LA Podcast - Gov Me Something to Believe In

Alissa, Mike, and Godfrey report back from the California Democratic Party state convention where endorsement battles plague the governor’s race. Will Republicans end up nabbing the top two spots on the November ballot? LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho is placed on leave after an FBI raid of his home and office. And Metro wants you to ride the D — with crop tops to match — on May 8. Join all the LA Pod co-hosts and producers on Saturday, March 21! This gathering is exclusively for paid Think Forward subscribers so sign up today at thinkforward.la.

Listen below, on Apple Podcasts, via Spotify, or almost anywhere you get your podcasts.

SHOW NOTES

Here are the full CADEM endorsement results

CalMatters: “CA Democrats can’t agree on endorsement for governor. Will Republicans benefit?”

Columnists like the Los Angeles Times’ George Skelton are arguing for some Democratic candidates to drop out

Watch Mike’s video which provides the critical analysis that the candidates being urged to drop out are almost all people of color

Meanwhile, the race for insurance commissioner is interesting, but who would want this job?

An early morning FBI raid of LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho’s home and office appears to be tied to an AI chatbot that Carvalho championed

The chatbot, named Ed, was made by the company AllHere which collapsed in 2024 when its CEO was indicted for defrauding investors. Carvalho said he’d set up a task force to investigate the company but never did

After meeting for a total of seven hours, the LAUSD school board placed Carvalho on paid leave and named Chief of School Operations Andres Chait as interim superintendent

SEIU Local 99, which represents educational workers, put out a statement calling for more accountability. SEIU Local 99 and UTLA had previously planned a rally on March 18 to draw attention to proposed layoffs

Harbor Peace Patrols first broke the news of Carvalho’s home being raided. The group which had formed to track immigration raids staging on Terminal Island recently celebrated a win when federal agents packed up their operations

The Graffiti Ghost Towers are being bought by developer Kali P. Chaudhuri — but he doesn’t want to save the graffiti

Artist Sayre Gomez built an astonishing sculpture of the towers

Unfortunately for Alissa’s 2025 predictions, but fortunately for everyone else, the D line extension is finally opening on May 8!

But the even bigger news was that Metro made ‘Ride the D’ shirts and the internet went wild

Alissa wrote about the astonishing demand for ‘Ride the D’ t-shirts

Some LA City charter reform recommendations are moving forward, including expanding the council to 25 members and ranked choice voting starting in 2032

Plus, LA City Council votes to make Unarmed Crisis Response a permanent city program. But $40 million a year is needed to take the program citywide

This episode was produced by Sophie Bridges

The reporting and analysis you hear in the show is put together by our rotating cast of producers and co-hosts every week. All opinions expressed on the show are solely those of co-hosts and may not represent the views of LA Forward