CalFresh food delivery

explores the weird and secret bits of SoCal that would excite even the most jaded Angelenos. He also covers mental health.
Published July 18, 2026 5:00 AM

A vendor at the Crenshaw Farmers Market
(Corleone Ham
)

A new program that gives Angelenos on food assistance the option to have fresh produce delivered to their home has launched, serving a roughly 20 mile radius around the Atwater Village and Crenshaw farmers markets.

How it works:Food Access Los Angeles, a non-profit that operates a chain of farmers markets focusing on customers who rely on food assistance, is behind the new Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) box delivery program

Food Access L.A. curates each box of produce from five to seven different vendors from the farmers market and takes on logistics of home delivery

A time of uncertainty:The new produce delivery offering comes at a time of substantial change and uncertainty for nutrition assistance programs nationwide, after implementation of new federal requirements

Read on… to find out how to sign up

A new program that gives Angelenos on food assistance the option to have fresh produce delivered to their homes has launched, serving a roughly 20 mile radius around the Atwater Village and Crenshaw farmers markets

Food Access LA, a non-profit that operates a chain of farmers markets focusing on customers who rely on food assistance, is behind the new Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) box delivery program

Isabel Thottam, with Food Access LA, said she and her colleagues have spent the last three years or so working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other groups to get approval for the delivery program to accept Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT)

“What I’m excited about is just being able to give people that opportunity to choose,” Thottam told LAist. “If they want to get farmers market produce delivered and use their EBT that way, they should have that autonomy to make that decision,” Thottam, who directs the nonprofit’s EAT! Food Distribution program, said

How it works

Food Access L.A. curates each box of produce from five to seven different vendors from the farmers market and takes on logistics of home delivery

How to get produce delivered

People using CalFresh benefits can log on to Food Access LA’s website to make their box selections and choose a delivery schedule. Shoppers using EBT can also sign up at physical Food Access LA farmers market locations

Organizers said they anticipate delivering 20 to 30 boxes from the Atwater Village and Crenshaw farmers markets every week and expect it to be a welcome option for seniors, people with disabilities or other groups who may have difficulties getting out in-person to a farmers market

“You know a lot of people do come to the markets with the … mindset of ‘farmers markets are inaccessible, they’re for rich people, they’re not for me,’” Miguel Ceniceros, senior manager of benefits and incentives at Food Access L.A., told LAist. “Our job is really to dispel those myths.”

A farmers market operated by Food Access LA.
(Courtesy Food Access LA
)

‘A lot of uncertainty’ 

The new produce delivery offering comes at a time of substantial change and uncertainty for nutrition assistance programs nationwide

That’s because the Trump administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act that passed last July imposes funding cuts and new requirements for families trying to get help paying for groceries

L.A. County could see more than 200,000 people at risk of losing their CalFresh benefits because of new work-requirement rules that went into effect last month targeting recipients like those between the ages of 55 to 64, unhoused people, and veterans

“These changes are quite significant. Because our population of just those estimated impacted are way beyond some caseloads of other counties,” said Shawn Amiel, Division Chief with the L.A. County Department of Public Social Services. “And it could really contribute to the food insecurity of so many people.”

Amiel said she and her colleagues are working now to educate people on possible exemptions and what the new requirements entail

Navigating CalFresh changes

L.A. County DPSS has set up a dedicated page to help people using CalFresh navigate the new changes. 

In the meantime, Amiel welcomes opportunities like the new CSA box delivery

“There’s a lot of uncertainty as we enter these policy changes having to be implemented,” Amiel said. “So any additional assistance, any additional opportunities to kind of spread out these funds as much as possible should be taken advantage of.”

explores the weird and secret bits of SoCal that would excite even the most jaded Angelenos. He also covers mental health.
Published July 18, 2026 12:27 PM

LADWP says crews made significant progress in fixing a ruptured pipe in West Hollywood.
(Courtesy LADWP
)

Topline:

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power says crews made significant progress overnight to repair a rupture in a 100-year-old water main in West Hollywood that caused a massive sink hole and severe flooding in the area on Thursday.

