Traffic is congested on an interstate in Los Angeles in 2017. A U.S. Marine Corps’ live-fire event at Camp Pendleton as part of its 250th birthday celebration will cause the closure of Interstate 5 for four hours on Saturday. File Photo by Mike Nelson/EPA
Oct. 18 (UPI) — The U.S. Marine Corps‘ live-fire event at Camp Pendleton as part of its 250th birthday celebration will cause the closure of Interstate 5 for four hours on Saturday.
The closure is a precaution due to the firing of explosive artillery rounds over the freeway from gunnery ranges at Camp Pendleton in Southern California, which has drawn the ire of California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Newsom accused President Donald Trump of “putting his ego over responsibility with this disregard for public safety” in a prepared statement released on Saturday morning.
“Firing live rounds over a busy highway isn’t just wrong — it’s dangerous,” Newsom said.
“Using our military to intimidate people you disagree with isn’t strength,” he added. “It’s reckless. It’s disrespectful, and it’s beneath the office he holds.”
Trump will not attend the celebratory event, but Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are scheduled to attend, with the live-fire scheduled at 1:30 p.m. local time.
Marine Corps officials initially said there would be no need to close the freeway and only asked that signs be posted warning drivers of the live-fire event and to expect to hear explosions.
California Highway Patrol officials instead announced the freeway would be closed while the event is in progress, according to KTLA-TV.
Due to safety concerns, a section of Interstate 5 will be closed Saturday due to a White House-directed military event at Camp Pendleton involving live ammunition being discharged over the freeway,” Caltrans officials said in a statement on Saturday morning.
“Drivers should expect delays on Interstate 5 and other state routes throughout Southern California before, during and after the event.”
The closure starts at 11 a.m. PDT for the 17-mile stretch of freeway running from Basilone Road near San Onofre in the north to Harbor Drive in Oceanside to the south and reopens at 3 p.m.
The event will include a demonstration of Navy and Marine Corps operations on land, sea and in the air.
Camp Pendleton is located about 40 miles north of San Diego and east of I-5, which runs along the Pacific Coast.
Caltrans officials advise motorists in Los Angeles County to use state routes in San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties to bypass the closed section of freeway.
Several local train routes also will be closed during the live-fire event.
Former Rep. Katie Porter of Irvine received the endorsement of a prominent Democratic women’s group on Monday that backs candidates who support abortion rights. The organization could provide significant funding and grass-roots support to boost Porter’s 2026 gubernatorial campaign.
“Katie Porter has spent her career holding the powerful accountable, fighting to lower costs and taking on Wall Street and Trump administration officials to deliver results for California’s working families,” said Jessica Mackler, president of EMILY’s List. “At a time when President Trump and his allies are attacking Californians’ health care and making their lives more expensive, Katie is the proven leader California needs.”
The organization’s name stands for Early Money Is Like Yeast, a reference to the importance of early fundraising for female candidates. It was founded four decades ago to promote Democratic women who support legal abortion. The group has raised nearly $950 million to help elect such candidates across the country, including backing Porter’s successful congressional campaign to flip a GOP district in Orange County.
“There’s nothing that Donald Trump hates more than facing down a strong, powerful woman,” Porter said. “For decades, EMILY’s List has backed winner after winner, helping elect pro-choice Democratic women to public office. They were instrumental in helping me flip a Republican stronghold blue in 2018, and together I’m confident we will make history again.”
It’s unclear, however, how much the organization will spend on Porter’s bid to be California’s first female governor. There are multiple critical congressional races next year that will determine control of the House that the group will likely throw its weight behind.
At the moment, Porter, a UC Irvine law professor who unsuccessfully ran for U.S. Senate last year, has a small edge in the polls among the multitude of Democrats running for the seat. The primary is in June.
