The Brief

The Los Angeles City Council has approved a ballot proposal for November that would allow non-citizens to vote in council and school board elections.

The proposal, if approved by voters, could lay the groundwork for dramatically changing the electorate in Los Angeles. There are approximately 1.3 million to 1.4 million non-citizen residents living in the city, according to Data USA, making up nearly 36% of the city's population.

Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez championed the proposal, saying non-citizen residents have just as much of a stake in L.A. as citizens do.

“These are people who live here, they pay their taxes here, they raise their families here. And they are directly affected by the decisions we make every single day,” Soto-Martinez told the council. “They deserve to have a voice.”

The City Council voted 10-5 on Wednesday to place the charter change on the Nov. 3 ballot.

Councilmember John Lee voted no, expressing concerns about the cost of having non-citizens vote and the logistics of determining who is eligible. For example, how long would someone have to have lived in L.A. to vote?

“Those decisions will inevitably be viewed by some as benefitting allies or harming opponents even if that was not the actual intent,” Lee said. “The perception alone can undermine public confidence in our elections.”

Councilmember Imelda Padilla said she had another concern: “I am very nervous this could potentially create a disincentive to become a legal citizen.”

Soto-Martinez assured his colleague that the details of any plan to have non-citizens vote would be worked out in ordinances later. For now, he said, he wanted to send a message.

“I want this to be a way to show the world that Los Angeles is going the opposite direction of the federal government,” Soto-Martinez said. “While they are trying to take away people’s rights, we’re expanding it.”

The measure was one of several charter changes approved for the ballot.

The council is also placing before voters a plan to dramatically increase funding for the city’s beleaguered Department of Recreation and Parks. For years, the department has faced deep staffing cuts and struggled with aging facilities.

Under the proposal, parks funding would double over the next decade.

A coalition of parks advocates had sought the increase and many spoke to the council Wednesday.

“We need more green space and parks to have family gatherings,” said Ana Nieves of the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust.

Councilmember Bob Blumenfield was the lone no vote on the measure. He said mandating an increase in funding for parks means there’ll have to be cuts elsewhere in the budget in the future.

“So don’t pat yourselves when you have an easy vote because it's out of context,” Blumenfield told his colleagues.

Voters in November will also be asked to expand the power of the City Council over the police department, including the ability to direct policy. Right now, a five-member civilian police commission appointed by the mayor has sole responsibility for setting policy.

Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez said the measure is needed because the commission has failed to reign in the police department on issues like pretextual stops. That’s when an officer uses a minor traffic violation as the reason to stop — and sometimes harass — a person.

“In some neighborhoods, policing is still like the 1990s,” Hernandez said. “It might not be happening like that in all parts of the city, but I can point to where it's happening in my district.”

Under the proposal, the council would be prohibited from getting involved in individual investigations or discipline.

Still, Lee warned the measure would lead to City Council meddling in the police department.

“Colleagues, I warn you against doing this,” he said. “Citizens oversight was put in place exactly to keep us out of politicizing the LAPD.”

The council approved a series of other proposed charter changes for the November ballot, ranging from increasing fines for ethics violations to establishing a director of public works.

The council rejected a number of other proposed charter changes, referring them instead to a City Council committee. They included a proposal to expand the City Council from 15 to 25 members and one to switch elections to ranked choice voting, saying the ideas needed more study.

The story first appeared on The LA Local.

Inglewood and L.A. Metro released a statement Wednesday after at least two videos went viral this week showing locals being blocked from their neighborhoods because of the World Cup events at SoFi Stadium.

One TikTok video, which received 1.4 million views and more than 92,000 likes, appears to show an officer telling a group of people in a car they cannot park on the street near their home. In an Instagram reel which received 221,000 likes, another officer tells drivers to turn around despite them heading home. 

“The City wants residents to know that denying access to homes has never been and will never be part of Inglewood’s traffic management plan for FIFA World Cup matches or any other event,” read the traffic update from Inglewood Mayor James Butts, which was posted on Instagram.

“Ensuring residents can safely access their homes and maintain a high quality of life during major events remains a top priority,” the statement read. 

In the same post, Metro L.A. released a statement explaining that they requested assistance from the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department to support bus movement out of the area, but did not call for “complete street closures.” Metro and Inglewood are coordinating a plan to better mitigate traffic around the stadium, according to the statement.  

This comes as hundreds of thousands of people descend upon Inglewood and L.A. for the World Cup. Traffic and parking remain a concern for locals, especially in light of other upcoming mega-events like the Super Bowl in 2027 and 2028 Olympics. 

