By Los Angeles County Politics (LACP)
Bass pitches city council for more cops
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass yesterday sent a letter to the L.A. City Council urging them to prioritize Angelenos’ safety and allocate $4.4 million to the Los Angeles Police Department to hire 410 officers for this fiscal year ending in June 2025.
“Our number one job as city leaders is to keep Angelenos safe. Without the $4.4 million funding, the Los Angeles Police Department will stop hiring in January,” wrote Bass.
“Stopping the hiring of new police officers will have drastic and lasting consequences for our city. It will mean no new cadets in the police academy in January of 2025. It will mean increasing overtime hours and costs as fewer officers will have greater workloads. It will mean that we strain officers’ health with longer shifts and more responsibility. The second largest city in the United States cannot have an effective police department with 8,300 officers – levels not seen since 1995.”
Bass noted in her letter that when she signed the last budget, it included an agreement with City Council leadership to identify additional funding to restore officer hiring. She also noted she spent the last three years working on reforming the hiring process for LAPD recruits, and that her administration have made lasting change.
The mayor also pointed out that the City of Los Angeles is the largest geographically in the United States at 550 square miles, and the second-largest city in the United States in population, with a population of 3.8 million people.
“Yet, the LAPD currently has about two officers for every 1,000 residents. By comparison, the City of New York has a force size of 36,000 sworn officers, or about four officers for every 1,000 New Yorkers. The City of Chicago has a force of approximately 11,600 sworn officers for a population of 2.7 million, equating to about 4.3 officers per 1,000 residents,” Bass wrote.
“We must have enough officers to effectively and sustainably keep Angelenos safe in the coming years, especially as we host major events like the 2026 FIFA World Cup and 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, welcoming millions of visitors to our neighborhoods.
“Public safety is the most important service that the City of Los Angeles can provide to its residents, businesses and visitors. I look forward to working with you to keep the people of Los Angeles safe,” the letter concluded.
Zbur holds California Rare Disease Caucus roundtable
Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur (D-Hollywood, Universal City, Hancock Park, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Westwood, West Los Angeles, Santa Monica) announced yesterday that the The California Rare Disease Caucus, which he chairs, held its Winter Roundtable Tuesday at Takeda’s Los Angeles manufacturing facility.
The event brought together legislators, patient advocates, and biopharmaceutical leaders to discuss the urgent challenges facing Californians living with rare diseases and the policy solutions needed to expand access to life-changing treatments. It also highlighted California’s leadership in life sciences and its role in driving discovery, development, and delivery of innovative therapies.
“This issue is deeply personal for me,” said Zbur. “My sister Jackie battled ALS, and I witnessed firsthand how difficult it can be to get a diagnosis, find the right treatment, navigate insurance coverage and grapple with the deficiencies in the social safety net to obtain in-home care. That’s the reality for so many of the 2.4 million Californians dealing with rare diseases—whether it’s hemophilia, cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, or one of thousands of other conditions.”
The roundtable centered on patient stories, the scientific advancements underway, and the remaining barriers in research, development, and coverage. Participants also shared recommendations for strengthening California’s rare disease policy framework in the year ahead.
The California Rare Disease Caucus is a bipartisan legislative caucus established in 2017 to bring public and legislative awareness to rare disease issues, ensure patients have a voice in shaping policy, educate legislators and staff, and provide opportunities for engagement with the rare disease community.
For more information, visit www.cararediseasecaucus.org.
Dove slams Republicans for betraying Afghan allies
U.S. Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Culver City, View Park-Windsor Hills, parts of South LA), Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on South and Central Asia, yesterday slammed House Republicans for stripping her bipartisan provision codifying the Office of the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts (CARE) from the Fiscal Year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (FY26 NDAA).
The provision, part of her Enduring Welcome Act, passed the House Foreign Affairs Committee with strong bipartisan support during the State Department Authorization markup in September.
“The Trump Administration’s collective punishment of Afghan refugees and immigrant communities following the horrific shooting of two National Guard members has been abhorrent. Before we even had full details of the attack, Trump scapegoated Afghan allies who risked their lives to protect American servicemembers during our 20-year involvement in Afghanistan. The administration turned on those vulnerable to Taliban retaliation by suspending asylum decisions, halting the issuance of Special Immigrant Visas, and pursuing deportations,” said Kamlager-Dove.
“Equally sickening is my Republican colleagues’ rush to vilify and betray our Afghan allies—many of whom, just last year, attacked the Biden Administration for not doing enough to protect them.
“Trump and Congressional Republicans are abandoning our Afghan allies, undermining U.S. credibility, and spewing hypocrisy—all while jeopardizing the safety of American servicemembers in future conflicts. The United States must honor our promise to the Afghan allies who bravely served alongside us. I will not stop fighting for my Enduring Welcome Act to become law.”
Mitchell leads County in suing oil companies for environmental hazards
Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell (D-Southwest/Central Los Angeles including Inglewood, Compton, Carson, Hawthorne, Culver City, portions of South LA) yesterday was a driving force behind the County filing an environmental justice lawsuit against oil and gas well operators for failing to plug dle and exhausted oil and gas wells in the Inglewood Oil Field (IOF).
The lawsuit alleges that Sentinel Peak Resources California LLC, Freeport-McMoRan Oil & Gas LLC, Plains Resources, Inc., and Chevron U.S.A., Inc. failed to properly decommission and plug exhausted and idle oil and gas wells, thereby causing toxic pollutants to leak into the air, land and water, leading to significant environmental harms and health risks to communities surrounding the IOF.
“We are making it clear to these oil companies that Los Angeles County is done waiting and that we remain unwavering in our commitment to protect residents from the harmful impacts of oil drilling. Plugging idle oil and gas wells—so they no longer emit toxins into communities that have been on the frontlines of environmental injustice for generations—is not only the right thing to do, it’s the law,” said Mitchell. “At the very least, oil companies that have long profited from this land must uphold their responsibilities to properly close these wells and ensure they cause no further harm.”
More than one million people live within five miles of the IOF, which is surrounded by homes and apartments as well as recreational, institutional, commercial and industrial uses.
Mitchell’s district includes the oil field, and she led ongoing County efforts to ban new oil and gas extraction and mandate the phase-out of existing drilling in unincorporated LA County.
