The Brief

Los Angeles police arrested and cited a street safety activist on Sunday as he painted DIY crosswalks in Westwood with community members.

“I was like, ‘Hey, look, we don't have a permit. We're protesting for safer streets and a more effective government,’” Jonathan Hale said about his interaction with officers. “They were not down with that.”

Hale made headlines earlier this year when he led efforts to paint crosswalks around Stoner Park and at a Koreatown intersection where an RV driver hit and killed 9-year-old Nadir Gavarrete in July.

Hale and volunteers with a group he founded called People’s Vision Zero initially planned to work at the intersection of Wilkins and Midvale avenues. State data show a car hit and injured a 35-year-old man at that intersection in November 2020. There were too many potholes, Hale said, making painting there “unfeasible.” Instead, the group focused on the corner immediately adjacent at Wilkins and Kelton avenues.

According to a Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson, “a vandalism radio call was generated” around 11 a.m. that described “approximately 7 suspects were painting what appeared to be a fake crosswalk pretending to be city workers.”

Hale said the group had painted two of four total crosswalks and were working on the third when officers approached, asked him for a permit and eventually cited him for misdemeanor vandalism.

Hale said he made it clear to the officer questioning him, as well as in flyers and posters he distributed locally earlier in the week, that People’s Vision Zero is an “unofficial group painting an unpermitted crosswalk.”

“ I make it very clear I’m not a city employee,” Hale said.

People's Vision Zero painted two of four crosswalks at the corner before police showed up.

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Jonathan Hale

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A video from People’s Vision Zero shows an officer speaking to Hale and people watching him get arrested.

“You’re vandalizing city property without a permit,” the officer says in the video. “So I’m gonna ask y’all nicely — y’all can record all you want — but back up or I will take everyone to jail.”

Hale said he is due in court on Jan. 5.

In addition to the local outreach before painting the crosswalk, Hale submitted a 311 ticket on Oct. 7 requesting the city install a marked crosswalk at the Midvale intersection and emailed the mayor’s office about People’s Vision Zero’s planned action on Dec. 1.

Local councilmember responds

Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky represents the Westwood area.

In a statement, her spokesperson, Leo Daube, pointed to how DIY crosswalks present liability concerns for the city and need to be reviewed for "ADA access, visibility, and safety."

Daube added that Yaroslavsky recognizes the need for expedited delivery of safety improvements to L.A. streets and could see "volunteers supporting this work in a safe and legal way in the future."

While not involved with the incident, Daube said the office would "prefer enforcement focused on dangerous driving and speeding, which put residents at risk every day.”

Hale has been transparent with the mayor’s office

Hale met with the mayor’s office in September and said they discussed policy proposals that would address the city’s slow pace toward making streets in L.A. safer, the central frustration behind community-led campaigns like People’s Vision Zero.

According to correspondence shared with LAist, the mayor’s office has only responded once to Hale’s emails since the September meeting.

“While we share your goals, all roadway markings, including crosswalks, must comply with local, state, and federal standards to ensure consistency and minimize risk,” an Oct. 10 email from the mayor’s office states. “Though we can’t approve of or endorse unsanctioned roadway alterations, we welcome collaboration to advance safety initiatives.”

Nothing has materialized so far, Hale said, so his group has continued to paint crosswalks at certain intersections where pedestrians have been hit by vehicles. Hale emails the mayor’s office before each “paint party,” the term People’s Vision Zero uses to describe DIY crosswalk painting events, according to messages reviewed by LAist.

In the Dec. 1 email he sent about the Westwood crosswalk, Hale said People’s Vision Zero would stop painting crosswalks if the mayor’s office either “publicly and unequivocally condemns our actions” or “demonstrates urgency in ending traffic violence by taking tangible steps to make our streets safer.”

In a statement to LAist about Hale’s arrest, the mayor’s office said that “despite communication about City, State, and Federal laws and parameters, Jonathan has chosen to continue to pursue his own course of action.”

Where is the city’s Vision Zero program?

In the spring, an audit covering the first seven years of L.A.’s Vision Zero program found that a lack of political will and poor coordination hampered the city’s failed goal of reaching zero traffic deaths by 2025.