Why now:Repairs included cutting and removing a 25-foot-long section of the broken pipe and putting a replacement in place

What’s next:The department doesn’t have a specific completion date for the fix

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power officials said crews made significant progress overnight to repair a rupture in a 100-year-old water main in West Hollywood that caused a massive sink hole and severe flooding in the area on Thursday

Repairs included cutting and removing a 25-foot-long section of the broken pipe and putting a replacement in place

LADWP officials said the pipe will be repressurized, checked for leaks, and tested for regulatory compliance. It will need to be refilled before street paving

The department doesn’t have a specific completion date for the fix

Sunset Boulevard between Sherbourne Drive and San Vicente Boulevard is still closed to traffic. Nearby streets have limited access, including at Cynthia and San Vicente, for public safety

A map of road closures provided by LADWP as of July 18.
(Courtesy LADWP
)

Where things stand for local businesses

Dialog Cafe on Holloway Drive said on Instagram on Thursday that the cafe sustained significant damage and didn’t know when it can reopen

And Book Soup reported on social mediaSaturday that they remained closed. The said they hope to reopen within a few days, noting the “the neighborhood remains inaccessible except to residents.”

Topline:

Republicans are leaning into immigration enforcement as one of their top campaign issues this midterm cycle — despite a rocky start to the year for messaging on the president’s top policy.

Why now:An NPR analysis of advertisement data from the firm AdImpact shows that when it comes to immigration, Republicans are spending more money and running more ads than Democrats are

What’s next:These political ads offer one indication of where each party sees its momentum going with voters, as candidates across the country gear up for the general election in November

Republicans are leaning into immigration enforcement as one of their top campaign issues this midterm cycle — despite a rocky start to the year for messaging on the president’s top policy

An NPR analysis of advertisement data from the firm AdImpact shows that when it comes to immigration, Republicans are spending more money and running more ads than Democrats are. The data set includes ads purchased from January through June, before immigration enforcement officers shot and killed people in Maine and Texas this month

These political ads offer one indication of where each party sees its momentum going with voters, as candidates across the country gear up for the general election in November. The data suggests Republicans see immigration as a winning issue: Since the start of the year, Republicans and their supporting organizations have run nearly 300 ads nationwide that either include a mention of immigration or are solely about immigration. This compares to 62 ads from Democrats and their supporting organizations.

“Republicans stood up for Americans. Democrats sat down for illegals. Thomas Massie sides with these radical-left lunatics,” reads one ad funded by the MAGA KY PAC, a political action committee that was set up to defeat Republican Rep. Thomas Massie in the primary. The ad cost over $831,000; Massie, a frequent critic of President Trump, went on to lose his race to Trump-endorsed candidate Ed Gallrein

Among the most expensive was a $928,000 ad buy in the Michigan governor’s race

“No greater example of waste, fraud, and abuse in Michigan than using our tax dollars to give benefits to illegal immigrants. As governor, I’ll be incredibly supportive of ICE coming here and removing these fraudsters,” says Republican candidate Perry Johnson, who calls himself a “MAGA Conservative” and has pitched his business approach to running a state

Immigration was a winning issue for Republicans in the 2024 elections, with themes like increasing border security and reducing crime

“Campaigns are not trying to change minds. They’re trying to shape what the election’s about. They’re trying to energize the voters they already have,” said Cameron Shelton, a professor of political economy at Claremont McKenna College. “If Republicans are investing much more heavily in immigration advertising, one interpretation is that they believe immigration is exactly that kind of [mobilizing] issue in today’s electorate.”

