The Brief

Across California, tens of thousands of students with learning disabilities are navigating higher ed. But not all of them are getting the support they need, and many have to learn to advocate for themselves.

The first time Tammy Carrillo enrolled at East Los Angeles College (ELAC), she didn’t know she had a learning disability. She also hadn’t thought of herself as college material.

At her continuation school in Montebello, most teachers “looked down” on her and her classmates, she said. “It was kind of like: We were going to school, but we were expected to fail.”

Carrillo grew up in poverty, watching her single mother struggle to make ends meet. By the time she enrolled at ELAC, she was also traumatized after witnessing two friends get killed. She was timid, and she had no idea what to major in. Students around her proudly declared: “I'm a nursing major,” or, “I'm going into business.” Carrillo just felt overwhelmed.

“It didn’t make sense to me,” she said. “So I just figured: It’s me. I’m the one who’s lacking something. I’m the one who’s not smart enough to be here.”

She grew tired of struggling aimlessly. Then, she quit.

A second try, with help this time

Fifteen years later — and with three children of her own — Carillo decided to re-enroll at ELAC.

But despite being highly motivated, Carrillo was terrified. She didn’t want to return to school just to quit all over again.

She wanted to earn more money to give her children a better life. She wanted to follow in her aunt’s footsteps, who graduated from USC. She also wanted to honor her friends. They’d all been shot at during a drive-by when they were teenagers, but only Carrillo survived.

“We were all kids, and they never got a chance to have what I have,” she said.

But even with a light course load, she struggled again, especially in math.

She described her experience to a mentor. Her mentor listened closely and recommended that she look into ELAC's Diverseabilities Student Program and Services (DSPS), which provides support for students with learning, physical, or psychological disabilities.

After speaking with DSPS office personnel, Carrillo agreed to be assessed for a learning disability — but she was initially hesitant.

“What does this mean?” she wondered. “Does this mean I can’t learn properly? Does this mean I can’t graduate?”

Through the assessment, Carrillo was diagnosed with a processing deficit. “That just means it takes me a little bit longer to get to where I need to,” she said.

ELAC provided her with a note-taker and a personal counselor. She also qualified for priority registration, more time to finish exams, and the option of taking them in an alternate space with a proctor. When Carrillo didn’t have a note-taker, she used an electronic smartpen, which pairs audio notes to written notes, so she could “go back and just hear what I needed to hear and maybe redo my notes if I missed something.”

Her academic experience transformed. “It was a totally different ball game for me,” she said. “I loved going to ELAC.”

She graduated from ELAC in 2021, then went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in psychology at Cal State L.A. Come fall, she’ll be starting a master’s program in rehabilitation counseling. Her goal is to help students with any kind of disability.

On her graduation day, Carrillo paused to take it all in. She was in her car, clad in a cap and gown, with her mom and children in tow. “Knowing where I've come from, it was a huge accomplishment,” she said.

Being told 'school is not for you'

Like Carrillo, Christopher Elquizabal attended a continuation school in Southern California. He was removed from his home when he was a teenager. At school, a counselor told him college was not for him, and Elquizabal believed her.

“I never thought I was a good student,” he said. “I always struggled academically.”

Instead of college, Elquizabal’s counselor encouraged him to go to night school and earn a certificate. Soon after, he signed up for a medical billing program.

But one of Elquizabal’s friends had pushy parents, and they were forcing her to go to college. “I'm not going by myself,” she told Elquizabal. The next thing he knew, he was enrolled at Fullerton College.

He signed up for courses in Chicano studies, Africana studies, and social psychology and found himself captivated. The college’s Disability Support Services office also diagnosed him with an auditory processing disorder and provided him with services. Suddenly, school wasn’t so hard.

After transferring to Cal State Long Beach, he began to focus on students with disabilities, in part because of his coursework.

“I started noticing that a lot of Black and brown students, in particular males, tend to be funneled into special education programs, and they have a high propensity to also be diagnosed with — or at least qualify for services — under ‘emotional disturbance,’” he said.

Elquizabal then went on to earn a master’s degree at Harvard, where he focused on the school-to-prison pipeline. There, he thought about all the times he was forced to miss recess or placed in detention, usually after “shutting down” when struggling in class.

After getting the accommodations he needed, Christopher Elquizabal went on to earn a doctoral degree in education at USC.

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Courtesy of Christopher Elquizabal

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He also learned that “if you’re Black and brown, you're more likely to end up in special education, which then leads to behavioral interventions, which then leads to the likelihood that you're going to end up in prison.”

