The Brief

At the base of a narrow, windy road off Avenue 45 in Mount Washington is a hidden pocket of nature called Rainbow Canyon. It's home to a hearty grove of California black walnut trees, a stream that comes and goes with the rain, chopped-up tree trunks deliberately placed for seating — and since last year, several "test plots" aiming to repair these quiet, damaged acres to vibrancy while taking account of our changing climate and urban environments.

Growing inside these plots are varieties of plants, including hummingbird sage and big saltbush — grouped together for a given experiment and separated by low wood fences.

"Walnuts drop chemicals through their leaf litter into the ground below them to control competition," says Alex Robinson, with L.A. nonprofit Test Plot.

On a recent afternoon, he's showing me the different plots the nonprofit has put in the ground around the California walnuts.

One of the test plots at Rainbow Canyon.

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Fiona Ng

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LAist

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Behind the wood fence are test plots that experiment with different native species.

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Fiona Ng

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LAist

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"So only certain plants are adapted to deal with that — presumably the native plants that grew with the walnut," Robinson says, adding that the answer could be highly site specific. "So we're trying to see which ones grew with the walnut."

Not far away is another plot that tests for fire resilience. The idea is to see which plants can be planted around homes and buildings.

" So we have plants that are very adapted to fire that aren't likely to catch fire," Robinson says.

An evolving experiment

Rainbow Canyon is one of 14 sites — the vast majority of which are in L.A. — that Test Plot has launched in the state. The idea came to co-founders Jenny Jones, a landscape architect, and native plant specialist Max Kanter several years ago.

"They just saw a lot of typical challenges in our urban parks, where the landscape wasn't being cared for and there's a lot of trash and broken infrastructure," says Jennifer Toy, who currently leads Test Plot. " They were just curious — are there ways that we as neighbors can help take care of this land?"

Alex Robinson with Test Plot at Rainbow Canyon.

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Fiona Ng

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Jennifer Toy with Test Plot at Rainbow Canyon.

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Fiona Ng

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Jones and Kanter started the first test plot in Elysian Park in winter 2019. They brought in volunteers and colleagues and experimented with plantings and watched their grasses get destroyed by gophers (lesson learned). Overall, it was a success — people continue to volunteer, and the plants continue to grow.

Soon after, they pulled in Toy, who later brought in Robinson, whom she knew from teaching at USC.

"We just started to brainstorm and to think, 'What would it look like in another neighborhood in L.A.?’" Toy, who now lives in Northern California, says. "Can we do this in a different community in a different site? How would we adapt the process?"

Since Elysian Park, the recently minted nonprofit has launched test plots in many parks in L.A. and beyond — Debs Park in Montecito Hills, La Esquinita near the L.A. River, and in the Bay Area — with plants chosen with the specific ecosystem of each plot in mind.

Volunteers maintain test plots at Debs Park.

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Rio Asch Phoenix

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Aerial view of test plots at Rio de Los Angeles park.

For example, Robinson cites the work done on Catalina Island, which required added infrastructural considerations.

 "This plot was located on a stream that was feeding into a protected marine sanctuary," he says, which was pumping pollution into the preserve. "We built a series of check dams that would hold back the water and settle out some of those heavy metals."

And at Rainbow Canyon, the discovery of the makeshift stream spurred the planting of riparian natives to take advantage of the natural water source.

In the early days, the organization worked in parks where they already have established connections through partnership organizations, such as at Rio de Los Angeles and Baldwin Hills.

Then slowly, Toy says, people started to hear about Test Plot and its work, like folks from El Sereno working to preserve the more than 100 acres of open space of Elephant Hill.

"[They] were like, 'Can you do this? Can we do this together?’" Toy says, all the while pulling nascent weeds out of the ground.

Test plot at La Esquinita park by the L.A. River.

Volunteers working on test plots on Catalina Island.

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Nicolas Neumann/USC Wrigley Institute

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Courtesy Test Plot

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'Permission to fail'

Rainbow Canyon in Mount Washington was once ground zero between housing developers, who were eyeing these 30 acres of untouched land, and a neighborhood that rallied to stop them.

