KQED's The California Report

The Trump administration is following through on its threat to criminally investigate California election officials over alleged noncitizen voting.

Reporter: Laura Fitzgerald, KQED

Latino voters helped President Donald Trump return to office. Now, politicos are looking to California’s 58th Assembly District in Riverside to see if they’ll flip again. The district is traditionally democratic and heavily Latino. But in 2024, they swung for Trump … and Republican Leticia Castillo won the state assembly seat … by riding in on his coat tails.

Reporter: Anthony Victoria, KVCR

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Dolores Huerta is being remembered across the country as an iconic leader of the United Farm Workers and a pioneering feminist and civil rights advocate. But she was rooted right here in California. And when she died Wednesday at the age of 96, she was at home in Bakersfield.

Reporter: Tyche Hendricks, KQED

Elected officials in Kern County, where Dolores Huerta lived and worked are remembering her legacy.

Reporter: Amaray Alvarez, KVPR

The CEO of California's High Speed Rail Authority has abruptly resigned from the job.

The Monterey County Jail is back to regular operations after a three-hour lockdown Tuesday, while Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were present in the parking lot.

Reporter: Ellie Prickett-Morgan, KAZU

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Farmers and ranchers have long been a reliable Republican voting bloc, but that may shift this midterm election as federal policies drive discontent among these communities. How is this playing out in the heart of California’s agricultural production?

Reporter: Izzy Bloom, KQED

California has tentatively agreed to pay $10 million to settle a class action lawsuit filed on behalf of incarcerated women at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla.

A federal judge in Los Angeles is expected to rule today in a lawsuit filed by the Trump administration, over ballots in next week’s midterm election here in California. Federal officials have been seeking to prevent the state from processing the ballots of voters who they believe are not citizens.

Reporter: Laura Fitzgerald, KQED

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Proposition 40 proponents say the tax would help backfill federal Medical cuts. But as Governor Newsom weighs a presidential run, is he also looking ahead to how it might play to donors and voters?

Guest: Marisa Lagos, KQED

A federal court has rejected a Trump administration demand that it force California officials to set aside the ballots of 20,000 registered voters, who the Department of Justice alleges are not citizens.

Proposition 38 would allocate more than $8 billion for health research grants. That's something supporters say is critical, at a time when the Trump administration has tried to claw back funding. But CalMatters has been digging into concerns about how that money would be distributed, with roughly $4 billion going to a single institution.

Reporter: Mikhail Zinshteyn, CalMatters

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As immigration sweeps expand the number of detainees filling the nation's detention centers, the amount of people who manage to be released is also growing. That means a steady stream of people are finding themselves in places they don't know, including Kern County, which is home to four ICE detention facilities, the highest concentration of any county in California. A grassroots movement there has risen to help people find their way back home.

Reporter: Soreath Hok, KVPR

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Flooded highways. Inundated airport runways. Water-filled neighborhoods. Beaches washed away. All of these impacts, and more, could take place this winter as El Niño continues to unfold. Several new reports this week suggest that El Niño’s effects this winter — flooding from temporarily high seas and potential storms — foreshadow a future shaped by human-caused climate change.

Reporter: Ezra David Romero, KQED News

Proposition 5 Would Revise Rules on Recall Elections

Right now, voters are asked two things when there’s a statewide recall: Whether an official should be removed from office, and who should replace them. If Prop. 5 passes, voters would only decide whether or not to remove the official. The vacancy would be filled later through a special election or an appointment.

Reporter: Melody Yan, KALW

How to "Vote Naked" in California

With voting for the Nov. 3 election underway, a Santa Cruz elections official is highlighting her term for a safe, secure way to return your ballot that might make you blush. At an elections event in Santa Cruz, county Clerk Tricia Webber ran through some ballot return options before blurting out a personal favorite: “Or, they can vote naked."

Reporter: PK Hattis, KAZU

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The election is less than two weeks away. And Senator Bernie Sanders has been endorsing progressive candidates in races big and small across the country. In California’s Inland Empire, he endorsed Joz Sida, who’s running for the mayor of Fontana. But the endorsement hasn't given Sida much traction.

Reporter: Anthony Victoria, KVCR

California is asking a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit from the Trump administration, that seeks to set aside 20,000 mail-in ballots. It’s alleging those were sent to noncitizens.

A highly contagious strain of bird flu has reappeared in California. Two cases have been reported this month.

Reporter: Kerry Klein, KVPR

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Tens of thousands of state government workers are expected to walk off the job Wednesday for a one-day strike. The issues: wages and benefits. Union-represented employees at libraries, hospitals and agencies such as Caltrans, CalFire and the Department of Motor Vehicles have never walked out of their jobs before, but leaders with the SEIU Local 1000 say they're fighting bad-faith bargaining practices from the Newsom administration.

Reporter: Lynn La, Calmatters

Californians will vote on Proposition 45 in November. That measure would make significant changes to the state’s landmark environmental review process.

Reporter: Jake Gotta, KPBS

Bakersfield is not usually a destination for big political names – except when former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was still in Congress. But this year’s midterm election has changed that. California's 22nd congressional district, which covers parts of five San Joaquin Valley counties, has become one of the most hotly contested congressional seats in the country.

Reporter: Amaray Alvarez, KVPR

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For many Californians, a mobile home is the only home they can afford. But owning comes with a catch: They still rent the land underneath and the state’s rent cap doesn’t cover them. That leaves mobile homeowners vulnerable to big rent spikes. Cities and counties can set their own limits. But across the state, only about 1 in 5 do. In the East Bay city of San Pablo, Linda Jackson is hoping her neighbors will come out to support a measure her city has on the ballot.

Reporter: Madi Bolanos, The California Report

California leaders are pushing back against the Trump administration’s actions. The Trump administration is ramping up its fight against California elections. The U.S. Department of Justice alleges that 28 state residents, who it says are green-card holders not citizens, illegally registered to vote in U.S. elections. The charges are part of an escalating campaign to highlight illegal voting by immigrants, which the president says is "rampant." Attorney General Rob Bonta says true voter fraud should be punished, but as these arrests show that it’s exceedingly rare.

Reporter: Tyche Hendricks, KQED

In Northern California, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were spotted outside of a polling center in Yuba City on Monday morning , according to the immigrant rights group NorCal Resist.

Reporter: Gerardo Zavala, CapRadio

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Gas prices in California continue to be the highest in the nation. So it's no surprise that prices at the pump are a hot topic in the state’s closest elections for Congress. But the war in Iran has given California Democrats a rare opportunity to turn the tables on the issue.

Reporter: Guy Marzorati, KQED

A surge in immigration arrests is underway in the Central Valley. Advocates say detained immigrants are being denied access to legal counsel, and dozens are disappearing into the detention system.

Reporter: Tyche Hendricks, KQED

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