Since then, local leaders have been considering a suite of recommendations to revamp the program.

Last week, members of L.A. City Council’s budget committee largely approved the recommendations, but also criticized the city’s slow pace of implementing programs, such as speed safety cameras, that have proven to be effective in addressing traffic violence.

“I'm just sort of speaking for myself, but like almost every week someone's hit by a car and killed, it feels like, in our district,” Yaroslavsky said at the Dec. 2 meeting.

In a presentation to the committee, staff from the City Administrative Office and L.A.’s Department of Transportation said pedestrian fatalities in the city have increased nearly 36% since 2021, but that there’s been a decrease in vehicle-and-vehicle crashes.

“It is essentially getting safer to drive in L.A., and similar story across the country, but it is getting less safe to be a pedestrian,” Chris Rider, a city transportation engineer, said during the meeting.

David Garza sometimes feels as if he doesn’t have health insurance now that he pays so much to treat his Type 2 diabetes.

His monthly premium payment of $435 for family coverage is roughly the same as the insurance at his previous job. But the policy at his current job carries an annual deductible of $4,000, which he must pay out-of-pocket for his family’s care until he reaches that amount each year.

“Now everything is full price,” said the 53-year-old, who works at a warehouse just south of Dallas-Fort Worth. “That’s been a little bit of a struggle.”

To reduce his costs, Garza switched to a lower-cost diabetes medication, and he no longer wears a continuous glucose monitor to check his blood sugar. Since he started his job nearly two years ago, he said, his blood sugar levels have inched upward from an A1c of 7% or less, the target goal, to as high as 14% at his most recent doctor visit in November.

“My A1c is through the roof because I’m not on, technically, the right medication like before,” Garza said. “I’m having to take something that I can afford.”

Plans with high deductibles — the amount that patients must pay for most medical care before insurance starts pitching in — have become increasingly common. In 2024, half of private-industry employees participating in medical care plans were offered this type of insurance, up from 38% in 2015, according to federal data. Such plans are also offered through the Affordable Care Act marketplace.

With ACA marketplace premiums for next year increasing and many of the subsidies to help people pay for them poised to expire at year’s end, more people face tough choices as they weigh monthly premium costs against deductibles. To afford insurance at all, people may opt for a plan with low premium payments but with a high deductible, gambling that they won’t have any medical crises.

But high-deductible plans pose a particular challenge for those with chronic conditions, such as the 38 million Americans who live with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes. Adults with diabetes who are involuntarily switched to a high-deductible plan, compared with adults on other types of insurance, face an 11% higher risk of being hospitalized with a heart attack, a 15% higher risk of hospitalization for a stroke, and more than double the likelihood that they’ll go blind or develop end-stage kidney disease, according to a study published in 2024.

“All of these complications are preventable,” said Rozalina McCoy, the study’s lead author.

Care vs. cost

The initial rationale behind such high-deductible plans was to encourage people to become wiser health care shoppers, said McCoy, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore. And they can be a good fit, proponents say, for people who don’t use a lot of medical care or who have cash on hand for a health crisis.

But while people with an excruciating earache will seek care, McCoy said, those with unhealthy blood sugar levels might not feel as urgent a need to seek treatment — despite the potential long-term damage — given the acute financial pain.

“You have no symptoms until it’s too late,” she said. “At that point, the damage is irreversible.”

Overall, medical care for people with diabetes costs insurers and patients an average of $12,022 annually to treat the disease, according to an analysis of 2022 data. Type 2 diabetes, the more common form, is diagnosed when the body can no longer process or produce enough insulin to adequately regulate blood sugars. With Type 1, the body can’t produce insulin. Those with the disease may end up on the financial hook not just for insulin and other types of medication but for related equipment.

Mallory Rogers, whose 6-year-old daughter, Adeline, has Type 1, calculates that it costs roughly $1,200 a month for insulin, a pump, and a continuous glucose monitor. That figure doesn’t include the cost of emergency supplies needed in case Adeline’s technology malfunctions. Those include another type of insulin, blood-testing strips, and a nasal spray that’s nearly $600 for a two-pack of vials — supplies that must be replaced once a year or more frequently.