Both videos caused widespread outrage because of officers’ treatment of locals. 

In the TikTok video, an officer told the group he doesn’t care that they live close — despite one person in the group saying one of the passengers has mobility issues — and that they have two options: Find parking on the street and get their car later or wait in their car until the event ends. Text over the video mentions that the traffic is due to “the FIFA event at the SoFi Stadium.” 

The officers also say they’ll leave during the video, however the passenger wrote that the officers were in front of their home from 7 to 10 p.m.  

Several comments are calling for the drivers to file a complaint with the Inglewood officials. 

In the Instagram reel, the person filming from the backseat repeatedly tells the officers that they live in the building across the street, however the officers shuts them down. 

Text over the video also explains that this occurred during the World Cup at SoFi.  

Like the comments under the TikTok post, viewers are calling for the drivers to sue Inglewood. 

Two comments under each of the videos mentions how other cities with stadium events give residents alternative parking options and routes to take home.

The Supreme Court found Thursday that the government's prosecution of a marijuana user from Texas for owning guns was inconsistent with the Second Amendment.

The decision was unanimous.

"The Court's decision is narrow," Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote. "It does not address efforts to ban addicts or those presently intoxicated from possessing a firearm; other prophylactic laws Congress might adopt after determining that users of a particular drug pose a special risk of misusing firearms ... provision disarming individuals convicted of felonies; or whether the government could bring a prosecution ... accompanied by individualized proof that the defendant's drug use renders him a danger to himself or others, or proof that a certain drug always renders its users dangerous."

The case stems from the arrest of Ali Hemani. In 2022, federal agents found a pistol and 60 grams of marijuana in a search of Hemani's home. When asked, Hemani told the agents that he uses marijuana "about every other day," according to court filings. On the basis of his drug use and gun ownership, the government convicted Hemani of violating the law at issue in this case. This is the same law that was used to convict President Biden's son Hunter in 2024.

Hemani challenged the law as unconstitutional, contending that it violated his Second Amendment right to bear arms and is unconstitutionally vague.

The law prevents "unlawful" drug users from owning guns, but as his lawyers pointed out in filings to the Supreme Court, "the statute does not define "unlawful user."

"Is someone who uses a controlled substance once a year 'an unlawful user'? What about someone who uses that substance every six months, or every two weeks?," they argued. "Does it matter how much one consumes, or only how frequently one does so? The statute does not say."

To enforce the law against Hemani, they argued in court filings, "would empower the government to deprive tens of millions of Americans who pose little if any risk of firearm misuse of a fundamental constitutional right."

Adding to the issues in the case is that marijuana is to some degree legal in more than 40 states. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, more than 15 percent of Americans aged 12 or older used marijuana in 2024. Other surveys put number considerably higher.

Perhaps the widespread use of marijuana is why a diverse array of organizations from across the political spectrum supported Hemani's cause. A rare combination of gun rights organizations and civil liberties advocates filed briefs urging the court to take Hemani's side. At the same time, the Trump administration's defense of the law was supported by California and some other liberal states, and Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit that advocates for gun control.

The government contended that the law was not vague, and that it only used the law against "habitual users" of illegal drugs. Further, the government said that laws like this one are similar to laws from the founding, when states restricted the gun rights of "habitual drunkards." But Hemani's lawyers responded that the phrase "habitual user" is no less vague than "unlawful user."

The Supreme Court agreed with Hemani's concerns.

But the court did not disregard concerns about drug users possessing guns, as Gorsuch wrote.

This decision is the latest in a series of cases stemming from the court's 2022 landmark ruling that created a new test to determine if a gun regulation is constitutional. In that year, the court decided that in order for a gun regulation to be valid, the government must show that there existed "relevantly similar" regulations at the time of the founding.

That led to hundreds of challenges against gun regulations across the United States.

Copyright 2026 NPR

World Cup fans usually know exactly who they’re rooting for.

Ask around Los Angeles ahead of Thursday’s match between Mexico and South Korea, though, and you’ll find plenty of fans who would be perfectly happy if neither side won.

“I think we should just tie because I think that would be the most peaceful option,” said Edmund Kim, 27, who attended South Korea’s opening match watch party in Koreatown with his girlfriend, Ruth Perez.

Perez, 25, shrugged at the question about picking a side. 

“Any result would be a good result, honestly,” she said. “I just love the support amongst each other.”