Immigration and enforcement are among the top issues for both parties

Most of the ads have run during the primary season, which is now more than half over. Since more than 90% of seats up for grabs in gubernatorial, House and Senate races are considered safe for one party or another, the primary campaign has become decisive for many candidates nationwide

Some Democrats became more vocal on the issue of immigration at the start of 2026, particularly in states that were seeing intense waves of enforcement. Democrats in New Jersey, Illinois and Minnesota, for example, referencedthe administration’s tactics in their calls to “abolish ICE,” or Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and argued the administration had gone too far

The Illinois Future PAC ran two ads, each worth more than $800,000, earlier this year to support Juliana Stratton’s stance on abolishing ICE. The current lieutenant governor later won the Illinois Democratic primary for Senate

But months into the year, Democrats have prioritized other topics, often to differentiate themselves from members of their own party, like on healthcare, while Republicans are keeping immigration-related themes on Americans’ screens

During the primary season, Shelton said, campaigns are testing out the issues they think might matter through the general election

For both parties, “Donald Trump” is the top subject in TV ad buys, according to data from AdImpact. “Immigration” is the issue with the second-highest spending for Republicans; for Democrats, “ICE” is the third-highest, after “healthcare.”

“It’s a signal to donors, it’s a signal to activists, to interest groups, to local candidates. It helps coordinate a lot of the actors that we think of as the party,” Shelton said. “That’s another reason why some of these early ads are interesting, because they are signals of the direction that is trying to be set out.”

Republicans link top issues to immigration

Between January and June, Republicans outspent Democrats on immigration-related political advertising by about $36 million. Republican ads focused on immigration, which total $53 million in spending, have aired across the country in 88 races and 27 states. Ads for Democratic candidates, which total $17 million, have run in 20 races and 11 states, primarily those that have seen increased immigration enforcement action like California, New York and Illinois

“Republican candidates have a large menu of issues we are on the right side of that are all very popular amongst voters,” said Mike Marinella, national press secretary at the National Republican Congressional Committee. He listed the border, crime and the economy as issues that Republican candidates can connect to immigration

“Immigration intersects with each of them,” he said. “The most effective message depends on the district and how those issues are affecting that particular community,” he added

Zach Lahn, who won the GOP primary bid for Iowa governor, spent about $475,000 on an ad in May that vowed to ban H-1B visa holders from being hired by Iowa government agenciesand universities, linking immigration and economic concerns

Crossings at the border have plummeted since Trump took office. Marinella said candidates are still keeping the issue of border security top of mind for their voters

A majority of the ads promoting Republican candidates include keywords such as “securing the border” and discuss border wall funding and crime. Some also go a step further to talk about specific proposals supported by the administration, such aslimiting commercial driver’s licenses and supporting the SAVE America Act, which would require stricter proof of citizenship to vote

For example, in Florida’s 19th congressional district, Jim Oberweis, one of several candidates vying for the GOP seat, spent $880,000 on seven ads that advocated for ending birthright citizenship

Democrats lean into pro-immigration statements

Ads promoting Democratic candidates, on the other hand, shy away from specific policy proposals. Instead, they include criticism of incumbents for recent votes on bills that have provided funding to immigration officers or expanded the scope of who could be detained. Others focus on personal connections to immigration, proposals to limit enforcement and general pro-immigrant statements

“Democrats are finding their voice on immigration after a rough few years during the Biden administration,” said Frank Sharry, senior fellow at Third Way, a centrist think tank. “I don’t think they’ll be running a bunch of ads on it. I do think they’ll be speaking to the issue and winning the argument, which is more important than whether they run ads on it or not.”

A poll from Gallup released in July shows that most Americans think immigration is a good thing, and a majority support some form of pathway to citizenship rather than a blanket deportation policy — though there are sharp differences by party. A majority of Republicans favor hiring more Border Patrol agents, deporting anyone without legal status and banning sanctuary cities

Republican ads broadcast during Senate races in Ohio, Texasand Alaskaand gubernatorial contests in New York and Iowaare already starting to target Democrats. Strategists said this trend suggests how each party may lean into immigration leading up to the November election. But they also caution against reading too much into advertisements to gauge party strategy

“Back in the day, ads were king. Now you have so many diverse streams of information arriving to people on their phones that it’s just not the same,” Third Way’s Sharry said, noting interviews, debates, and other forms of public statements aren’t captured in the ad data

Copyright 2026 NPR

Topline:

Some Orthodox Jewish organizations are fighting to prevent a bill that would make daylight saving time permanent from becoming law.

