Print
From the temporary housing in Los Angeles that he now calls home, Marine Corps veteran Roman Sabal thought back to the moment his whole life changed in 2020.
Standing straight and stiff as his years in the Marines taught him, amid falling snow flurries in late October in El Paso, the formerly deported veteran raised his right hand and repeated the oath to become a U.S. citizen.
Six feet away was the immigration official who had conducted his interview and was now swearing him in. The official was also a veteran, which he proudly acknowledged with the Marine Corps emblem on his tie and face mask.
Election integrity became a hot button issue during and in the wake of the 2020 presidential election. It is a phrase voters have heard a lot since November 3, as Donald Trump and many of his supporters claim widespread fraud took place that denied him re-election.
Lawmakers and advocates who stood by the president and vowed to challenge the election results said they were doing it for the sake of the integrity of the electoral process.
Challenging the legitimacy of elections is becoming more of a norm than many people might realize. John Pudner, executive director of the nonpartisan reform group Take Back Our Republic, noted in an op-ed in the Western Journal that just as many Trump supporters challenged the results and the Electoral College count in 2020, many Democrats and supporters of Hillary Clinton did the same in 2016.
SCHOOL POLICE
Updated
Published
January 11, 2021 4:41 PM
Protestors rallied in front of LAUSD s headquarters during a protest last summer calling on the board to defund the LA School Police. (Chava Sanchez/ LAist)
Last summer, following nationwide protests against police brutality and the death of George Floyd, the L.A. Unified School District Board of Education agreed to cut its school police department’s budget by $25 million. The details such as how to make those cuts, and where to redirect the money were to be figured out soon thereafter.
Now, six months later, the proposal is still in limbo. A discussion on a drafted policy was scheduled for December, but Superintendent Austin Beutner postponed the item to allow more time for feedback from the school community. It was supposed to be taken up again at tomorrow’s board meeting but a revised agenda posted online says the item on School Police Budget Reduction and Reinvestment is “to be withdrawn.”