Ultimately, Elquizabal earned a doctoral degree in education at USC, where his dissertation focused on students with disabilities in higher ed. Today, he is the dean of Student Accessibility and Wellness Services at Cerritos College.

He encourages prospective students with learning disabilities to visit campuses and ask about the services and programs that might be available to them. He also encourages campus leaders to recognize “the disability community is one of the largest minority communities on campus.”

“We tend to sort of slice up students into identity pieces,” he added. “But the reality is our students are also undocumented. Our students are also LGBTQ. Our students are also Black. Our students are also part of foster care, they’re parents. We see every population in our office.”

A federal judge ruled today that the Trump administration is not entitled to personal information belonging to California’s 23 million voters. Judge David O. Carter made the ruling.

Last year, the U.S. Department of Justice sued California, along with 22 other states and Washington, D.C., for access to their full, unredacted voter files. That includes driver’s license, social security numbers and other sensitive data.

DOJ officials said they needed the data to assess whether states were properly maintaining their voter rolls and ensuring "only American citizens are voting, only one time," as Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said in a social media post in December.

California refused, citing state and federal privacy law. Only a handful of states have complied with the government’s request for their full voter files, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, which has been tracking the issue nationwide.

What did the judge say?

In Judge Carter’s ruling, he wrote that amassing sensitive information at the federal level would have a chilling effect on voter registration, which would lead to decreased turnout “as voters fear that their information is being used for some inappropriate or unlawful purpose.”

He added, “This risk threatens the right to vote which is the cornerstone of American democracy."

LAist emailed a request for comment to a spokesperson for the Department of Justice but has not yet received a response.

Reaction to the ruling

Jenny Farrell, executive director of the League of Women Voters of California, applauded the decision. The group had joined California in opposing the government’s data request.

“ We think that voters should never have to choose between their privacy interests and the right to participate in our democracy,” she said.

Justin Levitt, a Loyola Law School professor and former Department of Justice employee said, “The court did what we thought the court should do.”

Levitt and a group of other former DOJ employees had filed an amicus brief in the case, siding with California.

In a news release, California Secretary of State Shirley Weber wrote: “I will continue to uphold my promise to Californians to protect our democracy, and I will continue to challenge this administration's disregard for the rule of law and our right to vote.”

What's next?

The DOJ's lawsuits against other states are still making their way through the courts.

During a hearing in the case in December, Judge Carter said he anticipated his eventual ruling — whichever way it went — would be appealed, and that a final decision on the issue could rest with the U.S. Supreme Court.

A Superior Court judge has found that the city of Los Angeles violated public open records laws nearly two years ago by taking action on matters related to its homelessness response and failing to report it.

That decision could be a factor in an ongoing hearing in federal court where a different judge is considering whether to hold the city in contempt of court.

In a ruling last week, L.A. County Superior Court Judge Curtis A. Kin found that the city violated the Brown Act on two occasions in January and May 2024 when it took action in closed session on the following:

— approving an encampment reduction plan;

— approving a memorandum of understanding with the county for support on interim housing beds and other issues.

Afterward, the city did not report those approvals in open session.

The city argued its actions were allowed under the Brown Act because they stemmed from the ongoing settlement between the city and the L.A. Alliance for Human Rights, a group of business owners and residents who sued the city over its response to the homelessness crisis.

But Kin disagreed with that argument, saying what the city had done in closed session did not fall within the Brown Act exemptions because they were policy decisions, not litigation decisions concerning the L.A. Alliance settlement.

In federal court, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter has been overseeing the city’s compliance with the settlement. Carter has said he’s concerned “the city has demonstrated a continuous pattern of delay” in meeting its obligations.

Carter has been hearing testimony since November from city officials and others in an ongoing contempt-of-court hearing. This week, the judge said in court documents that he would consider Kin’s ruling as the contempt hearing proceeds.

The parties were last in federal court earlier this week. It’s not yet clear when that hearing will resume.

Sidewalk vendors can now apply to receive a free, health-code-compliant food vending cart through a new program launched in a partnership between the county and the city of Los Angeles.

Who can apply

To receive a cart, applicants must be at least 18 years old, live in LA County, be self-employed as a sidewalk vendor, and earn less than $75,000 annually from vending, according to a news release. Applicants must operate within unincorporated LA County or the city of LA, and commit to full compliance with public health and safety regulations.

You can find the application here.

