The Brief

Three in 10 people now say that Americans may have to resort to violence to get the country back on track, according to a new NPR/PBS News/Marist poll.

To be sure, a strong majority disagree with that (70%), but the 30% who now say violence may be necessary is up 11 points since April 2024, an increase driven by Democrats. Eighteen months ago, just 12% of Democrats agreed; now, 28% do.

But, still, a slightly higher percentage of Republicans — 31% — also say Americans may have to resort to violence. That's also up 3 points since last year. (Independents have also increased from 18% to 25%.)

The findings come after a string of high-profile acts of political violence, including the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk last month.

Three-quarters of people — 77% — described political violence as a major concern. Respondents are split, however, on whether they're more concerned with violence toward public officials (49%) or protesters (50%).

Here, there's a very sharp political divide — 70% of Democrats said protesters, 74% of Republicans said public officials.

The survey of more than 1,400 people nationwide was conducted over five days last week. Respondents were reached in various ways, by phone, cell and landline, online and via text in both English and Spanish. It has a +/- 3.1 percentage point margin of error, meaning results could be roughly 3 points higher or lower.

The survey was wide-ranging, showing that:

• Most think the country is going in the wrong direction.
• A majority of respondents believe the country has gone too far in restricting free speech.
• There's a sharp partisan divide on whether the National Guard should be deployed to cities to curb crime.
• The overwhelming majority believe children should be vaccinated before being allowed to go to school.
• Controlling gun violence is more important than protecting gun rights.
• And the files on the late financier/convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein should be released.

Americans still sour on direction of the country, but partisanship is notable

By a 62%-to-38% margin, respondents said they believe the country is headed in the wrong direction.

But, with Donald Trump as president, Republicans are far more positive about the direction of the country compared to last year when Joe Biden was president.

Consider that in an October 2024 New York Times/Siena poll that asked a similar question, 9 in 10 Republicans said the country was headed in the wrong direction. Now, almost 8 in 10 said it's going in the right direction.

The reversal was evident with Democrats, too, but not quite as sharply. In October, 54% of Democrats thought the country was headed in the right direction. Now, 90% say it's going the wrong way.

Independents feel similarly to the way they did last year, but are 6 points higher in saying the country is headed in the wrong direction now (68%).

A whopping 79% think the country has gone too far in restricting speech.

That crosses political lines, with 88% of Democrats, 86% of independents and 64% of Republicans saying so.

People also believe the federal government should play a minimal role in regulating speech. Just 15% said they think the government should play a major role in doing so. Another 44% said it should only play a minor role, and 41% said it should play no role at all.

The numbers were similar across political parties, but with Trump as president Republicans were more likely than Democrats or independents to say the government should play a major role — 22% of Republicans said that, while just 13% of Democrats and 11% of independents agreed.

Respondents also said by a wide margin that the Supreme Court should be responsible for defining what speech is considered unacceptable or too extreme — 62% said that compared to 26% for Congress and 11% for the president.

There was a sharp partisan split on support for the deployment of the National Guard in local communities to reduce crime or assist local law enforcement.

Overall, by a 52%-47% margin, respondents said they support it in trying to reduce crime, but three-quarters of Democrats oppose the effort (60% strongly). A majority of independents (56%) also oppose, but 89% of Republicans are in favor.

The numbers were nearly identical on assisting law enforcement.

Wide support for requiring vaccines for children before entering school, but not as strongly among Republicans

The overwhelming majority — 82% — support requiring children to be vaccinated against certain diseases, such as measles, mumps and rubella, before attending public school.

That includes 71% of Republicans, but they believe so far less strongly than Democrats and independents. For example, 77% of those who voted for Democrat Kamala Harris in 2024 felt strongly that children should be vaccinated, while only 30% of Trump voters did.

