The Brief

President Donald Trump has long alleged that the Democratic Party has allowed immigration in droves to garner votes. And he has been fixated on non-U.S. citizens voting in elections.

Now, some of that is playing out locally in Orange County.

Federal prosecutors have filed a lawsuit against Bob Page, Orange County’s registrar of voters, alleging he failed to provide unredacted voting records of non-U.S. citizens. The registrar’s office says it has removed 17 people from its voter rolls since 2020 either because the person self-reported being a noncitizen or because the Orange County district attorney’s office determined the person was ineligible to vote.

The federal government is seeking all of the information in those records, including sensitive data like driver’s license and Social Security numbers.

“Voting by noncitizens is a federal crime, and states and counties that refuse to disclose all requested voter information are in violation of well-established federal elections laws,” Harmeet K. Dhillon, assistant attorney general with the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said in a statement.

Records provided to LAist show the registrar’s willingness to share the records as long as sensitive information is kept private. Some say the federal government is trying to make an example out of Orange County and that the lawsuit is an overreach.

“The lawsuit is an unnecessary escalation that misrepresents what actually happened,” state Assemblymember Avelino Valencia wrote in a statement.

What we know from the lawsuit

Prosecutors said they had received a complaint from a non-U.S. citizen alleging they received a mail-in ballot from the O.C. registrar of voters. Federal and state law prohibit non-U.S. citizens from voting in state or federal elections.

The Department of Justice asked the registrar for records regarding voters whose registration was canceled because they didn’t meet the citizenship requirement.

Page turned over the records, but redacted some information citing state privacy and voting laws. The redacted data included driver’s license and Social Security numbers, language preference, and images of the registrants’ signatures. Federal prosecutors argued that information should be publicly disclosed. They then filed a lawsuit against Page alleging he was violating federal voting law by not turning over all of the information unredacted.

“Removal of noncitizens from the state’s voter rolls is critical to ensuring that the state’s voter rolls are accurate and that elections in California are conducted without fraudulent voting,” Dhillon said in a statement accompanying the lawsuit.

Records show the registrar was willing to share data confidentially

A spokesperson for the registrar’s office told LAist that Page can’t comment on ongoing litigation. But the county provided LAist with emails between the county and the Department of Justice showing the county sought to comply with the voter information request while ensuring registration information would be kept confidential.

“To avoid a lawsuit, would the USDOJ consider another mechanism to enable the county to provide the USDOJ with this sensitive information?” James D. P. Steinmann, the county’s deputy counsel, wrote on Tuesday to Maureen Riordan, acting chief of the DOJ’s voting section. The county’s top lawyer, Leon Page, said Riordan never responded. Instead, the government filed its lawsuit the following day.

Leon Page said the registrar already has an agreement to confidentially share data regarding alleged voting fraud with the county district attorney and would be willing to do the same with the DOJ.

“Now that a lawsuit has been filed, we hope to explore the resolution of this litigation with the production of unredacted voter registration records to the USDOJ pursuant to a stipulated protective order,” Page wrote in an email to LAist.

Not the first time for clashes over voting in Orange County 

One of the DOJ lawyers listed on the case is former Huntington Beach City Attorney Michael Gates, who has repeatedly clashed with state and local election authorities in recent years over the city’s efforts to implement its own voter ID requirements. Voters approved the measure in 2024, but the state has sued, alleging it violates California law.

The county registrar’s office is bound by state election code, which calls for requiring voters to prove their identity when they register to vote (though not necessarily with a government-issued ID), but not at polling places. That could force Huntington Beach to run its own, stand-alone city elections, at a much greater cost than it currently pays the registrar to consolidate city races on the ballot with state and federal races.

Bob Page, the registrar, also recently found himself at odds with the Orange County Republican Party. In April, the registrar’s office issued a news release stating that the SAVE Act, which would require voters to show proof of citizenship to register, would cost the office an additional $6 million annually. “Will Congress appropriate the funds local and state elections officials need to implement the SAVE Act?” the news release asks.

In response, the O.C. Republican Party issued a statement condemning what they said was a “partisan attack” on the voter ID law, which the House of Representatives passed in April.

“Page has crossed a dangerous line by both amplifying a false and misleading partisan position and publicly criticizing a Republican-led proposal designed to strengthen election integrity,” the party said.

