Liam Dillon
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Covering housing in Los Angeles and California @politico.
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Articles by Liam Dillon
Inside the 'bad will' for Nithya Raman at LA City Hall
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Inside the ‘bad will’ for Nithya Raman at LA City Hall
LOS ANGELES — If Nithya Raman wins the Los Angeles mayor's race next month, she'll face another challenge: getting anyone on the City Council to work with her. Since Raman's last-minute entry into the race against Karen Bass in February, council members have piled on the Democratic Socialists of America-aligned progressive. Not one of Raman's 14 colleagues has endorsed her, and the shots against her have intensified as she's climbed in the polls.
Do You Really Own Your Home? A Tax Revolt Says No.
Poll finds jump in Republicans who say Trump is enriching himself About one-third of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents now hold that view, up from about one-fifth a year ago, a Post-ABC-Ipsos poll finds. Nearly 2 in 3 Americans say President Donald Trump is using the presidency to enrich himself — and most of the increase over the past year has come …
The New Tax Revolt Isn't About Taxes
It's about ownership, and the growing suspicion that Americans never fully possess the houses they've spent their lives paying for. HARTVILLE, Ohio — A rebellion sweeping the nation gathered adherents in the parking lot outside northeast Ohio's largest flea market on the Saturday before Memorial Day.
The New Tax Revolt Isn’t About Taxes
HARTVILLE, Ohio — A rebellion sweeping the nation gathered adherents in the parking lot outside northeast Ohio's largest flea market on the Saturday before Memorial Day. Before making their way to stalls selling whirligigs, handmade soap, and peanut-butter Buckeye brownies, dozens of people stopped at folding tables where volunteers hawked petitions to abolish property taxes. Few needed much convincing before adding their names. "I'm old.
The Palisades is furious with Karen Bass. Nithya Raman still has a hard sell.
Fire-scarred Pacific Palisades has emerged as a key battleground in the Los Angeles mayoral election — for both its many undecided voters and potent symbolism. An aerial view shows the cleared site of a mobile home park more than a year after the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles on June 4, 2026. | Jae C. Hong/AP 09/28/2026 03:45 PM EDT LOS ANGELES — This isn't the mayoral race voters in fire-scarred Pacific Palisades wanted.
The Palisades is furious with Karen Bass. Nithya Raman still has a hard sell.
LOS ANGELES — This isn't the mayoral race voters in fire-scarred Pacific Palisades wanted. Fairly or not, many in the coastal Los Angeles community blame one candidate, incumbent Mayor Karen Bass, for last year's devastating wildfire that killed 12 people and burned down 5,800 homes.
SFC rel play-off: Seneschalstown survive in extra-time thriller
Seneschalstown's Cathal Finnegan Seneschalstown 1-26 Simonstown Gaels 2-19 (after extra-time) And finally they could all breathe! The relief was palpable among Seneschalstown players and supporters when Robert Purfield’s final whistle sounded on a enthralling Fairyhouse Steel Senior Football Championship Relegation Playoff between the Yellow Furze men and Simonstown Gaels played in Fr. McManus Park in Skryne on Friday night.
Republican and Democratic states defy Trump on AI regulation
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State leaders across the country are defying Donald Trump's hands-off approach to regulating artificial intelligence by pushing for stronger controls amid the uproar over the technology's potential perils. The coast-to-coast effort by Republicans and Democrats intensified this week after former employees of the nation's largest AI companies warned that the technology holds such power, and is developing so rapidly, it could lead to the extinction of humanity.
By Liam Dillon Verified, Kimberly Leonard, Andrew Atterbury Verified, Chase DiFeliciantonio Verified
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Major housing nonprofit in Los Angeles’ Skid Row facing financial collapse
LOS ANGELES — The largest provider of housing for formerly homeless residents in Los Angeles' Skid Row area has warned city officials it is running out of money and will collapse unless it receives more public funding or other assistance, its leader told POLITICO. Anita Nelson, CEO of SRO Housing Corp., which operates 2,500 units of affordable housing in nearly three dozen buildings, said the city has not responded with sufficient urgency to her nonprofit's "dire" financial situation.
Labour’s new housing model comes from California’s backyards
LONDON — The U.K. reveled in California-style sunshine this summer. Now it wants to try the Golden State’s housebuilding policies. Faced with a housing crisis successive governments have failed to address, Britain’s new administration under Prime Minister Andy Burnham is desperate to push up building rates and is looking west for answers. A recent update to planning rules encourages adding homes above existing buildings and in gardens in England.
