The most important stories for you to know today
LACM Vice President JoJo Valdez, told The LA Local that the event is ”a living example of what safer, more human-centered streets could look like” in the City of Angels.
The ride takes place on the last Friday of every month on the corner of Western and Wilshire across from The Wiltern. Routes change monthly, turning each ride into a moving tour of the city. Some rides head west toward Marina del Rey, others east toward Mariachi Plaza, passing through neighborhoods that rarely feel connected outside of car travel.
As the ride moves through different neighborhoods, it often brings energy — and customers — to local businesses along the route as riders stop for food, drinks and supplies throughout the evening. Valdez said, “Cyclists, skaters and riders moving together make the demand for alternative transportation impossible to ignore. ”L.A. is the last place you’d expect a mass cycling movement to take hold. That’s probably why it did.
In a city defined by gridlock, LACM offers something rare — movement through neighborhoods at a human pace. For me, LACM became an alternative to the typical night out. Instead of bars or clubs, it became a way to decompress, stay active and explore the city differently. Over time, I built connections that turned into a consistent group of six friends I now ride with each month.
I’ve even brought my girlfriend along, and it’s become one of our favorite end-of-month traditions. The LA chapter of Critical Mass is led by LACM President Lisa Lundie and Valdez, who both began as volunteers before stepping into leadership roles for the Los Angeles chapter. According to the organization, their focus includes accessibility, community and mental wellness accessibility, community and mental wellness — and those values show up throughout the ride itself.
Valdez said that what people see — the crowds and energy — is only part of the story. There is real coordination and planning to keep the ride safe and organized as it moves through the city.
“We look out for each other. We ride together. If you’re alone, you won’t stay that way for long,” he said. Ride marshals help guide traffic, support newer riders and keep the group together, while a lead vehicle sets the pace and support riders follow behind to ensure no one is left behind.
The result is a ride that may feel overwhelming at first, given the number of people, but quickly settles into a relaxed rhythm. With everyone following the lead car and built-in stops to regroup, it becomes approachable for first-timers and more communal than a typical solo ride through Los Angeles.
As the ride unfolds, speakers carried by riders create a shifting soundtrack — hip-hop, EDM, reggae and Latin music blending with each neighborhood the group passes through, turning the streets into a moving reflection of L.A. ’s culture. Some rides carry deeper meaning, including moments of silence for cyclists lost to traffic accidents and ongoing calls for safer streets.
This month’s ride, taking place on April 24 at 7:00 p.m., will celebrate West Coast hip-hop legend DJ Battlecat, who will perform from the lead vehicle, transforming the ride into a rolling party on wheels. The distance might sound intimidating, but the pace is manageable, with plenty of breaks and lots of potential new friends. Whether you come with a group or show up solo, Critical Mass offers a new way to experience Los Angeles one ride at a time.
Voter guides in various languages at a polling site in Modoc Hall at Sacramento State in Sacramento on on March 5, 2024. Voter Information Guides from the secretary of state are starting to hit registered voters’ mailboxes across California this week with info on statewide candidates and ballot measures for the June 2 primary election. The L.A. County registrar-recorder/clerk also began mailing sample ballots to registered voters throughout the county today, according to a press release.
The sample ballot books are available in 19 languages and share more details on local candidates, measures and secure ways to vote.. The registrar-recorder/clerk said in the press release that vote-by-mail ballots will start being sent to all registered voters in the county April 30.is May 18, but same-day registration is also available in person at county elections offices, polling places and vote centers.
“Take five minutes today to register or update your address — then make a plan to vote,” Secretary of State Shirley Weber said in a press release earlier this month. Every active registered voter is mailed a ballot, according to the Secretary of State’s Office. The office recommends that voters return their completed ballot by putting it in the return envelope and dropping it at a secure official drop box, polling location, vote center or county elections office.
AnEarly voting starts May 4, a spokesperson for the office told LAist, and vote centers will open in Voter’s Choice Act counties — including L.A. , Ventura, Orange and Riverside — on May 23.
Due to changes to how the U.S. Postal Service postmarks mail, the Secretary of State’s Office told LAist it recommends voters who prefer to mail in their ballots do so at least one week before Election Day, June 2, and ask for a hand-stamped postmark from a USPS employee. The LAist newsroom has begun rolling out guides on local candidates and ballot measures in Southern California.
We’re bringing voters our reporting on candidates for L.A. mayor, L.A. and Orange county supervisors, dozens of judicial races and more. Some Santa Ana leaders want to consider asking state officials to include the city in California’s speed camera pilot program, citing concerns about unsafe drivers. : A 2023 state law allows some cities, like Los Angeles, San Francisco and Oakland, to pilot cameras that detect speeding drivers and generate citations.