In 1991, the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority acquired the land, blocking development. It sat largely unchanged — and untended to — since.

In December last year, Test Plot and its partners worked with a group of students from USC to clean up the weedy and overgrown lots and start planting.

Some 70 volunteers showed up to lend a hand, says Robinson, who helped oversee the project.

"It's a really amazing place to plant. It's all these native soils. It's in this canyon. It's shaded," Robinson says. "[We] timed it  right before the rains."

Test Plot has put out a zine available for purchase on its website about its various plots.

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Fiona Ng

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LAist

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Inside of the new Test Plot zine.

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Fiona Ng

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LAist

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Upkeep is constant

Periodically, the group brought volunteers back to tend to the plots. " We hate the term low maintenance," Toy says, because restoration requires constant labor, care, and attention.

"The 'test' in test plot initially was just, ‘Can we plant and keep the plants alive?  Can we start to do restoration work with communities in our public lands? And can we get people to come out and do this on a regular basis?'" Robinson adds. "In some ways the test was, 'Can we inspire a kind of new paradigm of labor on our land?'"

To help expand this work, the group has received a couple of grants recently, including one from the Water Foundation. The next project for Test Plot is to work at the site of the future Puente Hills Regional Park — the former landfill undergoing a multi-million dollar conversion that's slated to open in 2027.

And just like any experiments — Test Plot remains open to new ideas, findings and explorations.

" We have permission to fail. When you talk about urban restoration projects, there's a lot of pressure. There's not a perfect solution," Toy says. "For me, the test is really about just trying to be agile and be fluid ... really just be on the ground constantly, having fun out here."

Before he heads out the door, Gov. Gavin Newsom must decide whether California will join 31 states in a new multibillion-dollar school choice program, funded by private donations, that President Donald Trump included last year in his One Big Beautiful Bill.

Like most Democratic governors, Newsom hasn’t signaled whether he’ll opt in to the law that advocates promise will greatly increase full or partial scholarships to private and religious schools, while potentially paying for auxiliary services in public schools, like tutoring.

The law’s intentionally broad, unrestricted language has made it contentious, with contrasting scenarios for how the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit program, also called the Education Freedom Tax Credit, will play out.

Under the program, an individual taxpayer can donate up to $1,700 annually to a qualifying grant-making organization, up to $3,400 for couples, and then receive a federal tax credit that lowers their taxes by the full amount. The nonprofit “scholarship-granting organizations” then combine individuals’ donations and distribute the money to school districts or to eligible families for private schools.

Advocates say federal tax credits will boost tuition assistance for families in voucher states, while introducing school choice in states like California, which bans using state funding for private and religious schools.

Although it was not their main intent, Republicans included public schools in the law. One nonpartisan analyst, Marguerite Roza, director of the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University, predicts that public schools will eventually become the biggest beneficiary, once they figure out how to tap into it.

“Given that anyone and everyone can donate without it costing them, it’s like a cost-free donation. We think the average taxpayer is going to lean toward donating to a [grant maker] that serves public schools.”

But opponents argue the program is a tactic to undermine public schools, which are already facing declining enrollments in blue states that have historically opposed voucher-like programs. One critic characterized the program as “a Trojan horse designed to bring the chaos of privatization into Democratic strongholds.”

Others say the program will primarily subsidize existing private school parents, not help low-income families trapped in their neighborhood schools. And the law’s free-market focus, its lack of oversight and failure to require civil rights protections will reinforce inequities and lead to abuse.

“The FSTC will become the largest source of waste, fraud and abuse we’ve seen in education — and most of it will be legal,” wrote Jon Valant, the director of Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings.

Congress’ hands-off policy

Valant and other critics blame Congress for tying governors’ hands. Under the law, governors cannot add accountability provisions or favor some scholarship-granting organizations, called SGOs, over others, such as those that give to public schools. Once they opt in and submit a list of all SGOs, their job is done.

SGOs must check students’ income eligibility and audit the money, but they’re not required to monitor programs or keep school achievement records.