POLITICO Pro: Bill to advance controversial Los Angeles affordable housing development clears Legislature
The unusual legislation was authored by Oakland Assemblymember Buffy Wicks even though Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and other local officials oppose the Venice Dell project. A last-minute bill to advance a long-stalled affordable housing development in Los Angeles cleared the state Legislature Friday. AB 2051 provides a boost to the 120-unit Venice Dell project proposed on a city of Los Angeles-owned parking lot a block from the beach.
Newsom’s big housing claim is built on bad data
In June, Gavin Newsom sat on a stage in Long Beach before an audience of mayors from across the country and unveiled a stunning statistic. "We've seen a 59 percent increase in the number of homes constructed" during his tenure, the California governor said to applause. The number quickly came to symbolize the remarkable progress Newsom claims to have made on an issue central to his agenda and to Californians struggling to afford housing.
POLITICO Pro: Bay Area lawmaker steps into a nasty LA housing fight
Assemblymember Buffy Wicks is using last-minute legislation to keep a controversial low-income housing project a block from the Pacific Ocean alive. A Bay Area lawmaker is making a last-minute intervention to keep alive .
Two LA businessmen say a California state senator is part of their nonprofit to help wildfire victims. He isn't.
When two Los Angeles businessmen this week unveiled an audacious plan to build dozens of houses in the Pacific Palisades and sell them at a discount to victims who lost homes in last year's devastating wildfires, they touted the involvement of state Sen. Ben Allen.
'We can have seven homes or we can have 70.' In wake of Los Angeles wildfires, homeowners and developers clash
LOS ANGELES — After the Eaton fire tore through Neil Tyler's home in Altadena, he and his wife quickly set out to rebuild. They designed their new house to resemble the old one and, with the framing complete, expect to return in the spring. But recently the 41-year-old attorney discovered a developer's plans to build 10 houses on a neighboring lot. It is one of more than a dozen such proposals Tyler said he and other residents have identified.
Bass will face progressive challenger in LA mayor runoff Original
Pratt, a 42-year-old Republican, became Bass’ chief antagonist after his home and thousands of others burned down in the massive wildfires. A political novice, Pratt declared his candidacy on the fire’s one-year anniversary at a “They Let Us Burn” rally. Pratt’s relentless social media posting and viral AI videos created by supporters that feature the candidate as an avenging superhero turned him into a serious contender to make the runoff.
Bass will face progressive challenger in LA mayor runoff
LOS ANGELES — Karen Bass, the embattled Los Angeles mayor, has been forced into a runoff against progressive challenger Nithya Raman, after Spencer Pratt failed to advance from the primary in the nation's second-largest city. Pratt, the former reality television personality whose mayoral campaign attractedwall-to-wall tabloid coverage, was in third place on Monday.
Becerra and Bass surge in California as anti-establishment fever breaks
Disability Community 5 hours ago Hilton, Becerra lead California governor's race. June 2 primary takeaways USA TODAY - Phillip M. Bailey, Terry Collins • 5h Democrats nominated history makers for Senate in Iowa and governor in New Mexico, while Trump's GOP primary winning streak came to an end.
Becerra and Bass surge in California as anti-establishment fever breaks Original
“We’ve been fighting, because we’re not going to let somebody turn back our clock,” Bass said in a fiery victory speech after dancing across the stage to the podium. It was the same for establishment Democrats elsewhere. In deep-blue San Francisco, a union-backed proposal to impose a surtax on companies with “overpaid CEOs” trailed in early returns, though with the race still too close to call.
Karen Bass heads to runoff in Los Angeles
2 hours ago President Donald Trump’s ability to shock and outrage Washington elites is a superpower when it comes to solidifying his political base. His elevation on Tuesday of Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to serve as America’s new acting top spymaster was therefore a classic …
Karen Bass heads to runoff in Los Angeles Original
Nevertheless, the 72-year-old Democrat has attracted the support of city councilmembers and key business and labor groups who’ve argued that the mayor is moving Los Angeles in the right direction. She’s received high marks for her opposition to federal immigration enforcement raids that swept across the region last summer.
