The Brief

What’s the cost of democracy in California?

If we calculate that based just on the pages informing the state’s 22 million voters about Proposition 1 in the official March voter guide, about $8 million.

Each page of the primary voter guide cost $117,880 for printing, translations, audio, mailing, and postage, according to the Secretary of State’s office. The total cost of the 112-page March voter guide was $13.2 million.

That compares to $7.2 million for the 64-page 2022 primary guide, $6.3 million for the 48-page 2020 guide, $7.2 million for the 96-page 2018 guide and $3.7 million for the 32-page 2016 guide according to the Secretary of State’s office.

The bulk of this year’s guide was the text for Prop.1, which took up 68 pages. The two-part measure, which barely passed with 50.2% of the vote and was placed on the March ballot by the Legislature, authorizes a $6.4 billion bond to build treatment facilities and supportive housing for people with mental health and addiction challenges, and requires cities to spend more of a specific pool of tax revenue on housing instead of other services.

It’s typical for the lower-turnout primary ballot to include fewer propositions, especially since 2011, when the Legislature passed a law so initiatives only appear on the general election ballot.

In November 2016, the voter guide hit a record 224 pages and cost $15 million to produce. It included 17 ballot propositions, including 33 pages of the text for Proposition 64, which legalized recreational marijuana.

The ballot this November now has 12 measures, but that number is likely to increase before the June 27 deadline.

There’s a 500-word limit for the arguments proponents and opponents of ballot measures can submit, but that doesn’t apply to the text of proposed laws.

More information for voters is always better, says Carmen Balber, executive director of Consumer Watchdog, an advocacy group that has also sponsored several ballot measures.

“It’s unfortunate if the cost has risen that high — but at the end of the day, voters need as much information as possible to make an informed choice,” she said.

It’s also important to print the guide and mail it to each voter to ensure it’s accessible to everyone, she added. While the Secretary of State posts a version online, not all Californians have easy internet access.

Official sources — whether through the state or counties — are where most voters get their information, said Mindy Romero, founder and director of the Center for Inclusive Democracy at the University of Southern California.

“People will turn to other sources including friends and family, but still, those official sources are where the bulk of voters are getting their information — so they’re important,” she said. “Voters need the information and have a right to that information.”

Still, there could be some cost savings. Balber said she receives three copies of the voter guide each election — one in her name, one to an incorrect spelling of her name, and one to someone who was previously registered at her address.

The Secretary of State’s office said it conducts list maintenance on a daily basis. Voter registration files are updated in VoteCal — a single statewide voter file established in 2016, and through address updates with the DMV or the post office, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.

The state could also allow people to opt out of the print guide — but that should never be the default, Balber said: “We would never want to take that away from the public.”

Crews have now recovered the bodies of all nine backcountry skiers who were killed in an avalanche in Northern California earlier this week. It marks an end to what authorities on Saturday described as an agonizing five-day search and recovery operation complicated by intense winter storms northwest of Lake Tahoe.

"While we wish we could have saved them all, we are grateful that we can bring them home," said Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon during a Saturday news conference.

Until Saturday, authorities had not confirmed the death of a ninth victim, a skier who had been missing and presumed dead. Officials say their body was found near the eight other victims that have now been recovered. Authorities said avalanche hazards and weather conditions were too dangerous most of the week to search for the remaining victim or recover the bodies.

Four of the bodies were recovered on Friday, and the rest of the bodies were recovered on Saturday, all in the Castle Peak area where the avalanche – one of the deadliest in California history — struck. Six people from the group of 15 skiers survived Tuesday's disaster, the last day of a three-day backcountry ski trip. One guide and five travelers were among the survivors.

Helicopters with the California National Guard as well as the California Highway Patrol were used to hoist the remaining bodies from the mountain, officials said at the press conference.

On Friday, officials were able to use specialized techniques with the help of Pacific Gas & Electric to reduce the avalanche risk.

The ski trip was organized by Blackbird Mountain Guides, an outdoor tour company based in Truckee, Calif. Moon confirmed the identities of the victims. Three guides were killed: Andrew Alissandratos, 34, from Verdi, Nev.; Michael Henry, 30, from Soda Springs, Calif.; and Nicole Choo, 42, of South Lake Tahoe, Calif. The other victims, who had signed up for the group trip, are: Carrie Atkin, 46, of Soda Springs; Lizabeth Clabaugh, 52, of Boise, Idaho; Danielle Keatley, 44, of Soda Springs and Larkspur, Calif.; Kate Morse, 45, of Soda Springs and Tiburon, Calif.; Caroline Sekar, 45, of Soda Springs and San Francisco; and Katherine Vitt, 43, of Greenbrae, Calif.

The Sierra Avalanche Center classified the avalanche between a D2 and D3 on the avalanche danger scale.

"A D2 would take down a person. A D3 would take down a house, so it was right in between those. It was described by them as a football field length of a path of the avalanche," Sheriff Moon said on Saturday.

The area will be closed to visitors for several weeks, as the investigation continues.

Copyright 2026 NPR

A percussion instrument deeply-rooted in African music, the marimba shows up in everything from atonal avant-garde pieces to modern American pop songs. And yes, many people might know about its clear, playful tones through the iPhone ringtone of the same name.

But with its couch-sized layout of wooden bars and metal resonators, it's not always as accessible as say a guitar or more compact instrument.

Enter a man and a local non-profit on a mission to bring marimba to the masses.

From his home studio, Ariel Campos remembered one of the first times he really got intrigued by the marimba. He was listening to local radio.

