Tight California governor’s race between five leading candidates
LAT, SEEMA MEHTA: "The race to replace termed-out California Gov. Gavin Newsom is a tight contest between five candidates, according to a new poll released Wednesday.
Three Democrats — former Rep. Katie Porter, Rep. Eric Swalwell and hedge fund founder Tom Steyer — and two Republicans — conservative commentator Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco — are within 4 percentage points of one another, according to the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California survey."
No clear frontrunner for governor, but new poll names five with the best shot (OP-ED)
CALMATTERS, DAN WALTERS: "For the last year, as the array of announced and potential candidates for governor constantly fluctuated, those who closely follow California politics have waited for the field to stabilize and for independent polling to reveal who really has a chance to win.
We finally have the cast of characters — nine Democrats and two Republicans — and on Wednesday we also got a poll by the Public Policy Institute of California that divides it into five whose support ranges from 10% to 14% and six who languish, at least so far, in the single digits."
The Clintons are about to testify on Epstein ties. Here’s what to know
LAT, GAVIN J. QUINTON: "For the first time in more than 40 years, a former president will appeal directly before Congress to fend off criminal allegations.
Former President Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will testify before the House Oversight Committee this week in its investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators."
Experts Expound: The billionaire tax
CAPITOL WEEKLY, STAFF: "“It will make the ballot because the sponsors aren’t willing to take what might be offered to them as a compromise. In the end, it will be close, but it will pass.”
“Yes it will qualify but it will not pass…it might just be another leverage play for a legislative deal.”"
Optimism and skepticism at Capitol Weekly’s housing conference
CAPITOL WEEKLY, STAFF: "Panelists grappled with California’s housing crisis Tuesday at Capitol Weekly’s first conference of 2026, painting a discouraging picture of the current state of affairs in the Golden State.
“We’re hurting in California when it comes to the housing market,” said Assemblymember Jeff Gonzalez (R-Indio), one of the conference panelists. “But do I think we (legislators) have reached the tipping point? Nope.”"
California must let immigrant truck drivers keep their licenses, judge rules
CALMATTERS, ADAM ECHELMAN: "More than 20,000 immigrant truck drivers will be able to keep their licenses in California, at least temporarily, despite efforts by the Trump administration and the state of California to revoke them, according to a tentative ruling Wednesday in Alameda County Superior Court.
The decision puts the state of California in a bind. The U.S. Department of Transportation already has repeatedly pushed the California Department of Motor Vehicles to rescind these licenses, which belong to many asylum seekers and other immigrants with temporary legal status, after the federal government found alleged clerical issues regarding the expiration dates on their licenses. The California DMV complied with the transportation department’s demands and sent letters to more than 20,000 drivers last fall, telling them that their California licenses would expire in the next 60 days ."
He saw an abandoned trailer. Then, he uncovered a surveillance network on California’s border
CALMATTERS, WENDY FRY/KHARI JOHNSON: "On a cracked two-lane road on the eastern edge of San Diego County, James Cordero eased his Jeep onto the shoulder after something caught his eye. It looked like an abandoned trailer. Inside he found a hidden camera feeding a vast surveillance network that logs the license plate of every driver passing through this stretch of remote backcountry between San Diego and the Arizona state line.
Cordero, 44, has found dozens of these cameras hidden in trailers and construction barrels on border roads around San Diego and Imperial counties: one on Old Highway 80 near Jacumba Hot Springs; another outside the Golden Acorn Casino in Campo; another along Interstate 8 toward In-Ko-Pah Gorge."
Trump administration, Congress leave Hispanic-serving colleges confused over funding
EDSOURCE, MICHAEL BURKE: "California colleges are looking for answers about the status of a federal grant program serving colleges that enroll many Hispanic students, amid mixed messages from Congress and the Trump administration.
When the U.S. Department of Education moved last year to end the grant programs for Hispanic-Serving Institutions and other Minority Serving Institutions, most campuses had accepted that they would lose the ability to seek the extra federal funding. At the time, U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon maintained the grant programs were discriminatory and unconstitutional."
FBI raids of LAUSD Supt. Alberto Carvalho’s home and office appear tied to AI chatbot probe
LAT, BRITTNY MEJIA/RICHARD WINTON/RUBEN VIVES/HOWARD BLUME: "Federal authorities raided the home and office of Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. Alberto Carvalho on Wednesday morning in what appears to be a probe related to a company that developed an AI chatbot for the nation’s second-largest school system.
Authorities have not provided any details about the investigation. But one source with knowledge of the matter said it involved AllHere, a failed AI company whose founder was charged with fraud in 2024."
UC applications for fall 2026 surge to highest level ever
CHRONICLE, NANETTE ASIMOV: "University of California campuses are seeing a record level of interest from undergraduates hoping to enroll next fall, despite UC’s difficult year fending off federal efforts to gut its research programs and extract billions of dollars in penalties.
Nearly 252,000 hopefuls from high schools and community colleges applied to attend UC next fall, according to newly released data — more than in any other year and beating its previous record, set in 2022, by 209 students."
