Rev. Brendan Busse greets a parishioner in front of Dolores Mission Church in Los Angeles.
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Jeremy Lindenfeld
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Capital & Main
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Topline:
Dolores Mission is in L.A.’s Boyle Heights neighborhood, an unmistakably Mexican American area. In the summer, attendance at the Catholic church plummeted, according to the Rev. Brendan Busse, Dolores Mission’s pastor, who said the pews were about half as full as usual.
Immigration enforcement hits home: In the months after ICE aids began in the L.A. area, multiple Dolores Mission congregants told Capital & Main that their friends or family members were detained by DHS and later deported. Among them were two nephews of Dolores Mission’s pastoral assistant; they didn’t return home from their work as gardeners one day. By the time church members tracked them down days later, they were at separate ICE detention centers in California, and were later deported to their home country of Guatemala, according to the pastoral assistant who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of being targeted by authorities.
Why it matters: As for church attendance, Boyle Height’s Dolores Mission is far from the only heavily Latino parish to see faltering numbers as a result of immigration enforcement. In Chicago, the Rev. Carmelo Mendez, pastor of St. Oscar Romero Parish on the city’s South Side, told NPR in November that attendance at Mass had fallen by 40%. In Washington, the Rev. Emilio Biosca Agüero, pastor at Shrine of the Sacred Heart, estimated that one out of five parishioners had stopped going to Mass after federal agents were deployed on the city’s streets. The climate in California’s Southland is such that Bishop Alberto Rojas excused parishioners in the Diocese of San Bernardino from Mass if they feared immigration enforcement.
To outside observers, parishioners at the Dolores Mission Church in Los Angeles might seem less pious this year. In the summer, attendance at the Catholic church plummeted, according to the Rev. Brendan Busse, Dolores Mission’s pastor, who said the pews were about half as full as usual.
The disappearance of a substantial portion of the faithful was not altogether surprising: It came just days after the Department of Homeland Security launched immigration raids across the city in June — followed by others around the country — at the behest of President Donald Trump.
Almost immediately, social media feeds and then television news reports brought the initial immigration raids to life: Masked federal agents tackled and arrested Latinos in parking lots, on street corners and at workplaces. Those detained looked like they could be part of Dolores Mission’s overwhelmingly-Latino parish.
Dolores Mission is in L.A.’s Boyle Heights neighborhood, an unmistakably Mexican American area where vibrant Chicano murals adorn public walls, music from Jalisco often rings out in Mariachi Plaza and 93% of residents are Hispanic or Latino.
Following the raids, some Boyle Heights residents were afraid to leave their homes. Many worried that they too might get swept up by one of the armed government agents roaming their neighborhoods, grabbing people off the streets and forcing them into unmarked vehicles.
That fear was compounded when it became clear that immigrants were being transported to far-off detention centers that have racked up human rights complaints — including places such as the so-called Alligator Alcatraz in the Florida Everglades and the much-criticized prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
The impression of being under siege in Boyle Heights speaks to a larger disconnect in heavily Latino and predominately Catholic communities across the country.
Despite winning 55% of Catholic voters in the 2024 presidential election, Trump’s approach to immigration enforcement has disproportionately affected many Catholic communities and organizations around the country. It has also resulted in sudden drops in church attendance, according to Catholic officials in various parishes.
That may be because even though Catholics represent fewer than 20% of U.S. adults, they make up 61% of the population at risk of deportation, according to a March report by the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, the National Association of Evangelicals, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and World Relief. In 2022, about 43% of U.S. Hispanic adults considered themselves Catholic, according to Pew Research Center.
Rev. Brendan Busse stands outside his church after leading a Spanish-language Mass.
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Jeremy Lindenfeld
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Capital & Main
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In the months after the raids began, multiple Dolores Mission congregants told Capital & Main that their friends or family members were detained by DHS and later deported.
Among them were two nephews of Dolores Mission’s pastoral assistant; they didn’t return home from their work as gardeners one day, Busse said.
By the time church members tracked them down days later, they were at separate ICE detention centers in California, and were later deported to their home country of Guatemala, according to the pastoral assistant who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of being targeted by authorities. DHS did not respond to Capital & Main’s questions regarding both nephews’ detainment and deportation.
“Everybody here, no matter who they are, has felt the impact of fear and anxiety that has kept people from feeling safe in the streets,” Busse said.
In response to questions from Capital & Main about the impact of immigration enforcement on Catholic communities across the country, Tricia McLaughlin, the DHS assistant secretary for public affairs, said that “lawbreakers should unquestionably be living in a climate of fear and anxiety that they will be caught and sent home,” meaning the countries in which they were born.
Mass deportations
A news release on the DHS website claimed that as of Oct. 27, the agency had carried out more than 527,000 deportations during Trump’s second term.
