The Brief

Ever dialed 911, wondering who (or what) might respond to your call? In L.A., you may see an unmanned drone before you see an officer.

The Los Angeles Police Commission — a civilian oversight body — has given the Los Angeles Police Department the go-ahead to use small unmanned aircraft systems, or drones, for routine emergency calls.

What we know

The pilot program launches this month, according to the L.A. Times, and will span over the base of L.A.’s city lines, which include Topanga, West L.A., Harbor and Central.

According to revised guidelines and procedures, the goal is to use the drones as a de-escalation tool, allowing officers to assess evolving situations. These guidelines expand on the 2019 precedent that restricted the department’s drones to a narrower set of dangerous situations, which included barricaded suspects and/or explosives.

How similar programs have worked

The Chula Vista Police Department has been using drones to respond to emergency calls since 2018. Here’s what its unmanned systems offer, according to Sergeant Anthony Molina, who discussed the topic on AirTalk, LAist 89.3’s daily news program.

Molina said the drones can respond to a situation in 90 seconds on average.

Charles Werner, director of Drones Responders, a nonprofit focused on expanding the use of drones in public safety operations, said, “If you start thinking about the limited staffing we have with departments across the country, this is a huge benefit.”

Werner added that there are benefits in other types of missions too, like hazmat situations, structure fires and wildfires.

Surveillance concerns

Privacy and surveillance experts remain skeptical of using drones as first responders.

Electronic Frontier Foundation or EFF, a nonprofit civil advocacy group, reported that the LAPD sent requests to Amazon Ring for footage related to Black-led protests against police violence in 2021.

“When you have something like a drone that can have cameras attached to it with AI-enabled capabilities, license plate readers or other types of technologies that are used by law enforcement, we have a concern around the appropriate use should there be any violation of existing policy,” said Beryl Lipton, EFF senior investigative researcher.

The updated LAPD policy prohibits the following uses:

We reached out to LAPD for this conversation, but they declined to join.

Listen

At least 20 detainees have launched a hunger strike at Desert View Annex, an immigrant detention center in Adelanto, California, where about 400 people are being held.

At a news conference Wednesday, immigrant rights groups, including the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, said the strikers were motivated by the detention center’s inadequate response to life-threatening health conditions among detainees, “decreasing portions of food” as commissary prices rise and “retaliation and suppression” against those who’ve spoken out against conditions inside. The media event included family members and legal representatives, who described hearing from detainees about how the hunger strike began.

The strike follows the recent release of a critical report from the California Department of Justice. Grounded in interviews with 194 detainees across the state, the report details how the surge in immigrant apprehensions strained conditions and access to medical care at all of the facilities operating in California. State investigators also described the recent deaths of multiple detainees.

The annex strikers’ demands include:

• bond reform
• remediation of mold, repair of water infrastructure, clean water and functioning facilities
• timely medical appointments, “appropriate treatment for chronic conditions” and “substantive mental health support”
• “a diet that sustains basic physical health”
• accountability for detainee deaths, including a man who died shortly after being released 
• “The ability to meet collectively, speak with outside advocates, and communicate with family and the public without interference or retaliation.”

Desert View Annex is operated by The GEO Group, a private prison company, under contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. No one at the press conference could confirm whether any detainees at the main Adelanto detention facility were on a hunger strike, too.

What is the response from authorities?

In response to a request for comment, The GEO Group referred LAist to the federal government. In an emailed statement, an unnamed Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said: “There is no hunger strike at Adelanto.”

The department also added: “For the record: During hunger strikes, ICE continues to provide three meals a day, delivered to the detained alien’s room, and an adequate supply of drinking water or other beverages.”

The department also said: “It is a longstanding practice to provide comprehensive medical care from the moment an alien enters ICE custody. This includes medical, dental, and mental health services as available, and access to medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care. For many illegal aliens this is the best healthcare they have received their entire lives.”

What do detainees experience?

Caleb Soto, an attorney with the National Day Labor Organizing Network, represents people currently detained at the Adelanto detention center. He said he goes inside the facility every week.

“I watch [detainees] deteriorate week by week,” he said. “The food they're given ... provides almost no nutrition. Medical appointments can take weeks or even months to be approved, and often last 60 seconds ending with the prescription of Tylenol, Advil or even a salt packet. People with serious conditions go untreated, and I've watched people age in front of me in a matter of months.”

Soto also described his experience with the bond system. “Discretionary releases have fallen 87%,” he said. “And for those who do get a bond hearing, the average bond is now over $14,000, which is a stark increase from the previous administration.”

Detainees have filed grievances, raised formal complaints and written officials about the conditions they’re experiencing, Soto added. “A hunger strike is not a first resort," he said. "It's what people do when every other option has been taken from them.”

