The Brief

California is almost done counting ballots — but the key word is almost. Election officials are now moving onto the ballot “curing” phase and are sending notices to voters for verification.

If you received a letter in the mail, it doesn't automatically mean your ballot has been rejected, contrary to misinformation circulating online. Ballot curing is a normal part of California’s vote-verification process and a safeguard to make sure you actually cast your mail-in vote.

Here’s what you should know about how it works and steps to take to make sure your ballot gets counted.

What is ballot curing?

If your ballot needs to be cured, that means the mail-in envelope has been flagged for a signature issue. That could be because it looks off (that is, it doesn’t match what’s on your state record) or it’s missing entirely.

Your county registrar will send you a letter that asks for your signature to attest that you returned the ballot and that it’s your name on the envelope. (The mismatched signature and unsigned envelope letters can be separate in some counties — but L.A. County combines it.) You’ll also have to provide your address. These steps are required under state election code.

You can reply to that notice via phone, email, mail, fax or in person. If you’ve received a letter in Orange County, follow the steps here. For L.A. County, follow the steps in your letter. Here's an example of what the combined letters look like for both counties:

The privacy of your vote is protected during this process. The state election code requires the ballot return envelope to stay sealed until the registrar can verify the voter’s signature. LAist has also confirmed this with the L.A. County registrar’s communications manager Mike Sanchez and Aimara Freeman, a spokesperson for Orange County's registrar.

Why do I need to do it?

Your registrar is giving you an opportunity to fix a discrepancy, which helps ensure only registered voters cast ballots.

It’s important to cure your ballot by the deadline because your vote won’t count without it. The registrar must receive it no later than 5 p.m. June 24.

L.A. and Orange counties have about 24,000 ballots to cure as of Wednesday, according to the California Secretary of State.

A very small portion of ballots gets rejected each election statewide. The Secretary of State reports that 0.93% of ballots — or 122,480 votes — were not counted in the 2024 general election, for example, mostly because signature issues weren’t resolved.

How are signatures verified and flagged?

Signatures are compared to the ones in your voter registration record. Because of California’s Motor Voter program, that could come from the DMV. If you’re curious what your local registrar has, you can ask to review the signatures in your file.

We cover in detail how the verification process works here, but this is the gist:

• In L.A. County, a device compares your signatures first. If it’s mismatched or missing, a human then reviews it.
• In Orange County, humans do the comparison and review.

Three election officials have to agree that a ballot signature is “significantly” different from the one on record for it to be pulled, according to state code. To verify your signature, officials consider spelling, signature slant, letter characteristics and possible explanations for discrepancies — for example, trembling hands or rushed writing.

The ballot gets pulled for curing when officials challenge it — that is, they determine it needs extra verification. State law requires notices for this to be sent by first-class mail by the next business day after a challenge.

Second notices may also arrive by phone or email. You can choose a preferred secondary method through the Secretary of State’s “Where’s My Ballot?” tracking service.

As a reminder, Tuesday was the last day for ballots to arrive by mail, as long as it was postmarked by Election Day. So if you haven’t been notified that your ballot’s been counted yet, you should check on it.

Here’s where to do that for L.A. County. Orange County has a similar tool that you can find here.

A jury found Duane “Keffe D” Davis guilty of orchestrating the 1996 killing of rap icon Tupac Shakur, marking the first conviction in a case that has gripped hip-hop fans for decades.

The 63-year-old Davis was convicted Monday of a single count of murder with a deadly weapon and could be sentenced to life in prison. The jury deliberated for less than 3 hours after a weekslong trial in Las Vegas.

After the verdict was read, Shakur's sister, Sekyiwa “Set” Shakur, cried and hugged the prosecutors. Also in the courtroom was Davis’ son, who covered his face with one hand.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal told jurors in closing arguments that Davis acquired a gun and “went hunting” for Shakur and Death Row Records co-founder Marion “Suge” Knight after they beat up Davis’ nephew earlier that night.

Palal acknowledged that Davis’ accounts of the killing evolved over the years but argued those differences reflected Davis’ changing motivations and efforts to protect himself. One critical detail, he said, remained consistent: Davis repeatedly placed himself inside a white Cadillac from which the shots were fired.