According to the Council on Foreign Relations, the vast majority of deportation flights during the first several months of 2025 were to countries whose populations are predominantly Catholic, such as Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.
The sometimes violent tactics used to detain and later deport immigrants have convinced some to abandon the United States. That includes Juan González, a longtime Catholic resident of Southern California who attended St. Andrew Church in Pasadena and earlier this year chose to move back to his home country of Mexico after three decades.
As for church attendance, Boyle Height’s Dolores Mission is far from the only heavily Latino parish to see faltering numbers as a result of immigration enforcement.
Parishioners walk past a shrine depicting the Virgin of Guadalupe in Dolores Mission Church.
In Washington, the Rev. Emilio Biosca Agüero, pastor at Shrine of the Sacred Heart, estimated that one out of five parishioners had stopped going to Mass after federal agents were deployed on the city’s streets, the Religion News Service reported in August.
At St. Thomas Mission in Brownsville in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley, the Rev. Joel Flores told the New York Times that he too has seen a significant drop in the size of his flock in recent months.
The climate in California’s Southland is such that Bishop Alberto Rojas excused parishioners in the Diocese of San Bernardino from Mass if they feared immigration enforcement.
McLaughlin, who has spoken about her own Catholic faith, said that “ICE does not raid churches” but added that the Trump administration will “not tie the hands” of federal agents, clarifying that “there may be a situation where an arrest is made” inside of a church.
In Southern California, Christmasparades and other events have been canceled for fear of ICE raids targeting Latinos. Dolores Mission Church alone canceled numerous gatherings — including an annual community volunteer picnic, a women’s conference and a series of public religious services called “Misas del Barrio” (Neighborhood Masses) — to protect the community.
Parishioner Alejandra Benavides summed up the situation as she sees it: “Immigration enforcement is kicking our ass and breaking our hearts.”
Cafeteria Catholics
Trump has claimed to “stand for everything … that the church stands for,” and has selected Catholics to some of the nation’s most powerful positions: Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, press secretary Karoline Leavitt, border czar Tom Homan and Health and Human Services Director Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
In January, Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, defended the Trump administration’s deportation policy by invoking a Catholic theological concept called “ordo amoris” (Latin for order of love), asserting that people should love their families before loving strangers. The claim was quickly rebuked by Pope Francis, who wrote that true ordo amoris is discovered by meditating on love “open to all, without exception.”
In February, soon-to-be Pope Leo also publicly challenged Vance’s interpretation, sharing an article titled “JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others” on his X account.
A recent survey conducted by the right-wing Catholic media organization EWTN News and conservative pollster RealClear Opinion Research found that 54% of Catholic voters surveyed supported “the detention and deportation of unauthorized immigrants on a broad scale.”
In contrast, many Catholic leaders now say that some of the administration’s policies — such as the targeting of immigrants and the defunding of humanitarian programs — run directly counter to deeply held Catholic teachings.
“What they confused for Christianity is a white nationalist vision of racial purity and national purity that should be called out by anybody of faith as a real heresy,” Dolores Mission’s Busse said.
Good works
Catholic organizations that have long mobilized to support vulnerable communities, including immigrants, have in some cases ramped up such efforts in response to Trump’s policies.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, hardly known for liberal beliefs when it comes to issues like abortion and same-sex marriage, seemingly stayed the course when the the nation’s bishops elected conservative Archbishop Paul S. Coakley as their new president in November.
But nearly all of those same bishops — 96% of those who voted in a fall assembly — took aim at the Trump administration’s immigration policies in a Special Message, the first such message it has agreed upon in more than a decade. In it, the bishops called for an end to Trump’s “indiscriminate mass deportation” and “dehumanizing rhetoric and violence.”
“To our immigrant brothers and sisters, we stand with you in your suffering, since, when one member suffers, all suffer (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:26),” the statement said. “You are not alone!”
The conference also praised and encouraged many activist Catholics to continue their work on behalf of immigrants.
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the largest in the country, is also trying to adapt.
Isaac Cuevas, the archdiocese’s director of immigration and public affairs, said parishioners who normally run food pantries are now combating hunger by delivering food to the homes of immigrants who are too afraid to go out in public.
The archdiocese has also provided court accompaniment training to about 180 priests, deacons and religious sisters. The hope, Cuevas said, is that by accompanying immigrants to court hearings, judges, bailiffs and clerks “all understand that that moral presence is there,” and that legal officials will be “as graceful as they can when dealing with these cases.”
Despite such actions, some Catholics feel the church has not taken a courageous enough humanitarian stand to protect immigrants.
Silvia Muñoz, who runs the department of social action at the Pedro Arrupe Jesuit Institute in Miami, is trying to pick up the slack.
Silvia Munoz sits at her home in Doral, Florida
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“I’m in contact with other Catholic women who are as passionate about the rights of immigrants as myself, to try to do something in South Florida to wake up a silent church,” Muñoz said.
