Tuesday's forecast brings warmer temperatures for the inland areas, highs in the triple digits for the deserts and continuing low morning clouds for the coast.
Tuesday's forecast brings warmer temperatures for the inland areas, highs in the triple digits for the deserts and continuing low morning clouds for the coast.
Desert communities are already experiencing the heat wave — highs today for the high desert will reach up to 103 degrees, up to 114 degrees for Coachella Valley.
Inland areas will see highs mainly in the 90s, but the Inland Empire will be the warmest parts, with some parts of Riverside and San Bernardino county valleys reaching up to 104 degrees.
It will be cooler along the coast with patchy fog for early morning hours followed by low clouds then gradual clearing this afternoon — expect highs in the mid 70s. The inland coast will see highs in the upper 70s to low 80s.
Tonight's lows will drop to upper 60s, low 80s for the deserts.
Desert communities will see triple-digit highs all week long. In Coachella Valley, local officials are asking residents to conserve energy as much as possible from 4 to 9 p.m. during this heat wave.
Heat advisories have been extended to the inland coast — that's west L.A. including Culver City, Beverly Hills, to downtown L.A. and Norwalk. Come Thursday, those areas will see highs between 85 to 95 degrees.
Expect Wednesday's highs for the valleys to rise to 95 to 110 degrees.
Weather forecasters warn that due to high temperatures and low humidity, fire conditions will be critical this week, so please be responsible when celebrating Fourth of July.
On this day in 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act.
Check out our full list of things to do this week.
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California students enrolled in public colleges and universities are now eligible to apply for CalFresh, the state’s food benefits program, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Friday.
Who qualifies: Students enrolled in a degree program at a California Community College, California State University or the University of California may be eligible for up to $300 a month to spend on food at grocery stores and farmers markets. Before this change, proving eligibility for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) food benefits was a complex process that often discouraged eligible students from applying. With the new changes, undergraduate students who are enrolled at least half time qualify by being enrolled in any degree program at a UC, CSU, or community college. Newsom said that the state expects more than 200,000 additional students to enroll in CalFresh after program expansion.
California students enrolled in public colleges and universities are now eligible to apply for CalFresh, the state’s food benefits program, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Friday.
Students enrolled in a degree program at a California Community College, California State University or the University of California may be eligible for up to $300 a month to spend on food at grocery stores and farmers markets.
“We can’t expect students to learn if they’re hungry, and in California, there is no reason for them to be, whether they’re in kindergarten, high school, or college,” Newsom said in a Friday statement. “You shouldn’t have to jump through hoops to get the food benefits you’re entitled to, and now you don’t have to.”
Those who are enrolled in an associate or bachelor’s degree program, at least half time, can apply here. Newsom said that the state expects more than 200,000 additional students to enroll in CalFresh after program expansion.
“This is what government is supposed to do: help the people we serve. It is my hope that these changes will continue to make it easier for students to access CalFresh, the largest anti-hunger program in the country,” California Department of Social Services Director Jennifer Troia said in a Friday statement.
EdSource is an independent nonprofit organization that provides analysis on key education issues facing California and the nation. LAist republishes articles from EdSource with permission.
Topline:
Tropical storm Rachel’s waves and tides battered seaside homes in Long Beach, Newport Beach and Malibu over the weekend, damaging them to the point that some residents had to evacuate. But heavy rains failed to materialize.
Will flooding continue? On Monday morning, the National Weather Service posted their forecast: “Minor to moderate coastal flooding is likely to continue to through at least Tuesday. Periods of light to moderate rain and a low chance of thunderstorms will persist through Monday with below normal temperatures."
What's next: Beginning Tuesday, warm and dry conditions should return through the end of the week.
Tropical Storm Rachel’s waves and tides battered seaside homes in Long Beach, Newport Beach and Malibu over the weekend, damaging them to the point that some residents had to evacuate. But heavy rains failed to materialize, lessening the potentially disastrous impact.