: The Santa Ana City Council on Tuesday directed staff to bring back a resolution that would be sent to Assemblymember Avelino Valencia and state Sen. Tom Umberg, requesting that the law be amended to allow Santa Ana to establish a speed camera pilot program. Some Santa Ana leaders want the city to join California’s speed camera program, citing concerns about unsafe drivers. , to pilot cameras that detect speeding drivers and generate citations.
Those cameras already are set up in San Francisco and Oakland. The Santa Ana City Council on Tuesday directed staff to bring back a resolution that if approved, would be sent to Assemblymember Avelino Valencia and state Sen. Tom Umberg, requesting that the law be amended to include Santa Ana. Councilmembers Johnathan Ryan Hernandez, Jessie Lopez and David Penaloza stepped out of the chamber before the final direction was decided.
Mayor Valerie Amezcua and Councilmembers Phil Bacerra, Thai Viet Phan and Benjamin Vazquez supported directing staff to look into the ask. Tuesday’s discussion was introduced by Bacerra, who said Segerstrom Avenue in his district is especially unsafe due to speeding drivers.crash on Segerstrom Avenue that killed five young people last year. The speeding car drove into a tree, ejecting three passengers and severely injuring others.
“Posting police officers at problem spots in the city is not feasible,” Bacerra said. “I don't think you're going to get speed humps allowed per state standards, on Segerstrom, on Fairview, on Bristol, on any other arterial where we're seeing high speeds. ”If Santa Ana were included in the pilot program under the state law, the city would have to launch a public information campaign. For the first 60 days of the cameras being installed, speeding drivers receive a warning.
Robert Rodriguez, Santa Ana Police dhief, said the citation would either be issued through departments such as public works or transportation agencies. Phan, who represents Ward 1, said if these cameras and the associated work are expected to cost the city in the million-dollar range, she would not be supportive of moving forward with the request to state officials. Santa Ana is looking at a $19 million budget deficit this year.
The city is also bracing for a special voter-approved sales tax to sunset in 2029 and could miss out on about $30 million in revenue when the tax rate goes down, before completely going away in 2039.
“I am not particularly curious about sending staff and our lobbyists to go work with these state legislators to pass a bill that we're not going to implement because it's going to cost a million dollars,” Phan said. “It's like we're trying to make promises to the community that we're not going to be able to do because we're looking at a $19 million budget deficit.
” That kind of money could be used elsewhere to improve driver and pedestrian safety, Phan added, including the police, code enforcement or public works departments. City staff is expected to bring a drafted resolution, along with a cost analysis of the program, in two weeks. The council will vote on whether to move forward from there. If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report.
Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less. Teachers in the Little Lake School District, a small district in Santa Fe Springs, are on strike, commencing the first strike by teachers in the 154-year history of the district. The Little Lake City School has roughly 3,500 students across seven elementary and two middle schools, where most students are Latino and many rely on free or reduced-price school meals.
For the 200 members of the Little Lake Education Association, wages aren’t even on the table. Under proposals from the district, they face the prospect of larger class sizes but no new resources — and 15 of them had already received layoff notices, with nearly that many more still possible. The teachers who remain are looking at huge increases in their monthly health insurance costs.
Though they aren’t bargaining on wages, the insurance costs were tantamount to a serious pay cut. The union and the district are closing in on an agreement for the teachers to pay some of their health care premiums, but a lower percentage than management instituted in January.
An independent fact-finder concluded that the sides agree on Little Lake’s special education program, which is seeing notable growth in need and requires more staffing and support than it currently receives.within the 520,000-student Los Angeles school system, teachers in a small district about 15 miles to the southeast quietly prepared to go it alone. The 200 members of the Little Lake Education Association had reached a breaking point.
Months of negotiations with the leadership of their school district had proved fruitless. Their suggestions for money-saving measures that would preserve jobs and critical health care benefits, they said, were dismissed. So, on April 16, they walked out, commencing the first strike by teachers in the 154-year history of the district.
It was a moment almost completely overshadowed by the events of the week in Los Angeles, where nearly 70,000 teachers, administrators and staff workers won major wage gains and other concessions by threatening to go on strike together.
“We’re trying to protect our class sizes, get more support for our special education programs and keep health care affordable for our teachers and their families,” said Maria Pilios, president of the teachers’ union in the district, which serves portions of Santa Fe Springs, Downey and Norwalk. “Those are the priorities. That’s it.