Why now:The measure, called the Sunshine Protection Act, moved a step closer to reality this week, when the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to pass a measure to eliminate the annual clock-changing ritual

Why the opposition:If passed, the bill would give Americans an extra hour of sunshine in the evenings during the winter. But it would also push winter sunrises one hour later. That’s of concern to Orthodox Jews, who pray three times a day, beginning with the Shacharit morning prayer service, which by tradition cannot begin in the dark

What’s next:It now heads to the Senate, where its passage is uncertain. President Donald Trump has championed the effort, describing on his Truth Social account moving the clocks forward and back as a “ridiculous, twice yearly production.”

Making daylight saving time permanent moved a step closer to reality this week, when the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to pass a measure to eliminate the annual clock-changing ritual

But some Orthodox Jewish organizations are fighting to prevent the bill from becoming law

The measure, called the Sunshine Protection Act, passed in a 308-117 vote in the House on Tuesday (July 14). It now heads to the Senate, where its passage is uncertain. President Donald Trump has championed the effort, describing on his Truth Social account moving the clocks forward and back as a “ridiculous, twice yearly production.”

If passed, the bill would give Americans an extra hour of sunshine in the evenings during the winter. But it would also push winter sunrises one hour later. That’s of concern to Orthodox Jews, who pray three times a day, beginning with the Shacharit morning prayer service, which by tradition cannot begin in the dark

“The bottom line is, if prayers have to start an hour later that will have a direct effect on people getting to work and on when schools can start,” said Rabbi A.D. Motzen, national director of government affairs for Agudath Israel of America, an organization representing U.S. Orthodox Jews

A constellation of other Orthodox Jewish groups also opposes the measure, including the Orthodox Union and the Coalition for Jewish Values

In Jewish law, some prayers, such as those in the morning service, can only be said communally, in a quorum of 10 Jewish adults, called a minyan. That requirement means going to synagogue every morning before heading out for work or school and saying prayers, such as the Shema, the central prayer of Jewish life, collectively. The morning service typically lasts 35 minutes but on some occasions can last close to an hour

“It becomes a communal issue when, for example, a synagogue that has had a morning prayer service for 100 years suddenly does not have a quorum of 10 men who can show up at the prayer time close to 9 o’clock because they have jobs,” Motzen said

Motzen, who works in the Washington, D.C., office of Agudath Israel, said the organization already has the support of Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., who last year objected to fast-tracking the bill

Orthodox Jews make up only 9% of the estimated 5.8 million Jewish adults in the U.S. Larger Jewish groups have not publicly taken a position

Congress has grappled with turning back the clocks many times. In 1974, it tried to abandon clock-switching, but repealed the law a few months later following public outcry. In 2022, the Senate unanimously passed a measure making daylight savings time permanent, but the bill died in the House

Orthodox Jews are not the only constituencies opposed to the change. Some medical and health advocates argue that the human body’s internal clock is better aligned with the sun during standard time rather than daylight saving time. School boards and parents are also concerned about children walking to school in pitch-black conditions during winter mornings

That latter concern, which Motzen described as a safety issue, is one Orthodox Jews share as well

Making daylight saving time permanent would make sunrise after 8 a.m. in most parts of the country, and after 9 a.m. in a few select places. For example, according to a list compiled by Agudath Israel, sunrise would take place after 9 a.m., (and as late as 9:13 a.m.) for 55 days a year in South Bend, Indiana. In Detroit, Michigan, sunrise would take place after 9 a.m. for 23 days a year

Hawaii and most of Arizona abide by standard time year round, as do Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands

This story was produced through a collaboration between NPR and Religion News Service.
Copyright 2026 NPR

Topline:

After Medicaid officials improperly shared data about millions of people in January with immigration officials, ICE then shared that data with the data analytics firm Palantir, according to new court filings.