Every Wednesday, Muñoz, who arrived in the United States as a Cuban refugee in 1961, joins other activists outside the ICE detention center in Miramar, Florida, to accompany immigrant families as they wait to learn the fates of their loved ones.
Muñoz has also attended interfaith vigils in front of Alligator Alcatraz — where Amnesty International has accused guards of subjecting detainees to cruel treatment “which may amount to torture,” such as confining shackled prisoners to an outdoor cage smaller than a standard dryer for hours — calling for operations at the site to be halted.
DHS did not respond to Capital & Main’s request for comment on alleged abuse at Alligator Alcatraz.
Despite being 79, Muñoz said, “I cannot sit at home and do nothing. I believe this is a calling from God that I, even at my age, need to do.”
On Nov.13 — the feast day for St. Francis Xavier Cabrini, the patron saint of immigrants — Muñoz helped organize a procession and prayer service in front of the immigration courthouse in downtown Miami.
That event was part of a national day of action spearheaded by the Ignatian Solidarity Network, a nonprofit Catholic organization dedicated to social justice advocacy.
Christopher Kerr, executive director of the network, told Capital & Main that the purpose of his organization’s public advocacy events is to “demonstrate that the church stands with immigrant people and that our faith, to be Catholic, is to uphold the dignity and humanity of immigrant people.”
Kerr said the gatherings are increasingly important now that the Trump administration has drastically cut funds that many Catholic organizations and institutions relied on to facilitate humanitarian services such as refugee resettlement.
On the first day of his second term, Trump suspended the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program — which just last year awarded the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and its affiliates more than $62 million — and froze its funding. The move forced hundreds of layoffs of church employees and halted humanitarian services such as housing assistance and migrant child foster care for thousands of refugees across the country.
Trump later allowed his then-special adviser Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development. That action decimated Catholic Relief Services, which was the largest recipient of USAID funds, receiving about half of its $1.5 billion annual budget from the agency.
“The Trump administration has … reduced the funding so drastically that none of the organizations that were settling refugees are really able to sustain their operations,” Kerr said.
People in the pews
At Dolores Mission Church, Busse said the pews have been fuller recently.
December — with Advent, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Christmas — is usually the busiest time of the year. But he said he sees increased attendance as more than just a sign of a loyal flock.
Busse leads a well-attended Mass during Advent — the period leading up to Christmas.
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To Busse, a well-attended church is its own defense against the immigration enforcement activities that he said many local Catholics are enduring like “a terror campaign.”
“When people are together, there’s less fear,” Busse said. “When a community actually shows up, the [ICE activity] falls apart” — not just because it becomes harder to carry out on a logistical level, but also because the community’s solidarity shows that the enforcement actions are clearly against the will of the people.
For Busse, protecting immigrants is one of the most foundational manifestations of his faith.
“It’s not an exaggeration to say that Catholics fundamentally believe that God’s self is kind of an immigrant, that the act of hospitality, of welcoming others in our homes and in our hearts is the central precept of Christianity and the Catholic faith,” Busse said. “It’s not just a nice thing to care for immigrants, it’s really the most sacred thing we can do.”
Jamie Lee Curtis pays tribute to Rob Reiner during the 78th Emmy Awards on Monday, Sept. 14, 2026, at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.
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Chris Pizzello
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AP Photo
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Topline:
Prosecutors said Tuesday that they won’t pursue the death penalty for Nick Reiner in the killings of his parents, actor-director Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Singer Reiner, who were stabbed at their Los Angeles home late last year.
The backstory: Nick Reiner, 32, was charged with first-degree murder on Dec. 16, two days after the stunning killings of the couple, ages 78 and 70. A grand jury allegation from this summer said he was lying in wait before killing them.
Why it matters: Special circumstances in the allegations against Nick Reiner made him eligible for the death penalty, but Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said the issue would be deferred while his office decided whether to pursue it. Those circumstances include multiple killings and the use of a dangerous weapon, a knife.
Read on... for more on Hochman's decision.
Prosecutors said Tuesday that they won’t pursue the death penalty for Nick Reiner in the killings of his parents, actor-director Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Singer Reiner, who were stabbed at their Los Angeles home late last year.
Nick Reiner, 32, was charged with first-degree murder on Dec. 16, two days after the stunning killings of the couple, ages 78 and 70. A grand jury allegation from this summer said he was lying in wait before killing them.
Special circumstances in the allegations against Nick Reiner made him eligible for the death penalty, but Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said the issue would be deferred while his office decided whether to pursue it. Those circumstances include multiple killings and the use of a dangerous weapon, a knife.
Hochman said his office did a thorough review, including speaking Rob and Michele Reiner’s families and evaluating mitigating factors in Nick Reiner’s favor, before reaching its decision.