Most say controlling gun violence is more important than protecting gun rights

Roughly 6 in 10 said they believe that controlling gun violence is more important than protecting gun rights. But, like on many issues, Democrats and independents feel one way — 90% and 63%, respectively, said controlling gun violence is more important — while Republicans overwhelmingly feel another way. Three-quarters of Republicans said protecting gun rights is more important.

There was a notable split, however, among a key Trump base group — white voters without college degrees. White men without degrees were 58% in favor of protecting gun rights, a majority white women without degrees (56%), on the other hand, said controlling gun violence was more important.

High disapproval of Trump's handling of the Epstein files

By a 61%-20% margin, respondents said they disapprove of how the Trump administration is handling the files related to the death of Jeffrey Epstein, the late financier and convicted sex offender who died by suicide while in prison six years ago.

That included almost 9 in 10 Democrats and 7 in 10 independents. Republicans, though, were more split — 45% approved, 25% didn't and 30% said they don't know enough to say.

But two-thirds of Republicans (and 77% of respondents overall) said they support releasing all the files with the names of victims redacted. So they appear to be giving Trump the benefit of the doubt to do what they think should happen — eventually.

Copyright 2025 NPR

The Trump administration is making it easier to deport immigrants protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA.

A new precedent decision published Friday by the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) says being a DACA recipient is not enough reason to provide relief from deportation.

A three-judge panel of appellate immigration judges sided with Department of Homeland Security lawyers who appealed a decision from immigration judge Michael Pleters terminating removal proceedings for Catalina "Xóchitl" Santiago, citing Santiago's active DACA status. They sent the case back to a different immigration judge for review.

Although the decision does not mean Santiago will be immediately deported, it potentially weakens DACA protections for hundreds of thousands of others.

Santiago's case gained national attention after she was detained by Customs and Border Protection officers while boarding a domestic flight at the El Paso airport in August. She was placed in immigration detention until a federal judge granted her release last October. She has been fighting the threat of deportation in the immigration court system since.

The BIA is an administrative court within the Justice Department. After a case is heard by an immigration judge, both the immigrant and DHS have the right to appeal that decision to the BIA. BIA's public decisions set the precedent and tone for how immigration judges nationwide should make decisions and how the general public should interpret immigration law and policy. Friday's order is the latest step by the Trump administration to strip away protections from DACA recipients.

"For over a decade, DACA has endured relentless, politically motivated attacks," said Juliana Macedo do Nascimento, deputy director of Advocacy and Campaigns at United We Dream, an organization fighting for the rights of immigrants.

"This decision is yet another step in dismantling the program without the government taking responsibility for ending it outright. ... This is a quiet rollback of protections, and our communities are paying the price in real time."

The BIA order, which is technically known as an interim decision, notes that DHS argued Pleters, the immigration judge, should be recused from the case because he is married to Democratic Rep. Veronica Escobar of Texas, who has been outspoken about DACA issues on Capitol Hill, this case specifically and whose district includes El Paso. Neither the judge nor Escobar is identified by name in the interim order.

The BIA did not sustain DHS' appeal based on that argument, however, instead saying that "the Immigration Judge erred" by basing his decision to terminate removal proceedings solely on Santiago's DACA status.

DACA, created in 2012 to protect children who arrived in the country illegally prior to 2007 from deportation, now covers around a half-million people. Starting last year, DHS officials began urging DACA recipients to self-deport, arguing that the program itself does not equate to automatically providing legal status.

The DACA program is meant to offer temporary protection from deportation but is not an immediate path to citizenship or a green card. Participants have to renew their protection every two years.

This second Trump administration has tried to strip 505,000 DACA recipients, also known as Dreamers, of benefits, though no regulatory changes have been made to end the program. Last year, the Department of Health and Human Services said it would make DACA recipients ineligible for the federal health care marketplace and the Education Department said it was looking into five universities that offer financial help for DACA recipients.

In a letter to senators earlier this year, then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said that between January and November of last year, 261 DACA recipients were arrested and 86 were removed from the country.