The panel of 16 jurors, four of whom are alternates, heard testimony from 24 prosecution witnesses and three defense witnesses over nine days.

“The core facts remain. The material facts remain,” Palal said.

The prosecution said Monday evening that the state would dismiss the gang enhancement part of the charge due to witness logistics.

The decades-old case

The trial brought to a head a decades-old case that for years has drawn the attention of hip-hop fans and true crime experts alike. Shakur, who was considered one of the most influential rappers of all time, was in Las Vegas on Sept. 7, 1996, and stopped at a red light when a white Cadillac pulled up beside him, and shots were fired. He died six days later from his wounds. Knight was also wounded but survived.

For years, nobody had been charged in the rapper’s death until Davis began making public statements, saying he was in the Cadillac and gave the gun to others in the backseat. Davis described the shooting as an act of retaliation after Knight and Shakur’s entourage beat up Davis’ nephew hours before the shooting.

Under Nevada law, someone who helps another person commit murder can be convicted of the crime. Davis is the only person still alive among the four men prosecutors say were in the Cadillac. The man who prosecutors say originally gave the gun to Davis is also dead.

Prosecutor says Davis' statements didn't need to be corroborated

Palal told jurors that if they believed Davis' statements, they did not have to be independently corroborated with additional evidence.

Still, he pointed to the rivalry between the South Side Compton Crips and Mob Piru, the fight with Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson and testimony that members of Shakur’s circle identified Anderson and Davis as suspects the night of the shooting. Witnesses had testified to the heated gang rivalry between the South Side Compton Crips and Mob Piru, which were associated with dueling record companies Bad Boy Records and Death Row Records.

“Who fired is not the question,” Palal said. Prosecutors haven't argued that Davis pulled the trigger, but instead that he was criminally responsible because he provided the gun and ordered the attack.

Palal also argued the shooting was premeditated, pointing to testimony and Davis’ accounts that the group searched for Shakur before spotting him on the road and making a U-turn. “It’s a plan, not an impulse,” Palal said.

Davis' own words are front and center

Palal held up Davis’ 2019 memoir, “Compton Street Legend,” and played an interview in which Davis encouraged people to buy it to get the “real truth.” Although the book contains a disclaimer saying some facts were changed, Palal argued that names, hotels and other details changed while the central account did not.

Palal also rejected the defense’s contention that Davis fabricated his accounts to make money. “It is an entirely different proposition to be profiting from a murder,” Palal said. “And that is what Mr. Davis is doing.”

Sanft also turned to his client’s memoir during his closing argument. While reading an excerpt, he said the N-word aloud, prompting people watching in an overflow courtroom to recoil and shake their heads.

In multiple interviews, Davis said he handed the gun to the back seat, but in others as well as in his book, Davis wouldn’t say who pulled the trigger.

In a rebuttal argument, prosecutor Marc DiGiacomo pointed to a scrapbook Davis kept containing articles about Shakur.

“This guy's scrapbooking his murder, for God's sake,” DiGiacomo told jurors.

The prosecution's witnesses included a gang expert who described Davis as the shot caller that younger gang members had to obey. Sanft asked jurors if there was any evidence that Davis had ever called the shots before or after the shooting.

During the trial, investigators said a Las Vegas hotel bill was found at Davis’ residence during a police search, but it wasn’t clear when it was dated — or where that evidence is currently located.

The case is nearly 30 years old, which has affected the kind of evidence presented in court. Prosecutors warned jurors that material collected in the ’90s is different from what law enforcement collects today, including hotel surveillance video from the night of the shooting.

___

Landrum Jr. reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press journalist Rio Yamat contributed to this report from Las Vegas.

The large truck left Perris Monday morning to make a 70-mile delivery to Altadena. Its cargo: a nearly 500-square-foot modular home.

“The stork delivered our big baby today… it’s kind of like hope on wheels,” said Candice Kim, project director of the Altadena Builds Back Foundation.

It’s the first of a new, 14-unit rental complex reserved for low-income renters, like the ones who lost their homes when the original courtyard apartments on East Pine Street in West Altadena burned down.

Kim said the prefabricated aspect of construction is an important step in the process.

