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Voter ID could be headed to the California ballot. Opponents plan to make it about Trump
CALMATTERS, NADIA LATHAN: "Not long after Steve Clarke found out there was a push to require voter ID at the polls, he began canvassing for signatures in Sacramento.
Many of the residents he encountered were angry, Clarke said. He began volunteering for Reform California, the group behind the initiative, last year after feeling frustrated with homelessness and the cost of living. “They want the same things: Integrity back in our elections.”"
Iran’s threats on U.S. soil: sleeper cells, lone wolves, cyberattacks and eerie numbers code
LAT, RICHARD WINTON: "With U.S. and Israeli forces continuing offensive strikes on Iran, federal counterterrorism authorites are warning that the desperate theocracy could launch retaliatory strikes on American soil using sleeper cells, affiliated Iranian terrorist groups, lone wolf sympathizers or targeted cyberattacks.
Within days of the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Feb. 28, cryptic messages were broadcast globally on a new shortwave radio frequency."
Meet the insurance commissioner candidates: Patrick Wolff
CAPITOL WEEKLY, STAFF: "I have twenty-five years of relevant professional experience. From 2001-2005 I worked at a major bank, where for those four years my job was to build a home and auto insurance brokerage business. Since 2005, I have worked as a financial analyst, analyzing and investing in markets and companies, including insurance.
I spent most of the year 2025 deeply studying our insurance regulations and the role of Insurance Commissioner. Then, shortly after launching my campaign, I took the time last fall to study for and pass my California P&C insurance license exam, in order to deepen my knowledge of the specifics of how P&C insurance operates in the state of California. To my knowledge, I am the first candidate ever to pass this exam during their campaign."
Cardrooms file legal challenge to new gaming regulations
CAPITOL WEEKLY, BRIAN JOSEPH: "Less than a month after California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced new regulations for California’s cardrooms, the cardrooms struck back on Monday filing two lawsuits to block their implementation.
Both filed in San Francisco County Superior Court, the lawsuits seek to invalidate two regulations that combined would significantly change how cardrooms may offer their most popular and profitable games, which the state’s gaming tribes maintain have always been provided illegally."
California cut health care for undocumented immigrants. One lawmaker wants it back
CALMATTERS, KRISTEN HWANG: "Only two Democratic lawmakers voted against Gov. Gavin Newsom’s budget proposal last year curtailing health care for undocumented immigrants. Sen. Maria Elena Durazo was one them.
Now, Durazo, a Democrat from Los Angeles, is proposing legislation that would reverse many of those immigrant health care cuts and reinstate Medi-Cal eligibility for all income-qualifying residents regardless of citizenship."
When a deaf 6-year-old was deported, Rep. Swalwell sent staff to Colombia to deliver hearing aids
LAT, CLARA HARTER: "“What was the sin?” asked Rep. Eric Swallwell on Monday, decrying the deportation of a 6-year-old deaf boy and his family when they showed up for a “routine immigration check.”
The Bay Area Democrat said that his staff had traveled to Colombia to return hearing aids to the boy. According to his family’s attorney, Nikolas De Bremaeker, the boy was separated from the medical devices during the deportation process."
‘ICE stole someone here’: These signs popping up across the Inland Empire tell a story
LAT, KATRINA PORTELA: "Outside Andrea Galván’s Ontario home, two young boys stop on their scooters to watch their neighbor create signs. Galván, an art consultant and activist, is accompanied in her driveway by a group of volunteers passing stencils and aerosol paints around to one another.
“Can we join?” the boys ask."
A conversation with Sanjay Wagle of the California Association of Realtors
CAPITOL WEEKLY, STAFF: "Housing remains the hottest topic in California policy, and our guest today is Sanjay Wagle, who heads up the Governmental Affairs team for the California Association of Realtors. The Realtors’ Gubernatorial Forum was a hot ticket in Sacramento last week, and we discuss the topics raised there, and many others. And, of course we tell you who had the Worst Week in California Politics."