In the letter, Noem reiterated that DACA is temporary.

"It comes with no right or entitlement to remain in the United States indefinitely," she wrote.

DHS did not respond to an immediate request for comment on whether active DACA recipients are at risk of removal.

Board of Immigration Appeals underscores Trump's policies

Over the last year, attorneys with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who represent DHS in immigration court, have increasingly appealed more decisions to the BIA.

According to a recent NPR analysis, BIA decisions backed government lawyers in 97% of publicly posted cases last year; that's at least 30 percentage points higher than the average over the past 16 years.

The board's decisions have made it harder for immigration courts to offer immigrants bond in lieu of detention. It's eased the way to deport migrants to countries other than their own. And a new proposed regulation would make it harder for people to appeal their immigration decisions at all.

All these actions over the last year came as the board pumped out 70 published decisions, a record number of precedent-setting cases.

Immigration courts are housed within the Executive Office for Immigration Review, or EOIR, at the Justice Department. They are not a part of the judiciary.

Two L.A. Unified school unions voted to approve their new contracts Friday night.

Members of United Teachers Los Angeles, which represents 37,00 teachers and other personnel, will get a nearly 14% raise, plus paid parental leave for the first time ever.

According to the union, 92% of eligible members voted yes.

The final 2-year deal includes:

• Updated salary scales
• Average salary increase of 13.86%, with a minimum increase of 8% 
• More than 450 new PSAs, PSWs, school psychologists and counselor positions 
• Special education agreement with first-ever 20:1 ratio for RST and planning time at schools, with 80% of students in general ed setting for 80% of the day  
• Protections and right to bargain over subcontracting and AI 
• Healthcare for substitutes after 93 days of work 

Separately, members of AALA/TEAMSTER also ratified their new two-year contract Friday night, which includes a 12% wage increase. The union represents 3,000 L.A. Unified principals and administrators.

The final deal includes:

• A 12.15% wage increase
• A defined eight-hour workday and a 40-hour workweek
• Flex time with notice and no pre-approval

What's next

Next step is a vote by the LAUSD board.

One more to go

Meanwhile, members of SEIU Local 99 will start voting today through early May. That union represents bus drivers, cafeteria workers, classroom aides and other school support staff.

The tentative deal promises to bring their 30,000 members a 24% pay increase and expanded healthcare access. 

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Inglewood police officers could soon be outfitted with body-worn cameras.

The Inglewood City Council will vote Tuesday on a $6.3 million purchase from police tech company Axon to kit out the city’s police department with body cameras as well as drones, Tasers and 98 stationary Automated License Plate Recognition devices, known commonly as ALPRs. 

Activists have been calling for Inglewood police to wear body cameras since Bryan Bostic’s unexplained death in police custody March 10. Video of the incident captured by a bystander shows police pinning Bostic to the ground. Investigations by the offices of the L.A. County District Attorney into the police use of force and L.A. County Medical Examiner into Bostic’s cause of death are ongoing. 

The city says it has been researching the tech additions, including the body cameras, since last August, and the police department began chasing grants for body-worn cameras and drones in January. 

The L.A. Police Department began widely using body cameras in 2015, followed by the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department in 2020. 

Activist Najee Ali, who has helped coordinate recent demonstrations calling for Inglewood officers to wear body cameras, said the devices would be a game-changer.

“We are optimistic this is going to happen,” Ali said. “Certainly this is long overdue.” 

Ali said activists had been planning to put forward a city ballot initiative to mandate police body cameras. He remains concerned about how the city will set police body camera policy. 

City staff wrote in meeting documents that the new tech would enhance the department’s capacity ahead of a string of mega-events — including this summer’s FIFA World Cup, the 2027 Super Bowl and the 2028 Olympics. 

The city has not yet finalized contract terms with Axon. Councilmembers could vote Tuesday to authorize city staff to wrap up negotiations and execute a final agreement. 

