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MONDAY, AUGUST 18-AUGUST 24, 2025
Newsom announces California redistricting plan; ICE raid conducted nearby
NO. 237
VOL. 16,
2025 homelessness count reports sharp decrease in Monrovia By Joe Taglieri joet@beaconmedianews.com
By City News Service
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ov. Gavin Newsom joined statewide Democratic leaders in downtown Los Angeles Thursday to announce a Nov. 4 ballot measure that would redraw California’s congressional districts to add more Democrat seats in the U.S. House -- countering a similar move in Texas aimed at bolstering the GOP’s hold on Congress. The highly anticipated announcement, which was hyped by the governor himself with a series of social media posts this week taunting President Donald Trump, became more of a spectacle when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents conducted a raid outside the Little Tokyo venue where Newsom was speaking. “You think it’s coincidental?” Newsom asked the partisan crowd at his news conference. “Donald Trump and his minions ... decided coincidentally or not that this was a location to advance ICE arrests.” The raid didn’t stop Newsom and other Democrats gathered for the event from lashing out at the Trump administration and vowing to follow through with the redistricting process to offset Republican efforts underway in Texas and possibly other GOP strongholds. Newsom has repeatedly criticized efforts in Texas to redraw that state’s congressional districts ahead of next year’s mid-term elections, with the new maps potentially adding between three and five Republican seats in Congress, bolstering the GOP’s slim majority in the House of Representatives. That redistricting effort has been on hold due to Texas state Democrats leaving the state, blocking
An LA County outreach team speaks with a veteran experiencing homelessness in Monrovia in 2024. | Photo courtesy of Los Angeles County/YouTube
Governor Gavin Newsom was joined by state lawmakers at a press conference in LA Thursday. | Photo courtesy of Governor Newsom / Facebook
the legislature’s ability to achieve a quorum and vote on the issue. But Newsom said Thursday California won’t stand by and watch GOP leaders try to rig the 2026 mid-term elections. “Today is liberation day in the state of California,” Newsom said. “ ... Donald Trump, you have poked the bear and we will punch back.” He said California is the size of 21 state populations combined. “I know they say `Don’t mess with Texas.’ Well, don’t mess with the great Golden State,” he said. He said the California legislature will take up the issue next week to call a Nov. 4 special election to put new maps before voters to increase Democratic representation in Congress -- offsetting the actions of Texas. The move would set aside the current California district maps that were drawn by an independent commission. Newsom stressed that the move would only be temporary, with the state returning to the independent redistricting process
after the 2030 Census. He defended the move, saying it is essential to counter what he called a clear attempt to rig the 2026 mid-term congressional elections -- noting that Trump called Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and told him to come up with five more GOP seats to ensure the party maintains a majority in the House. “He’s going to lose the mid-terms. He knows ... his presidency ends in 17 months,” Newsom said. “He knows it. Why else would he try to rig the system? Why else would you make the phone call?” He added, “These guys are not playing by any set of rules.” And he urged other Democrat-majority states to also redraw their district lines to counter the GOP effort. Corrin Rankin, chair of the California Republican Party, issued a statement this week saying the party would go to court to fight Newsom’s plans to redistrict the state. “The California Republican Party will fight it in the courts, at the ballot box and in every community,” Rankin said.
Abbott told Fox News that if California does move to redraw its district, Texas will simply counter by amending its lines again to add even more Republican seats in Washington. “If California thinks they’re going to move their needle to the extreme and eliminate five Republican numbers of the United States Congress there, Texas is not going to do five: We will add 10 more Republican seats using the same procedure they are using in California,” Abbott said. Christian Martinez, Western regional press secretary for the National Republican Congressional Committee, issued a statement Thursday blasting Newsom’s proposal. “Gavin Newsom’s latest stunt has nothing to do with Californians and everything to do with consolidating radical Democrat power, silencing California voters, and propping up his pathetic 2028 presidential pipe dream,” Martinez said. “Newsom’s made it clear: he’ll shred California’s See Newsom Page 28
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rediting local outreach efforts and regional housing programs, Monrovia city officials announced a sharp decrease in homelessness this year compared with 2024. The results of the 2025 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count were released last month and showed the number of unsheltered individuals in Monrovia dropped from 22 in 2024 to nine in 2025. No Monrovia residents experiencing homelessness were staying in temporary shelters, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, a joint LA city and county agency that coordinates the annual point-intime count. Despite only nine unsheltered individuals counted, the data showed 21 dwellings. This included a reduction in makeshift shelters, tents and vans, while the number of individual vehicles such as cars and RVs slightly increased. In 2024, 28 dwellings were counted. In 2024, the number of cars used as dwellings totaled seven along with three RVs, compared with 12 cars and five RVs this year. The number of vans decreased from 10 to two. Monrovia’s Homeless Count Dashboard on the city’s website has additional information. Officials said assistance
is available for people experiencing homelessness via the city’s partnership with Foothill Unity Center, which offers case management services four days a week at the Monrovia Community Center, 119 W. Palm Ave. Services include help with eviction prevention, housing referrals, food insecurity, senior employment opportunities, health services and financial literacy. Since starting in 2018, the Monrovia Housing Displacement Response Program has assisted 44 families with financial assistance, according to the city. That support prevented 50 adults and 58 youths from having to leave Monrovia, and has also helped prevent 13 seniors from losing their homes. Over 72,000 people were experiencing homelessness in LA County with nearly 44,000 in the city of Los Angeles, according to the LAHSA point-in-time count that took place Feb. 18-20. The county and city noted 4% and 3.4% decreases, respectively. Data from local homeless counts determines how much federal assistance cities and counties receive for outreach efforts, temporary shelters and housing initiatives. More information on case management and homeless services is available from the Foothill Unity Center.