Karen Bass heads to runoff in Los Angeles
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Spencer Pratt shakes up LA
Programming note: We’ll be off this Monday but will be back in your inboxes on Tuesday. Spencer Pratt | Andy Kropa/Invision/AP RUNOFF REALITY — The scene is a locker room after a fancy pilates class. Four lithe women of various races confess in hushed tones that they’re voting Spencer Pratt for mayor of Los Angeles. “You are not alone” flashes on the screen at the end of the 45-second spot. One of the women smiles and exhales in relief. None of it is real.
The AI ads are fake. Spencer Pratt's momentum isn't. Original
The former reality-star's candidacy is sucking up oxygen in the race to lead the nation's second-largest city.
A threat to the Abundance movement? Trust. Original
A sweeping poll finds that Southern Californians want housing and infrastructure built faster, but don't trust their elected officials to weaken regulations.
POLITICO Pro: Newsom wants to ban city fees on state-funded affordable housing
The governor want to eliminate fees on a narrow slice of publicly funded low-income housing developments, arguing they're counterproductive. Gavin Newsom wants to cut fees local governments charge for affordable housing development in an effort to increase building. In his May revision to the state budget , the California governor on Thursday proposed eliminating the fees for projects where cities and counties are receiving state dollars.
'Buckshot’ or moonshot? Dem candidates to replace Newsom offer grand plans for more housing
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'Buckshot’ or moonshot? Dem candidates to replace Newsom offer grand plans for more housing Original
And Katie Porter is pledging to lower housing construction costs by 20 percent. While experts said her plan could work, it will require reforming thorny fee and permitting issues largely controlled by local governments. The candidates would be wise to heed the cautionary tale offered by Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has felt the sting of overpromising and underdelivering. In his 2018 campaign, Newsom vowed to build 3.5 million new homes in seven years.
LA’s ‘mansion tax’ hits the Capitol
The debate over the Los Angeles “mansion tax” is migrating to Sacramento. | Rich Pedroncelli/AP Photo DONOR BLEED: The center of debate over the Los Angeles “mansion tax” is migrating to Sacramento. Some local leaders think they can bring the issue back to Southern California in part to undercut a statewide tax-limiting initiative.
E&E News: California leaders promised fire recovery in record time. LA isn’t seeing it.
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California leaders promised fire recovery in record time. Los Angeles isn't seeing it.
Liam Dillon and Sean McMinn Soon after wildfires leveled two Los Angeles communities last year, public officials touted the record-setting speed of the recovery. California Gov. Gavin Newsom said it was happening “ faster than ever before .” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass boasted it was “ on track to be the fastest in California history .” That's no longer true.
California leaders promised fire recovery in record time. Los Angeles isn’t seeing it. Original
No consensus has emerged to explain the application gap between the two areas, which contrasts with the conventional wisdom that richer communities will rebuild more quickly. In Santa Rosa, a similar counterintuitive pattern emerged. There, residents of a flat, middle-class subdivision had topographical and insurance coverage advantages over their wealthier counterparts in the hills and rebuilt faster.
Trump announced a hostile takeover of LA's wildfire rebuild. Collaboration ensued.
Liam Dillon President Donald Trump's push to take control of rebuilding wildfire-scarred Los Angeles is over. Despite the president's recent vow that his administration would wrest authority from local governments to decide on the permits that underpin the effort to rebuild thousands of homes destroyed in last year's Palisades and Eaton fires, federal officials will not advance more regulations to do so, a spokesperson for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency told POLITICO.
Trump announced a hostile takeover of LA’s wildfire rebuild. Collaboration ensued.
9 hours ago Kai Trump, the granddaughter of President Donald Trump, is facing social media backlash after publishing a video showing her shopping at a Southern California market with her Secret Service detail. The video, posted to Kai Trump's YouTube channel on March 8, shows her browsing Erewhon Market in …
The Left’s Housing Civil War Is Ending
The Left’s Housing Civil War Is Ending Published March 8, 2026 LOS ANGELES — Over the past decade, two movements on the left have emerged to explain the housing crisis punishing America’s big cities. One has branded the real-estate business as a villain, blaming realtors, landlords and developers for soaring costs that force people from their apartments. The other has pointed the finger at homeowners for blocking new construction in their neighborhoods, limiting supply and raising prices.
The big-city socialists who want developers to cash in
LOS ANGELES — Over the past decade, two movements on the left have emerged to explain the housing crisis punishing America’s big cities. One has branded the real-estate business as a villain, blaming realtors, landlords and developers for soaring costs that force people from their apartments. The other has pointed the finger at homeowners for blocking new construction in their neighborhoods, limiting supply and raising prices. With their dueling diagnoses and solutions — call them Socialism vs.
