Today's five.

Eighteen months is apparently enough time to overhaul a federal civil rights office and get out before the new Congress arrives. Dhillon resigned Thursday — the first senior Trump DOJ official to leave since Democrats flipped both chambers in the midterms. She spent her tenure replacing career staff and reorienting the division's priorities; NPR called it a radical reshaping, Axios called it ideological alignment. Todd Blanche posted the goodbye on X, as one does. Dhillon called it the "honor of a lifetime." Bloomberg had reportedly known she was planning to leave since the midterm results came in.

Karen Bass had Gavin Newsom, Kamala Harris, and Nancy Pelosi in her corner and lost anyway, which says something about how Angelenos are feeling about the people who usually run things. City Council member Nithya Raman beat the incumbent 52-48, becoming the first challenger to oust a sitting L.A. mayor in over two decades. LAist led with the historic first — Raman is L.A.'s first South Asian mayor. NBC led with the national pattern: New York and Los Angeles will now both be led by democratic socialists. Bass called to concede Thursday evening.

Trump's triumphal arch got approved and blocked on the same day

The federal government approved Trump's 250-foot memorial arch in Washington and a judge blocked construction within what appears to be hours of each other, which is a very efficient way to summarize where things stand in America right now. The administration spent months skipping reviews, cutting out Congress, and packing approval panels with allies to get here. The Commission for Fine Arts signed off in May on a design that wasn't finished yet. A historic preservation review got terminated mid-process in September. NBC led with the block; everyone else led with the approval. The arch isn't built. The fight definitely is.

Every year the IRS adjusts the tax brackets for inflation, and every year it gets covered like a gift from the government rather than a correction for the cost of living. The 2027 brackets are out: people can earn a bit more before getting bumped into a higher rate. MarketWatch led with capital-gains rates; regional outlets led with the bracket shift. Nothing dramatic changed. The structure is identical — the numbers just slid slightly upward, the way they always do. The main thing to know is that if your raise kept pace with inflation, you're more or less exactly where you were.

A civil rights organization suspending its own operations is a strange kind of self-defense, but here we are. CAIR pulled out of Florida after a federal judge refused to block the state's domestic terrorist designation — a label Florida officials applied to both the national organization and its state chapter. The attorney general called it a "great win." CAIR called it a parallel to authoritarian states. Florida Phoenix covered the legal mechanics; Blaze Media led with CAIR "fleeing." CAIR says it will appeal. Until then, the organization's answer to operating under a terrorist designation was simply not to operate.