The Brief

Los Angeles Unified School District Board candidate Kahllid Al-Alim apologized this week for pre-campaign social media posts that endorsed assigning antisemitic literature to students, and for liking “graphic content.”

The controversy could scramble the most crowded school board primary race in the district. Al-Alim, a longtime community organizer, janitor, and LAUSD parent, is running against six other candidates to represent Board District 1, which includes Mid-City, Crenshaw, and part of south L.A.

LAUSD’s teachers union endorsed Al-Alim to replace longtime leader George McKenna, who is retiring at the end of the year.

United Teachers Los Angeles wrote in a statement to LAist that Al-Alim’s “social media activities are offensive and unacceptable. They are inconsistent with what we have seen of Kahllid as a decades-long organizer for education justice,” and that the union would be considering “next steps.”

(Update, Feb. 23: The union announced it would suspend support for Al-Alim's campaign.)

Why now

There are dozens of screenshots circulating on social media of posts that were allegedly “liked” by Al-Alim.

In his statement Tuesday, Al-Alim addressed one specific post.

In October 2022, Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, made multiple antisemitic statements and spread conspiracy theories on social media and in interviews, including with Fox News.

An X user wrote on October 17, “You don’t understand the Kanye interview because you never read this” and included a picture of the second volume of “The Secret Relationship Between Jews and Blacks.” The series author Louis Farrakhan has made antisemitic comments and promoted conspiracy theories for decades. Farrakhan leads the Nation of Islam, a religious Black nationalist group.

The book’s subtitle: “How Jews gained control of the Black American economy.” It plays into antisemitic tropes about money and power and its scholarship has been debunked.

An X account with Al-Alim’s name and photo responds that the book should be “mandatory reading” for LAUSD students, particularly in schools with extra resources and those trying to improve outcomes for Black students.

“I was wrong,” Al-Alim wrote in his statement. “I have connected with educators and community members and have since learned about the issues. I fully rescind that post. It has no place in our schools.”

The statement continues: “I have spent my life fighting against antisemitism, anti-arab (sic) hate, Islamophobia, and all forms of oppression. I have spent my life fighting for the equality of all people.”

LAist requested an interview with Al-Alim early Tuesday evening. Campaign manager Erica Huerta said the candidate was unavailable and attending a fundraiser and offered to answer questions.

LAist asked for examples of how Al-Alim had “learned about the issues.”

“He has a lot of networks of educators and community members that he's been working with over the past 20 years,” Huerta said. “He's dedicated to consulting with his networks before taking action that can hurt anyone.”

More posts

Huerta initially said Al-Alim’s campaign was already aware of the post’s existence.

“Before the campaign even officially started, that was one of the tweets that we recognized,” Huerta said in an interview on Tuesday, Feb. 20. ”We tried to delete it.”

Huerta contacted LAist again on Sunday, Feb. 26 after Al-Alim posted a new, longer apology on Instagram.

“I misspoke,” Huerta wrote in an email. "I clarified with our team that we did not know about the social media activity.”

There are more than two dozen posts alleged to have been “liked” by Al-Alim circulating on social media.

Al-Alim has yet to refute or deny the authenticity of many of those posts. His Tuesday statement also acknowledged liking “graphic content” and reads, “It was inappropriate. I will never do that again.”

Huerta, who self-identified as one of several Jewish people working on the campaign, said she’d known Al-Alim for almost 20 years though local activist circles.

“His goal was never to run for office,” Huerta said. “Any missteps in the past, I think, should be taken, you know, with that understanding that Kahllid is truly a community member and a grassroots activist… We'll definitely learn from his mistakes ongoing.”

How the posts came to light

An informal teachers union caucus of Jewish educators surfaced the Farrakhan post and others on Friday, Feb. 16.

Educators Caucus for Israel posts under the handle JewTLA, a play on UTLA, the acronym for the LAUSD’s teachers union.

The ad hoc committee describes itself as Zionists.

Several of the posts that the Al-Alim account “liked” are critical of Israel’s violence against Palestinians. War broke out on Oct. 7 when militant group Hamas attacked Israel. The Palestinian Ministry of Health reports nearly 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in the subsequent attacks and the majority of Gaza’s population has been displaced.

“We certainly support the rights of Jews to be in Israel, where there's a long established relationship with the territory spanning millennia,” said Chair Amy Leserman in an interview with LAist. (Not all Jewish Americans consider Israel an essential part of their Jewish identity and this divide has contributed to hostility since the start of the Israel-Hamas war).

