Good morning. It’s Wednesday, June 3.
- Steve Hilton and Xavier Becerra lead in governor’s race.
- Karen Bass advances to runoff in L.A. mayoral contest.
- And photo series recalls UC Berkeley in its hippie prime.
Election 2026
1.
With more than half the votes counted early Wednesday, Democrat Xavier Becerra and Republican Steve Hilton held the top two positions, each with about 26% of the vote, in what shaped up to be a three-way race for California governor. Democrat Tom Steyer, who trailed in third at 20%, was putting his hopes in late-arriving ballots, which could lean Democratic. Only two candidates advance to the November runoff. Analysts have said a Becerra-Hilton matchup would all but assure a blue victory in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly two to one. Mercury News | A.P.
- In remarks to supporters in Los Angeles, Becerra recalled being urged to quit when his poll numbers hovered in single digits, as recently as April: “Well, guess what? The underdog stayed in the fight.” YouTube/KTLA
- Track results in the governor’s race.
2.
In Los Angeles, Mayor Karen Bass secured a spot on the November ballot, as challengers to the left and right of her politically, Nithya Raman and Spencer Pratt, battled for second place. Early Wednesday, Bass had 35%, Pratt 30%, and Raman 22%. Pratt, a registered Republican, would be the underdog in the overwhelmingly Democratic city. But he exuded confidence that he could win over Angelenos frustrated by Bass’s handling of fires, homelessness, and crime. “It’s going to be a fun ride,” he said late Tuesday. “I hope she’s ready.” A.P. | L.A. Times
- “All the stuff with the fires I think really just opened our eyes to how things are being run.” At a polling site in fire-scarred Pacific Palisades, the disappointment in Mayor Karen Bass was unmistakable. N.Y. Times
- Track results in the mayoral race.
3.
As Vice President JD Vance seeks a path to the Republican nomination in 2028, he needs to worry about Spender Pratt, argued Politico columnist Alexander Burns:
“Not Pratt himself, but the success of a screwball candidacy made from little besides artifice and anger. The barriers to entering politics have fallen so low that it no longer requires Trump-sized talent to crash a big campaign. Thousands of Americans have bigger public platforms than Pratt did at the start of his race. All of them have access to the same AI hype tools his campaign uses.”
4.
“It is certainly my civic duty, but I feel exhausted.”
“This is probably the least hopeful I felt in an election, to be completely frank.”
“Unless we can get along, and just begin to put aside all the vitriol, we’re not going to make any progress.”
Some election officials reported stronger-than-expected turnout across California on Tuesday. But even as voters embraced their civic responsibility, many expressed dismay over both the state of the country and the choices on the ballot. Berkeleyside | KQED | Times-Standard
5.
Other key contests:
- Scott Wiener and Connie Chan, both Democrats, were the top two finishers in the race for Nancy Pelosi’s coveted House seat in San Francisco. Wiener, a prolific state legislator, emerged as the front-runner after taking more moderate stances than his rivals. Politico | N.Y. Times
- Track all California House results.
- See latest results in the races for:
Northern California
6.
Hackers asked Meta’s AI support chatbot to give them access to high-profile accounts, and it happily obliged. In a vulnerability “almost too stupid to be true,” as one tech worker put it, hackers simply told the bot to add a new email to a targeted account. It did, allowing a password reset. Meta, which rolled out the AI support assistant in March and laid off 10% of its workforce in May, said it fixed the problem. But reports said hackers had been exploiting the trick for months, listing stolen handles for sale on Telegram. Futurism | The Guardian
7.
“Really bizarre.”
“Political theater.”
“What are they even after is hard to understand.”
Like thousands of aging dams across America, the Potter Valley Project along California’s Eel River has become more trouble than it’s worth. That’s why its owner has moved to demolish it. But Brooke Rollins, the U.S. agriculture secretary, now appears dead set on blocking the plan. Her intervention has baffled stakeholders. “It would be great if this was a fish-versus-farmer problem, because there is a lot of precedent on how to handle those,” said one local farmer. “This is more like a town whose bridge is failing.” Grist investigated what is driving Rollins’ campaign.
8.
While visiting a friend in the Bay Area one weekend in October 1970, the Central Valley photographer Lance Nix had some time to kill. So he took a stroll around the UC Berkeley campus with his camera “to see if the stories were true.” Young, barefoot, and groovy, the students did not disappoint. Flashbak revisited a series of Nix’s pictures that captured a single afternoon at UC Berkeley in its hippie prime.
Southern California
9.
Bakersfield police were locked in negotiations late Tuesday with a man who barricaded himself inside a downtown bank, took hostages, and made bomb threats, the authorities said. Crisis negotiators in contact with the suspect by phone were able to win the release of two hostages, but an unknown number remained captive. A local livestreamer who raced to the scene captured video through a bank window of a woman rocking back and forth inside. KBAK | A.P.
10.
Jimmy Gomez, a Democratic congressman from Los Angeles, is being investigated by the House Ethics Committee over sexual misconduct allegations, sources told CNN. The inquiry was opened after the New York Post reported that Gomez, who is 51 and married, was seen kissing a a much younger congressional aide during a party hosted by Eric Swalwell in 2023. Gomez denied the Post report at the time, but in a new statement acknowledged making “personal mistakes” that hurt his family. CNN
11.
The average price for a gallon of gas in Los Angeles was $6.07 on Monday, up nearly 28% from a year ago. You might expect the city’s notorious congestion to ease a bit as more drivers opt to board a bus or train. No such luck. An analysis of vehicle miles traveled on major freeways during the eight weeks ending on April 23 found no significant declines. Some freeways showed increases. “I think we’re immune,” said L.A. resident Marco Falcon, 44, who shrugged when told about the finding. Reuters
12.
There are endangered sea turtles in the San Gabriel River. The existence of the small population in the concrete-encased waterway near Long Beach, first discovered around 2008, has been greeted by locals as something of a small miracle. More typical of snorkeling destinations in Baja California, the San Gabriel River turtles are the species’ northernmost population. The journalist Erik Olsen paid a recent visit: “They are majestic and beautiful, if a bit cartoonish,” he wrote. Curated California
- See aerial video of the San Gabriel River turtles.
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