Thomas Toch, founding director of FutureEd, an independent education policy institute at Georgetown University, said Congress should have learned from the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. The law provided billions of dollars for parents in low-performing schools to obtain tutoring from contractors who were often unvetted, inexperienced and unmonitored. The Education Department’s inspector general found widespread fraud, falsified records, conflicts of interest and deceptive marketing.

“Sounds familiar,” Toch said.

Governors can’t tell the SGOs which students to serve, but SGOs can determine where to funnel dollars — to a public or private school, an elementary or high school, only to parochial school students or for specific programs. They’ll determine the scholarship amounts and the public school programs they’ll support.

There will be a wide universe of students to serve.

Students in families earning up to 300% of an area’s median income will be eligible — more than $400,000 in some wealthy Californian cities. Some donors may give to SGOs committed to services and scholarships for low-income children, but others may not.

The American Federation for Children, a proponent of the tax credit, projects that 51.7 million children — 90% of the total public and private school students — will be eligible for the benefits.

Based on an analysis of donors to a similar tax credit program in Ohio, Brookings predicts that more tax-credit program money will end up in wealthy communities. “We expect the FSTC to become a regressive funding source, even where those funds go to public school students.”

Lance Christensen, who has drafted school choice proposals as vice president of tax policy and government relations for the conservative California Policy Center, says the Brookings analysis is “shortsighted.” If 100,000 people — not even 1% of California’s 17 million income tax filers — donated $1,700, it would generate $170 million, he said. That amount would rise to $1.7 billion if one million taxpayers — only 6% of the state total — gave the maximum.

“You’re talking about real money that could impact the way that parents legitimately think about their kids’ education,” Christensen said. “We have a lot of kids right now that are stuck in a system that doesn’t work for them and hasn’t worked for them for a long time, and the parents are just really frustrated.”

The Treasury Department and the IRS estimate that, by 2030, more than 11 million taxpayers will contribute $26 billion for scholarships and other grants.

Two visions for California donations

So far, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis are the only Democratic governors among the 31 participating states to opt in. (Virginia joined before Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger took office.) This year’s opt-in deadline is Jan. 1.

Two Californians who hope for different reasons that Newsom will sign on are Rachel Elginsmith and Evan Marwell.

Elginsmith is chief executive of the BASIC Fund in Oakland, the state’s largest nonsectarian SGO. Since its founding in 1998, it has distributed $200 million in partial scholarships for 30,000 students, from preschool to eighth grade attending 266 Catholic and nonreligious schools in the Bay Area.

The BASIC Fund would be well positioned to capitalize on the tax-credit by expanding its base of donors. “It would be more money, more kids, bigger scholarships — more of what we’re doing. It would be exciting,” she said.

Marwell, a San Francisco nonprofit entrepreneur, founded EducationSuperHighway, which helped districts plan and fund high-speed internet during the pandemic, and then co-founded Ignite Reading, an online tutoring for the early grades. His new mission: rechartering the EducationSuperHighway into a national SGO that will compete for taxpayers who want to choose first grade tutoring in reading for their tax credit donation.

Marwell said he has reached out to 45 governors, and expects that Democratic states will opt in. They will see the success of Colorado and New York, he said, and “they will start to hear from voters, ‘Why the heck are you not allowing our kids to get these scholarships that we’re contributing to?’ ” 

Newsom’s dilemma

Newsom will get grief whether he opts in or out. The National Education Association and teachers unions in California will thrash him if he signs on. “Taxpayer dollars should go to public schools open to all students, not private schools that can pick and choose their students,” the NEA said in a press release.

If he doesn’t opt in, he’ll be criticized for denying low-income families money to close the achievement gap, while forcing California taxpayers to give to out-of-state SGOs. As New York Gov. Hochul said in her Oct. 9 announcement, “I’m not going to leave money on the table when it could help our kids.”

There is a third option — do nothing, citing fatal flaws in the tax credit program’s design. That’s the advice of Rachel Cantor, director of education policy at the Progressive Policy Institute.