Newsom calls outgoing Homeland Security secretary ‘Kosplay Kristi,’ demands agency release $500M in ‘stalled’ wildfire funding Original
Newsom poked the outgoing DHS secretary, calling Noem “Kosplay Kristi” and including with the statement a still photo of her riding a horse from what the governor said was a “taxpayer-funded vanity campaign.” Under Noem, DHS implemented a policy that required her sign off for contracts over $100,000, a move that’s been widely panned by critics as delaying payouts for disaster recovery. Noem had defended the move as an accountability measure.
E&E News: Trump dispatches EPA boss in Newsom brawl
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California's blockbuster housing legislation faces rocky rollout Original
The potential for a messy roll out is great enough that its author, state Sen. Scott Wiener, has not ruled out the need for a delay. “We’re happy to have conversations with people who have good-faith feedback, including about that issue,” Wiener said of postponing when SB 79 takes effect. Wiener, a Democrat from San Francisco, first introduced legislation to boost building near transit hubs in 2018.
POLITICO Pro: California's blockbuster housing legislation faces rocky rollout
State Sen. Scott Wiener, the author of Senate Bill 79, has not ruled out postponing the July 1 implementation date for the new law because of widespread confusion over what it requires. It took California lawmakers seven years, endless horsetrading and a flurry of last-minute rewrites to pass near mass transit last year. Now comes the hard part: making the law work.
The curious case of Newsom’s singing French grasshoppers Original
Mon dieu! Pissing on singing grasshoppers is quite the image in any language— one I’d never heard before and other people apparently hadn’t either. His words earned quick ridicule from the pugilistic Democratic governor’s conservative naysayers and reporters included the odd phrase in their articles, but the question of what the heck the governor was talking about remained unanswered. I consider myself a bon vivant when it comes to linguistic delicacies and, so, I set out to investigate.
Newsom says Trump is pissing on what?
Gov. Gavin Newsom used an evocative metaphor to describe President Donald Trump's move to take control of building permits in Los Angeles’ wildfire-stricken neighborhoods. | Damian Dovarganes/AP TURN OF PHRASE: When Gavin Newsom was asked at a press conference this week about Donald Trump’s move to take control of building permits in Los Angeles’ wildfire-stricken neighborhoods, the California governor first said it was absurd and likely illegal.
E&E News: Zeldin to LA: If you want wildfire recovery money, ditch Newsom
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POLITICO Pro: Zeldin to LA: If you want wildfire recovery money, ditch Newsom
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator said that wildfire-scarred local governments might have better success in unlocking federal dollars if they abandoned the governor's $33 billion aid request. The Trump administration has some advice for local governments awaiting federal dollars to help them recover from last year’s devastating wildfires in Los Angeles: Stop relying on Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and go it alone.
Inside LA’s ‘mansion tax’ brawl
Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman is part of a conversation around changes to the city's so-called "mansion tax." | Richard Vogel/AP JARVIS LOOMING: Los Angeles’ “mansion tax” has raised more than $1 billion to support low-income housing construction, eviction defense and a host of other housing and homelessness policies since it took effect in 2023.
Don Lemon vows to fight charges in First Amendment showdown with Trump Original
In an indictment unsealed Friday, a grand jury in Minneapolis approved charges accusing Lemon and eight others of conspiring to deprive congregants at a church of their civil rights and violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which prohibits intimidating or interfering with people seeking to exercise their religious freedom rights at a place of worship. The criminal case revolves around a protest on Jan.
E&E News: Trump moves to take over LA wildfire recovery from local and state authorities
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Trump moves to take over Los Angeles wildfire recovery from local and state authorities Original
The president’s move is an unprecedented incursion by the federal government into disaster recovery. Issuing permits for home rebuilding have long been under the control of individual cities and counties, and it’s unclear how the order would affect the ongoing process. The order also is the latest salvo in the fight between Trump and Gov. Gavin Newsom, one of the chief antagonists of the administration.
It costs more to build affordable housing in California than anywhere else. Newsom wants to fix it by consolidating power Original
Newsom spoke those words in 2020. And now, after six years of half-measures and stalled reforms, the governor has unveiled a proposal to streamline the system, while at the same time consolidating power in his office.
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