions posed to the artists, like "What is your favorite protest song or song about women's power?" (Mitski wrote a whole list, including Malvina Reynolds' brilliant "It Isn't Nice") or, "What is something you like about yourself?" I liked imagining young people posing these questions back onto themselves, leaving with something tangible, with the manifold futures of this imperfect gateway and with power in their own hands.
Copyright 2026 NPR

Gloria Steinem, a trailblazing journalist and activist who devoted her life to fighting for women's rights, died on Wednesday. She was 92.

Her passing was announced in a statement posted on her Instagram. It did not give a cause of death.

"Gloria Steinem passed away peacefully at her home in New York City, surrounded by some of the many who loved her," the post read.

Starting in the 1960s, at a time when women were largely limited to domestic roles, Steinem challenged gender stereotypes and championed feminist ideals like equality, sisterhood and reproductive freedom. In doing so, she inspired generations of women to do the same. Today, she's a household name that is synonymous with the women's rights movement.

"Because of her work, across America and around the world, more women are afforded the respect and opportunities that they deserve," then-President Barack Obama said when he awarded Steinem the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her commitment to activism in 2013. "She also changed how women thought about themselves."

President Barack Obama awards the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Gloria Steinem in the East Room at the White House on Nov. 20, 2013.

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An early impact

Steinem was born in Toledo, Ohio, in 1934. She graduated from Smith College in 1956 with a bachelor's degree in government studies. After Steinem finished school, she spent two years in India on a fellowship, where she traveled with people organizing against caste violence and wrote for Indian publications — an experience that she said shaped her activism in the U.S.

When Steinem returned home, she was briefly involved with a CIA-backed organization that sent American students to Soviet-sponsored youth festivals to promote pro-American principles. This would become a point of contention for some feminists later in Steinem's career. She defended her role, asserting that the CIA never attempted to alter the organization's policies.

Steinem then went on to become a freelance journalist in New York during the 1960s — when newsrooms were largely run by men and female reporters were typically restricted in the topics they were allowed to cover.

"I and lots of women could not write about political subjects for the existing magazines," Steinem recalled in an interview with NPR in 2020. "We were thought to be the experts on, you know, food, makeup, babies and celebrities."

Still, she did not allow those limitations to stop her from pursuing hard-hitting investigative stories. And in 1963, Steinem gained national attention for going undercover at one of Hugh Hefner's nightclubs. Her exposé for Show magazine, "A Bunny's Tale," revealed the sexism and low wages endured by cocktail waitresses, challenging Hefner's claim that his Playboy empire was a sexual revolution, beneficial for men and women alike.

Steinem appears in New York on Feb. 17, 1970.

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Steinem went on to serve as a founding editor and writer at New York magazine and, a few years later, in 1972, launched her own publication, Ms. magazine, which was named after the honorific title given when a woman's marital status is unknown. It was widely regarded as the first national magazine run by and written for women.

"The women's magazines that are around, most of which all of us who work on Ms. have worked for, are really talking about women in their roles as wives and mothers," she told NPR at the time.

Steinem added that while those magazines served a purpose, she felt they missed the full picture of women's lives.

"I think that all of us, when we read those magazines, get a sense of dishonesty," she said. "It doesn't help you to change your life. And it's not really allowing women to tell the truth about their daily experiences."

The magazine boldly addressed topics that were considered off-limits, such as abortion, lesbianism, domestic abuse and gender roles. Its 1977 cover story about sexual harassment forced the long-silenced issue into the national spotlight and later became the basis of the 1980 hit movie 9 to 5 starring Dolly Parton.

An activist and political organizer

Beyond journalism, Steinem was an activist and political organizer. In 1971, months before she established Ms. magazine, Steinem helped form the National Women's Political Caucus, which focuses on recruiting, training and endorsing more women in politics.

"Women have been running the political campaigns in this country for generations. But by running means that they've been doing all the menial work, you know, addressing envelopes and driving cars and having fundraisings," Steinem told NPR in 1971. "We're not going to do that anymore. Let the male candidates do their own typing."

When the caucus began, there were 15 women elected to Congress, 363 women state legislators, and only seven women city mayors. Today, those numbers have grown to 150, 2,476 and 428, respectively.

Gloria Steinem (left) and presidential assistant Midge Costanza sit near one another at a July 1978 meeting of the House Judiciary Committee in Washington. The panel voted in favor of a time extension for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.

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Among the legislative issues that mattered most to Steinem was reproductive freedom — driven by her own experience of having had an illegal abortion at age 22. In her 2015 memoir My Life On The Road, she dedicated her book to the English doctor who performed the procedure.

Referring to herself, Steinem wrote: "Knowing only that she had broken an engagement at home to seek an unknown fate, he said, you must promise me two things. First, you will not tell anyone my name. Second, you will do what you want to do with your life … I've done the best I could with my life. This book is for you."

Gloria Steinem speaks onstage during The Women's Media Center 2015 Women's Media Awards on Nov. 5, 2015, in New York City.