“If I was advising a Democratic governor, I would say, ‘No, don’t opt in. Expand public school choice in your state so that people do have choices. But this is a risky way to do it if your goal is to improve educational quality and open opportunity for people who don’t have it.’ ”

What we know about Trump’s Federal Scholarship Tax Credit program

Gov. Gavin Newsom must decide whether California will join 31 other states in participating in President Donald Trump’s school choice program. Here is how the program works: 

• Governors must opt in by Jan. 1 annually to participate in the program.
• Federal income tax filers, whether living in a participating state or not, can receive a tax credit of up to $1,700 ($3,400 for couples) by donating to a state-approved Scholarship Granting Organization (SGO).
• Governors cannot determine which organizations can serve as SGOs, beyond requiring 501(c) (3) nonprofit status and compliance with state nonprofit laws.
• SGOs certify scholarship recipients; the family income of recipients must be below 300% of the median income in the counties they live in (more than $400,000 in wealthy counties).
• SGOs determine the size of scholarships and grants and where the money they collect can be spent; they must spend 90% of the money they collect on scholarships and grants.
• The FSTC law does not require academic reporting and accountability requirements of private schools receiving program funds.
• Private school scholarships can cover tuition, fees, uniforms, books, technology, transportation and certain room-and-board costs.
• Grants for public school recipients can cover tutoring, extended-day and summer programs, college credit or Advanced Placement courses and potentially services and other expenses not covered by students with disabilities’ individualized education programs.

Timeline for the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit

July 4, 2025: President Trump signs the One Big Beautiful Bill that includes the  Education Freedom Tax Credit, also known as the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit.

Oct. 1, 2026: U.S. Treasury Departmentreleases draft regulations for the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit (FSTC) program; 60-day public comment period begins.

Dec. 15, 2026: The Treasury Department will host a public hearing at the IRS building in Washington, D.C.

Dec. 31, 2026: Deadline for states to submit their participation in the FSTC.

Jan. 1, 2027: Individual taxpayers can begin donating contributions to eligible SGOs.

Feb. 15, 2027: Deadline for states to submit their list of eligible scholarship-granting organizations to the IRS.

A federal judge on Thursday ordered President Donald Trump to sit for a deposition in his $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC by Dec. 11.

The order from U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett came as lawyers for the British broadcaster complained that Trump had delayed his appearance. Charles Tobin, attorney for the BBC, said that with two months left in the discovery period, “we still haven’t been able to depose the plaintiff.”

He noted there was an agreed-upon date of Oct. 16, but that Trump had canceled it for a “matter of national importance.” Tobin said the Republican president was in fact campaigning in Georgia that day. “He was participating in party politics and prioritized that over sitting for the deposition,” Tobin said.

Lett said Trump must sit for a deposition by Dec. 11, or face sanctions up to dismissal of his lawsuit -– unless the discovery period was extended past Dec. 18.

Discovery, where lawyers for both sides exchange documents and other evidence, is scheduled to end Dec. 18, and the BBC’s attorneys want to make sure they have Trump’s deposition before that deadline. Lett said only the presiding judge assigned to the case can alter the trial schedule, and the defense said it would be open to scheduling the deposition at a later time if the trial schedule was also moved back.

Trump, who has often avoided depositions, filed his lawsuit against the BBC last December. He accused the publicly funded broadcaster of defamation as well as deceptive and unfair trade practices related to a documentary, “Trump: A Second Chance.”

The BBC acknowledged that filmmakers spliced together quotes from different sections of the speech Trump delivered to his supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, before the storming of the U.S. Capitol, to make it seem he was directly urging violence. The broadcaster apologized over the editing, and the head of the BBC and its top news executive both resigned. But the BBC has denied Trump’s claims that it defamed him.

Trump’s lawyers say Jack Smith lacks ‘personal knowledge’ of issues in the case

To bolster its defense, the broadcaster subpoenaed former special counsel Jack Smith earlier this month. Trump’s lawyers argued, in a joint filing asking for a hearing on the matter, that there was no good reason for Smith, who is not a party to the case, to appear.