AI images scandalized a California elementary school. Now the state is pushing new safeguards
CALMATTER, KHARI JOHNSON: "In December, fourth graders in a class at Delevan Drive Elementary School in Los Angeles were given a homework assignment: Write a book report about Pippi Longstocking, then draw or use artificial intelligence to make a book cover.
When Jody Hughes’ daughter asked Adobe Express for Education, graphic design software provided by her teacher, to generate an image of “long stockings a red headed girl with braids sticking straight out,” it produced nothing resembling the Swedish children’s book character she had accurately described. Instead, using recently-added artificial intelligence, it generated sexualized imagery of women in lingerie and bikinis. Hughes quickly contacted other parents, who said they were able to reproduce similar results on their own school-issued Chromebook computers. Days later, the parent group Schools Beyond Screens told the LA school board they were opposed to further use of the Adobe software."
Oakland school board divided as it approves 400 layoffs with no clear fiscal roadmap
CHRONICLE, JILL TUCKER: "The Oaklan"d school district pulled up to a crossroads Wednesday night, the school board deciding which way to go: Vote to eliminate more than 400 jobs next year or stay on the path toward a fiscal cliff.
Before the vote, Oakland Unified Superintendent Denise Sadler, her voice raised with emotion, warned the board that a no vote would mean the district would run out of cash next year and be unable to pay the bills, likely leading to a stake takeover."
The deepening mystery of Caltech astrophysicist killed on the porch of his remote desert compound
LAT, SALVADOR HERNANDEZ: "Situated deep in the Mojave desert, Llano is secluded — and that’s always been one of its biggest selling points.
More than a century ago, the hamlet was home to a storied Socialist cooperative that historians described as one of America’s most significant Utopian societies. The Llano Del Rio Cooperative Colony is long gone, but its stone remains are perhaps the biggest attraction in a place marked by vast open spaces dotted with homes on sprawling lots."
The crisis on the Colorado River — six things to know
LAT, IAN JAMES: "The latest news about the Colorado River is dire. Since 2000, the river’s flow has shrunk about 20%. An extremely warm winter has brought very little snow in the Rocky Mountains. Reservoirs are declining to critically low levels. And the leaders of seven states are still at loggerheads over the water cutbacks each should accept to prevent reservoirs from falling further.
Here are six things to know about the current crisis:"
Western U.S. is about to see historic winter weather — with 90-degree temps in forecast
CHRONICLE, ANTHONY EDWARDS: "An unusually warm winter in Northern California is about to end with its highest temperatures yet. But a far more momentous heat spell is about to unfold in the Southwest, where days of well above-normal temperatures will break records and lock in that region’s warmest winter in modern history.
The mercury is forecast to climb significantly Thursday, with the heat lasting through Saturday in Southern California and Sunday in Arizona. Phoenix is forecast to reach 94 degrees Friday and Saturday. That would be the hottest temperature ever measured there in meteorological winter, which runs from December through February."
READ MORE -- Bring out your flip-flops: Possible record-breaking heat to sweep across SoCal this week -- LAT, CLARA HARTER
How to understand the surge of California winery closures
CHRONICLE, ESTHER MOBLEY: "The California wine shakeout is upon us. In the month of February, celebrated boutique wineries such as Ernest and Margins announced they’d be going out of business, while wine giants, including Gallo, Foley Family and Jackson Family, shut down production facilities and laid off workers.
After nearly two years of predictions that we’d soon be seeing a wave of winery closures, we’re no longer waiting for the wave — it’s crashing into us."
Tesla pushes back against California’s regulators
LAT, CAROLINE PETROW-COHEN: "Tesla is pushing back against California bureaucrats, suing the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles for accusing it of false advertising.
California regulators say Tesla has misled consumers about the capabilities of its “Autopilot” and “Full Self-Driving” modes, which cannot be used without an alert human driver. Late last year, an administrative judge found Tesla guilty of false advertising for suggesting its cars can drive themselves."
Bay Area EV maker cuts hundreds of jobs after hiring Timothée Chalamet
CHRONICLE. AIDIN VAZIRI: "Lucid Motors, the Bay Area electric vehicle maker that recently tapped actor Timothée Chalamet for a global brand campaign, is laying off hundreds of local employees as it battles mounting losses.
The company will cut 319 workers starting April 21 at its headquarters in Newark in the East Bay, according to a filing with California’s Employment Development Department. The notice indicates the layoffs would be permanent."
‘This was my nest egg’: Marin lender’s sudden collapse panics investors, prompts investigation
CHRONICLE, SUSIE NEILSON/LAURA WAXMANN: "Marin County prosecutors are investigating a once-prominent real estate lending firm after its apparent sudden collapse panicked its investors, who say they have been told most of the more than $100 million they have tied up in the company is likely gone.
Deputy District Attorney Sean Kensinger said his office was looking into complaints about Pacific Private Money Inc., a Novato-based alternative real estate mortgage and investment firm run by Mark Hanf, a Tiburon entrepreneur who has previously been disciplined by the California Bureau of Real Estate."