Detainees say staff use solitary confinement to retaliate against those who speak out against these conditions, and to isolate detainees who are experiencing mental health crises.

Earlier this year, a coalition of immigrant rights groups filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of detainees, calling for conditions at Adelanto to be improved. The coalition has since requested an emergency court order to prevent further harm. A hearing is scheduled for July 10.

Top line:

The restaurants:

- ALTO in Studio City: Argentine/Uruguayan live-fire cooking.

- Casa Leo in Los Feliz: Spanish tapas.

- Electric Bleu in Mar Vista: French bistro with a California twist.

- Kojima in Sawtelle: 8-seat omakase-style, no menu.

- Lielle in Pico Robertson: Nordic-meets-California tasting menu.

- Lynx in the Arts District: pizza-only with refined toppings.

-The Mulberry in Sawtelle: Korean American comfort food.

-Sonoratown (various locations): Mexican classics.

-SORA Craft Kitchen in DTLA: Modern Anatolian/Turkish.

-Good Alley in Rosemead: Chinese, xiao long bao and more.

One addition is outside L.A.

- Alice B. in Palm Springs: Californian cuisine with Mediterranean influences.

Why it matters: It's a big honor for these restaurants to be recognized, some of whom have been around for a long time.

What's next: Some of these restaurants could receive a Michelin star or Bib Gourmand award at the annual ceremony on June 24.

With President Donald Trump dragging them down in the polls, California Republicans are repackaging one of his core crusades into an idea they hope will be more palatable to voters.

They are framing their successful push to get a voter ID law on the November ballot as a “common sense” measure.

“We’ve structured this initiative based on what voters across the political spectrum would want,” Republican Assemblymember Carl DeMaio of San Diego said in a March interview, adding that showing an ID at the polls shouldn’t be any different than using one to buy alcohol or pass airport security.

DeMaio and other backers point to polling that shows 56% of California voters support requiring ID at the ballot box and that most states require or recommend an ID to vote.

But even in their pursuit to appeal to moderates, GOP lawmakers haven’t given up pushing Trump’s debunked claims of widespread voter fraud.

Last month, GOP legislators held a “stop the fraud” press conference, where they alleged without proof rampant corruption across state government, from elections to homelessness programs, and urged Newsom to call a special election to “audit” the alleged fraud.

The polling they point to also shows, however, that support for requiring identification at the polls drops to 39% when voters are told it is backed by DeMaio and could suppress turnout.

Voting rights groups say the measure would create needless barriers and would stifle turnout among low-income and disabled voters.

Current law already requires counties to routinely review voter registration databases to remove anyone who is ineligible to vote in case of a move, incarceration or death.

“Those checks and that maintenance of that list is already happening,” League of Women Voters executive director Jenny Farrell said. “We don’t need to erect new barriers.”

Voter suppression concerns tank voter ID support

If passed, as many as 1 million eligible voters could be kept from voting. Another 500,000 aren’t registered and don’t have the necessary documents it would require, according to UCLA Voting Rights Project director Matt Barreto.

“There’s been a very consistent finding in almost any state, in any environment, that lower-income and working-class voters are less likely to have an updated, valid ID,” he said.

Labor groups who bankrolled Democrats’ campaign for last year’s redistricting proposal, Proposition 50, are funding a similar opposition campaign focused on Trump’s push for a proof-of-citizenship bill in Congress.

Meanwhile, Democrats want to increase penalties for violating election laws after Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, a candidate for governor, seized hundreds of thousands of ballots earlier this year over baseless claims of voter fraud in the 2025 election.

Bianco, who seized the ballots in response to unproven claims from a right-wing activist group, supports voter ID.

Critics say he’s stoking fear among voters and that there are already adequate safeguards.

“We have a two-person rule where no ballots are ever in an area that’s not with at least two people observing what’s happening,” said Gail Pellerin, Democratic chair of the Assembly elections committee, at a UCLA elections panel last month.

Ramping up the base?

Experts agree voter fraud is rare.

However, fears about election integrity have risen among Republicans since Trump falsely claimed the 2020 election was stolen, spurring GOP lawmakers across the country to introduce bills seeking to tighten voter restrictions.

This is DeMaio’s third attempt at a voter ID ballot initiative. It qualified for the ballot last month.

Assemblymember Carl DeMaio announces that supporters of the CA Voter ID Initiative will submit more than 1.3 million signatures to qualify the measure for the November 2026 ballot during a press conference at the west steps of the state Capitol in Sacramento on March 3, 2026.

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Fred Greaves

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CalMatters

)

Strategists say there’s little evidence that ballot initiatives actually turn out voters, but this measure is something intended to activate voters in what will likely be a difficult election year for Republicans.