Tobin, the BBC lawyer, told the judge Thursday that Smith has not objected to being deposed for this case, meaning the only objection is coming from Trump. Tobin said the BBC is not trying to relitigate the events of Jan. 6, but that Smith is one of the leading experts in what happened that day, and his deposition could lead the BBC to evidence that could help their case.

“We can argue later on whether his testimony is admissible,” Tobin said, “but we are entitled to that deposition.”

Trump’s lawyer, Alejandro Brito, said Smith has no personal knowledge of Trump’s Jan. 6 speech or Trump’s state of mind when he gave it. All of Smith’s knowledge about the case is secondhand, Brito argued, and the special counsel’s report, along with Smith’s testimony before Congress, is all public and available to the BBC’s attorneys, he said.

There was no immediate ruling with the hearing expected to resume in the afternoon after a lunch break.

Judge says the BBC can see membership records for Mar-a-Lago

Turning to the damages issue, the judge agreed that the BBC should be allowed to see records for the total number of applications for membership at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida from Jan. 6, 2020, through Jan. 6, 2026, as well as the total cost of membership and initiation fees for new applicants.

Tobin said one aspect of any defamation case is showing actual damages, and the popularity of Mar-a-Lago is a significant indicator of Trump’s reputation. The BBC’s lawyer described the private club as “a place where he exhibits his reputation in front of people who are important to him.”

Brito argued that Trump does not actually run Mar-a-Lago, and that his reputation is not associated with the club.

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Get your costumes ready because the Halloween festivities are here!

From parties and scary movie screenings to galleries and trunk-or-treats, here are events to check out on the Eastside this spooky season. 

Halloween gallery at East LA Film Shop 

East LA Film Shop is partnering with Amigas Photogenicas to bring a Halloween-themed exhibit showcasing local photographers. The night will include music, giveaways, a photo booth, treats and more. Costumes are encouraged and prizes will be awarded to the best-dressed.

Museum on Haunted Hill: A celebration of Vincent Price

The Vincent Price Art Museum will host a celebration honoring horror actor icon Vincent Price. Enjoy screenings of his films as well as a costume party, with music, a photo booth and access to the exhibitions.

Horror movie night at Birrieria Don Boni

Writer and director Glitzel Gonzalez is hosting a double feature horror movie screening of “Lost Boys” and “Trick R Treat” to help fund her film, “NecalliI,” which highlights generations of immigrants facing ICE raids. The night will also include horror trivia, a costume contest, vendors and themed drinks and food.

Halloween party at Eastside Luv

Enjoy a fun night out at Eastside Luv’s Halloween Party presented by Bad Taste and Last Rockeros. Live bands will perform sets of garage rock, punk, and rock en español. Vinyl DJs will also play a set. 

Boyle Heights: Most Haunted Tours 

Hollenbeck Terrace used to be Linda Vista Hospital.

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Alma Lucia

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Boyle Heights Beat

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Halloweenizate 2026

Join The Wall Las Memorias’ 4th annual Halloween celebration, a night of community, wellness and costumes created for LGBTQ+ adults. The event will feature food, dancing, performances, mental health and wellness resources, and prizes for best costumes.

Trunk or Treat at Wilson High School

Wilson High School’s 5th annual Trunk or Treat event will include spooky activities, surprises and treats for the entire family. Don’t miss the opportunity to take photos at the pumpkin patch and create something special at the arts and crafts table. 

Legacy’s Halloween Harvest 

Get your costumes ready because the Halloween festivities are here!

Halloween party at Lincoln Park

The Lincoln Park Recreation Center is hosting a Halloween party for the entire family. Enjoy a spooktacular night of carnival games, mariachi performances, jumpers and a costume contest that begins at 6:30 p.m. A screening of the movie  “Coco” will start at 7:15 p.m.

Halloween Slime Party

The El Sereno Walking Club and Amara Colectiva are teaming up to bring a slime party for kids this Halloween. The community event will include a slime station, music, treats and drinks for the kids. The event is free but space is limited to 30 kids, so be sure to register online here. 

