Mike Bonin

An LA Podcast show graphic showing the LA Podcast logo and a illustrated grizzly bear holding the state of California with the word Democracy on it, and a sign that reads YES ON 50 over a map of the U.S. The title of the show is shown over the graphic, November 10, 2025, Episode 278 and 50 Ways to Leave Your Legislator

Need a summary of last week's election results and why they matter to you, an LA voter, in 49 minutes or less? Join me, @mikebonin.bsky.social and @rachelreyes.bsky.social for this week's episode of LA Podcast. @laforward.bsky.social

Listen here: www.thinkforward.la/50-ways-to-l...

Zohran Mamdani won't become mayor of New York City until January 1 -- but Trump and FOX etc will almost immediately start claiming he has already turned the city into a shit hole.

“Hear me, President Trump:
To get to any of us, you will have
to get through all of us.”

Three reform DAs won re-election tonight, two of them running uncontested. All in major population centers.

Krasner
Bragg
Gonzalez

This is get one-billionth the coverage of the Boudin recall, bc it doesn't fit the entrenched Tough on Crime Narrative, but it's still noteworthy.

Zohran Mamdani Wins, Brings Fight to Trump: ‘Turn the Volume Up’ ‘To get to any of us, you will have to get through all of us,’ Mamdani told Trump, declaring victory in the New York City mayoral race amid a blue wave.

Zohran Mamdani Wins, Brings Fight to Trump

Mamdani: So hear me, President Trump, when I say this: to get to any of us, you will have to get through all of us.

LA Podcast LA Podcast is a news podcast for people who live in Los Angeles. We’re excited to announce that LA Podcast is now part of the LA Forward family of organizations! Expect to hear new episodes more frequ...

@mikebonin.bsky.social on LA Pod: “There’s … such a power to the old idea that it’s all about making life easier for the single passenger automobile, that absent constant absolute vigilant pressure for something different, the system will find ways to go the old way.” www.thinkforward.la/la-podcast/

Zohran Mamdani had more than 100,000 people volunteer on his campaign. His agenda of big ideas resonated with voters, in NYC and around the country. Will the Democratic Party finally listen? Or will it continue to try to smash anyone who can effectively counter Trump and grow a progressive movement?

Andrew Cuomo concedes the NYC mayoral race to Zohran Mamdani in a characteristically bitter, divisive and vitriolic speech that shows why voters rejected him and are turning against the empty, establishment status quo that he stands for.

On What's Next, Los Angeles, we present a one-on-one interview with LA Mayor Karen Bass. We discussed her style of leadership, progressive politics, a new challenger in the mayor's race, housing policy, homelessness, the upcoming Olympics and more.

whatsnextlosangeles.buzzsprout.com

Mayor Bass Takes Action to Provide New Relief to Palisades Fire Survivors, Accelerate Community Recovery Calls on City Council to Provide Fire-Affected Properties with Time-Limited Exemption, Announces Mayoral Executive Directive LOS ANGELES – Mayor Karen Bass announced actions to provide new relief to Palisades Fire survivors and accelerate community recovery. She called on the City Council to adopt an ordinance that would assist in the establishment of a one-time exemption to Measure ULA for Palisade homeowners and announced that once the ordinance is adopted she would issue an executive directive to direct the Office of Finance to create the rule providing this exemption. The letter follows a meeting with Rick Caruso, founder of Steadfast LA, who proposed ideas to help address this issue. The Mayor’s plan to create a time limited exemption from the Measure ULA property transfer tax will help homeowners who need to or wish to move from the fire impacted area and speed up sales of these properties and spur rebuilding and rehabilitation of the Palisades.

Mayor Karen Bass is asking LA's city council to pass an ordinance that would exempt Pacific Palisades transactions from ULA, the city's transfer tax.

Of note: "The letter follows a meeting with Rick Caruso, founder of Steadfast LA, who proposed ideas to help address this issue"

Moving LA’s elections from odd-numbered years to even-numbered years was a game-changer, giving city elections an electorate that was much more representative of the city.

Arguing against a financial plan to modernize the LA Convention Center, Katy Yaroslavsky delivered one of the most cogent, powerful, intelligent and persuasive speeches I’ve ever heard in Council chambers. It was a tour de force.