Permits to secure

Vendors who are awarded carts will have to secure required permits in order to begin operating as fully permitted businesses. This includes obtaining the Compact Mobile Food Operation (CMFO) certificate from the LA County Department of Public Health and any Sidewalk Vending Registration Certifications or permits required to comply with the county and city sidewalk vending programs.

Applications will be selected by lottery, will be reviewed on a monthly basis, and will be prioritized based on “compliance readiness.” Priority will also be given to those who are based in the county’s “highest-need areas,” as according to the county equity explorer map.

Eligible applicants will be connected to partner organizations like Inclusive Action for the City to help navigate the permitting process and to provide business business support and language assistance.

What kind of carts?

Carts offered through the program include:

• Integrated grill carts for precooked meat for tacos, hot dogs, and hamburgers that are assembled on a cart
• Hot-holding carts for pre-portioned cooked tamales, corn, quesadillas, gyros, pupusas
• Cut fruit carts for fruits, bionicos, and acai bowls
• Cold-hold ice cream carts that store prepackaged ice cream items

Currently, the county and city have 50 hot-holding and 30 cold-holding carts for the first round of awards with 40 integrated grill carts underway.

More about the program

The launch of the Sidewalk Vending Cart Program – which invests $2.8 million in more than 280 carts – follows the passage of state legislation that decriminalized street vendors and that streamlined the permitting process.

“The program aims to help vendors meet new legal requirements, overcome financial barriers to formalization, and operate safely and legally in their communities,” according to the news release.

Los Angeles County Board Chair Hilda Solis said the program can help ensure a “permitted pathway” toward entrepreneurship.
“Many vendors are navigating increasingly difficult and uncertain times due to cruel federal immigration actions, and we know vendors play an essential role in the economic and cultural vitality of Los Angeles County,” Solis said in a statement. “This is more than a program — this is a chance to support small business growth, economic stability, and even generational wealth.”

The biggest mobile network in the United States, Verizon, experienced a huge outage on Wednesday, leaving at least tens of thousands of customers without cell service for much of the day.

An update on Verizon's website today said the outage had been resolved. "We are sorry for what you experienced and will continue to work hard day and night to provide the outstanding network and service that people expect from Verizon," it said.

What happened?

It's still unclear. Verizon has not posted details nor an explanation of the cause of the outage on its website. In an email to NPR, a company spokesperson wrote that the problem stemmed from "a software issue" and that Verizon is conducting a full review.And while Verizon hasn't released a figure for how many customers were affected, the staff at the Downdetector website — where users go to report service outages — posted on Facebook that they received 2.3 million outage reports for Verizon throughout the day. (That doesn't necessarily translate to 2.3 million affected customers.)

Cell networks experience small outages fairly regularly, though, and sizable ones are not uncommon. Verizon had a disruption across several major cities in September 2024, and competitor AT&T was hit by a large outage in February 2024, affecting more than 125 million registered devices and customers in all 50 states.

Sanjoy Paul, a wireless network expert at Rice University, says telecommunications systems have become more complex over the past decade and a half as they've moved from physical infrastructure — wires and cables — and into the cloud.

"What used to be a completely hardware-dependent network transformed into a complete software-dependent network," he said. That shift has given operators more flexibility to add services or tweak products but, he said, it has come at the expense of reliability.

With a cloud and software-based networks, there are more opportunities for glitches and attacks, he said. Small issues with computer code buried inside these systems can have big consequences.

What have been some consequences of the outage?

Users had no connectivity for much of the day and were only able to access "SOS" mode during the outage.

Verizon, which has styled itself as America's best and most reliable network, has been in damage control mode. The company has issued instructions for customers to restart their devices to reconnect to the network if they are still having problems. It also pledged $20 credits as "a way of acknowledging your time and showing that this matters to us," according to their website.

The Federal Communications Commission said in a statement it was "continuing to actively investigate and monitor the situation to determine next steps."

Could it happen again?

Yep — to Verizon or any of its competitors.

Since the cause of this latest outage remains unclear, it's too early to say whether or not this exact thing could happen again. But Lee McKnight, an associate professor in the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University, told NPR's Morning Edition outages are "a fact of life these days for major telecommunications firms."

"Modern telecom networks are cloud networks. 5G networks are mainly, like, hundreds of different cloud services," he said. "The telecom companies haven't yet adjusted their training to that reality, that their staff have to be expert not just in cell towers and wireless, like we think about, but about cloud services, like AWS, or Microsoft, or Google."

At the end of the day, experts say, consumers should consider having a "Plan B" for connectivity. That may mean a land line for your house or getting a second phone on a different cell network.
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