Both sides say democracy is at stake with Prop. 50 — but for very different reasons
LAT, SEEMA MEHTA: "If the ads are any indication, Proposition 50 offers Californians a stark choice: “Stick it to Trump” or “throw away the constitution” in a Democratic power grab.
And like so many things in 2025, Trump appears to be the galvanizing issue."
To beat the election day rush: Here’s how to vote today in California
LAT, RONG-GONG LIN II: "In Los Angeles County alone, there are 251 vote centers that will be open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Monday. (They’ll also be open again on Tuesday, election day, from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.) At vote centers, you can vote in person, drop off your vote-by-mail ballot, or even register to vote and cast a same-day provisional ballot, which will be counted after officials verify the registration.
“Avoid the rush,” said Dean Logan, the L.A. County registrar-recorder/county clerk. “Make a plan to vote early.”"
Will California’s Prop. 50 spark a Democratic wave to redraw congressional maps?
Sac Bee, DAVID LIGHTMAN: "When California becomes the main event this week in the nationwide civil war over redrawing congressional maps, one big set of statistics will be closely watched Tuesday night around the country: The numbers for and against Proposition 50.
The sound bite, the X post, the headline that emerges to instantly describe what happened with the state referendum on redrawing congressional district lines to favor Democrats will reverberate around the political world."
California Democrats made Prop. 50 about Trump. Polls show it’s working as voting ends
CALMatters, MAYA C. MILLER: "A day before voting ends for Proposition 50, California voters appear poised to approve Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to gerrymander the state’s congressional districts in Democrats’ favor.
Recent opinion polls show strong support for the Yes side. Newsom’s campaign is flooding the airwaves with star-studded advertisements and drowning out its opponents’ faint final pitch to voters. And the governor has even asked supporters to back off on donations, as the influx of contributions was crashing the state’s campaign finance website."
Listen: The blueprint for the national immigration raids came from California
CALMatters, ANDREW DONOHUE: "Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino has emerged as one of the central figures in the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign. Now, CalMatters has teamed up with Latino USA to tell the story of Bovino and the aggressive immigration raids he’s leading in California and beyond.
CalMatters’ Sergio Olmos and Latino USA’s Maria Hinojosa and Fernanda Echavarri take listeners along as they document raids from Bakersfield to Los Angeles to Chicago. Listeners will also hear the story of Mauricio Oropeza, who was arrested while taking the bus home from work the first weekend of the Los Angeles raids and later deported. The reporters tracked Oropeza down in Mexico and visited his mother, who’s still in Los Angeles."
She helped get her violent husband deported. Then ICE deported her — straight into his arms.
LAT, RACHEL URANGA: "Carmen’s abusive husband came home drunk one night last summer. He pounded and kicked the door. He threatened to kill her as her young son watched in horror. She called police, eventually obtaining a restraining order. Months later he returned and beat her again. Police came again and he was eventually deported.
Thinking she finally escaped his cruelty, Carmen applied for what is known as a U-Visa. The visa provides crime victims a way to stay in the United States legally, but the Trump administration has routinely ignored pending applications."
READ MORE -- U.S. citizen shot from behind as he warned ICE agents about children gathering at bus stop, lawyers say -- LAT, RACHEL URANGA
Retired Supreme Court Justice Kennedy reflects on cases, politics, Sacramento boyhood
Sac Bee, SHARON BERNSTEIN: "The conservative jurist whose powerful belief in individual liberty shaped some of most influential U.S. Supreme Court rulings of the past 40 years has blue eyes that flash and sparkle as he looks at you, and a life story that outlines the history, culture and politics of Sacramento, his beloved hometown.
Also, Anthony M. Kennedy, the last U.S. Supreme Court Justice to be unanimously confirmed by the Senate, does a mean imitation of the guy who tapped him for the court, former U.S. President and California Gov. Ronald Reagan."
From California to Texas, alarm grows over plan to cut federal hospital preparedness funds
Chronicle, DON THOMPSON: "President Donald Trump’s push to eliminate a federal disaster preparedness program has prompted concern among state health officials, from Republican-led Texas to the Democratic stronghold of California.
The Hospital Preparedness Program was created more than two decades ago in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York City’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and the deadly anthrax attacks that began days later. The fund has provided nearly $2.2 billion to states, territories, major cities and other entities over the past 17 years to ready health care systems for the next pandemic, cyberattack or mass-casualty event."
SNAP freeze, grocery prices have Sacramento-area food banks busy to start November
Sac Bee, WILLIAM MELHADO: "Rising food costs, the federal government shutdown and the threat of SNAP benefits expiring have created the perfect story of financial hardship for low-income Californians, and it’s forcing more families to seek assistance at local food banks.
The need was apparent at the Elk Grove Food Bank Services, which saw a record number of new customers this week, Executive Director Marie Jachino said. The surge in demand threatened to overwhelm some Sacramento-area food banks."