“The reason… our grantee chose modular, was that … it allowed us to create the rental housing much faster so we can get people back home faster,” Kim said.

A lottery will be held in October to decide who the units will be offered to. The developer has created a “Pine Notification List” people can sign up for.

Rebuilding is moving forward in Altadena as the public and residents weigh in with concerns about whether the area’s mixed economic and racially diverse character is gone for good.

This project’s backers say the delivery of the first unit in this development for low-income Altadena residents is an important part of the effort to keep the area open to people with modest means, as it was before the fires.

“If we have private developers come in, the concern is that rents will no longer be affordable,” Kim said, “and that could change the character of our community.”

How it came together

The owner of the property had managed it for years. After the Eaton Fire, she decided to sell it, but wanted the future building to remain for low-income residents. Eventually, the owner talked to Beacon Housing at an Eaton Fire Collaborative meeting.

One of the modular homes that will make up 14 housing units for low income residents at an Altadena complex.

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Pavel Molokanov

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Courtesy Beacon Housing

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Eventually, the Altadena Builds Back Foundation helped put together nearly $6 million for the project, some of it from $72 million received in donations by the Pasadena Community Foundation after the Eaton Fire, and the other part from area philanthropist Molly Munger, who graduated from nearby John Muir High School.

Many questions remain about the direction of Altadena’s rebuilding efforts. The state eased density limits at the same time that insurance payments continue to vex people whose homes were destroyed.

Former Altadena renters also continue to struggle. A survey conducted last year by the Eaton Fire Collaborative found that 72% of renters are still in need of housing. That survey also found that the fires destroyed the homes of more than two-thirds of Altadena renters.

Nutrition services workers file into the kitchen at Valley High School in Santa Ana from as early as 6 a.m. to start prepping for the breakfast and lunch hours.

For the last five years, the Santa Ana Unified School District initiated a scratch-cooking program, meaning the kitchens have pivoted from majority individually wrapped lunches to homestyle cooked dishes.

As the program rolls out, the menu has evolved. This school year, Santa Ana Unified high school students are served chilaquiles, birria, carnitas, fettuccine alfredo, and so much more.

“We try to focus initially on the demographic of our community, and we want to give them items that they have heard of or are familiar with, at least to start out,” said Jonathan Park, chef at Santa Ana Unified School District. “That way we can really see whether the scratch cooking is working.”

Park works with nutrition specialists on building out a well-balanced menu each month and gives each school detailed instructions on rolling out those meals.

“A lot of the time our staff isn't used to that type of cooking,” Park said. “Cooking now has really been part of their job. Every day they're prepping something, or they're cooking something from a raw state.”

Why it matters

Valley High School serves more than 1,000 students a day at lunchtime, Visoso said. With youth homelessness and hunger on the rise in Orange County and beyond, Visoso said she wants to make sure students are eating well, but also that they’re eating enough.

Students who don’t want a meal are encouraged to take one anyway and leave it at the share station for someone else to pick up. Food is very rarely left at those share stations, she added.

Josh Goddard, director of nutrition services for the Santa Ana Unified School District, said funding for school nutrition is generally limited.

“We get about $6 per lunch. We get about $4 per breakfast,” Goddard said. “That's got to cover everything from the food that goes into the plate to the people that put that plate together, and then all the other little miscellaneous things that are needed to get the food where it needs to go.”

And the scratch-cooking program is not where he wants it to be, yet, he added.

“We're not going to be satisfied until every single student feels proud of what they pick up; they feel like they're seen on the menus. They feel like their voices matter. Every single student needs to feel that way,” Goddard said. “We have a lot of work to do, and gratefully, the Santa Ana Unified School District has prioritized that, and will continue to do that.”

Jonathan Park, chef at Santa Ana Unified School District, prepares a batch of spaghetti noodles for lunch. Santa Ana Unified high schools have prioritized freshly made breakfast and lunch meals.

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Destiny Torres

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LAist

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How it works 

Designing the menu means trying to give kids what they want to eat with dishes or ingredients they're familiar with, but also incorporating new foods. Each menu includes 20 food options for breakfast and lunch.