(A short while later, the council voted 11-2 to approve the plan.)

Roll Call 282 Roll Call 282, Bill Number: H. Res. 719, 119th Congress, 1st Session VOTE QUESTION: On Agreeing to the Resolution, DESCRIPTION: Honoring the life and legacy of Charles “Charlie” James Kirk, VOTE TYPE: Yea-And-Nay, STATUS: Passed

Here’s how the LA congressional reps voted on the resolution honoring Charlie Kirk:

No -Gomez, Kamlager-Dove, Waters

Present- Friedman, Sherman,
Sanchez, Brownley, Whitesides, Rivas, ,Cisneros

Not Voting-Barragan, Garcia, Torres

Yes -Lieu, Chu, Takano

Source: clerk.house.gov/Votes/202528...

Antifa isn’t a group. It’s an umbrella term - like MAGA. By declaring Antifa a “terrorist organization” they’re creating a legal framework to charge organizers, protesters, elected officials, commentators and anyone they want with domestic terrorism.

This is how freedom dies and fascism thrives.

My mom called me last night about the Kimmel firing, saying "This is how Hitler got started!" I quickly responded, "By firing the late night tv hosts?"

Turns out, mom was right.

The Supreme Court greenlit Trump’s political prosecutions—even the ones that are illegal Thanks, John Roberts.

Chris Christie observed recently that Trump has torn down the traditional barrier between the president’s personal ambitions and the DOJ's power to investigate & prosecute criminal wrongdoing.

As if to prove Christie’s point, Trump publicly threatened to prosecute Christie just a few hours later.

We are not starting our slide into authoritarianism. We are already there.

What comes next is the nightmare — the immense cruelty and harm they create with the power that our once coequal branches of government, our legacy media, and our elite institutions have so feebly surrendered to them.

This is nothing short a shredding of the U.S. Constitution and an endorsement of racial profiling.

Essentially, armed, masked agents of the government can stop and detain anyone who is brown-skinned, or a Spanish speaker, or a low wage worker.

And this is just the beginning.

1 of 3 ALIFORNIA COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES CITY OF LOS ANGELES ) SS CERTIFICATION OF INSUFFICIENCY REFERENDUM PETITION TO REPEAL ORDINANCE NO. 188610 I, PETTY F. SANTOS, Interim City Clerk of the City of Los Angeles, hereby certify to the Los Angeles City Council: that the signatures submitted with the Referendum Petition referenced above have been examined by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk (County Registrar); that based on the County Registrar's examination, the Referendum Petition does not contain the number of valid signatures of registered voters of the City required under City Charter Section 461(a) and therefore the Referendum Petition is INSUFFICIENT; and that the attached summary from the County Registrar represents a true, correct, and complete summary of the County Registrar's examination of the Referendum Petition. Ordinance No. 188610 shall take effect upon the date of this Certification pursuant to City Charter Section 461(c). IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I hereunto set my hand and affix the seal of the City of Los Angeles this 8th day of September, 2025. lettlitk PETTY F. SANTOS INTERIM CITY CLERK for,

Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk September 5, 2025 Jinny Pak, Division Manager City of Los Angeles, Office of the City Clerk, Election and BIDS Division 555 Ramirez Street, Space 300 Los Angeles, California 90012 Dear Jinny Pak: We have completed the signature verification submitted on July 9, 2025, for A Referendum Petition Seeking to Overturn Ordinance 188610 Increasing Wages and Healthcare Benefits for Hotel and Airport Workers and Hotel Worker Training. 140,774 140,774 84,007 56,767 2,339 117,607 17,082 The results of the signature verification are as follows: Number of signatures filed Number of signatures verified Number of signatures found sufficient Number of signatures found not sufficient Not sufficient because duplicate Number of signature withdrawal requests Number of signatures withdrawn Please call Tiffany Olsen, Head, Data Entry and Signature Verification at (562) 462-2376 if you have any questions regarding the signature verification of this petition. Jerome Jordan to EAN C. LOGAN Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk County of Los Angeles Digitally Signed using ClerkSign (Document: 0231ca68-45cd-4287-b48a-3c7128bf5cbd

