The Brief

Most California voters cast their ballots by mail. But there are currently attempts underway to limit how those ballots are handled and counted in the November election.

In March last year, President Trump issued an executive order which, among other things, aims to give the U.S. Postal Service the final say over who receives a mail-in ballot.

But on Thursday, that was blocked by Boston-based U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, who said the move exceeded the President’s authority under the Constitution, which gives state legislatures and Congress the power to set rules for federal elections.

“The Constitution does not grant the President any specific powers over elections,” Talwani wrote in a 37-page opinion.

In response to the executive order, USPS had earlier released proposed rules which would require states to send names of eligible mail-in voters to USPS, who would add them to a centralized list.

Whether states would agree to share voter information with the federal government, which California has so far refused to do in other situations, is another matter.

Thursday's decision blocking the order is not final, however. The adminstration could appeal the ruling, or try to send the issue to the U.S. Supreme Court, which could hand down a decision before the November election.

A major ruling could end mail-in grace periods

Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling soon on a separate issue: grace periods for mail-in ballots.

Fourteen states, including California, count mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day, as long as they are postmarked by then and show up within a certain window. The Supreme Court is expected to hand down a decision that could end that kind of grace period.

The case in question is Watson v. Republican National Committee, which centers on whether Mississippi’s five-day grace period for late-arriving ballots is constitutional under federal law. In California, that period is seven days.

Geoffrey Skelley,  chief elections analyst at Decision Desk HQ, told LAist the RNC’s argument centers on a federal law enacted in 1845 that set Election Day as the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, and that’s why votes shouldn’t be accepted after it.

A decision on that is expected to come within the next month, according to Wren Orey, who directs the elections project at the Bipartisan Policy Center. The Washington D.C.-based think tank works with both sides of the political aisle to craft policy suggestions.

Orey told LAist it’s looking like the justices will side with the RNC and overturn Mississippi’s law. However, it’s not known how broad the ruling could be. The Purcell principle, a legal doctrine that discourages last-minute changes to election procedures, could also be invoked.

“ It’s possible that the Supreme Court rules that this specific statute is unconstitutional, but their judgment doesn’t go into effect until after the election,” they said.

Some critics say the Supreme Court has unevenly applied this principle, pointing to how a ruling affected Alabama’s primary when voters had already begun casting ballots.

The effort comes as Trump and his allies have scrutinized mail-in ballots for years, claiming without evidence that states with longer count times and universal mail-in voting are allowing widespread cheating. Research shows fraud rates remain extremely small.

The U.S. Postal Service may soon decide who to send mail-in ballots to.

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How it could affect California

Just over 400,000 ballots arrived during California’s grace period in 2024 — that’s 2.5% of voter turnout. Orey said these usually come from areas that take more time for mail carriers to deliver, so it could disadvantage rural residents, for example. It’s unclear if there would be a carve out for service members and overseas voters under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, which get rejected at higher rates.

The Bipartisan Policy Center’s research shows about the same rate of late ballot rejections between states with a grace period and those without, Orey said, suggesting that voters adapt to their state’s deadline.

“What isn’t clear, though, is how long it takes for voters to adjust,” they said, adding that they’ve seen some evidence of rejections going up immediately after a grace period goes away.

Workers count Los Angeles County ballots in the City of Industry on June 3.

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Kayla Bartkowski

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Skelley said a lot of voters would likely become aware and adjust in part because of how publicized the decision would be, but it wouldn’t solve everything.

“Now, does that mean some would be affected and might miss out on a chance to vote?” he said. “Yes, that’s perfectly plausible.”

California is also notoriously criticized for how long it takes to count ballots, even though that’s a feature, not a bug, of our election process. If the justices decide to end grace periods, don’t expect big changes to that.

That’s mostly because our slowness stems from the volume of mail-in ballots received on Election Day, Orey said. Those need to be verified, opened and flattened to be processed, which takes more time than if you voted in person.

In 2009, a group of 25 students at Eagle Rock Elementary were asked by students at Cal Poly Pomona to draw their dream campus. Nearly all sketched schools with trees, farms and ponds.