Why it matters:Palantir operates an app called ELITE that is used by ICE agents to show the addresses of noncitizens who may be subject to deportation

Why now:That revelation was made public in a motion filed Thursday by more than 20 Democratic attorneys general who sued the Trump administration last year over its data-sharing agreement between the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and ICE

Updated July 18, 2026 at 14:11 PM ET

After Medicaid officials improperly shared data about millions of people in January with immigration officials, ICE then shared that data with the data analytics firm Palantir, according to new court filings. Palantir operates an app called ELITE that is used by ICE agents to show the addresses of noncitizens who may be subject to deportation

That revelation was made public in a motion filed Thursday by more than 20 Democratic attorneys general who sued the Trump administration last year over its data-sharing agreement between the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and ICE

Palantir said in a statement to NPR that the dataset in question had been purged

U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in California ruled in December that health officials could share with ICE certain details from Medicaid data about immigrants without lawful status from the states that had sued, such as home addresses, dates of birth and immigration status

Chhabria, who was appointed by former President Obama, then temporarily paused data sharing between CMS and ICE for immigration enforcement purposes in late May after federal officials admitted CMS had shared data with ICE in January that went beyond what the court order allowed. One dataset of refugees in Minnesota included U.S. citizens, and another that was transferred on Jan. 7 contained data of millions of people, including those in the country legally

ICE was supposed to delete the improperly shared data. Chhabria set a hearing for August to further clarify his order and clear up ambiguity regarding which categories of noncitizens’ data could be lawfully shared with ICE

But in recent days, federal officials have admitted to additional instances of improper data sharing

In a court filing last week, the Justice Department said that CMS again inadvertently reshared with ICE the dataset with millions of names that CMS had first improperly shared with ICE in January. The government said the error occurred during an effort to share data from states not involved in the lawsuit

Alberto Briseno, a section chief for ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations, wrote in a declaration that ICE personnel deleted the file after it was discovered and it was not used for law enforcement purposes

Then Briseno revealed that a day later, the agency had done a broader search and discovered that half a dozen users still had a copy of the Jan. 7 dataset

In that most recent declaration, Briseno said he was not aware of any additional copies of the dataset, but said the recent searches have “highlighted technological difficulties of making a representation that every possible variation of the file has been searched for and located.” He added, “ICE will continue to make good faith efforts to delete any copies that may be found in the future.”

Meanwhile, the Department of Justice is asking the judge to expand his order to allow ICE to receive data on a broader category of noncitizens – to potentially include all immigrants who are not legal permanent residents, citizens or have another form of permanent status

“ICE’s inability to identify Medicaid records in its possession undercuts any claim that the agency should be entitled to more access to that data,” the Democratic attorneys generals wrote in their motion filed late Thursday

Their motion continued, “Each successive revelation of a violation of the Order makes it more difficult for Plaintiff States to have confidence in Defendants’ ability to maintain and secure this data in compliance with the Order, and more difficult for Plaintiff States to communicate assurances to Medicaid providers, enrollees (and their counsel), and the public at large about the privacy and confidentiality of their healthcare data.”

Palantir provided the following statement to NPR: “Our customers control their own data and manage access to that data. When Palantir employees are granted access to a customer’s dataset, it is solely to help integrate and analyze that data — which is what our software does — not to store it or use it for our own purposes. Palantir can confirm that the dataset in question was purged pursuant to government instruction.”

DHS didn’t immediately return a request for comment about its transfer of data to Palantir

According to a declaration filed by California deputy attorney general Anna Rich, when plaintiffs asked what federal officials did to ensure Palantir and other contractors had purged the data, defendants responded that the data had been shared over a Microsoft Teams chat and the shared data was deleted from the chat. Rich shared in her declaration a document turned over in discovery from federal officials that shows a redacted transcript of what appears to be ICE personnel asking Palantir to delete the file.

In an April 30 hearing, Chhabria had warned the federal government would not be able to continue using Medicaid data for deportation efforts if it continued improperly sharing the data of citizens and legal immigrants

“If the federal government cannot be sufficiently careful then it can’t use the information, ok?” Chhabria had said

Copyright 2026 NPR