Petition Statistics 9/3/2025 4:03:49PM LA CITY REF SEEKING TO OVERTURN ORD INCREASING WAGES ORD 188610 Petition ID: 19639 Total Sigs Required Total Sigs Submitted Total Sample Size Total Sigs Verified 140,774 140,774 140,774 OCADD ADD AEV AGE CAN FP MADD MAX MS MS2 MSPET NADD NR OD RD SIG WD TOTAL TOTAL VALID: OUT OF COUNTY ADDRESS Total DIFFERENT ADDRESS Total INFO ENTERED BY CIRCULATOR Total UNDERAGE AT SIGNING Total CANCELED Total FATAL PENDING Total PO BOX/MAILING ADDRESS Total MAX NUMBER OF TIMES SIGNED Total MISCELLANEOUS Total PRINTED SIGNATURE Total MISSING SIG ON PETITION Total NO ADDRESS Total NOT REGISTERED Total OUT OF DISTRICT Total INVALID REGISTRATION DATE Total MISMATCH SIGNATURE Total WITHDRAWN SIGNATURES Total TOTAL CHALLENGED 249 6,898 5 18 1,933 695 164 2,339 76 211 135 28 18,054 4,342 1,625 2,913 17,082 56,767 84.007 ESSVR. LLC —2025 9/3/2025 4:03-49PM R802.01 Page 1 of 1

The hotel and airline bankrolled challenge to the Olympic wage *did not qualify* for the ballot according to the LA County Registrar.

This means the city’s Olympic wage ordinance , $25/hour beginning this year and $30/hour by 2028, goes into effect for tourism workers immediately

How did LA go from being a notorious anti-worker city to a stronghold of labor power?

Listen to this re-air of my interview with Kent Wong of UCLA Labor Ctr on What’s Next, Los Angeles. Brought to you in partnership with @laforward.bsky.social . whatsnextlosangeles.buzzsprout.com

Wallis Annenberg was a titan. But the obituaries failed to mention that she was a lesbian. It was a noteworthy example of queer erasure.

I talk with her former partner, journalist @karenocamb.bsky.social on What's Next, Los Angeles -- wherever you get your podcasts.

@laforward.bsky.social

Is there really anybody in LA who seriously thinks this will end well? I can't imagine what benefits LA could receive that would justify what is coming.

INFRASTRUCTURE WEAK: On this week's LA Podcast, Alissa, Mike, and Godfrey discuss the next era for LA’s homeless services, a terrifying Trump executive order, LA Charter reform and the CA governor's race.

Listen at thinkforward.la, on Apple Podcasts, via Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

L.A. on pace to see lowest homicide total in nearly 60 years as killings plummet Experts say the city and other parts of the country may be in the midst of the sharpest decline in killings in history — one that can’t be attributed to any single factor.

If homicides were on the rise, there undoubtedly would be a flood of stories linking that to the reduced size of the LAPD.

But when crime is down, no outlet will use the headline “LAPD Shrinks, Crime Plummets.”

www.latimes.com/california/s...

LA Podcast - CEQA No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil Alissa, Hayes, Mike, and Carla recap another week of relentless ICE raids. The Trump administration sues LA over its sanctuary city status, and a coalition of immigrants rights groups sue the federal ...

new LA PODCAST ep - recaping another week of relentless ICE raids, Trump admin sues LA over its sanctuary city status, and a coalition of immigrants rights groups sue the federal government right back. A ruling in the Alliance lawsuit raises questions about LA City’s homelessness count numbers

And the biggest-ever rollback of California’s often-abused environmental quality law, CEQA. Featuring @awalkerinla.bsky.social @hayesdavenport.bsky.social @mikebonin.bsky.social and Carla Hall

Check it out wherever you get your podcasts or at thinkforward.la/la-podcast-c...

This is naked, ugly authoritarianism. The Trump Gestapo terrorizing our kids.

The real story here is that Congress just approved giving Trump his own massive army of secret police and stormtroopers, unaccountable to no one but him.

I am afraid history is going to show this vote was the bullet that killed America.

Can we fix a broken Los Angeles? I talk with @urbanistcole.bsky.social on the latest episode of WNLA. Rick has a unique insights and strong opinions to share. Check it out wherever you listen to podcasts. Brought to you in partnership with @laforward.bsky.social.

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/c...