The district attorney said the maximum sentence Reiner will be eligible to receive if convicted will be life without the possibility of parole.
Nick Reiner has not entered a plea after two court hearings, but his former defense attorney Alan Jackson said adamantly shortly after resigning from the case that “pursuant to the laws of California, Nick Reiner is not guilty of murder.”null
Jackson had to withdraw for undisclosed reasons that he said were beyond his and the client’s control, and a public defender took over for him.
California lawmakers on the Senate floor during the final days of session in Sacramento on Aug. 31, 2026.
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Fred Greaves
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CalMatters
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Topline:
The California Legislature’s secretive earmark process allows lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newsom to dole out money for projects with little public scrutiny or notice, raising transparency and equity concerns even among some lawmakers.
More details: California lawmakers doled out $1.3 billion in handouts for their legislative districts with almost zero public scrutiny or input during an annual budgeting process that allows legislators and the governor to hand-pick funding recipients in private. The money, often known as earmarks or “pork-barrel projects,” is commonplace in California and elsewhere, even in years when the state faces huge budget deficits. The practice allows lawmakers to tout their accomplishments and woo voters.
How it works: The leaders in the California Assembly and Senate, both Democrats, allow their colleagues to submit private wish-lists for funds with a suggested spending cap the leaders set. Then billions of dollars for hundreds of projects suddenly appear in a bill heard just days before lawmakers leave for the year, leaving little time for the public to weigh in. Lawmakers don’t put their names on the earmarks, making it hard to identify who requested what.
Read on... for more on this practice.
$29 million to renovate a gym at a Santa Barbara college in Senate President Pro Tem Monique Limón’s district.
$13 million for a farmers market and food innovation hub in wealthy Marin County, where Gov. Gavin Newsom lives.
$3 million to renovate the San Jose Giants’ minor league baseball stadium in Santa Clara County.
California lawmakers doled out $1.3 billion in handouts for their legislative districts with almost zero public scrutiny or input during an annual budgeting process that allows legislators and the governor to hand-pick funding recipients in private.
The money, often known as earmarks or “pork-barrel projects,” is commonplace in California and elsewhere, even in years when the state faces huge budget deficits. The practice allows lawmakers to tout their accomplishments and woo voters.
The earmark process is so secretive that few know why some projects make the cut and others don’t, raising equity and transparency concerns, even among lawmakers. Critics argue that it allows elected officials to play favorites.
“(It) is done all behind closed doors,” said Julie Baker, CEO of California for the Arts. “It is somewhat inequitable … to have a grant making process that everyone’s competing over and then have a process that’s non-transparent.”
Here’s how earmarks work: The leaders in the California Assembly and Senate, both Democrats, allow their colleagues to submit private wish-lists for funds with a suggested spending cap the leaders set. Then billions of dollars for hundreds of projects suddenly appear in a bill heard just days before lawmakers leave for the year, leaving little time for the public to weigh in. Lawmakers don’t put their names on the earmarks, making it hard to identify who requested what.
This year, Limón loosely capped Senate Democrats’ requests at $5 million each, said Sen. Dave Cortese, a San Jose Democrat who secured $6.5 million for his district. Lawmakers do not share their funding requests with each other, he said — at least not before they take credit for them in press releases or ribbon-cutting ceremonies.
“It's a confidential process between each office and leadership,” he told CalMatters.
But even he bemoaned the opaque nature of it.
“Why couldn’t we do this process a little earlier and get our requests into subcommittees so the public could just see what’s going on?” Cortese said. “There’s nothing to be ashamed of here.”
‘Why did I spend all that time and energy?’
The vast majority of the funding goes to urban counties such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, which are represented by powerful Democrats, and to other pet projects in Democratic leaders’ districts. Areas that are represented by Republicans typically get little to nothing.
This year, 17 counties, mostly lower population rural counties represented by Republicans, did not appear to receive any earmark funding.
“The leadership decides the major portions of the budget,” said Sen. Roger Niello, a Roseville Republican and vice chair of the Senate budget committee. “That is frustrating, but it is the system that we have.”
CalMatters compiled the earmarks in the budget measure Assembly Bill 113 and used Digital Democracy’s Find your legislators tool to determine which county and legislative district each project falls in.
More than $550 million — 42% of all earmarks identified by CalMatters — went to non-governmental organizations, mostly nonprofits, according to the analysis. It includes at least $93 million for arts projects, museums and murals, as well as funding for immigration services, land conservation and housing and homelessness.
The rest went to city and county governments for infrastructure including parks, community pools, wildfire mitigation and road repairs.
CalMatters reached out to Newsom, Limón, Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas and more than 20 other lawmakers to ask for a list of their funding requests. Few provided them.
Newsom, Rivas and Limón declined to answer questions about specific projects but told CalMatters in general statements that they are proud of the earmarks.