‘I am declining fast’: Bay Area creator of Dilbert begs Trump for help with Kaiser treatment
Chronicle, DAVID HERNANDEZ: "Dilbert comic strip creator and Bay Area resident Scott Adams posted a public plea Sunday to President Donald Trump for help getting cancer treatment at Kaiser Permanente.
“On it,” Trump wrote in response a few hours later."
Head Start programs begin closing in California due to shutdown
CALMatters, CAROLYN JONES: "One California Head Start program has closed and three others face imminent closure due to the federal government shutdown, affecting about 1,000 very-low-income children and 270 teachers.
The closures would leave families scrambling for child care and teachers without income. The longer the shutdown drags on, the more programs are at risk of shuttering."
How UC Berkeley is preparing for Turning Point’s final tour stop after Charlie Kirk’s death
CALMatters, ELLA CARTER-KLAUSCHIE/MARTIN ROMERO: "Two months after conservative advocate Charlie Kirk’s assassination during a tour stop at a Utah university, his organization, Turning Point USA, will conclude its “American Comeback Tour” at UC Berkeley on Nov. 10 with heightened security.
Turning Point USA is a nonprofit organization that seeks to promote conservative values on high school and college campuses. It was co-founded by Kirk and his late mentor, Bill Montgomery, in 2012."
California storm to bring strong winds, widespread rain to parts of state
Chronicle, ANTHONY EDWARDS: "After a warm, dry weekend across Northern California, wet weather is forecast to return this week. Widespread rain and the strongest winds so far this season are predicted in the Bay Area, North Coast, Sacramento Valley and Sierra Nevada as an atmospheric river-fueled storm sweeps through the region.
The parent storm, a broad low-pressure system over the Pacific Ocean, will be nearly 1,000 miles northwest of San Francisco, but its counterclockwise spin will guide a long plume of water vapor from near Hawaii toward California. Scientifically, this is known as an atmospheric river, a common feature of West Coast storms."
LAT, NOAH HAGGERTY: "Late last month, California fire officials made a courtesy call to Los Angeles.
The state’s proposed Zone Zero regulations that would force homeowners to create an ember-resistant zone around their houses — initially planned to take effect nearly three years ago — had caused an uproar in the region. It was time for damage control."
Bay Area billionaire list: Here’s where the 20 richest people live
Chronicle, HANNAH ZAKHARENKO: "Many of the wealthiest people in the world live in the Bay Area.
Four of the top 10 richest people in the world reside in one of the Bay Area’s nine counties, according to Forbes 2025 Billionaires List. The list, released annually since 1987 and updated in real time, tracks over 3,000 billionaires worldwide. We analyzed the top of this list to find the 20 richest people that reside in the Bay Area, according to Forbes."
California housing advocates throw San Francisco party. What did they celebrate?
Sac Bee, STEPHEN HOBBS: "A spotlight illuminated and the DJ lowered the bass-thumping music, when Brian Hanlon stepped up to the stage in the San Francisco event space.
“Welcome to the most victorious of California YIMBY’s victory parties,” said Hanlon, CEO of the organization that aims to speed up home building in the state. The crowd of more than 100 people, many clutching drinks from the open bar, roared in approval."
California prisoners sleep with ‘one eye open’. Should they have their own cells?
CALMatters, JOE GARCIA: "If you’re serving hard time inside a California prison, you’ll often find yourself stuck in a cramped cell with a complete stranger. You hang a bedsheet to manufacture the semblance of privacy between bed and toilet. Any little thing can erupt into a source of tension and angst – body odor, snoring, lights on or off.
Each moment becomes a test to avoid confrontation or brawling. With no immediate help from officers, the fear and anxiety festers inside you. And day by day, your mental health deteriorates."
These Muni trains hit S.F. streets when ‘Friends’ and Boyz II Men were hot. Now they’re retiring
Chronicle, RACHEL SWAN: "Muni rolled out its first Breda trains when Boyz II Men’s “On Bended Knee” was the hottest song on the radio and “the Rachel” haircut was, unironically, in style.
The light rail trains, gray with winking signs on the front cab, and iconic worm logos on the side doors, were cutting-edge for their time. They arrived at San Francisco bus yards on Jan. 12, 1995, assembled partly in Italy but with final tinkering at Pier 80, a shipyard in Potrero Hill."
Waymo killed KitKat. California neighborhood mourns a corner-store cat
LAT, RONG-GONG LIN II: "San Francisco has been mourning the death of KitKat, a beloved corner-store cat who died after being struck by a Waymo robotaxi last week.
KitKat graced the counters of Randa’s Market on 16th Street, near the historic Roxie Theater in the Mission District. KitKat was first introduced on the store’s Instagram page six years ago, quickly winning over the hearts of customers. He wasn’t a surly or suspicious cat — he could be seen playing with someone’s dangling hoodie drawstrings; snoozing in front of shelves with liquor bottles; inside a cardboard box marked with his name; greeting the neighborhood dogs; even dressing up as Santa Claus."