“We're able to give them something different, and from there we keep trial and error. We constantly just improve the menu as we go,” Park said. “It's constantly just building off of what the kids like.”

When a new lunch menu drops, Cafeteria Supervisor Janet Visoso told LAist she studies it meticulously.

“I tend to print everything, read it to myself, reread it, rewrite it. That's just the way I learn,” Visoso said. “I don't get bored of my job. I'm excited, and I take it as a challenge.”

Visoso said when she started in nutrition services 12 years ago, the district offered a lot of individually wrapped items.

“Most of the stuff was hot dogs, pizza, hamburgers, and we all love that, but to get scratch cooking and why it counts more is because we feed them a labor of love, and they are actually enjoying what they're eating,” she said.

What do students think? 

The quality and health of the school lunches has improved, Alfonso Guttierez, a senior at Valley High, told LAist.

“Honestly, the previous year was different, and it’s been a big difference,” Guittierez added. “I like it very much.”

Edith Marin, a senior at Valley High School, said she feels extra appreciative of school lunches knowing that staff worked hard to cook them from scratch. For her and her group of friends, birria ramen was a big hit even with Southern California’s heat wave.

“Food cooked hot is just better,” Marin said. “Not all refrigerated food is as healthy, I think.”

Officials said it’s sometimes surprising what the students do and don’t enjoy. For example, when fish tacos and chile verde were added to the menu, staff thought they’d be instant hits — they weren’t.

“We had raw fish filets that we battered and we oven-fried until crispy. We had the slaw. We had the pico de gallo on the tortilla, and we thought that would be a hit,” Park said. “It didn't go so well.”

If you’re heading to Big Bear Lake to beat the heat — keep people and pets out of the water.

Officials have confirmed harmful algal blooms throughout the lake that are showing up as discolored water with a green sheen, scum and floating algae.

The blooms can produce potent toxins that could cause you and your furry friends to get sick.

Marisa Van Dyke, a senior environmental scientist with the State Water Resources Control Board, told LAist these conditions in California’s lakes and streams are primarily caused by tiny bacteria that grow into big, flower patch-like blooms.

“When you inadvertently swallow some of that water, it can contain those toxins,” she said. “It can be quite severe and cause you to need to have some hospitalization or even visit an animal veterinarian to get treatment."

What you need to know

People are being urged to avoid swimming, eating shellfish from the lake and drinking or cooking the water. Officials said boiling or filtering the water won't make it safe.

For anglers on the lake, Van Dyke recommends rinsing the fish off before handling and only eating the filets.

Dogs and children are especially vulnerable to exposure because they’re more likely to swallow water while playing and swimming, according to the State Water Resources Control Board.

Do not let pets in Big Bear Lake or near scum along the shore.

The harmful algal blooms in Big Bear Lake.

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Courtesy State Water Resources Control Board

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“If [the water] looks a little bit more green … and there's a little bit more growth of something that looks kind of like a plant but not quite, there might be a harmful algal bloom occurring,” Van Dyke said. “So keep an eye on children and pets so that they don't get in contact with that material.”

If you do have to dip your toes in, rinse yourself, your family and your furry friends with clean water after. Van Dyke also recommends drying off and changing into a pair of clothes as an extra precautionary measure.

You can learn more about healthy water habits here.

What to watch for

If you come into contact with harmful algal blooms and start showing symptoms such as eye irritation, rash, headache and vomiting — contact your doctor right away. It could also cause neurological effects, Van Dyke noted.

For dogs, the symptoms can include loss of energy and appetite, diarrhea, seizures and vomiting. You should reach out to a vet immediately if they start showing any signs.

People are asked to report any potentially related illness to state officials here.

Where is it safe to swim

Warning signs have been posted around Big Bear Lake, but when in doubt, stay out.

It’s prime time for harmful algal blooms in California. They’re most common between late May through October, although they can pop up year round, according to officials.

Van Dyke said research has shown that in the last decade, harmful algal blooms have been showing up more in lakes and reservoirs.

“There's many things that are driving that, including climate change,” she said. “So it's not just the warmer temperatures, but also less precipitation.”

California has a harmful algal bloom map that shows if any outbreaks have been reported in the area.