In a statement, Newsom spokesperson Tara Gallegos said the funding in this year’s budget will “make a lasting, meaningful difference in communities across California.”
“From supporting our natural resources, and improving recreation centers to strengthening the arts and expanding food access, these additional investments reflect a continued commitment to building stronger, healthier, and more vibrant communities for all Californians,” the statement read.
Proponents of earmarks say they empower state lawmakers to prioritize projects with urgent needs in their districts instead of funneling the money through lengthy grant applications. The earmarks are also just a sliver of the state’s $352 billion budget, they noted.
“My message to (state agencies) is, ‘You guys take the other 99.9% and leave this fraction of a percent to us,’” Cortese said. “I’ll help target some real need in these districts that you are never going to see in an office in Sacramento.”
Lawmakers gather on the Assembly floor during the final days of session at the state Capitol in Sacramento on Aug. 31, 2026.
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Fred Greaves
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CalMatters
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But critics bashed state leaders for finding $1.3 billion for earmarks when the state has struggled to backfill major federal cuts to healthcare. State leaders this year relied on windfall revenue from an AI-driven economic boom, some tax increases and suspending payments to schools and state reserves to balance the budget and delay deep healthcare cuts to next year.
“They’ve said, ‘Look … there's no extra money to spend,’ and then a half billion dollars comes out in the last 48 hours of the session,” said Geoff Green, CEO of CalNonprofits, which represents thousands of nonprofits statewide. “For entities that were working through what we considered normal processes through the entirety of the session, to then see this come out at the last second, it feels like, well, why did I spend all that time and energy?”
Susan Shelley, vice president of communications at the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, accused lawmakers of handing money out to their supporters at the last moment.
“From a taxpayer perspective, we don’t have the money for this,” Shelley said.
Dance troupes, museums and MMA fighters
The biggest allocation this year was $125 million to help buy and transform a defunct Alameda County horse track into a public park — a Newsom priority. Assembly Appropriations Committee Chair Buffy Wicks and Senate Housing Committee Chair Jesse Arreguín, both Oakland Democrats, championed the funding.
Some earmarks benefited groups with wealthy backers. The state gave $25 million to the Innovative Genomics Institute, a UC Berkeley-based genome engineering research facility in Wicks and Arreguín’s districts whose funders include the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the Li Ka Shing Foundation and the United States Department of Defense.
Other earmarks include:
$20 million to help build a facility for the Jewish Family and Children’s Services Holocaust Center in San Francisco, which is backed by dozens of foundations and endowment funds. Executive director Anita Friedman said the endowments only fund roughly 2% of its budget.
$15 million to renovate the police and firefighters memorials in Sacramento’s Capital Park
$1 million for the state’s retirement fund for mixed martial arts fighters, currently funded through ticket and vanity plate sales.
Another $86 million went to arts projects, museums and dance troupes — more than 40% of them in San Francisco.
That includes $3 million to the ODC Dance Company, whose founder Brenda Way was inducted into the California Hall of Fame by Newsom and first partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom; $2.8 million to the Center for the Art of Translation backed by Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Hawthornden Foundation; and $400,000 to the San Francisco Mime Troupe.
It’s unclear who advocated for those earmarks. Democratic San Francisco Assemblymember Matt Haney said he did not request any of them. Sen. Scott Wiener and Assemblymember Catherine Stefani, both San Francisco Democrats, did not respond to requests for comment from CalMatters.
Green, of CalNonprofit, said he worries the money is not reaching those with the most acute needs, but those with the best relationships with lawmakers.
“The capacity of a large, well-staffed institute to access resources is just a completely different universe than a smaller, volunteer, community-based organization in some more rural parts of the state,” he said, adding that the recipients appear to be “folks who have relationships already.”
Relationships matter
Relationships do matter to Cortese. Among the projects he requested funding for, only one — Ashes to Beauty, which received $750,000 — is relatively new to him. He said he’s known the other nonprofits he sought funding for dating to his days as a San Jose city councilmember in the 2000s.
“If some new group came along and they seemed hopeful … but I didn’t know of them very well, I hadn’t seen their work too much in the community, I’m probably not going to entrust them with $1 million or $800,000,” he said. “It’s not a matter of any kind of favoritism.”
Cortese said his office keeps a long list of requests for funding and considers which groups are “lifting up the greater good of the community.”
Cortese asked for and received $2.1 million for First-Tee Silicon Valley, which teaches golf and leadership to high-risk kids in marginalized neighborhoods; $2.6 million to environmental nonprofit Our City Forest; and $1 million for Amigos de Guadalupe, an immigration services nonprofit.
Several earmarks went to nonprofits with ties to the governor. The Redwood High School Foundation, which funds Newsom’s high school alma mater, received $4 million for a “capital project.” Another $250,000 went to Kiss the Ground, a regenerative agriculture nonprofit whose 2020 documentary featured Newsom.