“Issues like this, that are kind of red meat issues for Republicans when the governor’s race is fairly lackluster, it helps,” Stutzman said. “It’s all upside. It’s not going to hurt Republicans to have this on the ballot.”

Following bruising losses after Prop. 50 and in other states, GOP leaders are hoping to hold onto three statehouse seats they flipped in 2024 and gain others. But Trump — and his push for national voter restrictions — threatens Republicans’ success at the ballot box.

“It’s a loop that Republicans keep hammering on, either fraud or ineptitude, or waste in dollars,” Stutzman said. “It’s kind of traditional Republican messaging.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

The Pasadena City Council voted this week to clear the way for new apartments for low-income fire survivors. But some council members noted their hesitancy to approve the project, saying their hands were tied by state law.

The council denied an appeal from a homeowners group who opposed the project, which plans to bring 133 units of low-income housing to East Pasadena. The nearby residents said it was too tall, too dense and had too little parking.

Mayor Victor Gordo expressed reluctance about denying the appeal. He blamed state lawmakers for pitting local elected leaders against the interests of existing residents.

“We're going to see more and more of these frustrating hearings, where the local elected body essentially has little to no discretion, little to no say, and that's wrong,” Gordo said during the Monday night meeting.

The developer’s plans for the project include adapting a former office building into 50 units of permanent supportive housing for tenants, including formerly unhoused people. A new five-story building will include another 81 units of income-restricted housing. Two units will be for property managers.

Neighbors fought to block the project

Members of the Lower Hastings Ranch Association appealed an approval of the project by the city’s Design Commission. They argued the development wasn’t suitable for the neighborhood.

Ronnie Po, the association’s president, said nearby homeowners felt “blindsided” by the plans. Their appeal wasn’t really about the project’s aesthetics, he said. They were mainly opposed to the development’s height, density and reduced parking.

“I wouldn't call this a design issue,” Po said. “This project will literally rise up to the backyards of some of our neighbors up there. So this is literally in someone's backyard.”

The development team countered those complaints in a presentation to the City Council, saying the project complied with all relevant laws and did not impinge on single-family homes.

“The building is no closer than 25 feet to the nearest property line, and no closer than 110 feet away to the nearest home,” said Dana Sayles, who is with the land use firm three6ixty.

Who is the project designed to house?

The project at 600 N. Rosemead Blvd. will be reserved for renters who earn no more than 80% of the area’s median income. By current standards, that would include individuals earning up to $84,850 per year and families of four earning up to $121,150.

Many units will be set aside for renters with even lower incomes. And under state funding agreements, preference will be given to tenants displaced by the Eaton Fire.

“More than half of the units are two and three bedrooms, so this project is very much focused on families,” said Stephanie DeWolfe, a consultant on the project. “Getting family-sized units has been a challenge for the city in the past, and especially now with all the people displaced from the fires."

State law overrides local limits

Because of the state’s density bonus law — which allows larger projects when units are kept affordable — the developer is allowed to build taller than would normally be allowed under Pasadena codes. The project is within a half-mile of the Sierra Madre Villa stop on Metro’s A Line, qualifying it as near a “major transit stop” under California law.

Because it’s near a transit line, the project also qualifies for a state law that removes parking mandates. The developer is voluntarily planning to build 55 parking spaces. Many public commenters — and some council members — said more parking was needed.

“What's the assumption of where people will park their cars?” asked Councilmember Tyron Hampton.

“We live in California, by the way,” he said, drawing applause from audience members opposed to the project.

People at the meeting who expressed support for the project said many tenants, including those exiting homelessness, likely would not be in a financial position to own cars.

“I support this building since it would be perfect for people like me, who would qualify based on income limits and do not need to have parking,” said Koji Sakano. “Those who apply, like me, would tend to be those that do not wish for car parking in the first place.”

Local housing vs. new state laws

Jesse Zwick, the Southern California director of the Housing Action Coalition, said the Pasadena project’s path to approval shows city officials and residents slowly catching up to changes in state law, which in many cases override local opposition.

“The state has awarded priority to building affordable housing in places like this — that typically have resisted it,” Zwick said. “What you're seeing now is some of that resistance being up against where state law has evolved on this issue.”

Cities that have resisted state housing laws aimed at increasing development have found themselves in California’s legal crosshairs. Beverly Hills had to approve massive “builder’s remedy” projects after it failed to comply with a state requirement for cities to plan for more housing. Huntington Beach recently faced a court order to pay $50,000 for every month it continues to flout state housing laws.

Despite those risks, some Pasadena residents urged city leaders to fight back on the state’s efforts to encourage taller, denser affordable housing projects.

“The state of California has come up with these crazy laws,” said Scott Shimamoto. “We would love for the City Council and mayor to tell the state of California: Pause this.”