Is Harris or Trump leading with early voters in swing states? Poll finds ‘sea change’
Sacramento Bee's BRENDAN RASCIUS: "Former President Donald Trump is narrowly leading Vice President Kamala Harris with early voters in battleground states, new polling reveals.
In the latest Harvard CAPS/Harris poll, 48% of early voters in battleground states said they voted for Trump, while 47% said they voted for Harris. Five percent said they chose someone else or haven’t yet voted."
Here are 4 campaign promises from Harris. What are their chances if she wins?
LAT's HAILEY BRANSON-POTTS: "As she runs the most truncated presidential campaign in modern American history, Vice President Kamala Harris has made lofty promises on issues that polls show voters care most about: the economy, abortion, gun policy and immigration.
Since President Biden dropped out of the race in July, Harris has tried to lay out her policy proposals, walking a fine line in embracing the work she has done as part of the Biden administration and making the case that she would do more than both her current boss and former President Trump to improve people’s lives and livelihoods."
Here are 4 campaign promises from Trump. What are their chances if he wins?
LAT's HAILEY BRANSON-POTTS: "As he runs his third campaign as the Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump has kept up a dizzying schedule of rallies, news conferences, public appearances and media interviews.
His meandering public speeches have, in recent months, grown longer, more tangential, and darker in tone."
Kamala Harris is venturing into the Fox (News) den. What she can learn from Gavin Newsom
The Chronicle's JOE GAROFOLI: "Kamala Harris may be keeping her old pal Gavin Newsom and his association as the leader of “radical” California at arm’s length in the waning days of the campaign, but she could learn something from him as she prepares to enter another radical territory: her first Fox News interview. Newsom has become a master at Fox-talking, and his experiences swimming in the Sea of Alternative Facts is instructional for any Democrat not named Pete Buttigieg, who is equally masterful.
Those old enough to remember when Newsom was a top national surrogate for Joe Biden recall that his superpower was to do something Biden couldn’t: fearlessly appear on conservative media outlets like Fox and ably defend his policies. In the course of doing so over the past year, Newsom struck up a bromance with Fox commentator and Chief Trump Sock Puppet Sean Hannity. Hannity appreciated that Newsom, unlike other timid Democrats, would enter the belly of the conservative beast, and showed some spunk in doing so."
Elon Musk hoped Trump would ‘sail into the sunset.’ Now he works frenetically to elect him
LAT's LAURA J. NELSON, JAMES RAINEY: "While he was building rockets and electric cars and becoming the world’s richest man, Elon Musk mostly stayed out of politics, donating relatively modest amounts to candidates from both parties and voting for Democrats for president, including Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
But Musk’s political restraint has vanished over the last two years as the magnate pivoted to using his vast wealth, celebrity and outsize online presence to become one of former President Trump’s most visible and deep-pocketed champions."
California GOP lawmaker defends Elon Musk, accuses Coastal Commission of playing politics
Sacramento Bee's ANDREW SHEELER: "California Assemblyman Bill Essayli, R-Corona, is riding to conservative billionaire Elon Musk’s defense, after the California Coastal Commission last week rejected a SpaceX proposal to increase the number of rocket launches from the Central Coast’s Vandenberg Space Force Base in part based on Musk’s social media posting history.
Musk has threatened to sue the commission for violating his First Amendment protections."
Democrats try to link Central Valley House Republican to Project 2025. Is it fair?
Sacramento Bee's KATHLEEN QUINN: "The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee placed a billboard in California Congressional District 13 hoping to tie House Republican John Duarte to the controversial “Project 2025.”
“I have not read and I do not endorse Project 2025,” Duarte said in a response to the Bee."
Will Gavin Newsom-backed legislation lower California gas prices? Experts are skeptical
Sacramento Bee's DAVID LIGHTMAN: "Gov. Gavin Newsom boasts that thanks to legislation he signed this week, “We now have the ability to address those price spikes” in gasoline.
“This was a profound and consequential effort to reduce the costs of working people in the state of California,” he said.."
After prison, these California women want to fight fires. Watch them graduate from academy
Sacramento Bee's SHARON BERNSTEIN: "Britaney Gomez was 16 years old and high on weed — as she was most days back then — when she crashed her car in her hometown of Modesto seven years ago, killing two people.
She went to prison, serving out most of a 12-year sentence at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla."
California ballot measure promises ‘mass treatment’ for drug crimes. Can counties provide it?
CALMatters's CAYLA MIHALOVICH: "Proposition 36, the tough-on-crime ballot measure that would increase punishment for certain drug and theft offenses, appears likely to pass with polls showing voter support by large margins.
Its momentum has behavioral health leaders across California trying to figure out how they’d actually implement a part of the measure that pledges “a new era of mass treatment for those who need it the most.”"
Abortion isn’t on the ballot in California, but state candidates can’t stop talking about it
CALMatters's ALEXEI KOSEFF: "A campaign spot flooding TV airwaves in the Sacramento region this election season warns that the incumbent Republican Assemblymember is “backed by anti-abortion extremists” who “know he’ll back their dangerous, anti-choice agenda.”
Residents of the northern Los Angeles suburbs might find their YouTube videos begin with an ominous pre-roll ad declaring the GOP challenger to the local Assemblymember is “too dangerous for our community” because he “would ban abortion.”"
Watch Today: Join us for ‘California Propositions Explained,’ a virtual panel discussion
Sacramento Bee's NICOLE NIXON: "Ballot propositions are a complex – and ubiquitous – aspect of California elections.
In November, the state will vote on 10 propositions, covering a range of issues. These ballot questions often result in coalitions – and opponents – that don’t fall neatly among party or ideological lines. Voters may need to do a bit more research on propositions to figure out how they want to vote."