Orange County officials weigh in

Orange County officials have weighed in on either side of the voter data dispute along party lines.

O.C. Supervisor Don Wagner, a Republican, said Bob Page has “forced the hand of the Department of Justice” to file the lawsuit because the county did not comply with the federal request.

“By placing roadblocks and refusing to comply, instead arguing that we are following state law, we invited this lawsuit,” Wagner said in a statement. “It is up to affected voters to seek injunctive relief. This is not our fight. The county’s only interest is in having the cleanest possible voter rolls so that every eligible voter may vote, but only eligible voters may vote.”

O.C. Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento, a Democrat, called the lawsuit an “unnecessary intimidation tactic.”

“I fully support Registrar Page and his consistent commitment to fair, secure elections. The registrar has reasonably offered to work with the Department of Justice, but instead they chose the costly path of litigation,” Sarmiento said in a statement.

Meanwhile, O.C. Supervisor Katrina Foley said voter fraud in the county was a minuscule issue, noting that the registrar’s office had found 17 instances where voters did not meet the citizenship requirement out of 1.9 million registered voters countywide. She said only one was referred to the district attorney’s office for prosecution.

“Our registrar of voters office moved swiftly to cancel the registration of all other ineligible voters. Our system is working,” she said. “Voter privacy is built into the system and state law prohibits the county from providing private information without a court order. The County of Orange takes very seriously our duty to protect the private personal information of the people who register to vote in our county.”

Both of Jackie and Shadow’s eaglets have left the nest — but one of the famous Big Bear birds fell more than flew.

Luna, the younger eaglet, took its first flight away from their Jeffrey pine tree a little before 9:30 a.m. Monday as thousands of fans watched on the nest’s popular YouTube livestream. The livestream is run by the environmental nonprofit Friends of Big Bear Valley, which is also working to preserve acres of land in the area.

Luna left about a day after Sandy, the elder eaglet, toppled down the tree and out of view of the cameras.

Sandy did end up taking its first flight — which is called fledging — albeit in an unexpected way. Friends of Big Bear Valley said Sandy “fludged” before the eaglet was seen soaring to another area shortly after Sunday’s fall.

“Though it is up to Sandy and Luna, in the past, the eaglets have come back to the nest to eat, sleep or just hang out together,” the organization wrote on Facebook to its more than 1 million followers. “Stay tuned, this family affair isn’t over…”

Jackie and Shadow, Big Bear Valley’s resident bald eagle couple, have now successfully fledged six chicks together: Simba in 2019, Spirit in 2022, Sunny and Gizmo last year and Sandy and Luna this season.

Sandy and Luna lift off

The Big Bear bald eaglets have historically fledged when they’re around 13 weeks old, according to Friends of Big Bear Valley. Sandy, which the nonprofit believes to be a female, and Luna, believed to be a male, are a little more than 12 weeks old.

The eaglets were preparing for the big leap in recent weeks by venturing further onto branches and stretching their wings in the wind to build up strength.

The duo were on an outer part of the tree Sunday morning when Luna tried to jump over its sibling, but the eaglet’s talons got tangled and Sandy fell to the branches below.

Sandy was spotted on Friends of Big Bear Valley’s security camera shortly after, flying away from the nest tree and to another area out of view.

“Sandy looked good in her flight, and she is likely relaxing from her unexpected adventure,” the nonprofit said on social media Sunday. “Jackie and Shadow will now follow her wherever she goes and make sure she is fed and taken care of.”

Luna had a more graceful strategy, flying to a nearby tree where Shadow was waiting. Friends of Big Bear Valley said fans "will likely see some family gatherings” once Sandy and Luna make their way around the habitat.

Last season’s eaglets, Sunny and Gizmo, fledged in early June and were last seen near the nest about three weeks later.

Access to the area around Jackie and Shadow's nest is restricted in Big Bear Valley on June 13, 2026.

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Makenna Cramer

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LAist

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‘Grand adventures’ ahead

Jackie and Shadow are expected to continue caring for Sandy and Luna while they’re in Big Bear Valley. That includes finding food as the eaglets get better at flying, and eventually, hunting on their own.

Eaglets generally leave the area they were raised by fall of the year they hatched, according to Friends of Big Bear Valley. Young eagles travel far and wide, with banded birds being tracked up to 2,000 miles away.