” With roughly 3,500 students across seven elementary and two middle schools, the Little Lake City School District — where most students are Latino and many rely on free or reduced-price school meals — has far more in common with most districts in California than does the sprawling L.A. system. While giant school systems such as those in Los Angeles, San Diego and Fresno can be bellwethers for policies and actions, they’re outliers in terms of size.
The average school district in California has about 5,700 students, and enrollment Budgets in these districts have also been tightening — and in Little Lake, teachers are feeling the squeeze. Under proposals from the district, they faced the prospect of larger class sizes but no new resources — and 15 of them had already received layoff notices, with nearly that many more still possible. The teachers who remained were looking at huge increases in their monthly health insurance costs.
Though they weren’t bargaining on wages, the insurance costs were tantamount to a serious pay cut. When public school enrollment declines, so does funding from the state, because the money is apportioned through a formula that is directly tied to daily attendance. In the Little Lake district, enrollment has dropped by more than 500 students in the last five years. The accompanying reduction in state funding has meant that districts needed to get creative with their budgets.
Some, like Los Angeles, can tap deep financial reserves to keep teachers on the job and other resources flowing. In a system like Little Lake, no such money is available. Instead, district leadership went after perhaps the most prized facet of the Little Lake teachers’ current contracts. For years, monthly health care premiums for the teachers and their families have been fully covered, a major attraction for a district that pays lower salaries than comparable school systems, union leaders say.
In January, in the middle of an existing contract, Little Lake administrators dramatically reduced that coverage, and for some teachers it meant an immediate shift from a premium payment of zero per month to as much as $1,400. The district is also trying to claw back some money by increasing class sizes but not adding teachers.
Pilios said that in addition to the 15 layoff notices already delivered, “We’d need to lay off another 13 to give them the numbers that they want. That’s almost 15% of the teachers in our district, and that’s just unacceptable. ” Pilios herself teaches middle school English. Three of her periods are already impacted — 33 students for one teacher, in classes normally set for a 26-to-1 ratio.
The union’s request for additional adults in such classrooms for support, she said, has not been met. Versions of this dynamic are playing out in districts up and down California. On one side, management executives and negotiators stress their budget issues and look to hold down teacher costs or staff numbers. On the other, unions search for solutions that don’t involve putting their teachers in financial jeopardy.
“What we’re seeing is similar to the energy across the state,” said David Goldberg, president of the California Teachers Association, the umbrella organization for more than 300,000 teachers, including those in the Little Lake Education Association. “Educators are saying, ‘We’re not going to allow you to balance the budgets on our backs, or on the backs of our students. ’” Pilios said the union brought suggestions to the district for saving money, including buying no new textbooks this year and taking a little out of each of several grants the district has already received. Negotiators for the district showed little interest in those ideas, she said.
The ensuing walkout hasn’t closed schools, with the district lining up strikebreaking instructors at $500 per day — a rate approved by the local Board of Education that generally exceeds the rate paid to its full-time teachers. The teachers’ union responded by filing paperwork in an attempt to recall all five members of the board.
Their demonstrations, meanwhile, have pulled in supporters in numbers that are many multiples of the small union, Pilios said, including community members, students and their families, as well as teachers from neighboring districts who’ve joined several of the gatherings. The union and the district are closing in on an agreement for the teachers to pay some of their health care premiums, but a lower percentage than management instituted in January.
An independent fact-finderthat the sides agree on Little Lake’s special education program, which is seeing notable growth in need and requires more staffing and support than it currently receives. Still, nearly 95% of the educators in the district voted for the first-ever strike. This may not be a Los Angeles-sized action, but the frustration is real.
From left, California gubernatorial candidates Matt Mahan, Xavier Becerra, Chad Bianco, Steve Hilton, Tom Steyer and Katie Porter participate in a debate at KRON Studios in San Francisco on April 22, 2026.for California governor broke largely along party lines on questions related to taxes, homelessness and the Trump administration at a fast-moving televised debate in San Francisco Wednesday evening. The debate, broadcast statewide on Nexstar stations, marked a major test for former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and billionaire investor Tom Steyer, who have emerged as the top polling Democrats after former Rep.
Eric SwalwellIn general, though, the Democrats focused more on defining their own platforms than criticizing one another — perhaps because, with ballots set to reach voters in less than two weeks, Californiansfor California governor broke largely along party lines on questions related to taxes, homelessness and the Trump administration at a fast-moving televised debate in San Francisco Wednesday evening. The debate, broadcast statewide on Nexstar stations, marked a major test for former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and billionaire investor Tom Steyer, who have emerged as the top polling Democrats after former Rep.
