(The Center Square) – The city of Los Angeles could be on the hook for $270 million if the 2028 Olympics are not on budget. With the city already facing a $1 billion deficit and the state infamous for the ballooning $135 billion budget for its high speed rail program, many wonder if the city can handle the Olympic games.

L.A. famously turned a profit from its 1984 Olympics by minimizing new construction, and has sought to do so for the 2028 games. The latest plan for the “no build” games has moved some events to Oklahoma City — canoe slalom and softball — which could be an attempt to minimize local costs. 

L.A. City Controller Kenneth Mejia, who has been warning the city is “broke” since 2024, has pointed out difficulties the city may have in hosting the games, especially compared to Paris, which hosted the game in 2024.

“L.A. is the next Summer Olympics host city. Will we be ready?,” said Mejia on X. “Compared to Paris, Los Angeles has 2x the population, 10x the unsheltered population, 1/10 the transit ridership, ¼ the transit vehicles per million people, 3x the road deaths.” 

The city is on the hook for the first $270 million over budget the Olympics costs in excess of the approved $6.9 billion budget, with the state of California — which itself faces annual deficits rising to the tens of billions of dollars — taking the next tranche. 

In 2019, then-mayor Eric Garcetti said he expects the city to earn $1 billion in profit from the 2028 games. Not a single Summer Olympics has generated a profit since the 1984 L.A. Olympics, with games typically running billions of dollars over budget.

(The Center Square) – According to federal data, taxpayers may now be helping cover California rents of up to $7,030 near the Mexican border.

Under the federal Section 8 housing voucher program, families are expected to dedicate 30% of their incomes to housing costs, while a federal voucher covers the rest. Vouchers are portable, with the Department of Housing and Urban Development aiming to provide tenants with “greater ability to move into ‘Opportunity Neighborhoods’ with jobs, public transportation, and good schools.”

In San Diego County, there are three ZIP Codes where fair market rents covered by Section 8 exceed $7,000 per month for a four-bedroom home: swanky coastal Del Mar, whose notable homeowners include Microsoft founder Bill Gates and football star Aaron Rodgers, and neighboring Rancho Sante Fe, whose residents include Bill Murray and Phil Mickelson, is joined by Chula Vista, a more modest community that adjoins the California-Mexico border.

The San Diego County income limit for a family of five to qualify for Section 8 is $49,500, meaning that family would be expected to contribute up to approximately $1,237.50 per month towards the up to $7,030 fair market rent authorized for Section 8 vouchers of up to $5792.50 per month. 

According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which administers the Section 8 program, FMR is set by the 40th percentile rent, as determined by the results of the American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. 

As of March 31, there are four four-bedroom homes for rent in Chula Vista’s 91914 ZIP code listed on Zillow, ranging from $3,800 per month to $10,000 per month, with two of the rentals under the $7,030 threshold. 

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’s January 2025 report, 2.3 million households receive Section 8 vouchers, which are expected to cost federal taxpayers $32.8 billion in fiscal year 2025.

Because maximum voucher amounts are set by local rents, expensive, densely-populated coastal regions receive a disproportionate share of voucher funding.

(The Center Square) – Judicial warfare is eroding the confidence in Americans’ justice system leaving a blight on justice itself, says a North Carolina congresswoman who leads the Rules Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C, is speaking out against judges blocking the president’s decisions as granted in the Constitution ahead of a Tuesday congressional hearing.

“As of late, we have certainly seen a slew of rulings by rogue judges that surpass their own constitutional authority,” she said in a post to social media Monday afternoon. “This is judicial warfare in the flesh. If it is not remedied in a commonsense and expeditious fashion, these exercises in partisanship will do further irreparable damage to the nation and to the confidence of Americans in our justice system.”

More than a dozen orders from President Donald Trump – more than in the entire time Joe Biden, Barack Obama and George W. Bush served as presidents – have been thwarted or attempted to be blocked. Among the judges in the spotlight is U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, a pivotal figure in deportation of people accused of being in gangs in addition to just being named to preside in a case involving military operations and a messaging app.

Boasberg, appointed by Bush to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia in 2002, was nominated to the federal bench by Obama and confirmed in the Senate 96-0 in 2012.

Boasberg on Wednesday issued and on Friday extended a temporary restraining order that prevents Trump from using the Alien Enemies Act to deport people believed to be part of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. A hearing, Judicial Overreach and Constitutional Limits on the Federal Courts, is at 10 a.m. Tuesday to be conducted jointly by the Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence and the Internet, and the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government from within the Judiciar Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives.

California Republican Darrell Issa is chairman of the former committee, Texas’ Chip Roy the latter. North Carolina Democrat Deborah Ross is a minority member of the former; North Carolina Republican Mark Harris is a majority member of the latter.

Witnesses scheduled include former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Cindy Romero, a victim of criminal activity believed perpetrated by Tren de Aragua in Aurora, Colo. Also on the invite list are witnesses from the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation.

Other federal judges drawing fire from supporters of the president include Biden appointees Amir Ali, Loren AliKhan, Deborah Boardman, Angel Kelley and Brendan Hurson; Obama appointees Paul Engelmayer, Amy Berman Jackson, John McConnell and Leo Sorokin; Bush appointee Joseph Laplante; Bill Clinton appointee William Alsup; and Ronald Reagan appointees John Coughenhour and Royce Lamberth.

“Without question,” Foxx said, “exceeding constitutional mandates as a matter of judicial philosophy does nothing more than blight justice itself.”