Wababoo! Bash Halloween

The Wabash Recreation Center is hosting an all-ages Halloween costume party. Kids will have the opportunity to trick-or-treat, play games, do face painting and enjoy some food.

“It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” screening at Libros Schmibros Lending Library

Libros Schmibros will screen “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” to mark the film’s 60th anniversary. Costumes are encouraged and free candy will be provided for those who attend. 

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

On a Friday evening in Boyle Heights, several dozen people gathered on Whittier Boulevard for a night out.

It was open mic night at InnerCity Struggle, but a crowd of about 60 got there an hour early. Elders, youth, Spanish and English speakers packed a room inside the community center with a larger mission in mind: They were training to become neighborhood vote protectors. 

Trainees were advised to encourage voters to stay in line. To observe, document and report any form of voter suppression. To know their First Amendment rights.

“These are your everyday community members … that came out for a common goal, which is to learn how to protect our community,” said Michelle Benavides, InnerCity Struggle’s director of civic engagement.

Voter education forums are being held across the state as California experiences a surge in immigration enforcement that community and labor organizations condemn as a coordinated campaign by the federal government to intimidate voters. That’s on top of the U.S. Department of Justice’s deployment of 1,000 federal election observers that State Attorney General Rob Bonta has labeled as “the source of interference.”

In Los Angeles, immigrant rights advocates and elected officials have urged residents to remain vigilant and to vote early, either by mail or by dropping their ballot off at an official ballot drop box as soon as possible.

“The timing of these actions, just weeks before the midterm elections, is no accident,” CHIRLA’s policy director Jeannette Zanipatin said at a convening with election leaders last Friday. “These tactics seek to silence immigrant communities, suppress civic participation and divide our neighborhoods.”

Commerce resident Martha Moya attended the training at InnerCity Struggle last Friday and shared an experience she had at a polling place some years ago when she was asked if she was a U.S. citizen as she prepared to drop off her mail-in ballot.

“It was ridiculous. If I wasn’t a citizen, then I wouldn’t have been there at all,” Moya recalled telling the worker. 

That experience emboldened her to fight for voter rights, she said.

A voter casts their ballot in the California Primary Election at Weingart East LA YMCA on Tuesday, June 2, 2026, in Los Angeles, Calif.

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The training on Friday was held in partnership with the nonprofit Catalyst California, through its coalition known as We Are California, which includes partners like CHIRLA and PICO California. The Can’t Stop California campaign is holding statewide vote protector trainings in Koreatown, the Inland Empire and the San Fernando Valley.

About 20 who attended the training signed up to monitor polls. Organizers said they can choose which poll locations they’d like to monitor. They’re encouraged to show up with a partner. Trainees will be provided with “NEIGHBORHOOD VOTE PROTECTOR” hats and T-shirts.

Residents were taught how to observe, document and report voter suppression at a training on Friday, Oct. 16 at InnerCity Struggle.

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Attendees of the training in Boyle Heights learned that intimidation tactics can include voters being blocked from accessing polling locations, being threatened with criminal actions or being questioned about their citizenship. People holding signs reading “Only Citizens Can Vote – We’ll Be Checking” are a form of voter intimidation, they learned.

The training covered how election workers are also at risk of intimidation if they’re disrupted from opening or closing polling locations or from counting ballots, and offered a hotline number to call if they witness any kind of suppression happening at their local polling sites.

Trainees discussed their First Amendment right to photograph or film anything in plain view, including law enforcement. However, they were told, filming anyone within 100 feet of a polling place could be interpreted as intimidation. 

Directing focus to voters and encouraging them to stay in line is key, they learned.

Kaylanie Santos, an 18-year-old first-time voter, attended the training. “There’s a lot more intimidation tactics than I realized,” she said. 

Santos said she planned to monitor polling sites on Election Day from a safe distance, despite the fear of being profiled.

“There should be people there protecting other people, help out the village, be there for another person even if you don’t know them. That’s your people. … It’s important to look out and defend,” Santos said.