Aug. 21 (UPI) — The California Supreme Court has rejected a Republican challenge to Gov. Gavin Newsom‘s plan to redraw the state’s congressional districts, a move the Democrat is pursuing as retaliation against Texas for approving maps that favor Republicans.
The court issued its refusal Wednesday, the same day Texas state Republicans passed maps that are expected to produce five additional GOP seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
According to a note on the decision in the docket, “Petitioners have failed to meet their burden of establishing a basis for relief.”
The ruling was issued two days after four California state Republican lawmakers filed the lawsuit against Democratic lawmakers who had introduced legislation on Monday to initiate the state’s redistricting.
The litigation comes amid something of a congressional redistricting arms race that kicked off with Texas.
Congressional maps are generally redrawn once a decade based on new Census Bureau data, with the next census scheduled for 2030. Democrats are accusing Texas Republicans of redrawing their maps now under pressure from President Donald Trump to help ensure the GOP maintains its control of the House following next year’s midterm elections. Republicans currently hold a narrow majority in the congressional chamber.
Newsom has been among the most vocal critics, and has vowed to redistrict California to neutralize those seats to be gained in Texas. Other states on both sides of the political aisle have suggested they might do the same.
The lawsuit was filed by Republican state Sens. Tony Strickland and Suzette Martinez Valladares and Assemblymembers Tri Ta and Kathryn Sanchez, who have pledged to continue their fight despite the California Supreme Court decision.
“We will continue to challenge this unconstitutional power grab in the courts and at the ballot box,” they said in a statement. “Californians deserve fair, transparent elections, not secret backroom deals to protect politicians.”
George Skelton and Michael Wilner cover the insights, legislation, players and politics you need to know in 2024. In your inbox Monday and Thursday mornings.
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SACRAMENTO — Former Vice President Kamala’s Harris’ decision to forgo a 2026 run for California governor came as a bit of a surprise, given her impressive winning streak in the state and comfortable lead in early polling. But that’s what makes campaigns so interesting, the unpredictability. It’s also why everyone should view nattering political punditry and campaign handicapping with a healthy heap of skepticism.
So keep that in mind now that the California governor’s race is wide open. The current field of candidates — yes, there’s still plenty of time for folks to jump in — is filled with gubernatorial hopefuls who have a legitimate if not outside chance of taking over for two-term Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is barred from running again.
Four of the top Democrats in the race already have won statewide races — former Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra, Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, state Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurman and former Controller Betty Yee. One is the former mayor of California’s largest city, Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles. Two were impactful lawmakers — Orange County Rep. Katie Porter and former state Sen. Toni Atkins. And, as always, there are the wild cards: wealthy Democratic businessman Stephen J. Cloobeck; and Republicans Chad Bianco, the Riverside County sheriff, and conservative commentator Steve Hilton.
This is Phil Willon, the L.A. Times California politics editor, filling in for columnist George Skelton this week. I’m joined by senior Sacramento reporter Taryn Luna to bring you up to speed on the latest.
The early money
On the same week Harris announced that she wasn’t running, just by coincidence, the latest campaign fundraising reports for the governor’s race were released to the public.
Those financial reports, which cover the first half of 2025, offered a glimpse of a candidate’s popularity and viability, since running a successful gubernatorial campaign in the most populous state in the union can cost tens of millions of dollars.
Campaign fundraising has been a bit frozen; donors were waiting to hear whether Harris was going to jump in the race, since she would have started as the clear favorite.
Kounalakis raised just over $100,000 during the first half of this year, a relatively paltry amount. But she had more than $4.6 million socked away and millions more in her lieutenant governor campaign account. Kounalakis’ father, the wealthy developer Angelo Tsakopoulos, also helped bankroll an independent expenditure committee supporting his daughter’s 2018 campaign for lieutenant governor.
Cloobeck, a Los Angeles Democrat, raised about $160,000 — but on Friday, he made a $10-million contribution to his campaign that he said “turbocharged” it.
