The Brief

Some 30 years ago, two students from Bell High School fell for each other while bonding over technology and their shared dreams of starting a youth center on the southeast side of Los Angeles County.

At the time, Emma Hernandez and Cesar Zaldivar-Motts were aspiring engineers, but they struggled with the curriculum because they weren’t properly prepared for the in-depth scientific knowledge needed for college-level courses.

Both eventually switched majors — Hernandez studied computer science while Zaldivar-Motts focused on political science — but once they got their degrees, they returned to the community to give back. Zaldivar-Motts is CEO of a regional nonprofit housing organization, and Hernandez leads the Southeast Community Development Corporation.

Cesar Zaldivar-Motts and Emma Hernandez at the Bell Technology Center.

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Now, the couple is finding creative ways to engage kids in STEM at the Bell Technology Center, just two blocks away from where they first met. That includes launching a new six-week academy where students get to build their own ham radio for free and from scratch.

“We're finally pursuing that dream of providing this after school resource,” Zaldivar-Motts said.

Digital divide

The high school sweethearts want to encourage more local teens to become engineers, scientists or even teachers of STEM programs.

Data show the area is among the hardest hit by California’s digital divide, which is the gap between people who have modern digital skills and easy access to technology, and those who do not.

Kids are learning the very basics of how electricity and circuits work.

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Zaldivar-Motts said the class is a “stepping stone to encourage them to explore robotics, 3D printing, computer coding, and other STEM activities.”

"We've learned you can't just lecture to kids," he explained. "We need to excite them in the beginning so they can stay with us long-term.”

Together, the couple welcomes about a dozen middle school and high school-aged students on Saturday mornings for a crash course on electronics. By the end of the six-week academy, the kids and teens will have the basic skills needed for more advanced courses on robotics and computer programming — an opportunity they might not have otherwise gotten at school or at home on the southeast side.

“Many schools don't have the funding to provide these after school programs, to provide an electronics class or a robotics class,” Zaldivar-Motts said. “So as nonprofits, we come in and fill that gap, and help reduce the digital divide that we face here in the community.”

How the academy works

The academy starts with an introduction to amateur radio, also known as ham radio. It’s a licensed radio service that allows people to communicate with each other over the airwaves without using the internet or cell phones.

Instructor Cesar Zaldivar-Motts said the goal is to pique the kids’ interest in STEM.

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Zaldivar-Motts said while it’s an older technology, the goal is to pique the kids’ interest in electronics. But it does have its uses today — like if the internet goes down in an emergency. In an earthquake-prone L.A., it feels especially relevant.

Once they’re hooked, students learn the basics of how electricity and circuits work. They get hands-on training with soldering machines. It can be dangerous work, according to 10-year-old Santiago Ramirez, who recently burned his finger while soldering a wire to a circuit board.

By the end of the six-week academy, the kids and teens will have the basic skills needed for more advanced courses on robotics and computer programming

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“I thought that part wasn’t hot so I touched it,” he said pointing to the soldering iron. “And when you get burned, trust me, you’re going to get white on your finger.”

Santiago and his 11-year-old brother, Sebastian, have been attending classes at the Bell Tech Center for years. Most of the participants are from around the southeast, including 10-year-old Koda Hall. He said he plans to “show off” his radio at school and hopes to become an engineer one day.

Parent Hector Corzo sat with his daughter, Sofia, while she practiced soldering for the first time. He said he wants her to continue to learn new skills, even if she doesn’t plan on becoming an engineer in the future.

“I've always told her to be open minded,” Corzo said. “Because you never know. It’s better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.”

Parent Hector Corzo helps his daughter, Sofia, practice her soldering skills.

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The students managed to assemble a majority of their mini radios by week four of the academy. Zaldivar-Motts said he will start to introduce more advanced concepts and techniques in the Saturdays to come.

“Next week we're going to wrap up the radio building project and then work on Arduino [software] which can control sensors, motors, lights, and measure temperature and distance,” he said.

When asked what the kids might use their new radios for, many said they would show off the project to their classmates.

"Last time I built [one] I showed it to my fourth grade class," Santiago said. "And I talked about it so I was basically my teacher but... about the radio."

Thousands of students from schools across Los Angeles walked out Wednesday in peaceful protest of the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

The Los Angeles Unified School District estimated 4,400 students from about two dozen schools participated.

“ I think it's really empowering that we aren't being discouraged to [protest], but it's also really discouraging to have to live through this,” said Roybal Learning Center senior Melisa. 

“The reason I came out is 'cause we're so young and I feel like people always think that like young people don't have a voice and in reality we have one of the strongest voices,” said Jazlyn Garcia, a senior at  Alliance Gertz-Ressler High School. “I want people to go out and vote for midterms, pre-register to vote.”

Leonna, a senior at Downtown Magnets High School and daughter of immigrants from Cambodia, said she was thinking of her neighbors.  “We need to protect the people that make sure that the economy is running and make sure that our lives are the way that they are every day.”

Students said the Trump administration's immigration raids threaten their families, communities and education.

LAUSD estimated that several thousand students walked out.

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Students said they were concerned for family and neighbors.