“If she doesn’t have insulin, it would become an emergency situation within two hours,” said Rogers, a technology consultant who lives in Sanford, Florida. Rogers has been saving for the coming year when her daughter moves to the high-deductible health plan offered by Rogers’ employer, which has a $3,300 deductible for family coverage.

To treat her diabetes, Adeline relies on insulin, a pump, and a continuous glucose monitor that together cost about $1,200 a month, not including emergency supplies in case her technology malfunctions.

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Courtesy by Mallory Rogers

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Taxing decisions

Many insurance plans carry increasingly high deductibles. But to be defined as a high-deductible health plan — and thus be eligible to offer a health savings account — a plan’s deductible for 2026 must be at least $1,700 for an individual and $3,400 for a family, according to IRS rules.

Health savings accounts enable people to squirrel away money that can be rolled over from year to year to be used for eligible medical expenses, including prior to meeting a deductible. Such accounts, available through a plan or employer, can provide tax benefits. The contributions are limited to $4,400 individually and $8,750 for a family in 2026, and employers may contribute toward that total. Rogers’ employer pays $2,000 spread out over the year, and Garza’s contributes $1,200.

Rogers recognizes that she’s fortunate to have accumulated $7,000 so far in her health savings account to prepare for her daughter’s insurance shifting to Rogers’ plan.

“Adding a financial burden to an already very stressful medical condition, it hurts my heart,” she said, reflecting on those who can’t similarly stockpile. “Nobody asks to have diabetes, Type 1 or Type 2.”

The median deductible for employer health insurance plans was $2,750 in 2024, but deductibles can run $5,000 or higher, said George Huntley, CEO of both the Diabetes Leadership Council and Diabetes Patient Advocacy Coalition.

When deductibles are too high, Huntley said, routine maintenance is what patients skimp on: “You don’t take the drug that you’re supposed to take to maintain your blood glucose. You ration your insulin, if that’s your scenario. You take pills every other day.”

Garza knows he should do more to control his blood sugar, but financial realities complicate the equation. His previous health plan covered a newer class of diabetes medication, called a GLP-1 agonist, for $25 a month. He wasn’t charged for his remaining medications, which included blood pressure and cholesterol drugs, or his continuous glucose monitor.

With his new insurance, he pays $125 monthly for insulin and several other medications. He doesn’t see his endocrinologist for checkups more than twice a year.

“He wants to see me every three months,” Garza said. “But I told him it’s not possible at $150 a pop.”

Plus, he typically needs lab testing before each visit, an additional $111.

In 2026, the deductible for a “silver”-level plan on the marketplace will average $5,304 without cost-sharing reductions, according to an analysis from KFF, a health think tank that includes KFF Health News. For a “bronze”-level plan, it will be $7,476. An annual visit and some preventive screenings, such as a mammogram, would be covered free of cost to the patient.

Moreover, people comparing plan options, whether through their employer or the marketplace, should figure out their annual out-of-pocket maximum, which still applies after the deductible is met, Huntley said.

Garza’s family policy requires him to pay 20% until he reaches $10,000, for example.

Given Garza’s high blood sugar levels, his doctor prescribed a fast-acting form of insulin to take as needed with meals, which costs an additional $79 monthly. He planned to fill it in December, when he’s responsible for only 20% of the cost after he has hit his deductible but not yet reached his out-of-pocket maximum.

Garza likes his job despite its health plan, saying he’s never missed a day of work, even recently when he had a stomach bug. As of late 2025, he remained conflicted about whether to sign up for health insurance when his company’s enrollment period rolls around in mid-2026.

He worries that dropping insurance would place his family too much at risk if a major medical crisis struck. Still, he pointed out, he could then use the money he now spends on monthly premiums to directly pay for care to better manage his diabetes.

“I’m just stuck, to be honest with you,” he said.

The Trump administration announced $12 billion in one-time payments to farmers in the wake of this year's tariff hikes on Monday, primarily targeting farmers who grow crops such as soybeans and corn.

The move was outlined during a White House roundtable event, featuring farmers affected as well as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.