The city estimated Inglewood could pay an average of $1.3 million annually over the life of a five-year agreement with Axon, which would provide software platforms along with the new equipment. 

Here’s the tech that comes in the package

The package would include body cameras as well as new Tasers, meeting documents indicate. The Inglewood Police Department has 186 sworn officers, according to the city website. 

Twenty-five vehicles would be outfitted with Fleet 3 video cameras that can automatically read and look up vehicle license plates. The ALPR tech will also be rolled out via 98 stationary cameras affixed to light posts and mounted in other locations.

Stationary ALPRs scan license plates and log a vehicle’s location at a given time. Police tout their ability to rapidly locate stolen vehicles or fleeing suspects. Critics say they lack oversight and that their data can be too broadly shared, including with federal immigration agents.

The devices Inglewood is purchasing also have livestream video capability, according to Axon’s website. 

The city will also get a total of seven camera drones, including the Skydio 10 and its indoor-focused cousin, the Skydio R10. 

How to make your voice heard

The Inglewood City Council meets at 2 p.m. Tuesday in Inglewood City Hall, 1 W. Manchester Blvd. Members of the public will have an opportunity to comment on the proposed purchase ahead of the city council’s vote.  

Limited seating is available in council chambers. Members of the public have been directed to watch proceedings and deliver public comment from an overflow room during some recent meetings.

If people can’t make the meeting, they may submit written comments to the city clerk at athompson@cityofinglewood.org, or to the deputy city clerk at dwesley@cityofinglewood.org.

Comments must be submitted by 8 a.m. Tuesday in order to be distributed to councilmembers ahead of the meeting. 

Full meeting documents are available at cityofinglewood.org.

Staff with The Plant Chica were busy the day before the event receiving, labeling and preparing indoor plants at the open-air shop in Leimert Park. The company’s co-founder, Sandra Mejia, said everyone should have a plant in their home.

“Plants aren't necessarily something that people are going out of their way to buy,” she said.

And many people who’ve come to her adopt-a-plant events have never had plants in their homes and, therefore, have not experienced what it’s like to take care of a plant and see it grow.

“If we're giving them out for free, then people come and they take them, and then now they're plant people,” which means, she said, that some become advocates for more plants indoors and outdoors as well as public green space.

The giveaways have grown

Mejia’s first plant giveaway started in her home, she said, in 2018. It was an effort to clear out the less popular plants. It didn’t go so well, but after she moved it to her shop, which has been in several locations around South L.A., near where she was raised by Salvadoran parents, the plant giveaway has grown.

Her family first instilled a love of plants, and she keeps them involved.

“My dad is at home right now, printing the information sheet for the plant so people know how to take care of the plants, and he's cutting them for me,” Mejia said.

Some of the plants are donated by local greenhouses and the rest are paid for, about $2,500 she said, out of her business’ marketing budget.

Staff at The Plant Chica, Philip Bucknor and Odessey Osteen-Diluca

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Adolfo Guzman-Lopez

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LAist

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What kind of plants are we talking about

The giveaway includes philodendrons, like pink princess, which are good starter plants because they’re low maintenance, tradescantia plants, which have green and purple leaves, as well as prayer plants, whose scientific name is maranta leuconeura. These get their nickname from the opening of their leaves during the day and closing at night, like hands in prayer.

“Everybody deserves a plant that's cleaning the oxygen around them. Everybody should have some sort of thumb in the green somewhere,” said Philip Bucknor, who started out as DJ at events for The Plant Chica and began working for the shop last year with the unofficial title of “vibe curator.”

That includes helping people through a feeling he hears a lot — “I don’t want to kill the plant.”

“My thing is helping people understand the right plant for them and not overthinking these tasks of taking care of a plant,” he said.

That means, he said, don’t overdo watering, be chill and feel your plant’s vibe.

He’s set to do that with people who come to the plant giveaway Saturday.