The college students took the children’s ideas and drew up a plan that eventually helped transform the Los Angeles Unified school, located between Pasadena and Glendale, from 90% asphalt into a campus flush with trees, gardens and outdoor classrooms.

But nearly two decades later, many Los Angeles schools are still waiting for their greenery transformation. An EdSource analysis found that 249 — or 26% — of LAUSD’s 934 schools have less than 5% tree canopy.

“Imagine standing out on the asphalt. It’s a very hot day, and we see this grass patch, and it’s not that much cooler,” said Lauren McKenna, a senior program manager for Green Schoolyards America. “There’s a few trees, and we’re saying, imagine standing under that one tree. And, imagine there were like 50 more trees.”

Eagle Rock Elementary.

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Los Angeles County has the greatest number of schools among counties in the state located in areas with high heat scores. Many of those campuses lack adequate shade.

That situation was apparent on Oct. 5, when the Los Angeles area saw five straight days of temperatures at or above 100 degrees. Then, more than 9 in 10 LAUSD schools were in an area with high or severe heat risk. 238 schools — serving more than 110,000 students — have trees covering 5% or less of student play and rest areas.

LAUSD officials say they are trying to change that. The board passed a resolution in 2022 to increase green space on school campuses, and many schools have undergone major transformations since then. But parents at schools where there hasn’t been as much progress say they are still waiting.

“Summers are shape shifting in a lot of ways, but it’s not like it’s unpredictable. We know these things are coming,” said Víctor Sánchez, executive director of the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, whose children attend schools in the Highland Park neighborhood. On the asphalt surfaces at his child’s school, he said, temperatures sometimes surpass 120 degrees.

A resolution in the making 

When the board adopted in 2022 its initiative to have 30% of its campuses covered in green space by 2035, only 16% of campuses met that benchmark.

Greening schools and increasing tree canopies aren’t synonymous, but there is substantial overlap. More broadly, greening aims to reduce asphalt on campuses while incorporating outdoor spaces, trees, gardens and other natural elements.

Currently, 27% of LAUSD schools meet the district’s greening goals, according to Christos Chrysiliou, chief eco-sustainability officer, who oversees the district’s greening efforts. More than 80% of the district’s highest-need elementary schools also have a greening project that has been completed, is underway or is planned.

The majority of these projects are funded through voter-approved school facilities bonds, Chrysiliou said, including the $9 billion bond L.A. voters passed in 2024. The bond measure directed $1.2 billion to outdoor areas and play spaces, including school greening projects, he said.

Additional grants from CAL FIRE and the California Natural Resources Agency have also helped fund the work.

But progress has varied across the district. At schools like Eagle Rock Elementary, greening projects began decades ago, and the trees are mature. At Esperanza Elementary in the Westlake area, by contrast, newly planted trees have years of growth ahead.

LAUSD’s Esperanza Elementary with newly planted trees and greenery.

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“This is more than a beautiful schoolyard. This is what environmental justice looks like,” said LAUSD Board Vice President Rocío Rivas at an August ribbon cutting ceremony at Esperanza Elementary.

“Every child deserves access to green, healthy spaces where they can learn, play, connect with nature, regardless of their zip code.”

Equitable access to shade 

While LAUSD has set their goal at 30%, Kelly Turner, a professor of urban planning and geography at UCLA, said that amount of green space won’t always lead to the desired benefits.

“Los Angeles is huge and spans many different climate regions,” Turner said. “So, a school in the valley versus a school in the Inland Empire versus a school in central or coastal LA, they’re all going to have very different climate conditions and therefore different needs.”

LAUSD prioritizes schools based on CalEnviroScreen, a dataset measuring communities based on pollutants, and Cal-Adapt extreme heat data. Schools with the highest rankings are addressed first, Chrysiliou said.

Elementary schools with less than 10% green space are also prioritized, as is enrollment, so projects can “help the most students,” he added.

“We want these kinds of greening projects to benefit the students with the most need and the fewest options for green space at home,” said Claire Latané, a professor of landscape architecture at Cal Poly Pomona, whose students participated in the 2009 effort at Eagle Rock Elementary.

In 180 LAUSD schools, trees cover more than 15% of the areas where students play and rest, about 22% on average. In 249 schools, trees shade 5% or less, an average of just 3%.