A little-known virus is spreading in Northern California. Here’s what to know
CHRONICLE, AIDIN VAZIRI: "In offices and classrooms across the Bay Area, sick days are piling up again.
But many people testing negative for COVID-19 and the flu may be dealing with something else: a respiratory virus many Americans have likely never heard of — human metapneumovirus, or HMPV."
Survey reveals almost 50% of California teachers may quit teaching soon
LAT, DIANA LAMBERT: "California teachers have slightly better morale on average than their peers in other states, but more are planning to leave the profession in the next decade, according to Education Week’s annual The State of Teaching report.
Teacher morale dipped slightly across the country this year, after some improvement last year, according to the survey of 5,802 U.S. teachers."
California to see unprecedented heat wave in coming days
CHRONICLE, ANTHONY EDWARDS: "One of California’s most startling weather events in recent memory is set to unfold over the next 10 days, a spell that could shatter records by extraordinary margins.
Daily temperature records are a near guarantee. Monthly records are likely. Highs as much as 30 degrees above normal are forecast in parts of California. The first 90- and 100-degree readings of the year might occur more than two months earlier than normal in many cities."
California can’t lead on climate while wild horses disappear
CAPITOL WEEKLY, COLETTE KALUZA: "California calls itself a leader on climate and conservation, but its treatment of wild horses tells a different story: when it comes to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) — a bedrock environmental safeguard — the state is letting these herds wither away.
I have documented federal helicopter-driven roundups across the West for years and worked inside courtrooms and public‑lands planning processes. From that experience, I have seen how often wild horses are left out of the picture. When agencies treat these herds as afterthoughts, NEPA’s promise of informed, transparent decision‑making collapses and clears the way for removal and development."
‘Smells like swamp’: This Wine Country town is fed up with brown tap water
CHRONICLE, JULIE JOHNSON: "In the heart of Napa Valley, St. Helena is home to world-class Cabernet Sauvignon, a historic stone-and-brick downtown and, to locals at least, brown tap water.
Some days, clear water flows from the taps in this city of about 5,250 residents between Napa and Calistoga. But other days, some residents say the water looks more like beer or Chardonnay but with less appealing attributes: Silty. Frothy. Stinky."
What soaring gas prices mean for California’s EV market
LAT, CAROLINE PETROW-COHEN/BIANCA BEGERT: "It has been a bumpy road for the electric vehicle market as declining federal support and plateauing public interest have eaten away at sales.
But EV sellers could soon receive a boost from an unexpected source: The war in Iran is pushing up gas prices."
Homeless mortality is down in L.A. County for the first time in a decade
LAT, DOUG SMITH: "For the first time in the decade that homeless mortality has been tracked in Los Angeles County, fewer people have died on the streets and in shelters, the Department of Public Health reported Tuesday.
A sharp decrease in overdose deaths drove a decline of 10% in the rate of homeless deaths from all causes in 2024, the most recent year of data analyzed by the county."
First look at plans to turn S.F. railyard into high-rise neighborhood with thousands of homes
CHRONICLE, J.K. DINEEN/LAURA WAXMANN: "The owner of the Caltrain railyards at the junction of Mission Bay and the South of Market in San Francisco is slated to file an application Tuesday for a development proposal that would turn the 20-acre property into a dense high-rise neighborhood with a new Caltrain station below an 850-foot skyscraper, thousands of homes and millions of square feet of commercial space.
Prologis, the property owner, is proposing a redevelopment that would total as much as 8 million square feet, with as many as 2,500 housing units and four million square feet of commercial space. It calls for the tower on the corner of Fourth and King Streets, and another high-rise at Seventh and King streets."
L.A.’s eviction defense program up in the air amid battle with city attorney
LAT, NOAH GOLDBERG: "The Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles routinely sues the city — and wins.
In the last two months, the nonprofit has notched victories in three lawsuits over the city’s handling of the homelessness crisis."