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In 2022, a few weeks before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, ending the constitutional right to abortion, Steinem told NPR that even if the decision were reversed, she did not think her and others' work on reproductive justice was in vain.

"It will not change the basic fact that we either have decision-making power over our own bodies — women and men — or there is no democracy," she said.

Steinem added that over the years, she learned that real change is "like a tree."

"Too often we think the tree grows from the top, from Congress. Trees grow from the bottom," she said, adding that what mattered most was the work being done by everyday people and communities.
Copyright 2026 NPR

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and challenger Nithya Raman will each have a chance to lay out their plans for tackling L.A.’s biggest environmental issues, and share their longer-term vision for a cleaner and healthier Los Angeles.

And LAist will be asking the questions.

You can listen live from 6 to 8 p.m. here on LAist 89.3 FM and it will also be on our YouTube channel if you prefer to watch live — or watch later.

Just don’t expect finger pointing and empty sound bites: the event will take on a fireside chat-style format so that each candidate will have the opportunity to lay out their proposals for making the environment a top priority if they win the election on Nov. 3.

Each candidate will have 45 minutes with LAist’s award-winning climate and environmental senior reporter Erin Stone.

Stone said the evening’s format will allow voters to get a sense of how each candidate feels about crucial environmental issues, such as emergency preparedness and response, oil drilling, the city’s transportation policy, L.A.’s unique water challenges and efforts to transition to clean energy sources — all while trying to maintain affordable utility bills.

“The world’s top scientists are clear that this decade is a critical moment in history to take action to protect future generations from worse climate and environmental harms,” Stone said. “I hope the conversations help voters make the decision that is right for them.”

The event is organized by a coalition of local environmental and environmental justice groups including the Los Angeles League of Conservation Voters, SCOPE-LA, the Sierra Club, Clean and Healthy California, the Neighborhood Council Sustainability Alliance and Communities for a Better Environment.

Exposition Park’s new Lucas Museum of Narrative Art opens to the public on Sept. 22 — and LAist got a preview.

The 300,000-square-foot building, designed by architect Ma Yansong, working with the firm Stantec, could easily blend into the scenery of Coruscant or Bespin in the Star Wars universe.

For the fans of that certain long-time ago, far, far-away universe, you are immediately greeted by a Naboo Starfighter big enough to fit inside at the museum entrance with a life-size R2-D2 in the co-pilot seat.

Star Wars fans will definitely get their fill with pieces like this in the cinema section:

Doug Chiang, Podrace Crash, production art for "Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace," 1995–99. Digital print.

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You can find designs and set pieces from other George Lucas production companies, Industrial Light and Magic and Skywalker Sound, but the museum is dedicated to impactful storytelling of all kinds, with a special focus on the work of illustrators.

“Most of the stories are myths, they're not real, but the illustrations make them real,” George Lucas said at a preview event. “A picture is very powerful, and the stories are very powerful, and you combine them together, and those two elements create a society.”

So, you’ll also see works like this E.H. Shepard illustration from Winnie-the-Pooh in a section dedicated to children’s stories.

E. H. Shepard, “Christopher Robin at the enchanted place,” illustration for Home Chat, 1928.

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And that’s not the only significant work you’ll see there.

 “You can see one of the first historically important ‘dogs playing poker’ paintings made in 1894 as a whiskey advertisement, very close to Frida Kahlo, very close to Batman,” Lucas Museum senior curator Ryan Linkof said.

The museum’s umbrella of “narrative art” encompasses fine art like these works from painter, pro-football player and actor Ernie Barnes, photographer Dorothea Lange, and comic book artist Rafael Navarro:

Ernie Barnes, The Critic’s Corner, 2007. Acrylic on canvas.

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Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California, 1936.

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Rafael Navarro, art for Sonámbulo: Mexican Stand-Off, 2006.

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Murals and public art

The museum features public art installations — both reproductions of works by Diego Rivera and Banksy.

Three of the featured works by Banksy.

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You'll also experience an extensive video installation of Judith Baca’s The Great Wall of Los Angeles, which you can take in while sitting instead of having to walk the whole length.

A new green space in the middle of the city

The museum boasts extensive grounds built on a former parking lot. There, you can see a number of sculptures, including one of Jabba the Hutt and Princess Leia.

Jabba the Hutt and Princess Leia statue.

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“This public park is available and accessible to everyone all the time, even if you don't come to the museum, even if the museum's not open. You can come to the research library,” Linkof said. “It's an asset and a resource for everyone, including and especially the community.”

How to visit

• Location: One Lucas Plaza, Exposition Park, Los Angeles
• Tickets: Timed tickets cost $25 for adults, $21 for seniors and are to free to minors, active-duty military, members and LM37 passholders. See your options ▶
• Park access: Free
• Regular hours:
  Mon, Wed, Thu: 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
  Fri: 10 a.m. – 9 p.m.
  Sat: 9 a.m. – 9 p.m.
  Sun: 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
  Closed Tuesdays