The group formed in 2021 as UTLA considered a resolution in support of ending aid to Israel. In May 2021, NPR and other media reported more than 200 Palestinians and a dozen Israelis died in a rash of violence. The resolution was later shelved, but the caucus continued to grow, including to chapters in other parts of California and out-of-state.

“We organize so that we can protect the Jewish students and workers and families within LAUSD's jurisdiction,” Leserman said. For example, the group organizes virtual meetings about antisemitism in schools.

Leserman said the group became aware of Al-Alim’s social media posts last week, and on Feb. 14 asked UTLA leadership to reconsider its endorsement.

“Somebody who has these values should not be making decisions about students—period,” Leserman said.

UTLA has not responded to LAist’s question about when it learned of Al-Alim’s posts.

“He should withdraw from the race,” Leserman said. “He has much learning to do about educational systems… educational systems need to honor and protect all of the learners and all of the families.”

Board District 1 fundraising frontrunner

The primary election is in two weeks.

Historically, teachers union endorsements are strong predictors of school board race outcomes.

“Average voters tend to use the union endorsement as a cue for favoring the candidate,” said Michael Hartney, a political scientist and Hoover fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Hartney evaluated California, New York and Florida school board elections between 1995 and 2020 and found union-backed candidates won 7 out of 10 seats.

UTLA announced its endorsement for 3 of the 4 LAUSD board seats on the ballot in January.

“Kahllid has been a partner in our struggles against privatization, reconstitutions, and co-locations, and he has helped shape our work on Community Schools and the Black Student Achievement Plan,” the union’s endorsement reads.

Outside groups affiliated with teachers unions have spent more than $650,000 in support of Al-Alim’s campaign. The only other candidate to benefit from independent expenditures, Didi Watts, has brought in less than half that amount. Watts is a longtime educator and chief of staff for current LAUSD Board Member Tanya Ortiz Franklin.

How LAist reported this story

Local leaders mourned the death of civil rights icon Dolores Huerta on Wednesday and honored her legacy as a dedicated advocate for workers’ and women’s rights. 

Huerta, who co-founded the United Farm Workers union to improve working conditions in the nation’s fruit and vegetable fields and coined the phrase “Sí, se puede!,” died Wednesday at home, her family said in a statement. She was 96. 

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis said they considered Huerta a friend and credited her as a source of inspiration in their work. 

“Dolores inspired so many of us to activism. I admired her from a very young age, and it was an incredible honor and privilege not only to meet and know her, but to call her a friend,” Bass said in a statement. “She inspired me through tough times and taught me to never give up. She supported me in every campaign and challenge I faced.”

“Dolores carried the fight into every arena where people were denied a voice. She championed women’s rights, reproductive freedom, and gender equality, and she organized communities, here in Los Angeles and across the nation, so that all people had a stronger voice in the decisions that shape their lives. Her legacy is one of dignity and equality for all, and proof of what ordinary people can accomplish when they organize,” her statement continued. 

“Dolores reminded us that no matter the odds, no matter the obstacle, we can build a greater life for ourselves, our community, our city, and our country. She never, never stopped working. She was fighting for civil rights every day, into her nineties,” Bass added. “Rest in power, Dolores. Thank you for everything.”

Solis described Huerta as “a source of strength, a trusted friend and a partner in some of the most important fights of my career.”

“Growing up in the San Gabriel Valley, I rarely saw Latinas in positions of leadership. Dolores was one of the few women who showed me what was possible. I remember seeing the iconic photograph of her holding the ‘Huelga’ sign and drawing strength from her example. She helped me understand that women like us had a place in public life and a responsibility to speak up for those too often ignored. That lesson stayed with me throughout my career,” Solis added.

Dolores Huerta, co-founder of United Farm Workers, looks at an iconic photograph of herself as she tours her exhibition, “Viva la Causa! Dolores Huerta and the Struggle for Justice,” at La Plaza de la Cultura y Artes museum downtown Los Angeles on Thursday, April 10, 2014.

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Damian Dovarganes

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Solis described how she and Huerta stood side by side at rallies and demonstrations in Sacramento and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, advocating for workers’ rights and women’s rights.

“Dolores understood the importance of showing up, bearing witness and refusing to let the suffering of women go ignored. I will always remember standing beside her in that fight,” her statement continued. 

In 2024, Solis authored a motion to proclaim Dolores Huerta Day in L.A. County every year on Huerta’s birthday, recognizing her lifelong commitment to workers’ rights, justice and equality.

Solis also acknowledged Huerta’s revelation earlier this year that she was sexually abused in the 1960s by César Chávez, co-founder of the farmworkers movement.

