Breakfast card: LA choice, Ukrainian bike shop, less time at DMV

Ggood morning, LA It’s March 22nd.

I’m pretty sure she committed voter fraud.

I mean, it was not on purpose. As an 18-year-old, I did not vote in one of the big elections. I mostly voted in hyperlocal races deep inside the woods of Sussex County, New Jersey, a solid red pocket in a largely blue state. To paint the stage for you, the voting machines were set up in a barn.

And the very sweet, older woman who made me vote managed the interface setup – and managed it a little too much.

She reported me to the wrong party and then could not reverse the election, so my voting width was limited. I remember voting for a friend’s dad who shows up at the local office and not much else. Despite considering myself a politically savvy teenager, I was largely in the dark about local issues. I promised to stay better informed in the future.

For those looking to do the same, LAist has you covered. From next month, in partnership with the KRCW, we will have talks with candidates vying to become Los Angeles’ next mayor and member of the LA County Board of Supervisors.

Our “Meet the Candidates” series, part of our Voter Game Plan to help you prepare for the poll, start April 11, when KCRW host Steve Chiotakis speaks with Sen. Henry Stern of California, who is running for LA County Supervisor. On the other side of the ballot paper, my colleague Austin Cross will speak with current LA City Attorney Mike Feuer on April 18, who is running for LA Mayor.

And we want your voice to be heard. Click here to submit your own questions to the candidates and to see the full list of upcoming events.

Keep reading for more on what’s happening in LA today.

What else you need to know today

Before you go … A Whittier bike shop and the war in Ukraine

Oleskii Vishnevskyi, a hardware engineer for Delfast, Inc., works on an e-bike at the company’s Whittier workshop. The company was founded in Ukraine and has most of its employees there.

(Leslie Berestein Rojas

/

LAist)

The modest storefront betrays the action inside. It’s the US headquarters for Delfast, Inc., a company that started in Kiev seven years ago and started calling Whittier home just last year.

Delfast sells e-bikes designed in Ukraine. A country that is still home to many workers. A country that is always in focus for CEO and co-founder Daniel Tonkopi.

“In Ukraine, we have about 40 people,” Tonkopi said. “And some of them are living under attack …[Our social media and content manager]she sleeps on cardboard because she can not sleep in her house because of bombs, because of airstrikes by Putin’s army. “

But there was work to be done. The first few days were filled with shock for Tonkopi, but he knew the company was still going to work. But he never forgets the human impact of Russia’s invasion.

“Every Monday we have a meeting for all our staff just to ask them how are they? Just to hear their voice, to see their faces and just maybe to support [them] somehow, “he said.

Read my colleague Leslie Berestein Rojas’ full piece about the Whittier bike shop here.