There’s an equity component, too. While 76% of students at high-canopy schools are eligible for free and reduced-price meals, 88% of students at low-canopy campuses qualify.

“Equity and access are central to the district’s approach,” Chrysiliou said. “Greening funds goes first to schools with the least green space in the communities hit hardest by pollution, extreme heat and economic hardship.”

Alinne Gonzalez has two children in the district who attend schools in the sometimes sweltering Van Nuys area, one in first grade and one in 10th. Back in 2022 when the district passed its resolution stating its greening goals, Gonzalez recalled thinking that while her eldest son might not get to enjoy a tree canopy, at least her youngest would.

Progress has been slow, she said. Some younger trees have been planted, but there still isn’t much shade.

She and other parents have been growing frustrated and have been calling on the district to speed up its progress.

“They keep saying it’s going to get done,” Gonzalez said. “…But we’re not going to let up. We’re going to keep going until it happens for us.”

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Duane “Keffe D” Davis is set to be sentenced Tuesday for orchestrating the murder of rap icon Tupac Shakur, who was gunned down off the Las Vegas Strip over 30 years ago.

Davis, 63, was convicted in August of first-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon. He is the only person ever charged in the death of Shakur, whose popularity was peaking at age 25. Davis faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.

On the night of Sept. 7, 1996, Shakur was in the passenger seat of a black BMW with music mogul Marion “Suge” Knight when a white Cadillac pulled up at a red light, and shots erupted. Shakur was shot multiple times and died six days later, while Knight survived.

Shakur is considered one of the most influential and versatile rappers of all time and had a burgeoning film career as an actor at the time of his death. His legend has only grown since. His songs still resonate among fans with themes of hardship, love and Black struggles.

The killing went unsolved for years until Davis, a former leader of the South Side Compton Crips, gave interviews and published his role in the shooting in his 2019 tell-all memoir. He explained how Shakur and his entourage beat up Davis’ nephew hours before the shooting in Las Vegas. He said he sought retaliation, and that he was in the passenger seat of the Cadillac and passed the gun to the backseat, where shots were fired. Davis had spoken to detectives years before but avoided prosecution because of an agreement he made with law enforcement.

During the weekslong trial, prosecutors relied on Davis’ own statements he made to law enforcement and documentarians. They argued Davis orchestrated the shooting and provided the gun used in Shakur’s death, which was the result of a rivalry between the South Side Compton Crips and Mob Piru. Davis’ defense attorney pointed to a lack of physical evidence that connected his client to the 30-year-old crime, and he portrayed Davis as a liar who was trying to make money.

After nine days of hearing testimony in August, the jury deliberated for three hours before turning over the guilty verdict. Davis said in court that he plans to appeal.

Shakur was an icon, a brother

Shakur’s family is expected to speak at the sentencing, including his siblings Maurice “Mopreme” Shakur and Sekyiwa “Set” Shakur.

Following the verdict, prosecutor Binu Palal said that to many people, Shakur was an icon or an idea, “but to the family, Tupac Shakur was a brother, a son, a cousin, a loved person ripped from them 30 years ago.”

Palal said the family had to sit through years of Davis “bragging about killing someone they loved.”

“They loved that man. And the arrogance that Mr. Davis had in expressing his joy in killing that man ultimately was his undoing,” Palal said.

Prosecutors say they have insufficient evidence to charge anyone else

Davis is the only person to be charged and convicted in the killing of Shakur. The three other people who allegedly were in the Cadillac — including Davis’ nephew Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson who Davis said was the one who pulled the trigger — have died.

Sean “Diddy” Combs and his alleged role were brought up often throughout the trial. Witnesses testified Combs used members of the South Side Compton Crips for security for Bad Boy Records. In his book and public statements, Davis alleged Combs offered him money to kill Shakur and Knight. Combs, who is serving a four-year prison sentence after being convicted of prostitution-related offenses, has repeatedly denied any involvement in the death of Shakur.

Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson has said his office doesn’t believe it has sufficient evidence to charge anyone else.

“But like any other case, if we come into more information, more evidence, we can always consider filing additional charges,” he said following the guilty verdict. “But today, we don’t believe that’s the appropriate move to make.”