Eric Swalwell Throughout a largely tame event, Steyer and Becerra at times came under fire from fellow Democrats on stage, former Rep. Katie Porter and San José Mayor Matt Mahan. By contrast, the two Republicans onstage, businessman and conservative commentator Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, avoided criticizing each other, instead focusing on what they called Democratic failures.
Steyer faced the most attacks of the night — largely centered on his wealth and the investments he made in private prisons and the oil industry as a hedge fund manager decades ago. Porter poked at Steyer’s personal fortune while also jabbing Becerra for his backing by corporate interests and a lack of policy details.
Tom Steyer, a Democratic candidate for California governor, defended his record and pitched himself as a “change agent” during a televised debate at KRON Studios in San Francisco on April 22, 2026. And she stressed her own experience as a consumer advocate and single mom who understands the struggles of everyday Californians.
“One candidate is a billionaire who got rich off polluters and ICE prisons and is now using that money to fund this election,” Porter said, even as she and every other Democrat pledged to support whichever Democrat makes it to a November runoff. “Another candidate for nearly 40 years cashed corporate checks and then lacked the courage to take them on. I’m not like them — I have never taken corporate money.
” Katie Porter, right, sharpened her attacks on rival Tom Steyer over his wealth and past investments during a televised debate at KRON Studios in San Francisco on April 22, 2026. Mahan echoed the former Orange County congresswoman, calling Steyer “a billionaire who made his money in private prisons” and Becerra “a D.C. insider who the Sacramento establishment is now rallying around.
” San José Mayor Matt Mahan, left, and Xavier Becerra, both Democratic candidates for California governor, shook hands before a televised debate at KRON Studios in San Francisco on April 22, 2026. In general, though, the Democrats focused more on defining their own platforms than criticizing one another — perhaps because, with ballots set to reach voters in less than two weeks, CaliforniansBecerra, who has seen the largest uptick in polling and endorsements since Swalwell’s exit, pitched his candidacy as a steady hand in the wake of the shocking scandal.
On Tuesday, Becerra was endorsed by Democratic Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas. Xavier Becerra, a Democratic candidate for California governor, called for experienced leadership as he spoke during a televised debate at KRON Studios in San Francisco on April 22, 2026. Steyer parried criticisms of his career in finance by pointing to the wealthy interests opposing his campaign. In recent days, PG&E has poured millions into an anti-Steyer super-PAC that has also received funding from groups representing realtors and prison guards.
“The people raising the costs for California don’t want me to be governor,” he said. “I’m the change agent here and they don’t want change. ” Steyer has put more than $120 million of his own money into his campaign and has blanketed the state in digital and television ads. The gubernatorial candidates will appear on the ballot together in the June 2 primary.
Under California’s top-two primary system, the top two finishers advance to November, regardless of party. That left Democrats concerned that two Republicans could make it into a runoff, in a state where no GOP candidate has won statewide in two decades. For months, the Democratic field has remained crowded, without a clear frontrunner, and Swalwell’s dramatic exit less than two weeks ago scrambled the race again.
At a televised gubernatorial debate at KRON Studios in San Francisco on Wednesday, April 22, 2026, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, a Republican candidate for California governor, argued homelessness is driven by substance abuse. On Wednesday evening, the partisan divide between the frontrunners on stage was particularly evident when the conversation turned to homelessness. The four Democrats largely praised Gov.
Gavin Newsom’s efforts on the issue and agreed on the need to spend more money on preventing homelessness, through programs such as rental assistance. Bianco and Hilton said homelessness was instead an issue best addressed through substance use treatment. Steve Hilton, a Republican candidate for California governor, leaned into President Donald Trump’s endorsement — calling it “a deep honor” — during a televised debate at KRON Studios in San Francisco on April 22, 2026.
Mahan, who entered the race late and is polling below the other candidates onstage, sought to draw a contrast with the other Democrats onstage by vowing to suspend the state gas tax — referencing his working class childhood in the farming town of Watsonville.
“I know what it means when gas prices go up a dollar or two unnecessarily,” Mahan said. “I’ll reform the gas tax so it’s no longer the poorest, hardest working people in our state who are paying an unfair share to maintain our infrastructure. ” None of the other Democratic candidates would commit to suspending the gas tax, something both Hilton and Bianco have been campaigning on.
Hilton did not shy away from President Donald Trump, who’s deeply unpopular in this heavily Democratic state. Trump recently endorsed Hilton, a former Fox News host who emigrated from the United Kingdom.
“One of the proudest days of my life is the day I became an American citizen … so it is a deep honor for me to be endorsed by the President of the United States,” Hilton said, adding that Democratic attacks on Trump are only hurting the state. “Here’s what will help every Californian: when I am governor we will have a deep, constructive relationship. ”
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