Good morning. It’s Monday, Oct. 27.
- Justice Department plans to monitor Nov. 4 election.
- Underage sex trade flourishes on L.A.’s Figueroa Street.
- And tech barons bankroll President Trump’s ballroom.
Statewide
1.
Just 10 months into President Trump’s second term, both Kamala Harris and Gavin Newsom teased bids to replace him over the weekend. On Saturday, a BBC interviewer asked Harris if she could be president one day. “Possibly,” she answered, adding, “I am not done.” A day later, Gov. Gavin Newsom was asked if he planned to give “serious thought” to a White House campaign after the 2026 midterms. “Yeah,” he said. “I’d be lying otherwise. I’d just be lying. And I’m not — I can’t do that.” Bloomberg | L.A. Times
2.
The Justice Department announced on Friday that it would monitor polling places in California on Nov. 4 as voters decide whether to redraw congressional districts to benefit Democrats. The federal agency, which routinely monitors elections, did not say what prompted the decision, but it followed a request for assistance from the California Republican Party, which cited “reports of irregularities.” Gov. Gavin Newsom portrayed the move as a ruse to cast doubt on the election outcome. “Wake up, everybody,” he said. KQED | L.A. Times
3.
The California State University system invited tech giants to help it become the nation’s “largest AI-empowered” university. Among its goals: make OpenAI chatbots ubiquitous in learning and prepare students for careers in AI. Critics say the effort amounts to a mass experiment on young people. Savannah Bosley, 25, recently attended an AI camp “powered by” Amazon at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. She likened it to a timeshare presentation. “You get the vacation,” she said, “but you also have to sit through the propaganda.” N.Y. Times
4.
The conservative columnist George F. Will wrote about George Retes, an Army veteran who was detained by ICE while on his way to work in Ventura County in July:
“He was taken to a Navy base, where he was strip searched, then on to incarceration in Los Angeles, he says, handcuffs having replaced the zip ties. No charges had been made against him, but a mouth swab collected his DNA without his consent. He says his requests for a lawyer, and for a shower to ease the discomforts of tear gas and pepper spray residues, were ignored. After three days, during which he missed his daughter’s third birthday, an agent told him the charges against him had been dropped. ‘What charges?’ he recalls asking. Silence.” Washington Post
Northern California
5.
In June 2024, the police chief of the Bay Area city of Millbrae bought a home for himself in an unusual location: Boise, Idaho. The arrangement, which would require a 530-mile commute by air, came to light last week after a fire inspector discovered that Police Chief Eamonn Allen appeared to be sleeping at the police station when he was in town. Reporter Dan Noyes caught up with Allen in person and asked repeatedly: “Are you living in Idaho?” Allen didn’t answer. KGO
6.
A controversial British commentator was detained by U.S. immigration agents at San Francisco International Airport on Sunday, reports said. Sami Hamdi, who encouraged an audience to “celebrate the victory” after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, was on a speaking tour in the U.S., having appeared Saturday in Sacramento. In a social media post, Laura Loomer, a far-right activist who describes herself as a “proud Islamophobe,” took credit for the government action, saying she demanded the Trump administration treat Hamdi as a “major national security threat.” S.F. Chronicle | The Telegraph
7.
Protesters gathered outside an ICE facility in Stockton on Saturday after roughly two dozen noncitizens who had been instructed to check in were taken into custody. Stockton, an agricultural hub with large Latino and Filipino communities, has been a historic immigrant gateway to America. Gloria Hernandez, a local activist, recalled seeing a woman realize that her husband was being taken away. “She just broke down. I just held her,” Hernandez said. “I was crying, too.” KFSN | Stocktonia
8.
The controversial destruction of the White House’s East Wing to make way for a massive $300 million ballroom realizes a dream long held by President Trump. But much of the credit — or blame, depending on your point of view — goes to the tech barons of California. The White House recently released a list of 37 project donors. Among them: Meta, Apple, Google, Coinbase, and HP. S.F. Chronicle | Mercury News
Southern California
9.
The story of Ana and her sister was typical. She was 13 when first recruited into the sex trade. Her sister was 11: “Foster kids turned runaways turned recruits, drawn in by a new friend on Instagram who offered to help them get by.”
The New York Times Magazine published a disturbing investigation into the booming underage sex trade of Los Angeles’ Figueroa Street, including images by the renowned street life photographer Katy Grannan.
10.
Hours after Los Angeles firefighters declared a fire in the Santa Monica Mountains fully out, a hiker clambered across the scorched terrain and turned on his camera. He recorded white smoke rising from the dirt. “It’s still smoldering,” he whispered — apparently to himself. Weeks after Jonathan Rinderknecht was arrested on suspicion of starting the initial blaze that rekindled into the Jan. 7 Palisades fire, the video has heightened questions about whose job it was to make sure the area was secure. L.A. Times
11.
News reports portrayed recent NBA gambling indictments as “one of the most sweeping and sensational betting scandals in recent professional sports history.” But veteran sports writer Sally Jenkins noted that just three of the more than 30 people charged in the complaints have connections to the NBA and many of the allegations have nothing to do with the league. “It’s not unusual for prosecutors and cops to put high-profile indictments on display in the name of deterrence,” she wrote. “But in this case, they came perilously close to a smear.” The Atlantic
12.
The director of a museum at Pepperdine University resigned after administrators censored political artworks in an exhibition. The director, Andrea Gyorody, had curated the show at the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, but it was shuttered six months early because artists protested the intervention by the private Christian university. In one case, the administrators covered up the phrase “Abolish ICE” on a sculpture. Members of the art faculty denounced the intervention as a travesty. Hyperallergic | Pepperdine Graphic
The California Sun, PO Box 6868, Los Osos, CA 93412
Wake up to must-read news from around the Golden State delivered to your inbox each morning.