A total of $3.86 million went to the Alliance for Community Empowerment, a Los Angeles nonprofit that serves trauma and poverty survivors. Its founder, Michelle Miranda, sat on a board of community advisers to Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, an Encino Democrat who chairs the budget committee.
Gabriel’s spokesperson Alicia Isaacs-Lee did not address specific projects but said Assembly Democrats fought for “smart, targeted, one-time investments” in healthcare, food banks, legal service providers, fire departments and nonprofits.
Homeless shelter City of Refuge Sacramento received $1.8 million to open two more homes to serve children, co-founder Rachelle Ditmore told CalMatters. She is a close friend of Sen. Angelique Ashby, a Sacramento Democrat who helped the shelter secure $8 million in 2023. Democratic Assemblymember Maggy Krell, who also represents the area, donated $10,000 from her campaign account to Ditmore’s nonprofit in August 2025.
But Ditmore told CalMatters that the governor, who signed an executive order on human trafficking at City of Refuge, may have requested the funding this year.
“This is an authentic place and I’m grateful for history, but also love that this was directed by other eyes who were able to see the value,” Ditmore told CalMatters in an email.
Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas, a Los Angeles Democrat, secured $13.5 million in earmarks this year, including $500,000 for the Los Angeles Black Workers Center, which she co-founded, according to a list provided by her spokesperson Paulette Thornton.
The center is the only one in the area serving Black workers, and the funding will connect Black residents to quality jobs, Thornton said.
Rural, Republican-led counties get less
Los Angeles County, where nearly a quarter of all Californians live, received at least $300 million in earmarks this year — just under a quarter of the total and more than any other county, data analysis shows.
Santa Barbara County, Limón’s home county with a population of 450,000, received at least $72.8 million in earmarks, more than any other similarly sized county. Republican-dominated Tulare County, by comparison, received just $200,000 for its 485,000 residents.
The contrast reflects the power of leadership in Sacramento, said Jack Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College.
“Part of the power … is the ability to get benefits for the district, and it’s not surprising that the legislative leaders tend to do pretty well in that respect,” Pitney said.
Last year, a quarter of the earmarks CalMatters identified — more than $100 million — went to the district of former Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire, a Santa Rosa Democrat.
This year, CalMatters identified $83.7 million in earmarks benefiting Limón’s district, including the $29 million gym renovation. Others include:
$6 million to acquire and rehabilitate a historical building that housed nonprofit La Casa de la Raza
$5 million to restore Pershing Park in Santa Barbara
$3.3 million for a community pool in the city of Carpinteria
$3 million for a high school community aquatics center.
Rivas’ district received just over $10 million in earmarks, including $2.8 million for a regional soccer complex in Salinas, $2.5 million for a recreational center in King City and $525,000 for arts and culture in Watsonville. His district overlaps with that of Sen. John Laird, a Santa Cruz Democrat who chairs the budget committee.
Laird’s district received $36.9 million, including:
$10 million for expanding public access to the PG&E-owned North Ranch property
$618,000 for highway traffic enforcement on the Bixby Bridge
$250,000 to the San Luis Obispo Beaver Brigade, a nonprofit advocating for beavers.
Gabriel’s district saw at least $7 million in earmarks, including $2.5 million to Mid Valley YMCA, $500,000 to Los Angeles youth film nonprofit Kids in the Spotlight and $200,000 to social services group Family Rescue Center.
Niello told CalMatters that GOP senators were only given $1 million each in earmarks to distribute.
“That means that I’m not able to do enough for my district (as) Dave Cortese is for his, and we both have the same size districts. Is that fair? To me, it’s not.”
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Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman has missed nearly 3,000 votes since being elected in 2020.
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Samanta Helou Hernandez
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LAist
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Topline
Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman has missed nearly 3,000 votes since she was first elected in 2020, according to an analysis by LAist, a number that has been criticized by her opponent in the upcoming mayoral race.
The details: A closer look at data from the L.A. city clerk reveals Raman ranks in the middle of the pack of the 15-member council when it comes to votes missed. She was eighth among her colleagues when it came to votes missed so far this year. Last year she ranked third. In 2024, she ranked sixth.
The vast majority of those votes were unanimous or near unanimous among the other council members, meaning her vote on those matters would not have changed the outcomes.
Criticism: The campaign of her mayoral opponent incumbent Karen Bass has stressed that the missed votes matter. "This isn't just missing a few votes, it's about six years of Nithya Raman not showing up — for constituents wanting encampments outside of schools cleaned up or voting to make it cheaper to film here,” said Alex Stack, Bass’ campaign spokesperson.
Conflicting meetings: Raman’s campaign said she was officially excused from many of the meetings because she was appointed to represent L.A. on the board of the Air Quality Management District, which is charged with reducing local air pollution and improving public health. Bass appointed her to the board.
Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman has missed nearly 3,000 votes since she was first elected in 2020, according to an analysis by LAist — a number that has been criticized by her opponent in the upcoming mayoral race.
A closer look at data from the L.A. city clerk reveals Raman ranks in the middle of the pack of the 15-member council when it comes to votes missed. She was eighth among her colleagues when it came to votes missed so far this year.
Last year she ranked third. In 2024, she ranked sixth.
The vast majority of those votes were unanimous or near-unanimous among the other council members, meaning her vote on those matters would not have changed the outcomes.
Still, the campaign of her mayoral opponent — incumbent Karen Bass — has stressed that the missed votes matter.
"This isn't just missing a few votes, it's about six years of Nithya Raman not showing up — for constituents wanting encampments outside of schools cleaned up or voting to make it cheaper to film here,” said Alex Stack, Bass’ campaign spokesperson.
“If you don't show up for your job, you shouldn't get a promotion," he said.
Bass brought up Raman’s City Council meeting absences during a debate earlier this month, and the campaign has since set up a website, titled NoShowNithya, devoted to highlighting those absences.
Raman’s campaign said she was officially excused from many of the meetings because she was appointed to represent L.A. on the Air Quality Management District board, which is charged with reducing local air pollution and improving public health.
Those meetings happened at the same time as some council meetings. The board meets on the last Friday of every month. The City Council meets three times a week — on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
“The data shows that Nithya’s attendance is in line with other council members,” said campaign spokesperson Liz Garcia. “These desperate attacks from Mayor Bass will not distract Nithya from campaigning to make LA a city that works and is affordable for everyone."
The numbers
City Councilmember Adrin Nazarian has missed the most votes so far this year — 393 — compared to Raman, who was ranked eighth at 233. Last year, Councilmember Monica Rodriguez ranked first with 631 and Raman ranked third with 556.
In 2024, Rodriguez ranked first with 741. Raman ranked sixth with 575.
Bass isn’t the only one who believes this is an issue.
“Attendance at meetings isn't ceremonial,” said Pomona College Associate Professor of Politics Sara Sadhwani. “It’s where amendments and laws get shaped, it's where budgets get fought over and it's where constituents' priorities either make it into policy or they don’t. So missing that work means missing those leverage points.”
“Generally, the expectation is that you show up for work,” she added.
In January, Bass removed Raman from the Air Quality Management District AQMD board, a role she’d been serving in since 2022 when she was appointed by then-Mayor Eric Garcetti.
Nazarian was appointed to the air quality board to replace Raman.
As for Raman’s absences, her campaign sought to turn the tables on Bass. It pointed to the incumbent’s absences from commission meetings of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.
Since joining, the mayor has skipped more than half of the meetings held by the L.A. Homeless Services Authority Commission, according to an LAist review of attendance records, despite the mayor’s insistence that homelessness is her No. 1 issue.
The Raman campaign also pointed to Bass’ absence during the early hours of the Palisades Fire when she was on a diplomatic trip to Ghana.
"This is ironic coming from a mayor who was missing during our city’s most devastating emergencies [and] failed to show up for more than half of LAHSA homelessness meetings,” Garcia said.
Bass’ office told LAist that, regardless of her attendance record, she has kept up to date on what LAHSA has been doing. The regional agency is responsible for managing the region’s homelessness response.
Earlier this month, following LAist’s reporting, Bass announced she was stepping down from the LAHSA Commission.
“It cuts both ways, and it's a reminder that both of these candidates are political insiders and have a track record with the city,” Sadhwani said.
Too many meetings?
The issue of missed meetings points to another question: Does the City Council meet too often? The city charter mandates that the panel meet three times a week. Its counterpart on the county level — the Board of Supervisors — meets once a week even though its budget is far larger.
In addition to deciding who will be L.A.’s mayor, voters in November will decide whether the number of mandated weekly City Council meetings should be modified. The council has placed a proposed change to the city charter that would require only one meeting per week.
The winners of the 2026 Emmy Awards were announced Monday night for shows that aired between June 2025 and May 2026.
The context: Last year's winner for best drama, The Pitt, was up against Pluribus, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, The Diplomat, and more. On the comedy side, two Apple TV newcomers — Widow's Bay and Margo's Got Money Troubles— were up against a slate of returning nominees including Hacks, nominated for its fifth and final season, and The Bear, nominated for its fourth season.
Read on... for an updated list of winners as they're announced.
The Pitt and Widow's Bay took home the top prizes in television at the Emmy Awards on Monday night. And actor Matthew Rhys became the first person to win in two lead acting categories in one night. Here are our takeaways from the 2026 Emmy Awards — and check out the list of winners and who wore what on the red carpet.
