The January 20, 2025 presidential inauguration is the 60th. The theme for Trump’s inauguration is “Our Enduring Democracy: A Constitutional Promise.”

Trump’s inaugural committee said, “Throughout its history, the nation has been tested and has persevered because of the sacred American principles rooted in our founding documents. The Inaugural Ceremonies, a tradition since 1789, embodies the principles expressed by the Founders in 1776 and symbolizes our continuing commitment to these ideals. When we gather for the 60th Presidential Inauguration, we will honor the Constitution’s promise to preserve liberty through a stable, enduring democracy for generations to come.”

Officials have said they are not anticipating any major disruptions or protests on the day of the inauguration. But they are operating in a “heightened threat environment” due to the Jan. 1 terror attack in New Orleans and the assassination attempt on the campaign trail.

The oath will be taken in the Capital Rotunda since the weather is expected to have a high of 24 degrees.

The District of Columbia National Guard will deploy roughly 7,800 soldiers for security, which includes traffic control and patrolling underground stations. Thousands of federal agents, police and other law enforcement personnel will also be on hand.

Trump will take the oath at 9 a.m. PST.

The swearing-in was last moved indoors in 1985, when President Ronald Reagan began his second term.

Weather is expected to be sunny with a high of 24 degrees.

On Saturday morning the president-elect is participating in a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery and then holding a campaign-style rally at Capital One Arena in downtown Washington.

The Republican’s Inauguration Day plans include tea at the White House, the swearing-in ceremony at the Capitol, a congressional luncheon, and a trio of balls.

The inauguration date coincides with Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the NCAA College Football National Championship.Vice…

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The Los Angeles County wildfires triggered a rant from President-elect Donald Trump, who blamed Gov. Gavin Newsom for depriving Southern California of water. Trump today repeated a claim he has made in the past, that state efforts “to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt” have caused pain and hardship in California.

“Governor Gavin Newscum refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way,” Trump wrote today on his social media site Truth Social.

Newsom responds

Newsom’s office responded with a sharp rebuke and a reality check.

“There is no such document as the water restoration declaration — that is pure fiction,” Newsom communications director Izzy Gardon said in a written statement. “The Governor is focused on protecting people, not playing politics, and making sure firefighters have all the resources they need.”

The fires burning in Los Angeles County were fanned by severe winds and exacerbated by near-zero rainfall throughout Southern California. But sending more water south from the Bay-Delta would have done nothing to prevent them or extinguish them.

Mark Gold, water scarcity director for the Natural Resources Defense Council and a board member of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, said Trump’s comments do not reflect California’s complex water supply systems and just fan flames of political discontent.

“Tying Bay-Delta management into devastating…

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When you share your experiences with LAist, it helps us do a better job of tackling the subjects and questions that are top of mind for Southern Californians.

When we hear from people across the regions divers communities, we’re in a better position to meet our core mission to serve you — from news to navigating life.

Why it matters

LAist journalism is powered by our community surveys. Just a few examples:

• Your priorities for city leadership led to our Promise Tracker, where we kept tabs on our mayor’s progress improving the homelessness crisis.
• Your input on dyslexia led to an entire series on how the learning disorder affects Southern Californians from preschool to higher education.
• You’ve also helped us capture SoCal’s feelings about lighter topics, such as what it’s like to follow California’s composting law, or where to find the best Conchas in Los Angeles.

In 2025, your voice needs to remain a key component in how we shape our coverage of Los Angeles, Orange County, and beyond to be as useful as possible.

Tell LAist: What’s on your mind as we head into 2025?

It’s a new year, and we kick it off coming out of a contentious national election.

Here in California, voters rejected an end to unpaid prison labor and turned down an effort to raise the minimum wage statewide. They also voted to protect the right of same sex couples to marry, increased penalties for some low-level crimes and raised funding to deal with climate change.

Closer to home, voters elected new leaders in many of our cities, and passed bonds to raise more money for many school districts across the region. In L.A. County, voters agreed to…

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After two reparations bills stalled in the final day of session last year, reparation advocates are campaigning Tuesday at the state Capitol to drum up support for the same measures.