Federal weather officials suggested Monday that while some flooding may remain, the worst of this weekend’s storm is probably over.
“Minor to moderate coastal flooding is likely to continue to through at least Tuesday," said the National Weather Service synopsis posted Monday morning.
“Periods of light to moderate rain and a low chance of thunderstorms will persist through Monday with below normal temperatures,” the synopsis continued.
The weather service said warm, dry conditions should return beginning Tuesday and continue through the end of the week.
On Monday, powerful waves continued to batter the Long Beach Peninsula. Eight buildings, which comprise 13 residences, were red-tagged, marking them as unsafe to enter. Mandatory evacuation orders remained in place for buildings along Seaside Walk between 64th Place and 66th Place.
Large stretches of the boardwalk were also destroyed, with pieces of splintered wood littering the water. At 66th Place, residents used sandbags to reinforce the boardwalk and prevent the damage from spreading.
Access to the peninsula remained restricted to local residents only. In areas with wider beaches, crews with heavy equipment worked to build up sand berms.
Newport Beach had prepared for the storm last week by adding sand to the beach. But spokesperson Georgia Rios said it hadn't been enough.
"Between the elevated high tides, as well as that elevated surf coming in, it breached our berms and went into the roadways," she said.
In West Newport Beach on Monday, sandbags were still piled against doors and garages of many homes, and some streets near the beach were scattered with sand left behind by seawater.
Rios said some homes were flooded, but none had been red-tagged.
On the beach, crews were building sand berms, as they had for days.
“All the work that these crews have been putting in were absolutely essential to keeping flooding out of the homes,” Rob Marienthal, a Newport Beach lifeguard officer, told LAist on Monday.
Marienthal added that the berms will remain an important defense against more high tides and swells expected this fall, especially in vulnerable areas like the Balboa Peninsula.
The Newport Beach City Council will be discussing a sand replenishment plan this week.
Tropical Storm Rachel's rains were fairly inconsequential. Over the weekend, just over a quarter of an inch of rain (0.29 inches) fell in Long Beach. It barely rained in downtown L.A. (0.07) and Santa Monica (0.02). Just over 2 inches of rain fell at Mount Baldy, according to a National Weather Service post Monday morning.
Meanwhile, at midday on Saturday, winds hit 23 mph at John Wayne Airport in Orange County and 17 mph at the Santa Monica Airport.
Some cities across Southern California declared local emergencies days before this weekend’s winds, tides and waves hit the region.
The city of Malibu declared a local emergency Sept. 28 to prepare residents for rain, mudslides, landslides, debris flows, coastal erosion and flooding that the El Niño weather event could bring.
But officials emphasized that although only some of the potential damage materialized over the weekend, El Niño is far from over.
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It’s time to vote in the California 2026 midterm election — which includes your chance to decide who’ll be the state’s next governor. If you’re unsure of how to fill that ballot or what to do if you’ve made a mistake on it, read on to learn how to fill out your ballot when it arrives, how important your signature is and your options if you need to start again with a fresh ballot.
If you make a mistake on your ballot: It’s important to note that each county is slightly different in how they’d prefer you to address a mistake on your ballot, and will often provide specific details about corrections on the ballot itself. If you have a specific question about your ballot that isn’t answered here, you can always contact your local registrar of voters for advice and instructions.
The importance of your signature: When you’re done filling out your ballot, you must sign the envelope. Avoid two big mistakes people make with their signatures: remember to sign your ballot entirely and that your signature matches the one you had when you registered to vote. If you’re really worried about the signature on your envelope not matching the signature you’re registered to vote with, there are two good solutions. One: If it’s on or before Oct. 19, you can reregister to vote with your current signature, to be sure that the state now has your most recent one on file. If you are reregistering after Oct. 19, you’d need to complete the same-day voter registration process (also known as “conditional voting”) and request your ballot in person at your county elections office or polling location. Another soultion: Go vote in person, if you’re able.