“Her decision to speak publicly about what she endured deserves to be met with compassion and respect. I stand with Dolores and all survivors who deserve to be heard and treated with dignity. … Dolores helped build that movement, and her contributions must be recognized without being overshadowed by the actions of others,” her statement continued.

“She spent her life reminding us that progress takes persistence and that lasting change comes when people stand together. I have lost a dear friend whose example will stay with me for the rest of my life,” Solis added.

Civil rights legend Dolores Huerta, 95, speaks at a rally in Los Angeles, Monday, June 9, 2025, calling for the release of labor union leader David Huerta, who was arrested during a protest on June 6

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Damian Dovarganes

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Associated Press

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District 14 Councilmember Ysabel Jurado also shared personal memories of the late labor leader. 

“When I took office, it was Dolores who swore me in. I didn’t take that moment lightly, and I never will. I raised my hand knowing I wasn’t just making a promise to CD14. I was accepting a responsibility she passed on: to fight for workers, for immigrant families, for women, for the people too often left out of the room,” Jurado said in a statement. “Her legacy lives on in me, in our office, and in every organizer she trained. Descansa en poder, Dolores. We’ll keep going.” 

California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered flags to be flown at half-staff in her honor, sharing in a statement, “Dolores represented the best of us. California — and the United States — would not be what we are today without her resolute spirit, her passion for justice and fairness, and her commitment to those overlooked and forgotten.”

Solis also ordered all L.A. County flags to be lowered to half-staff in honor of Huerta until her services, she said in a statement Wednesday. 

The post ‘A source of strength’: LA leaders mourn Dolores Huerta’s death appeared first on LA Local.

Almost two years since the Eaton and Palisades fires in Los Angeles County, many fire survivors are still displaced, running out of money and waiting for long-term federal disaster aid that may not come.

If survivors have received insurance payouts, they may have depleted that money for temporary housing. Some survivors received Federal Emergency Management Agency funding for housing, too. For renters, that aid ran out on Oct. 9. Any future federal aid is up in the air — and could depend on what happens in the midterm elections.

“I’ve never been at a point in my life where I don’t know what to do, where to go, who to turn to,” said Kate Adams, who received money from FEMA toward rent for an apartment in Duarte after the Eaton Fire damaged the Altadena apartment she and her daughters had lived in for 10 years.

Adams, a real estate agent, also got some money from a local nonprofit and a California Association of Realtors grant. But even with those contributions, the cost of rent and replacing damaged belongings has exhausted Adams’ savings. She and her daughters are running out of options because there’s no more aid coming in.

“I’ve got two teenage daughters who are just starting their lives,” Adams said. “I don’t know how to keep a roof over our heads.”

A construction worker works on a house in a residential area in Altadena, on Aug. 3, 2026. The area was burned during the Eaton Fire in 2025.

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Jules Hotz

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Adams is just one of many survivors, especially renters, facing the prospect of having no place to go.

A recent survey by the Department of Angels, a nonprofit group that’s tracking recovery efforts, found that 28% of all survivors have run out of displacement coverage. The survey also found that survivors want elected officials to prioritize insurance availability and affordability; financial and tax relief; and speeding up permitting and rebuilding.

Katie Clark, co-founder of the Altadena Tenants Union, said the “situation on the ground is dire,” especially for renters. “People are wondering if they have to live out of their cars, and pull their kids out of school. We need money and housing. This is not rocket science.”

Pushing for federal funding

While officials at every level of government push for federal funding, fire survivors have traveled to Washington, D.C., to do the same. But the Trump administration has been slow to release funding to California, and it’s unclear when the billions of dollars in long-term disaster recovery money the state has requested will come — if at all. FEMA has told states they will need to handle most disasters themselves, according to a recent leaked recording from the National Emergency Management Association’s annual conference.

That alarms people like Sierra Lindsey Kos, co-founder of national nonprofit organization Extreme Weather Survivors, who said a federal funding gap strains local and state budgets.

“California communities are already confronting devastating wildfires, flooding, extreme heat, and a growing insurance affordability crisis,” Kos said. “Reducing federal disaster assistance would place even more pressure on families and communities navigating these challenges.”

President Donald Trump did not include Los Angeles County wildfire relief funding in his administration’s budget request for Congress this summer. Two members of Congress from California say the outcome of the November elections could be key to unlocking more federal aid.

U.S. Rep. Judy Chu, a Democrat from Los Angeles whose district includes Pasadena, recently helped pressure FEMA into releasing $6.6 million to pay the state back for services provided by case managers who helped people deal with insurance, FEMA aid permits for rebuilding and more.