In partnership with the Coalition for a Just and Equitable California, the advocates are calling the rally “the first reparations advocacy day” in state history. The event’s lead organizer, Chris Lodgson, said they want lawmakers to introduce, support and adopt “bold” reparation bills — including the ones the coalition are prioritizing.

“People are still mad about the bills that did not get to the governor’s desk last year, … and we’re looking forward to success in 2025,” he said.

The two stalled bills weren’t part of the 14-bill reparations package championed by the California Legislative Black Caucus last year: One would have created a new state agency, while the other would have created a fund for reparations policies.

But the caucus, which sought a less sweeping approach in the face of public backlash, prevented the proposals from coming to a vote in the Assembly — a move that upset advocates. Gov. Gavin Newsom ultimately signed five of the 14 bills.

The coalition is also pushing for proposals to allocate $30 million in the 2025-26 state budget to fund the state agency; create a guaranteed income program for senior residents who are descendants of slaves; and compensate Black families who had their property seized through “racially motivated” eminent domain (a proposal Newsom vetoed last year).

But similar to 2024, advocates have a tough road ahead. Reparations in the form of cash payments are politically unpopular, and the Legislature has been warned against new spending amid a budget crunch.

Still, supporters are hopeful. Lodgson said last…

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California businesses are suing to halt a new state law that bars them from requiring employees to attend anti-union meetings at work.

The state’s Chamber of Commerce and California Restaurant Association filed the suit in federal court on New Year’s Eve, a day before the new law was to go into effect, seeking to block it from being enforced.

The law prohibits employers from disciplining workers who refuse to attend workplace meetings to hear about their bosses’ “opinion about religious or political matters” — including whether or not employees should unionize. Businesses could be fined $500 a day for violations.

Labor groups said these so-called captive audience meetings intimidate workers out of exercising their right to unionize; business groups argued it interferes with employers’ right to free speech, including discussing how political or policy developments affect their workplaces.

The law, authored by Hayward Democratic Sen. Aisha Wahab, was one of organized labor’s few victories in the 2024 legislative session. California joined about 10 other mostly Democratic states in enacting similar laws amid a surge of labor organizing in recent years. Expecting the Trump administration to be less favorable to them, unions have been counting on the state law to help preserve the more organizing-friendly environment of the past four years.

For example: the National Labor Relations Board, which has for decades generally allowed employers to hold so-called captive audience meetings, in November issued a ruling calling them illegal. But Amazon, the employer in that case, is contesting the ruling and labor experts expect the board to reverse its position under Trump. In that case, the California ban on the meetings would still apply.

But the suit challenging the law is no surprise. Businesses have already sued over similar laws in…

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California saw its biggest increase in registered lobbyists last session since at least 2011, when a change in the law caused the number to more than double.

There was a roughly 10% increase in the number of lobbyists who registered for the 2023-24 session compared to the previous one — for a record of 3,245 people, according to the Secretary of State’s office.

What’s behind the jump? Longtime lobbyist Chris Micheli sees it as the result of high turnover in the Legislature — leading to an “exodus of legislative staff” who went into advocacy.

In what was dubbed the Great Resignation of 2022, for example, 26 members opted out of seeking re-election, in addition to the seven who reached term limits.

Micheli said he has also seen a rise in state agency rule-making, which motivates those in support of or against regulations to lobby: “Some of these regulatory bodies, like the Air Resources Board — the number of regulations that they’re undertaking and their significance has been growing in recent years.”

Meanwhile, the number of legislative staff has shifted only slightly since the mid-1990s, according to data from the National Conference of State Legislatures. The staff count can impact how much time members have to write and research legislation. The increase in lobbyists means there’s now at least one lobbyist for every staff member, compared to two staffers per lobbyist back in 1995, the earliest data available from the Secretary of State’s office.

“The fact that the number of registered lobbyists has risen so high and outstrips the number of actual staffers that legislators have to help them with people’s work shows how skewed our system has become towards the interests of wealthy interests that also dominate campaign spending, rather than regular people,” emailed Trent Lange, executive director of California…

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