Local Elections

In 1986, lawmakers decided the problem of illegal immigration had to be dealt with. More than 3 million people were living in the United States after crossing the border illegally or overstaying their visas. A new law signed by President Ronald Reagan gave legal status and a path to citizenship to most of those unauthorized residents - helping many secure a slice of the American dream but also giving fuel to critics who sought to turn "amnesty" into a pejorative. Less than 30 years later, the number of immigrants living in the country illegally is thought to have nearly quadrupled, and the freighted baggage of amnesty looms over new efforts to reform the nation's immigration laws.

Three weeks after the Los Angeles primary election, the city will announce the final vote count Tuesday in races for mayor, City Council and other local offices. For candidates in an Eastside council race, the final tally for the primary could make the difference between outright victory or a runoff on May 21. The initial result found former state Sen. Gil Cedillo falling less than a percentage point below the majority that a candidate needs to avoid a runoff. If Cedillo fails to exceed 50% in the final count, his runoff opponent will be Jose Gardea, chief of staff to Councilman Ed Reyes.

Redondo Beach CITY COUNCIL A runoff election to fill a District 3 vacancy created by the resignation of Marcia Martin. 5 of 5 precincts. Vote William R. (Bill) Mona 663 Steve Colin 760

Next month, Los Angeles voters will go to the polls in a first round of balloting to elect a new mayor and other city officials. The election is taking place just four months after the presidential balloting, which means that Angelenos have been caught in a months-long cycle of nonstop electioneering. No sooner was the presidential election over than a new round of debates, television commercials and mailers started up for the city election. It's no wonder that only a small fraction of registered voters will cast ballots this March.

As he is quick to point out, President Obama is presiding over two wars, a sour economy and an epic fight to rework the nation's healthcare system. Now tack on a trio of state and local political races. With an off-year election fast approaching, Obama is stepping up his commitment to Democratic candidates in hopes that an infusion of campaign charisma might pump up turnout. What the party is finding, though, is that the electricity of 2008 is tough to recapture. Some Democratic candidates running for local office around the country call the phenomenon the "Obama Hangover."

A stylish crowd waited beneath a flashing marquee outside the Fonda Theatre. "Appearing tonight!" the sign read. "Eric Garcetti 4 Mayor. " In a city where political campaigns are typically waged at neighborhood meetings, not Hollywood concert halls, last week's star-studded fundraiser for Garcetti highlighted the entertainment industry's outsized role in this year's mayoral race. Talk show host Jimmy Kimmel started the show with a stand-up routine and musician Moby got the crowd of several hundred dancing.

Lena Dunham did too vote, ya big meanies! Even if a New York politics blog thought it had uncovered proof that she didn't. "Hey kids, some people on the internet are saying I didn't vote. Some of them are still mad I used a sexy metaphor re: voting. Read on," the "Girls" star and creator tweeted Thursday. "Some people" would refer to New York politics blog Room 8 - later picked up by larger outlets - which on Wednesday revisited Dunham's suggestive ad about her "first time" voting for Barack Obama and then declared that Dunham hadn't had, well, a "second time.

HEBRON, West Bank - Stumping for votes in the first Palestinian election since 2006, Hebron City Council aspirant Maysoun Qawasmi strides into a plastics factory to promote the West Bank's first all-female political party. The 43-year-old candidate begins wooing executives, listening to workers' concerns and promising reform. She predicts that her list of candidates will shake up the conservative Islamist-leaning city, where women rarely take center stage. "We are seeing the same people running, and they aren't offering anything new," says the journalist, who comes from a well-connected family.

MOSCOW - Russia's Foreign Ministry on Wednesday said that the U.S. Agency for International Development was being barred from operating in the country beginning Oct. 1 because it had meddled in elections. The statement followed a State Department announcement the day before that USAID had been ordered out after operating in Russia for two decades. The U.S. agency had strayed from "the declared goals of assisting the development of bilateral humanitarian cooperation," Alexander Lukashevich, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, said in a statement posted on the ministry's website.

Local elected officials can vote to appoint themselves to paid positions on government boards, the state ethics watchdog panel decided Thursday, changing a rule that addresses conflict-of-interest accusations against dozens of city council members in Orange County. The state Fair Political Practices Commission voted 3 to 2 to exempt local elected officials from conflict rules that prevented them from voting on their own paid appointments and instead required that information about the boards be posted on the Internet, including the amount members are paid.

Local elections were held across Syria on Monday even as opposition activists said government forces were continuing their violent crackdown against dissent and clashing with insurgents. President Bashar Assad's government had promoted the poll as part of a series of reforms in response to months of anti-government protests, saying steps had been taken to allow more people to run and to avoid fraud. But opposition activists dismissed Monday's vote as a charade, saying they wanted nothing short of Assad's removal.

Three Compton residents are suing the city under the California Voting Rights Act, contending that the city's elections are stacked against Latino candidates. The complaint filed Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court alleges that the at-large elections for City Council seats have the effect of diluting the Latino vote. Three Compton voters ? Felicitas Gonzalez, Karmen Grimaldi and Flora Ruiz ? filed the suit against the city and City Clerk Alita Godwin. City Atty. Craig Cornwell declined to comment.

The airwaves here have been saturated with brutal ads about the U.S. Senate race in recent weeks. But few are coming from the actual candidates. Instead, Colorado's Senate contest has the dubious distinction of having the greatest amount of money being spent this year by outside interest groups. Since a Supreme Court ruling this year that corporations and unions can give unlimited funds to such groups, "independent expenditures" have increased sevenfold nationwide compared with the last midterm election, in 2006.