The two countries will meet Thursday in one of the most anticipated group stage matches of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. In LA, the matchup is drawing excitement — and more than a few mixed loyalties.

Carlos Martinez has no interest in picking a side. Growing up in the San Gabriel Valley, he said he was surrounded by Asian friends and developed a love for Korean food.

He’d rather not see Mexico beat South Korea at all.

“I want us to both get points and for both of us to pass on to the next stage,” the 28-year-old said last week at the watch party in Koreatown.

Some of that goodwill is simply a product of life in L.A. As Kim puts it, the two communities are “right here living with each other so there’s no way to not support each other.”

But the relationship also has a soccer origin story.

If South Korea’s World Cup opener needed drama, it got it — and fans in Koreatown matched the moment.

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Gary Coronado

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The LA Local

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In 2018, when South Korea defeated Germany 2-0 in the final match of the group stage, the upset helped send Mexico into the knockout rounds. Mexican fans responded by flooding social media with messages of gratitude, gathering outside the South Korean embassy and chanting, “Coreano, hermano, ya eres mexicano” — “Korean brother, you are already Mexican.”

Daniel Hong remembers that moment like it was yesterday.  

Hong, 49, lives in Brownsville, Texas, but regularly travels to L.A. to buy merchandise for his store. On the day of the match, he was shopping at a wholesale warehouse in L.A. when South Korea scored.

“The first goal happens, and the screams from the warehouse could be heard from inside the showroom,” he recalled. “Second goal scored and pandemonium. The game finishes and everyone is losing their minds.”

Throughout the night, strangers offered Hong free food, drinks and repeated declarations of affection for South Korea.

“It was such an amazing feeling to see strangers rejoicing together as if we were all family,” he said. “Celebrations lasted throughout the night in Koreatown from what I could tell from my hotel room.”

When asked whether he’d support Mexico if South Korea were knocked out first, Hong — whose son is half-Mexican — didn’t hesitate.

“That would be a hard yes,” he said.

Daniel Chung, 40, one of the founders of Tigers Supporters Group, an LAFC supporters group based in Koreatown, joked that he’ll be “chasing my shots of tequila with soju” while supporting both teams Thursday night. 

“Either way, win or lose, we support each other and lift each other up,” he said. 

The upcoming match also arrives at a moment when connections between the two countries extend well beyond soccer.

Mexico is one of the largest markets for Korean pop music in the world. According to Spotify, more than 14 million K-pop listeners are based in Mexico, making it the fifth-largest market globally and the largest in the Spanish-speaking world.

Biannis Angeles, who said he loves K-pop and Korean food, counts BTS among his favorite groups. The South Korean boy band is expected to headline the World Cup final halftime show alongside Madonna and Shakira.

Angeles, 27, is hoping neither side leaves disappointed.

At South Korea’s opening match watch party against Czechia last week, green Mexico jerseys popped out among the sea of red jerseys in the crowd at Liberty Park.

Venus Meza, a 28-year-old Koreatown resident, supports both teams in some way because of how things shook out in 2018. 

“Obviously I’ll root a little bit more for Team Mexico, but if Korea wins, I’ll also be happy with that too,” she said. 

For Leo Hernandez, an LA soccer creator known online as “El Soccer Guy,” the conflict comes down to one player: Son Heung-min. 

Hernandez, who has attended LAFC matches since the club’s inaugural season, said many Mexican fans first embraced the South Korea star after the 2018 World Cup and have continued to admire him for the way he carries himself on and off the field.

“He’s a player you just can’t hate no matter what,” said Hernandez, 35. “Also because of how he’s here now, I think it really connected us to other South Koreans and the culture.”

Despite what’s at stake, Hernandez said Thursday’s match feels more like a friendly than a rivalry.

“It’s going to be hard for me to see Sonny play against my country,” he said.

Hernandez said he’d celebrate a Mexican goal, but would still hate to see Son on the losing end.

“I don’t want him to lose, but I wouldn’t want him to win. I have loyalty to both, especially because of Sonny,” he said. 

Paul Kim of the Los Angeles Korean Festival Foundation, a co-host of the watch party at Seoul International Park in Koreatown, expects Thursday’s match to draw one of the largest crowds of the tournament.

“I hope people understand it’s just a game,” Kim said, “but these two communities work together well, respect each other well in this city and neighborhood. It means a lot.”

The post Ahead of Mexico vs. South Korea match, some LA fans are rooting for a tie appeared first on LA Local.