Once the birds reach maturity at around 5 years old, they look for their own mate and build a nest in a new territory.

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Last week, Felipe Hernandez saw fewer customers than usual. The produce vendor had already lost some foot traffic in East L.A. due to the ongoing ICE raids and COVID before that, but after the Lineage warehouse fire blanketed the area in smoke, Hernandez felt like everyone disappeared all at once.

“I think this was worse [than COVID]. They all really went away just like that — but this time it was on a whole new level,” said Hernandez, who works afternoons at Ponciano Produce, his nephew’s produce truck.

Claudia Hernandez, owner of Mariscos El Manglar in East L.A., closed early on the first day of the fire because she couldn’t handle the amount of smoke blowing at her food truck, parked one mile away.

“With the raids, sales dropped by 60%,” said Hernandez. “And this week, because of the smoke, they’ve gone down by about 80%.”

The compounding effect of the ICE raids and now a week full of smoke due to the Lineage fire, has left small businesses in both Boyle Heights and East L.A. struggling more than ever. 

Many businesses were forced to close entirely due to the intensity of the smoke and others that did open served even fewer customers as people were forced to stay indoors or leave the area.

According to a report from the UCLA Latino Policy & Politics Institute nearly 13,600 jobs are located within the smoke advisory zone, 66% are held by Hispanic or Latino individuals.

The report notes that many small businesses in retail, accommodation, and food service closed or experienced a steep decline in clients.

Cristina Medrano works on a customer’s hair at Kassandra’s Salon in Boyle Heights in Los Angeles, Calif. on June 26, 2026.

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Isaac Ceja

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Boyle Heights Beat

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Hair stylist Cristina Medrano fought back tears when thinking of the impacts ICE have had on her customers at Kassandra’s Salon and the greater Boyle Heights community.

“Our people are scared. All of us are, right? We go through a certain amount of stress regarding our people, it really is very difficult,” said Medrano. “Even though it doesn’t affect us directly, our people do go out but they go out afraid.”

After the fire Medrano was forced to cancel appointments due to customers’ concerns about the smoke. She says she never expected the fire to go on for as long as it did.

“It’s been more than we expected, a whole week like this. And there’s still more to come, just think of everything that’s in the air, what we’re breathing in. But we have to work. I mean, you can’t just sit around doing nothing, we have to keep going,” Medrano said.

On Wednesday, Inclusive Action, the Boyle Heights Chamber of Commerce and the Hustle & Heart Collective launched the Boyle Heights Fire Relief Fund for Small Businesses, targeting brick and mortar shops and street vendors in the four zip codes around the Lineage fire.

“Some businesses are still trying to come out of the hole that they were put in because of the ICE raids today,” said Rudy Espinoza, CEO of Inclusive Action. “So then you layer this new fire for the especially the small businesses on the east side and it’s just like another obstacle for them to get ahead and to take care of their families and to make payroll for their workers.”

Applications are not open yet but they are accepting donations via GoFundMe.

Councilmember Ysabel Jurado’s office is also working with the Emergency Management Department and the Boyle Heights Business Source Center to connect impacted businesses and street vendors to city resources,

After struggling with a loss of about 65% of their sales after the ICE raids, Tacos Los Arabes in Boyle Heights lost about 35% in sales during the week of the fire, according to Jonathan Villegas, one of the sons of the family-owned Tacos Los Arabes. 

“It was an unfortunate thing to happen but it’s in the past. We’re trying to move on and we don’t think it’s going to affect the future for now because it seems under control, but the raids are still in the back of people’s minds. They’re a little bit more ready to go out, but you still hear stories about people being raided” Villegas said.

Villegas said he appreciated when customers would wear N95 masks to support his business during the week despite the obstacles facing the community.

Israel's Cabinet unanimously approved a proposal on Sunday to designate violence against Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during World War I as a genocide.

The step, which still needs approval in Parliament, reflects deteriorating ties between Israel and Turkey. Turkey has fiercely lobbied to prevent countries from officially recognizing the mass deaths of Armenians around 1915 as a genocide, even as Armenians have pushed for it.

Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I, an event widely viewed by scholars as the first genocide of the 20th century. Turkey denies that the deaths constituted genocide, saying the toll has been inflated and that those killed were victims of civil war and unrest.

