🗳️ Happy Election Day. It’s Tuesday, Nov. 4.
- Californians decide the fate of Proposition 50.
- Waymo killing of cat spurs call for robotaxi reform.
- And autumn colors engulf “Stand by Me” bridge.
Election 2025
1.
Opponents of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to gerrymander California’s congressional districts focus primarily on the moral imperative of preserving the state’s independent redistricting commission. Democratic supporters, on the other hand, rely on a simple pitch: This is your chance to hurt President Trump. It appears to have been highly effective. As voters head to the polls Tuesday, the latest opinion surveys suggested Proposition 50 would pass comfortably. L.A. Times | N.Y. Times
- Polling centers open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. Find yours.
- Not registered? You still have time.
- See a last-minute voting guide. 👉 CalMatters
- Track results here.
2.
Other election dispatches:
- Newsom could have been humiliated by his redistricting gambit. Instead, he appears to be rocketing toward the 2028 primary with the wind at his back, Politico reported: “Never before has he been such a focal point of the national Trump resistance.”
- Republicans are already casting blame, with some of it directed at Trump, who failed to deliver the cash needed to block Proposition 50. California’s Republican congressional delegation is only at risk because the White House pressured Texas to redistrict, one GOP lawmaker said: “Now we’re going to lose some really good members.” Politico
- The New York mayoral race, governor’s contests in New Jersey and Virginia, and an unusually partisan judicial election in Pennsylvania. Here’s what to watch around the nation on Tuesday. 👉 N.Y. Times | A.P.
Northern California
3.
Days before he was found dead in October, the California chess grand master Daniel Naroditsky put his head in his hands during a live stream. He had been tormented by cheating accusations that many supporters considered unfounded. “Deep breaths,” Naroditsky, 29, muttered to himself. “I feel like if I start doing well, people assume the worst of intentions. You know what I mean?”
Naroditsky’s death is forcing the chess world to confront how cheating accusations, real or imagined, loom as an existential threat, the Washington Post reported.
4.
An analysis of the 24 publicly identified donors to President Trump’s White House ballroom found that most have business before the administration. They include several Silicon Valley heavyweights: HP, Google, Nvidia, Apple, and Meta. Most of the tech companies are also facing or have recently faced federal enforcement actions. “These giant corporations aren’t funding the Trump ballroom debacle out of a sense of civic pride,” said Robert Weissman, a president of the watchdog Public Citizen. “They have massive interests before the federal government.” Bloomberg | Washington Post
5.
The Waymo killing of a beloved bodega cat named KitKat has now caught the attention of San Francisco’s political class. Supervisor Jackie Fielder said she planned to introduce a resolution on Tuesday calling on state leaders to allow counties to ban autonomous vehicles. “Here in the Mission, we will never forget our sweet KitKat,” Fielder said in an Instagram video. “We will always put community before tech oligarchs.” S.F. Chronicle
6.
A Mendocino County journalist was arrested Monday over accusations that he sent sexual messages to minors, the authorities said. Matt LaFever, 37, who covered the North Coast for SFGATE and ran the news website Mendofever, also taught journalism at Ukiah High School. Police said they were alerted to correspondence between LaFever and a student during which he sent “inappropriate” pictures of himself and urged her to reciprocate. They found evidence on his devices that he was reaching out to “numerous minors,” police said. Redheaded Blackbelt | Press Democrat
7.
Shasta County isn’t widely known for fall colors, but it should be. When the black oak trees turn, typically in late October, the landscape becomes a stunning patchwork of yellow, gold, orange, and rusty red. The travel reporter John Bartell brought his camera crew to Burney Falls, Lake Britton, and the rail bridge, pictured above, made famous in the 1986 film “Stand by Me.” ABC10
Southern California
8.
An appeals court struck down Huntington Beach’s voter identification law on Monday, reversing a lower court ruling that had upheld the law approved by voters in March 2024. “Electoral integrity at the municipal level is a statewide concern” governed by state law, the 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana wrote. Huntington Beach, home of the state’s Trumpiest city council, has assumed the mantle of California’s conservative resistance, repeatedly battling the state on culture war issues. Thus far, the state has run the table. S.F. Chronicle | Courthouse News
9.
Since July, San Diego has ramped up parking enforcement in an effort to clear its streets of homeless people living in RVs. For some RV dwellers, the policy shift has only made their plight more desperate. Teresa Lunsford, who is 66 and has been living in an RV for the past decade, has been ticketed 15 times since the spring, racking up fines totaling $1,486.50. Her monthly fixed income: $1,200. “This is my biggest problem,” Lunsford said. “It really does put a lot of pressure on me.” S.D. Union-Tribune
10.
In 2020, a group calling themselves the “reclaimers” occupied more than a dozen publicly owned vacant homes in a working-class neighborhood of Los Angeles. Since then, the state has spent more than $17 million taxpayer dollars on security to protect hundreds of other homes to ensure they aren’t illegally seized. Housing activists said the outlay underscores the state’s misplaced priorities: “The state is more willing to take measures to stop people from living in empty homes than to house them.” Politico
11.
While Californians know that fire and earthquakes are part of the bargain of living here, fewer consider the volcanoes. Draped along the Pacific Ring of Fire, the West Coast sits atop a roiling cauldron of volcanic activity. That includes Southern California, where dozens of reddish cinder cones rise from the Mojave Desert.
Reporter Erin Rode climbed into Amboy Crater, pictured above, for a look. SFGATE
12.
“The morning air reeked of fireworks and hot dogs. Outside Disney Hall, the sidewalk was a blue-and-white sea of jubilation, a dozen or more bodies deep.”
An estimated 250,000 people attended the Dodgers’ World Series victory parade in downtown Los Angeles on Monday. The New York Times published a great set of pictures.
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