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Alexis, a senior at Brío College Prep, said administrators locked down his campus after agents detained a nearby fruit vendor. “He was a part of our community,” Alexis said. “He would always be out there selling fruits to us after school.”

San Fernando Valley students at more than 40 schools plan to walk out Friday.

“Los Angeles Unified supports the rights of our students to advocate for causes important to them,” a district spokesperson wrote in a statement to LAist. “However, we are concerned for student safety at off-campus demonstrations as schools are the safest place for students.”

The district encouraged students to exercise their rights in on-campus discussions and demonstrations.

The University of Southern California board of trustees has appointed interim president Beong-Soo Kim to be its 13th full president.

Kim was named as the interim leader in February 2025 and began the role this summer. He most recently served as USC’s senior vice president and general counsel, and as a lecturer at the law school. Prior to joining USC, he worked at Kaiser Permanente and was a federal prosecutor for the Central District of California.

Kim succeeds Carol Folt, who was brought on to stabilize the university following a series of scandals under the administration before hers. She formally stepped down from her role in July, following criticism of her ability to handle student protests and concerns over fiscal stewardship.

Soon after his term began, Kim oversaw the university’s effort to manage a $200 million deficit, which also led to hundreds of layoffs.

“We did have to make some difficult decisions last year with respect to our budget and layoffs,” Kim told LAist. “And I'm really pleased that as a result of those difficult decisions, we're now in a much stronger financial position and really for a number of months have been really focusing on the opportunities that we see on the horizon.”

In a call with LAist, and joined by USC board chair Suzanne Nora Johnson, Kim touched on bright spots and some of his priorities. He also touched on the relationship between USC and the Trump administration before a sudden ending to the call.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

LAist: You've talked about addressing the mass layoffs and budget challenges. What do you see as the way forward?

Beong-Soo Kim: Our research expenditures have actually been going up over the last year, over the last couple of years. We're focusing on: How do we provide the best possible educational value to our students? We're focusing on how to maintain and strengthen our academic culture of excellence, open dialogue and engagement with different viewpoints.

And we're also really kind of leaning into artificial intelligence and asking questions as a community about how we incorporate AI responsibly into our education, into our operations, into our research. And there are obviously a lot of important ethical questions that we're working on, and it's really an quite an exciting time to be in the position that I'm in.

What are you excited for?

Well, a couple things that we're really looking forward to are, as part of the anniversary of the United States, we're going to be hosting a National Archives exhibition [of] founding documents in late April. We're also looking forward to helping host the L.A. Olympics in 2028. We have our 150th anniversary coming up in 2030 as a university.

So there's a lot that's on the horizon. We also have the Lucas Museum opening up across the street later this year and, of course, George Lucas is one of our most beloved Trojan alumni. So there's so much vitality, so much energy on the campus right now.

USC has, for the most part, avoided the sort of conflicts that the University of California system and elite private institutions across the country have had with the Trump administration. What can you share about how you plan to manage USC’s relationship with the federal government?

Well, we really make an effort to engage with all levels of government, as well as foundations, the private sector, community groups. That kind of engagement is really more important nowadays. Universities can't just go off on their own. It's important for us to partner and find opportunities to work with others. And that's what we've been doing.

And that's part of the reason why I think that our research has continued to go strongly. And I give a lot of the credit to our faculty and researchers who can continue submitting grant applications and continue to do research in areas that are critically important to the benefit of our community, our nation, and our world. And I think that we -—

Suzanne Nora Johnson: —Actually I'm so sorry, but we have to complete the board meeting, and we've got to run. Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it. We'll be in touch. Bye. Thanks. Bye.

Huntington Beach will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review a decision striking down the city’s controversial voter ID law.

What’s the backstory?

Huntington Beach voters approved a measure in 2024 allowing the city to require people to show ID when casting a ballot. That contradicts state law — voters in California are asked to provide ID when they register to vote but generally not at polling places.

The ensuing court battle

The state and a Huntington Beach resident promptly sued the city over the voter ID law and won an appeals court ruling striking down the law. The California Supreme Court declined to review the decision earlier this month. The state also passed a law prohibiting cities from implementing their own voter ID laws.

Then, the City Council voted unanimously this week to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in.

Does the city have a shot?

The Supreme Court gets 7,000 to 8,000 requests to review cases each year. The Court grants about 80 of these requests, so the city’s chances of getting the court’s attention are statistically slim.

There’s also a question of whether or not the city’s voter ID case meets the Court’s criteria for review — SCOTUS addresses questions of federal law. Mayor Casey McKeon said it does, in a news release, noting a 2008 Supreme Court decision that upheld a state’s voter ID law — in Indiana. But Huntington Beach is a city, and the question in its voter ID case is whether or not a city can implement its own requirements for voting, even if it clashes with state law.

Go deeper

• Huntington Beach's controversial voter ID law is illegal
• Huntington Beach clashes with California over voter ID requirement in court
• HB Mayor defends Voter ID measure as Gov. Newsom seeks to ban it
• Listen 26:32

  The Trump Administration wants your confidential voter data. What’s behind their battle with CA and other states?