For years, Israel never officially broached the subject for fear of angering Turkey, but that relationship has soured over the past two decades, especially as the most recent wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran have dragged on.

"Despite the extensive and unambiguous historical documentation, the Armenian Genocide remains to this day the subject of an institutionalized campaign of denial and minimization, including a manipulative rewriting of history, mainly by the Turkish government," said Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, who brought the decision to the government.

He noted that Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have previously described the violence against Armenians as a genocide. But it has never been formally recognized in a vote by Israel's Knesset.

"It is never too late to do the right thing," Saar said Sunday, calling it a "moral and historical duty."

He noted that 32 countries, including the United States, Syria and Lebanon, have also classified the violence as a genocide. It was not immediately known when Sunday's decision, approved unanimously by Israel's Cabinet, would go to the parliament for approval.

Turkey called Israel's move a "politically motivated" step meant to distract from the country's own actions against Palestinians.

"The Israeli government, which systematically persecutes the Palestinian people in full view of the world and is being tried at the International Court of Justice for genocide against the people of Gaza, aims to cover up its own crimes," the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"This malicious attempt, which disregards legal and historical facts, reveals the predicament of Netanyahu and his accomplices, who have arrest warrants against them in connection with the investigation into crimes committed against Palestinians at the International Criminal Court," the statement added.

Israel and Turkey were once close allies, but relations soured during the rise of Turkey's Islamist President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, leading Israel to reconsider its position.

Israel has faced repeated accusations, including from the United Nations and Turkey, that its offensive in Gaza amounts to genocide. Israel, founded in the wake of the Holocaust, denies the accusations.

Israel launched the war in response to Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack. Gaza's Health Ministry, part of the Hamas government, says over 73,000 people have been killed, roughly half of them women and children. Israel says it does not target civilians and accuses Hamas of using civilians as human shields.

Last week, a team of independent experts commissioned by the United Nations accused Israel of deliberately shooting children in Gaza and repeated accusations that Israel has carried out a genocide. Israel called the report a "libelous sham."
Copyright 2026 NPR

The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld a Mississippi law that allows election officials to count mail-in ballots that are postmarked by Election Day but received up to five days after it.

The ruling is a loss for the Republican Party, which brought the case, ahead of this year's midterm elections.

Eighteen states and territories, including Mississippi, have such mail ballot grace periods. Most of the states are Democratic-led, including California, Illinois and New York. A dozen additional states have grace periods for ballots returning from overseas, like from military members.

The court's ruling was 5-4, with Justice Amy Coney Barrett authoring the opinion, joined in the majority by Chief Justice John Roberts and the court's liberal wing of Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

"[T]he election-day statutes require the electorate's choice to be made on election day. That occurs so long as election day is the deadline for individuals to vote—as it is in Mississippi," Barrett wrote. "But the election-day statutes do not set a deadline for ballot receipt, so they do not prevent Mississippi from counting ballots postmarked before election day yet received afterward."

Justice Samuel Alito authored the dissent, writing in part that the "majority's holding spawns a slurry of troubling election-law questions and risks further undermining Americans' confidence in election integrity."

How the battle over grace periods ended up at the Supreme Court

These grace periods have historically provided voters time to get their absentee ballots to officials in case there are any issues with the Postal Service — as well as any other unforeseen issues, such as weather events.

But Republicans have been fighting these grace periods in recent years — an effort led by President Trump.

Ahead of the 2024 election, the Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign filed legal challenges — including one against Mississippi's law — alleging that these grace periods violate the Constitution. They argued that Congress sets the end of an election, not states.

At the time, many of the lawsuits were dismissed by judges across the country, but the conservative 5th Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Republicans, setting up the Supreme Court case.

Trump also signed an executive order last year — which was quickly blocked by lower courts — that required that all votes be received by Election Day during federal elections.

Many state officials, particularly in Democratic-run states with universal mail-in ballot programs, raised concerns about such a requirement.

Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs said in a statement last year that more than 250,000 ballots that had been postmarked on time arrived after Election Day during the 2024 election.

"Had this rule been in effect," he said, "those voices would have been silenced, especially in rural areas where mail delivery can take longer."
Copyright 2026 NPR