The state requested additional funding to continue the program and was denied, but appealed. Chu said almost 1,400 open cases are waiting to be resolved. She called the program essential for survivors’ mental health.

The Department of Angels survey also asked survivors to rank their five most urgent issues right now. Mental health and long-term financial concerns came in first and second, respectively.

Chu and others are advocating for long-term federal funding, too. California has requested $16 billion through the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery program — $8 billion each for the Eaton and Palisades fires.

“Basic FEMA funding cannot possibly do the job,” Chu said. “(Community development grant) funds will allow for individual recovery plus other essential causes that will help Altadena to rebuild.”

Congresswoman Norma Torres, a Democrat who represents the Inland Empire, lost her Pomona home to a fire more than 20 years ago.

“I know what these families are going through,” Torres said. “Right now we should be trying anything and everything to bring some relief to victims.”

Gil Barel moves the blinds up to let in more light into her living room in Pasadena on Aug. 2, 2026. Barel is currently not living in her apartment because of the Eaton Fire of January 2025.

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Ariana Drehsler

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Torres and Chu both said that if Democrats win the House of Representatives in November, federal aid to California and other states hit by disaster could start to flow.

Torres said her office is trying to find Republican lawmakers willing to advocate for disaster aid alongside Democrats. But she said because the president has not called for the aid, they are reluctant to lend their names to any effort to do so.

“I’m hoping after the midterms that my Republican colleagues have a different perspective and try to approach things in a more humane way,” Torres said.

Chu agreed: “My hope is that the mood of Republicans will be quite different when they lose the House and possibly the Senate. And they may see this as their only ability to shape what can come to their members.”

Some Eaton Fire survivors recently went to the nation’s capital to advocate for federal aid. They were joined by survivors of the 2025 floods in Texas and of the storms and subsequent prolonged power outages in Gary, Ind., when they met with staffers of U.S. lawmakers to ask about long-term federal disaster funds.

“We’re pursuing opportunities to get members of both parties in the room and have them hear directly from survivors,” said Sylvie Andrews, whose Altadena home burned down. “I really hope they were listening to us. They seemed sympathetic.”

Bill Gould, another Eaton Fire survivor who also lost his Altadena home — along with his prosthetics because he’s a left-arm amputee — said some staffers told them it was unusual to have direct contact with fire survivors. Both he and Andrews were underinsured and have yet to rebuild; federal aid could help them.

“It will be interesting to see how midterms maybe shake some of this up,” Gould said. “At the same time, time is not our friend. For us, with our (additional living expenses coverage) and our insurance, you don’t have forever for these things to resolve.”

Local and state efforts

Last year, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger met with Trump to ask for help for their constituents as well as for the county for its infrastructure needs. Altadena has more than $2 billion worth of infrastructure to repair and rebuild, said Anish Saraiya, Barger’s director of recovery for Altadena. He also said the county is working on establishing a financial assistance program.

“While we wait for federal resources, the supervisor says we’ll find every dollar out there,” Saraiya said.

Anthony Martinez, a spokesperson for Gov. Gavin Newsom, said California has committed more than $100 million toward affordable multifamily housing in the area. He also said the state will keep pressing the federal government for more funding that can support renters, including through the community development program.

The long-term aid program is usually administered by the Housing and Urban Development Department.

“Over the last 10 years, California has received billions in federal disaster aid for wildfires, but state and local leaders have not been good stewards of those funds to help their communities recover,” HUD said in an unsigned email response to CalMatters. “HUD remains committed to being good stewards of taxpayer dollars, ensuring every cent goes to serving those in need."

The federal agency did not respond to follow-up questions.

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

Election officials from across California questioned the accuracy of the federal government's methodology for finding noncitizen voters after the Trump administration threatened them with criminal charges last week.

The counties on Friday were given 48 hours to commit to working with federal authorities and to segregate ballots from a list of people federal authorities claimed were likely noncitizens.

The letters said the list of names were from the same group of 20,000 people that the Trump administration flagged as noncitizens and then sued California over, demanding that state officials not count those ballots until they verify the voters’ citizenship.

State officials have questioned the accuracy of the data and have refused to comply, saying the federal government risks disenfranchising thousands of voters in an attempt to illegally meddle in state elections. On Tuesday, a federal judge appeared skeptical of the Trump administration’s legal arguments.

Meanwhile, the letters counties received last week threatened potential criminal charges for election officials who “knowingly tabulate ballots cast by individuals identified by federal agencies as noncitizens.”

Butte County Clerk-Recorder Keaton Denlay said he received one such letter and a demand to not count ballots from a list of 47 people.