Here’s a look at what the other candidates hauled in during the first half of the year and how much money they have in their accounts, since they were busy spending money as well:
Atkins reported having $4.3 million in the campaign, while raising $648,000.
Villaraigosa raised $1.1 million. He reported $3.3 million cash on hand based on fundraising he did last year.
Becerra had $2.1 million in the bank after raising $2.5 million.
Porter reported raising $3 million since announcing she was running for governor in March. She said she had $2 million in the bank.
Bianco reported raising $1.6 million, and had $1 million in the bank.
Hilton raised about $1.5 million, of which $200,000 was a personal loan. Hilton has a little less than $800,000 in the bank.
Yee raised almost $238,000 and had $637,000 on hand.
Thurmond raised about $70,000, and had almost $560,000 on hand.
Although a few seemingly have a pile of money and others look like they are barely scraping by, the reality is that none of them has enough money to wage a successful campaign for governor at this point. So, how much they rake in in the months ahead will be pivotal.
Harris’ next act
Speculation about Harris’ plans for the future is focused heavily on whether she will run for president again in 2028, talk that started almost immediately after the former vice president announced that she wasn’t running for California governor. Harris indicated that she’d remain active in national politics, but just how remains the big question.
Experts in power and political leadership expect Harris’ next move to be something in the public eye, given she is relatively young at 60 and no doubt wants her last chapter in the spotlight to be something other than her humbling loss to Trump in the 2024 presidential election.
“Even if it isn’t the governorship of California, the idea of wanting something else other than the 2024 election to be the last thing Kamala Harris ever did would be very appealing,” said Gregory H. Winger, an assistant professor of public and international affairs at the University of Cincinnati who has studied former presidents’ lingering influence.
Winger said his research showed those “most active in trying to be influential” in their post-White House years were those whose time in office ended on a sour note, such as failing to win reelection.
“It’s kind of a frustrated ambition that then leads into higher activity,” Winger said — and Harris has that.
Harris was careful to leave her options open — framing her hopes for the future around ideals such as “fighting for the American people.”
The Democratic Party is losing support from young men
One of the many takeaways from the 2024 presidential election, including Harris’ defeat to Trump, is that Democrats are losing men — and young men feel particularly unseen by the party.
In his ongoing dissection of how Trump prevailed, Newsom brought Richard Reeves, a social scientist and author, onto his podcast this week and asked what he thought about efforts to speak to male voters.
“The way I think about this is that in politics something almost always beats nothing,” said Reeves, founding president of the American Institute for Boys and Men. “And what there was from the Democrats on issues around boys and men was nothing.”
For a Democratic governor of California weighing a potential 2028 presidential run, there are plenty of political reasons for Newsom to strive to understand why men feel disconnected from his party. Kamala Harris won 55% of women and 42% of men, a 9-point increase in the gender gap compared to the 2020 presidential election.
But Newsom also has personal reasons to ponder, too. The governor has talked about his own 14-year-old son, Hunter, and his interest in MAGA podcasters and influencers, such as Charlie Kirk.
Reeves said Democrats lost support from men in the election because they made a conscious choice to appear as the party that supports women — at the exclusion of men.
“I think that was a fatal miscalculation,” Reeves said. “I also think, honestly, it was somewhat insulting to women because there are plenty of women out there, and we may know some in our own lives, governor, who are simultaneously worried about the issues facing women. Access, for example, to reproductive healthcare, justice at work. And they’re desperately worried about their son’s mental health, and they’re very worried about their brother’s job.”
Trump made a stronger effort to win over a micro-generation of young men “who grew up with terms like toxic masculinity and mansplaining and the women’s movement,” Reeves said.
“The Republicans managed to convince young men, ‘We see you and we like you,’ and I don’t think there’s anything more to it than that, but I don’t think the Democrats did a very good job of making young men feel the same way,” Reeves said. “If anything, Democrats struggle with the idea that men might have problems because too many of them are still convinced that men are the problem.”