Trump touted the program in relation to the revenue the government is taking in as a result of his sweeping tariff program and also referenced his popularity among farmers.

"What we're doing is we're taking a relatively small portion of that, and we're going to be giving and providing it to the farmers in economic assistance. And we love our farmers," he said. "And as you know, the farmers like me, because, you know, based on, based on voting trends, you could call it voting trends or anything else, but they're great people."

The move comes as the administration looks to address economic concerns from key Trump constituencies as the tariff effects play out but also on the heels of a trying few years for row crop farmers.

Prices for row crops such as corn and soybeans have fallen in recent years, according to the Farm Bureau, and prices for inputs have risen over time. However, tariffs have also driven costs up on those inputs, including machinery and fertilizer.

The White House is calling the new policy the Farm Bridge Assistance program, saying it is intended to support farmers until Trump's economic policies, such as lowering some taxes and imposing stiff tariffs, take greater effect.

"President Trump is helping our agriculture industry by negotiating new trade deals to open new export markets for our farmers and boosting the farm safety net for the first time in a decade. Today's announcement reflects the President's commitment to helping our farmers, who will have the support they need to bridge the gap between Biden's failures and the President's successful policies taking effect," said White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly.

The money will be coming from the USDA's Commodity Credit Corporation, which Trump also used to give farmers economic aid in his first term.

Trump framed the new aid program as a part of his attempt to respond to concerns about high prices. In introducing the topic, Trump dismissed Democrats' recent emphasis on affordability.

"They have a tendency to just say, 'This election's based on affordability,' and no one questions them," he said. "Nobody says, 'oh well, what do you mean by that?' They just say the word. They never say anything else because they caused the problem. But we're fixing the problem."

Trump also said he would remove environmental regulations on large machinery, such as tractors, in an attempt to lower prices on those. 

Tariffs, however, have weighed on those manufacturers. John Deere earlier this year estimated that tariffs would cost it $600 million in 2025.
Copyright 2025 NPR

The Republican-controlled House and Senate have not done much to stand in the way of President Donald Trump — even when his actions have encroached on terrain the Constitution reserved for them.

But there are signs that some Republican lawmakers are trying to reassert their independence.

When news broke last week that the Pentagon carried out a second strike on two individuals on a largely-destroyed alleged drug boat in the Caribbean Sea, even some Republicans expressed alarm.

"Somebody made a horrible decision," Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C. told reporters in the Capitol. "Somebody needs to be held accountable. This is our job. This is part of oversight. That's pretty straightforward."

The strikes are not the only actions that have spurred a handful of Republicans to stake out a bit of daylight with the Trump Administration. Some have criticized Trump's tariffs, like Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.

"Our lobsterman, our blueberry growers, our potato farmers will pay the price," Collins said in October, before a vote to roll back tariffs on Canada.

Ahead of the upcoming expiration date for enhanced health care subsidies, which Trump has signaled indifference to renewing, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., warned last month of a "massive crisis unless Congress acts."

Nebraska Congressman Don Bacon has been one of the most consistent critics of Trump's approach to Russian President Vladimir Putin's incursion into Ukraine. Bacon consistently calls it a soft touch, particularly in contrast to Trump's approach to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

"The velvet glove, red carpet treatment for Putin and then the condescending, boorish behavior that the president and the vice president has done towards Zelenskyy – it's a contrast," Bacon told Nebraska Public Media earlier this year. 

Senators have also pushed back on Trump's intermittent calls to end the filibuster. "You'd have to be smoking wizard weed to vote for that," Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) told reporters during the 43 day government shutdown that ended last month.

And Trump's reluctance to release the investigative files into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein spurred a break between the president and one of his closest allies, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.

"He called me a traitor for standing with these women," she said.

Moments of GOP resistance or a growing trend?

After months of the White House steamrolling Congress on tariffs, appropriations and military intervention, even this careful pushback is a departure, says former Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Az.).

Flake says the shift is accelerating with Trump's declining approval rating. The pushback also grew following Republicans' poor performance in off-year elections last month.

"There was a lot of fear about what he could do to you electorally," Flake said. "That's diminishing."