“And I hear Tom Waits ‘Swordfishtrombone.’ That was like before Shazam and all that. And I was like, ‘what’s going on over here?!’” he said.

Campos teaches percussion at Mt. San Antonio College and he’s director of Southern California Marimba, a group dedicated to the promotion of marimba performance.

With its roots in Africa, Campos said American history is rich with the sounds of the marimba. That includes musicians like Clair Omar Musser, who toured with the instrument -- which can weigh hundreds of pounds -- back in the 1920s.

Musser might not ring a bell. But the marimba master was a big deal in his day, even organizing a 100-piece marimba orchestra for the Chicago World’s Fair in 1933.

In his studio filled with an array of other percussion instruments, Campos explained that the marimba is usually played with two, four or even six mallets. When I met with him earlier this month, he demonstrated the dexterity needed to pull that off on his own antique marimba: A hulking Deagan marimba he estimates was built in the 1920s.

Campos said he’s also interested in the rich marimba heritage of countries like Mexico and Guatemala, where the instrument is still very much alive.

In Guatemala, where the marimba is the national instrument, it’s not uncommon for three or more people to play the same instrument at the same time, Campos said.

“There’s a great band right now from Mexico. They’re called Son Rompe Pera,” Campos said. “Their slogan is like: cumbia is the new punk. And so they play cumbia punk music on the marimba.”

A working musician who’s played marimba with acts like Brooks and Dunn, Campos has a wide repertoire: from classical to pop songs like the Los Bukis classic, “Tu Cárcel.”

For over a year now, Campos and his colleagues at Southern California Marimbas have brought an eclectic array of live marimba music to audiences in L.A. He calls them ‘marimba salons’ and they even include some of his weirder, more avant-garde creations. For some of his atonal pieces, Campos uses his fingers, bare hands and even a bass bow to bring out the more subtle sounds of the instrument.

Campos said his goal with the marimba salons is to bring the marimba out of the academic setting and into neighborhoods where people can experience it up close.

“It’s the idea of bringing people together, especially now, in these times. We need to build a sense of community. And that can look however we want it to look,” Campos said.

“And I think using the marimba to do that is a great opportunity.”

The next SoCal Marimba salon is coming up on Sunday March 22 at 8pm at Sunspace in Shadow Hills.

Marimba Salon

Sunspace
9683 Sunland Blvd.

Shadow Hills, CA 91040

Sunday, March 22
8 - 9 p.m.

Mt. San Antonio College will also host a marimba festival and competition July 25-26. Check out Southern California Marimba’s website for more info as it becomes available.

In early 2020, Frank Ledezma and Jennyfer Gramajo moved into a new storefront for their event photography business on First Street in East L.A.

But like the story of so many small businesses during the pandemic shutdown, the husband-and-wife team soon found themselves needing to pivot.

 "We would do events for quinceañeras, baptisms, weddings," Gramajo said. "At that moment, all of our events were canceled."

Unlike the roller-coaster experiences that have defined so many mom-and-pops, though, their East L.A. Film Shop has been a story of unexpected success.

Inside East L.A. Film Shop.

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Fiona Ng

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Selling rolls

Gramajo and Ledezma went from shooting photos to selling film to photographers, during a crazy-making time when there probably wasn't a better way to kill time than to take your camera out and capture a suspended world.

"You couldn't find film. People were still shooting," Ledezma said. "People still wanted to go out and shoot."

The couple was already selling some photo supplies before the pandemic, but not much. After the lockdown, Gramajo said Ledezma asked her if he should pour their savings to go all in on the switch, based off a friend's suggestion, on a wing and a prayer.

"I'm like, 'Well, I think you should just buy a couple of rolls and see how it goes,'" Gramajo remembered.

Frank Ledezma and Jennyfer Gramajo, the husband and wife owners of East L.A. Film Shop.

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Fiona Ng

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LAist

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East L.A. Film Shop

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Fiona Ng

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LAist

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With that, East L.A. Film Shop was born.

The couple started advertising their goods on social media. As word of mouth spread, customers sought them out.

" We started meeting people like at the Jack in the Box parking lot. We would go deliver film like if it was Uber Eats," Gramajo said.

" They were like, 'Oh, go with Frank. They have it in stock. They always have it in stock,'" Ledezma said.

After reopening, the demand for film rolls stayed strong, so much so that East L.A. Film Shop expanded their offering to include film development and other services. Their clientele, Gramajo said, has always run the gamut, from seasoned pros to novices, including an elderly man who needed help loading a new roll into his old camera, or a woman who brought her kid to get a crash course on all the different knobs and buttons.

"Film Foos" hats for sale at East L.A. Film Shop.

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Fiona Ng

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Since last year, East L.A. Film Shop has relocated to the storefront next door, a much bigger space to accommodate more equipment and a growing staff.

The extra room also allows the couple to create a community space for music, photo exhibits and more.

On Sunday, East L.A. Film shop is hosting its monthly "Barrios Sunday," where small local vendors are invited to set up shop for the day to sell their goods and get the word out about their business.

The couple is also asking photographers — analog and digital — to post their photos on the walls of the shop. The works will be displayed for a week.

As for Ledezma and Gramajo, they still go out and shoot. It's a kind of second nature — especially for Ledezma, who grew up helping his father, an event photographer himself, on his shoots.

"When I open a fresh roll, like the smell, it takes you back [to]  when I was a kid and my dad's like, 'Oh, gimme this roll,’" he said. "You still get that smell of fresh film. You know, it just takes you back."

Barrio Sunday

East L.A. Film Shop
3541 1st St., Los Angeles
Feb 22. Sun., 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.