Men’s issues are a topic Reeves writes and speaks about often. Compared to women, men suffer from higher suicide rates and a greater sense of disconnection from peers. Men are less likely to attend college and more prone to violence.
Reeves casts the problem as the refusal to address the reality that men are struggling, too.
Ignoring men’s issues creates a gulf that the “reactionary online right” fills, he said, and draws young men to controversial figures such as Andrew Tate, a British influencer who promotes misogyny.
When the podcast with Reeves aired on Wednesday, Newsom announced an executive order that directs various state agencies to make recommendations to address suicide among young men, to improve recruitment of male teachers and counselors, and to increase male participation in state-funded volunteer programs, job training, educational partnerships and behavioral health initiatives.
Newsom said the work of Reeves and others “really is a call to arms.”
1 of 3 | The Butte County meadowfoam is only found in Butte County, Calif. A federal judge stopped a project that would further endanger the flower. Photo by Rick Kuyper/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
July 18 (UPI) — A federal judge overturned the approval by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers of a mixed-use project in Chico, Calif., after environmentalists claimed it will destroy the natural habitat of threatened species.
At issue was the Stonegate Development Project, a 314-acre development. It was to include 423 single-family residential lots, 13.4 acres of multi-family residential land uses, 36.6 acres of commercial land uses, 5.4 acres of storm water facilities, 3.5 acres of park and a 137-acre, open-space preserve, the ruling said.
U.S. District Judge Daniel Calabretta gave summary judgment requested by the Center for Biological Diversity and AquAlliance and halted implementation of the project until the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service prepares a legally adequate biological opinion that the development wouldn’t jeopardize protected species.
Calabretta, a President Joe Biden appointee, wrote that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a Biological Opinion for the project in early 2020. That opinion “acknowledged there would be harm to some ESA-listed species, but that the project would not jeopardize the continued survival and recovery of the listed fairy shrimp, tadpole shrimp and meadowfoam.” It also did not analyze impacts on the giant garter snake, he added.
“The court finds that federal defendants’ failure to consider potential effects on the ESA-listed giant garter snake was based on a faulty assumption that there have been no sightings of the snake within five miles of the project renders its Biological Opinion arbitrary and capricious,” Calabretta said.
According to the conservation groups, the project also would permanently destroy 9.14 acres of wetlands. But some meadowfoam habitat may be established through mitigation efforts.
The Butte County meadowfoam is found nowhere in the world but Butte County, Calif., the Center for Biological Diversity said. The species has only 21 distinct populations remaining, and the project would destroy one population and further encroach on two others.
According to the fish and wildlife service, the giant garter snake is one of the largest garter snakes, reaching 63.7 inches long. It has been listed as threatened since 1993 and now only exists in three counties in California. Only about 5% of its historical wetland habitat remains.
Vernal pool fairy shrimp are restricted to vernal pools found in California and southern Oregon. They are found in 32 counties across California’s Central Valley, central coast and southern California and in Jackson County in southern Oregon, the service said.
July 7 (UPI) — Authorities in northern California have confirmed the recovery of the bodies of seven people who had been reported missing following last week’s explosion of a warehouse storing fireworks near Sacramento.
“In accordance with standard procedure and out of respect for the families, the identities of the deceased will be withheld until formal identification is complete and next of kin have been notified,” Yolo County said in a statement Sunday.
The fireworks warehouse, located near County Roads 23 and 86A in the Esparto area of Yolo County, exploded Tuesday at about 5:50 p.m. following a fire that erupted on the compound.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
On Sunday, authorities executed a controlled explosion at the site “to safely remove hazardous materials identified at the scene,” Yolo County said in a statement.
The explosion was scheduled to occur between 2:30 and 3:30 p.m. PDT.
“Residents may hear loud noises or notice smoke and odors in the area during this time,” the county said. “This is expected and part of the controlled process … There is no immediate threat to public safety, and all necessary safety protocols are in place.”