“Upon inspection of the list of names, it appeared to be a print screen of a poorly formatted excel spreadsheet with missing and jumbled information,” he said in a statement.

Denlay said he reviewed the list and found that 32 of the people were not on Butte County's active voter rolls and were not sent ballots. Seven others “did not have sufficient information … to match to our voter list with confidence” since the list only contained partial names, partial addresses, no dates of birth, no drivers’ license numbers or Social Security numbers.

Six of the names belonged to people who may not be eligible to vote, but Denlay said California law requires those challenging a voter’s eligibility to have extraordinary levels of proof.

“Given the overall inaccuracy of the list provided and its lack of specificity, I believe the Department of Justice has not met that burden,” Denlay said. “There will be no further action taken at this time.”

Fresno County Registrar of Voters James Kus also received a letter, but he said he couldn't tell how many ballots federal prosecutors wanted him to segregate, since the “not particularly legible” list was a printed sheet, in small font, and “not in a format that facilitates counting or reviewing.” He said the county already follows state and federal voter registration laws.

“We will not be deviating from those legal requirements for this letter,” Kus told CalMatters in an email.

Francisco Diaz, San Benito County registrar of voters, said his office received a demand with 33 names. A preliminary review found that some on the list weren’t registered to vote.

“Hand-delivering a letter via armed federal agents with an arbitrary 48-hour deadline does not circumvent state law,” Diaz said in a statement. “We will not be intimidated by agents with guns for simply doing our jobs, nor will we be rushed into compromising confidential voter data.”

Orange County Registrar of Voters Bob Page said he wasn’t notified of a letter alleging his county had 1,754 “likely aliens” on the voter rolls until after business hours on Friday.

That's because, he told reporters in an email, federal prosecutors had addressed and hand-delivered the letter not to Page but to Orange County Clerk-Recorder Hugh Nguyen, who handles such documents as marriage licenses and property deeds.

On Monday, Page said federal agents delivered a correctly addressed letter to his office, along with a “data storage drive.”

Page planned to respond by the Wednesday deadline, he said.

The messy voter lists counties described fits a pattern, said David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research, a nonprofit whose mission is to restore trust in the American election system

He noted that the Department of Homeland Security recently claimed that Nevada had nearly 16,000 noncitizens on its voter rolls. DHS sent the state the names of only 185 voters. Nevada officials confirmed the voters had attested they were all U.S. citizens.

Becker said the Trump administration has been making “broad political claims made with great fanfare” only to have them “fall apart as they’re subjected to scrutiny.”

“I’m not entirely sure the DOJ wants to get into court and defend its evidentiary claims because I think they would fall apart, just as we’ve seen in other states,” said Becker, a former U.S. Justice Department attorney.

In federal court on Tuesday, Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, insisted the federal list of 20,000 people was accurate.

“We stand by the reliability of the information,” he said. “We take our obligations and ethics very seriously.”

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

Consuelo G. Flores, a multidisciplinary artist and curator based in Alhambra, has been preparing for Día de los Muertos since July.

Over these past few months, she’s hosted workshops to guide community members through the process of making altars in honor of their deceased loved ones.

The altars, also called ofrendas in Spanish, feature gifts for the deceased. Often, these gifts are something they loved when they still walked this earth — a favorite drink, or maybe a favorite food. They’re also part of Día de los Muertos, which is traditionally celebrated in the first two days of November.

Their creations are now part of a larger piece by Flores. The community altar is part of a 10-day cultural exhibition at Gloria Molina Grand Park in downtown L.A., where other artists are making ofrendas of their own.

On Wednesday, Flores will guide community members through the outdoor exhibition. She will also teach them how to make paper flowers.

The flowers are easy to make, she said. After the first few, the process becomes automatic. People start chatting.

“It's like a quilting circle,” she said. People begin to share stories about their loved ones. Strangers connect through their loss.

At her workshops, Flores has taught artists new and seasoned how to make papel picado, a traditional Mexican folk art made by cutting intricate patterns into the paper.

Her small dining room is littered with art supplies: Tissue paper in bold colors. Pipe cleaners. Scissors. Glue.

Flores keeps a permanent altar for her family in the dining room. As she and the community members worked with their hands, Flores shared everything she’s learned about the tradition’s Indigenous roots.

“Everyone I've loved and lost has given me something,” Flores told LAist.

“My dad taught me how to read in Spanish,” she said. “My mom taught me to be strong. My brother taught me about social justice. And my ex-husband, who just died, taught me to really look at things through an artistic lens, and to not hold back.”