Flake, who did not run for reelection in 2018 in part because he refused to unconditionally back Trump, says some lawmakers are now more willing to say aloud what they long expressed behind closed doors.

"Obviously behind the scenes, it's a whole different ballgame," he said. "This migration is happening and when Republicans get there, they'll get to a new-old place where they were on some of these threshold issues that have animated conservatives for decades."

But this is not the first time observers have declared a new era, only for Trump to firm up his grip on Congressional Republicans, including the aftermath of the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol.

"A lot of us have been wrong on how long this has endured," he said.

Most of the Republicans vocalizing their disagreements are retiring, represent competitive districts or are perennial centrists. And some of the splits with Trump have not been over traditional Republican values, but urging him to follow through on the populist platform he ran on.

Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski said Congress has made some recent attempts to push back on the White House, like resolutions rebuking the tariffs and boat strikes, but they have not been very successful or sufficient.

"I'd like to see more, and I believe that if we don't stand up for our powers under the Constitution, nobody else will," Murkowski told NPR in an interview.

Constitutional role of Congress

The framers gave the Congress the power to appropriate funds, to declare war and levy taxes, like tariffs.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., says it is unfair to say this Congress has relinquished its authority as an independent, coequal branch.

"I don't know how much different this one is," Thune told NPR. "A lot of times if I have differences with the administration, I don't litigate it in public. But we do have a responsibility as partners to try to get an agenda done for the American people that they voted for."

Molly Reynolds, a Brookings Institution expert on Congress, says it's true this is not just a Trump-era phenomenon. Congress has been ceding power to the executive and judicial branches for decades.

"And in some cases, Congress has been a willing and eager participant in sacrificing its own power to the other branches," she said.

Reynolds said this did not start with Trump's willingness to act more unilaterally in his second term, but it did escalate the trend. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) recently told The Katie Miller Podcast that, "We have this joke that I'm not really a Speaker of the House."

Reynolds, who jokingly calls herself a partisan of the first branch, says it is no accident the legislative branch is established in Article 1 of the Constitution. She said the framers saw the legislative branch as the closest to the people. The separation of powers and checks and balances are foundational concepts of the American form of government.

Reynolds said there is precedent for Congress taking steps to reassert its power, like the Watergate-era reforms to reign in the power of the president.

"It was in a really different political moment than the one we're living in now," Reynolds said, noting that politics is more polarized today. "Which is part of what makes it challenging to see the prospects for a similar burst of institutional patriotism."

Copyright 2025 NPR

USC’s annual food study found that although there have been some improvements, food insecurity in L.A. County is still “unacceptably high” as more higher-income residents struggle to afford enough groceries.

Researchers at USC Dornsife Center for Economic and Social Research found that, consistent with last year, 1 in 4 L.A. County households in 2025 experienced food insecurity. About 35% of low-income households reported being food insecure, a slight decrease from 2024.

“These findings show both encouraging progress and emerging pressures,” Kayla de la Haye, director of USC’s Food Systems Institute and lead author of the study, said in a statement. “Even as food insecurity decreases among low-income households, the burden is shifting. Many Angelenos outside the safety net are struggling to keep up with rising costs.”

Here’s what the report found 

Low-income residents, women and Latinos are among the most affected.

• 75% are low-income
• 60% are women
• 57% are Latino
• 54% are younger adults

Food insecurity still largely affects low-income residents, but more higher-income Angelenos are now food insecure. The report found that 25% of those with food insecurity make more than 300% the federal poverty level.

“These are families who often don’t qualify for safety net programs like CalFresh,” de la Haye said. “They’re earning above eligibility thresholds, but still struggling to meet the cost of living in L.A.”

How can leaders use this information?

Researchers said county investments — including $20 million in Food Equity fund grants and the creation of the L.A. County Office of Food Systems — helped more people access healthier food.

At least 1.5 million people in L.A. County are enrolled in CalFresh, but 44% of recipients were food insecure. With the latest government shutdown, rising costs and benefit reductions under the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” researchers expect those rates to increase.

Experts say local, state and federal governments should be proactive in addressing hunger by, for example, expanding CalFresh enrollment, setting policies that help residents with affordability and strengthening food banks.

You can read the full USC study here.