Authorities had confirmed on Friday that remains of at least some of the seven people reported unaccounted for had been found.
The fire and the ensuing explosion resulted in the Oakdale Fire, which burned 78 acres before it was 100% contained on Sunday, according to Cal Fire.
For nearly six decades, Los Tigres del Norte’s name has been all over the charts, on countless marquees, seven Grammys and, now, one street in New York City.
On Thursday, the historic música Mexicana band showed up to the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, surrounded by fans at the grand presentation of the newly minted Los Tigres del Norte Way.
“Starting today, a street in Brooklyn carries the name of Los Tigres del Norte,” the group wrote in an Instagram post Thursday evening. “Thank you for walking with us, today and always.”
The Sinaloense legends’ street sign is located on 5th Avenue and 47th Street in Brooklyn, surrounded by a litany of Latino restaurants.
“We’ve been coming to New York for so many years,” vocalist and accordion player Jorge Hernandez said in a TV interview Wednesday with New York’s Fox 5. “We’ve been able to connect with the community, so that’s why we’ve been selected today to have the street and we are very happy to be honored tomorrow.”
The road naming occurred on the same day as the release of the “La Puerta Negra” artists’ latest five-track EP “La Lotería.” The title track is a sociopolitical corrido that uses the imagery of the popular bingo-like Mexican game to comment on topics like immigration and the past criminality of the current U.S. president.
The band will play its first-ever show at New York’s historic Madison Square Garden on May 24 to wrap up their current East Coast stint before performing June 13 at the Agua Caliente Casino in Rancho Mirage, Calif., and June 15 in Del Mar, Calif.
However, Thursday’s festivities weren’t the first time that the “Jaula de Oro” band was honored with a street-naming ceremony. A strip of W. 26th Street in Chicago is honorarily named after the 12-time Latin Grammy winners. The street runs through the Windy City’s Little Village neighborhood, which is known as the “Mexico of the Midwest” due to upwards of 80% of its residents being of Mexican descent.
In June, the group will receive lifetime recognition for its members’ continued immigration advocacy from Monterey County officials ahead of their tour date in Salinas, Calif.
May 17 (UPI) — A car explosion killed one and injured five in Palm Springs, Calif., Saturday morning during what local police are calling an “intentional act.”
The explosion happened in a parking lot at 1199 N. Indian Canyon about 11 a.m. and damaged several buildings, Palm Springs Police Chief Andy Mills said in a Facebook post.
“The blast appears to be an intentional act of violence,” Mills said. “The blast field extends for blocks with several buildings damaged – some severely.”
Mills said the “incident appears to be isolated,” and FBI investigators are on the scene. The identity of the deceased person is unknown.
The FBI’s Los Angeles field office confirmed it is investigating the explosion.
“FBI assets being deployed include investigators, bomb technicians and an evidence response team,” the FBI Los Angeles said in a post on X.
Several medical facilities are located within and near the blast area, including the Desert Regional Medical Center, NBC News reported.
Some windows were damaged at the medical center in a medical office building that was facing the explosion, hospital spokesman Rich Ramhoff told the Desert Sun.
Although it is open and fully operational, access is limited due to the police response.
Hospital officials ask visitors to stay away until full access is restored on local streets.
An American Reproductive Centers fertility clinic is located near where the car was parked when it exploded, but none of its employees were injured.
ARC officials said no damage occurred to the eggs, embryos and reproductive materials at the fertility clinic.
“We are heavily conducting a complete safety inspection and have confirmed that our operations and sensitive medical areas were not impacted by the blast,” ARC officials said in a Facebook post.
The fertility clinic will be open and fully operational on Monday morning with staff available to address any concerns its clients might have.
California Governor Gavin Newsom has been briefed on the explosion, his press office said in a social media post.
The state is working with the FBI and local police to support the response to the car explosion.