Widow's Bay was the hot comedy property.Drama series recognition was shared more widely. The Apple TV horror/mystery/comedy series Widow's Bay not only won outstanding comedy series, but also brought home awards for lead actor (Matthew Rhys), supporting actress (Kate O'Flynn), supporting actor (Stephen Root), along with writing and directing. The only "major" category it didn't receive an award in is lead actress (which went to Hacks' Jean Smart), where it didn't have an eligible candidate. On the other hand, while The Pitt took home outstanding drama series and Noah Wyle repeated last year's win as lead actor, Rhea Seehorn won lead actress for Pluribus, Allison Janney won supporting actress for The Diplomat, Tom Pelphrey won supporting actor for Task, Vince Gilligan won for writing Pluribus, and Saul Metzstein won for directing Slow Horses.
Matthew Rhys pulls off the double play. Rhys won for lead actor in both the limited series category (for The Beast in Mewith Claire Danes) and comedy series (for Widow's Bay). This makes him the first actor to ever win lead performance awards in two categories in the same year. Rhys also won for lead actor in a drama series for his work in The Americans back in 2018, so he's won in three lead categories overall, and that's some serious versatility.
Rhea Seehorn wins an Emmy at last, while Jean Smart wins her last Hacks Emmy. For years, while she was on Better Call Saul, Rhea Seehorn was a frequently cited example of an overlooked performer. She was eventually nominated for her supporting role in that show twice, though she didn't win. In the Apple science fiction show Pluribus, creator Vince Gilligan's follow-up to Saul, Seehorn plays a miserable widowed novelist dealing with the end of humanity as she knows it. This time, she did not have to wait to be recognized. She won her first Emmy for lead actress in a drama for the show's first season. Meanwhile, Jean Smart completed an impressive sweep, winning lead comedy actress for the fifth time — meaning she won every year she was eligible for the now-concluded Hacks. Smart's character, the legendary comedian Deborah Vance, would likely enjoy having gone undefeated.
Host Mariska Hargitay had the time of her life. The opening number was corny and cringe — so much so that it almost came all the way back around to being endearing. But over the course of the evening, Hargitay made jokes about how long her show, Law & Order: SVU,has been on the air, she participated in skits, and she actually showed some chops with her delivery of standard awards banter. She is not a comedian by profession, but she was impressively game, and that may be the most important quality a host can bring. It was a strangely paced evening that ended with what seemed to be Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey trying to fill time, but Hargitay did what she could to keep the energy up.
WINNER: Kate O'Flynn, Widow's Bay Dale Dickey, Widow's Bay Hannah Einbinder, Hacks Janelle James, Abbott Elementary Michelle Pfeiffer, Margo's Got Money Troubles Megan Stalter, Hacks Jessica Williams, Shrinking
Outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series
WINNER: Stephen Root, Widow's Bay Colman Domingo, The Four Seasons Paul W. Downs, Hacks Nick Offerman, Margo's Got Money Troubles Michael Urie, Shrinking Tyler James Williams, Abbott Elementary
Outstanding supporting actor in a drama series
WINNER: Tom Pelphrey, Task Patrick Ball, The Pitt Billy Crudup, The Morning Show Shawn Hatosy, The Pitt Gerran Howell, The Pitt Jack Lowden, Slow Horses Carlos Manuel-Vesga, Pluribus
Outstanding supporting actress in a limited or anthology series or movie
WINNER: Linda Cardellini, DTF St. Louis Dakota Fanning, All Her Fault Laurie Metcalf, Monster: The Ed Gein Story Joy Sunday, DTF St. Louis Youn Yuh-jung, Beef Constance Zimmer, Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette
Outstanding supporting actor in a limited or anthology series or movie
WINNER: Hiro Murai, Widow's Bay Randall Einhorn, Abbott Elementary Christopher Storer, The Bear Andrew DeYoung, The Chair Company Lucia Aniello, Hacks Mary Lou Belli, The Ms. Pat Show
Outstanding directing for a drama series
WINNER: Saul Metzstein, Slow Horses Salli Richardson-Whitfield, The Gilded Age Hanelle M. Culpepper, Paradise Noah Wyle, The Pitt Vince Gilligan, Pluribus Salli Richardson-Whitfield, Task
Outstanding writing for a comedy series
WINNER: Katie Dippold, Widow's Bay Quinta Brunson, Abbott Elementary Tim Robinson, Zach Kanin, The Chair Company Michael Patrick King, Lisa Kudrow, The Comeback Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, Jen Statsky, Hacks Anthony King, Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat
Outstanding writing for a drama series
WINNER: Vince Gilligan, Pluribus Peter Ackerman, Debora Cahn, The Diplomat Kirsten Pierre-Geyfman, R. Scott Gemmill, The Pitt Valerie Chu, The Pitt Will Smith, Slow Horses Brad Ingelsby, Task
Outstanding reality competition program
WINNER: The Traitors Dancing With the Stars RuPaul's Drag Race Survivor Top Chef