Suspects in City Hall audio leak won’t be charged with misdemeanors
LAT's JAMES QUEALLY, DAKOTA SMITH, DAVID ZAHNISER: "Two people who were suspected of illegally recording a conversation between four Latino political leaders that sparked an uproar at City Hall will not face misdemeanor charges.
Los Angeles City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto decided not to prosecute Santos Leon and Karla Vasquez, a married couple who worked at the L.A. County Federation of Labor, where the conversation took place in 2021."
SFUSD school lunches: Here’s the $225 million plan to move past mystery meat and soggy pizza
The Chronicle's JILL TUCKER: "This is a tale of two school lunches.
In one, Mouad, a San Francisco sixth-grader, picked up a spicy chicken sandwich, one of three entrees at Marina Middle School’s cafeteria on a recent day, and shoved a big portion in his mouth."
PG&E could cut power in 5 Bay Area counties amid red flag warning for wildfire risk
The Chronicle's ANNIE VAINSHTEIN, ANTHONY EDWARDS: "Pacific Gas and Electric Co. said Tuesday that it could cut power to thousands of California customers this week amid dry weather conditions that could elevate the risk of wildfires starting and spreading.
The utility company said it was monitoring weather conditions as it weighed potential preemptive power shutoffs for customers in Alameda, Contra Costa, Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties."
California to get first major Diablo wind event of fall as fire danger ramps up
The Chronicle's ANTHONY EDWARDS: "Winds are expected to ramp up around Northern California the next few days, eventually resulting in critical fire weather conditions Thursday through Saturday.
But before the elevated wildfire risk, a few rain showers are possible Wednesday as a weak cold front clips Northern California."
California ride-hailing drivers could get back pay
CALMatters's LYNN LA: "Tens of thousands of California ride-hailing drivers, and possibly more, could eventually get back pay after a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that clears the way for the state and some cities to proceed with their lawsuits against Uber and Lyft.
The two companies had argued that because their drivers had signed arbitration agreements, the wage theft lawsuits that California filed against Uber and Lyft in 2020 were invalid. But last week, the nation’s highest court declined to hear the companies’ appeal."
J.D. Vance said S.F. car break-in may have sparked his ‘I hate the police’ comment. But the burglary happened later
The Chronicle's RACHEL SWAN: "Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance said in a recent New York Times interview that frustration over a San Francisco car break-in — and the response from law enforcement — may have prompted him to tell a friend, in an email in late 2014, “I hate the police.”
But according to records from the San Francisco Police Department, the burglary appears to have occurred in August 2015, many months after Vance’s comment."
The three-day office week is killing BART. Will the Bay Area pay higher taxes to save it?
The Chronicle's RACHEL SWAN: "Like many Bay Area workers, Sabrina Hardy is back in the office part time — and noticing a stark change in her commute. These days she can reliably find a seat on BART.
“There are definitely fewer riders,” Hardy said, exiting the El Cerrito del Norte Station as dusk fell on a recent weekday. Although rush hour had set in, only a few people trickled through the turnstiles. Hardy and others marveled at how open and airy the trains have become — particularly on Mondays and Fridays, when people no longer have to jostle one another in the aisles or circle the station lots to find parking."
Californians: Here’s why your housing costs are so high in 2024
CALMatters's BEN CHRISTOPHER, MANUELA TOBIAS: "California is an expensive place to call home.
It’s such a fundamental part of California life it almost feels silly to say. Along with good weather, sunny beaches, Hollywood and the Golden Gate Bridge, the skyhigh cost of housing has become part of the state’s national identity."
Los Angeles’ $22-billion homelessness problem gives leaders a choice: Double down or change strategies
LAT's LIAM DILLON, DOUG SMITH: "City of Los Angeles officials are finally confronting a question that has seemed too big to answer: How much would it actually cost to get every person living on the street today indoors and make sure that no one languished there for years again?
The answer, in a report now circulating through City Hall, is a whopper: $21.7 billion over a decade. And since less than $7 billion of that sum is budgeted, local, state and federal governments would have to pony up three times what they’re planning."
The VA failed to disclose findings of a survey that shows keen veteran interest in a hotel
LAT's DOUG SMITH: "Officials of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the developer contracted to build housing on the VA’s West Los Angeles campus failed to disclose findings from a survey showing that a large majority of veterans expressed interest in having a hotel as part of a town center on the property.
Executives of the development partnership, the West Los Angeles Veterans Collective, have excluded a hotel from their plans and denied in interviews and public meetings that the survey found any veteran interest in a hotel."
The number of tents in S.F. saw a big drop. Here’s the data by neighborhood
The Chronicle's MAGGIE ANGST: "For the third time this year, Mayor London Breed is celebrating that San Francisco has reached the lowest number of homeless tents on record.
City employees and contractors on Oct. 2 counted 242 tents and structures across the city — about half the number tallied in November of 2023 and nearly 80 less than just three months prior, according to data collected quarterly by a partnership made up of multiple city agencies. The number of vehicles that people are sleeping in dropped from 613 in November 2023 to 458 earlier this month."
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs choked intern, put UCLA staffer in headlock during brawl, document alleges
LAT's RICHARD WINTON, HANNAH FRY: "Sean “Diddy” Combs was so upset about the way his son was being disciplined by a UCLA football coach in 2015 that he went to the coach’s office and fought with him, briefly choked an intern and put another member of the coaching staff in a headlock, according to a document newly obtained by The Times from Los Angeles County prosecutors.
But although Combs was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, making criminal threats and battery in the incident, he was not ultimately charged with any crime."