It’s time to vote in the California 2026 midterm election — which includes your chance to decide who’ll be the state’s next governor.
If you’re a registered California voter, your ballot is on its way in the next few days, if it hasn’t already arrived. Your last day to vote will be Election Day itself, Nov. 3.
But what if you’re unsure of how to fill that ballot out according to how you want to vote? Or what to do if you’ve made a mistake on it?
Read on to learn how to fill out your ballot when it arrives, how important your signature is, and your options if you need to start again with a fresh ballot.
The official deadline to register online to vote is Monday, Oct. 19.
So if you’re unsure whether you’re already registered to vote or can’t remember which party preference you already have, check your voter registration details ASAP.
Remember, if you’ve changed your name or want to change the political party choice you previously registered to vote with, or you’ve moved address, you’ll need to re-register.
Making sure you’re registered — and to the right address — is crucial for getting your ballot on time.
And if you miss the deadline to register, don’t panic: That’s the last day to do it online. After Oct. 19, you can still complete the same-day voter registration process (also known as “conditional voting”) and receive your ballot in person at your county elections office or polling location, all the way up to 8 p.m. on Election Day itself.
Depending on which county you live in, your California ballot will present you with a mix of races to vote on.
These will depend on your county or district. See the LAist Voter Guide for more information on what’s on your ballot this election season.
These drop boxes open by Oct. 5, and once submitted, your ballot will be taken straight to your local county elections office.
Some elections officials strongly recommend using these drop boxes over using USPS. “We’re not really encouraging people to use the USPS to get their ballot here,” said Evelyn Mendez, Sonoma County’s registrar of voters.
Instead, Mendez tells voters to use county collection boxes because they skip the Postal Service altogether.
The return postage is already paid for you. Keep in mind that the Postal Service must postmark your ballot envelope by the end of Election Day for your vote to count — and the last collection at many mailboxes is 5 p.m.
However, in the last two statewide elections, Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Attorney General Rob Bonta urged any voters planning to use USPS to mail in their ballots at least a week before Election Day — to account for changes in the way USPS is collected and postmarked in many areas.
And if you’re mailing your midterm ballot on Election Day itself, Weber’s office is recommending you “get a hand-stamped postmark from a postal employee inside a United States Post Office” rather than simply dropping it in a USPS collection box.
The first vote centers open Oct. 24 in certain counties, with more early voting locations opening Oct. 31.
This method is the top recommendation of Kim Alexander, president and founder of the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation. The option, known as “Sign, Scan and Go” voting, allows voters to bring their mail ballot to a vote center and sign a roster under penalty of perjury — just as you would for in-person voting.
Alexander said this approach sidesteps time-intensive signature verification — since your signature only goes on your ballot’s envelope, and the envelope isn’t necessary with Sign, Scan and Go — and late-arrival ballot rejections.
No. If you’re registered to vote, you’ll be receiving a mail-in ballot by default for the 2026 midterms, without requesting it. But voting by mail is still just one option that’s open to you.
You can still vote in person, either at an early voting location before Election Day or on Election Day, Nov. 3, itself. Early voting locations will open starting Oct. 24.
It’s important to note that each county is slightly different in how they’d prefer you to address a mistake on your ballot, and will often provide specific details about corrections on the ballot itself. If you have a specific question about your ballot that isn’t answered here, you can always contact your local registrar of voters for advice and instructions.
When you’re done filling out your ballot, you must sign the envelope. But two big mistakes people make with their signatures are:
Why wouldn’t your signature match the one on file? If you registered to vote at a young age, maybe your signature has changed over time. Or perhaps you registered to vote at the DMV and provided your signature on a screen with a stylus, which doesn’t quite replicate how you’d make your signature with a pen on paper.
If you registered this way, one simple way to avoid any signature problems is to take a quick glance at the signature that’s on your driver’s license or state ID — because that’s the one you want your ballot signature to match.
Even if you didn’t register at the DMV, that signature on your most recent license or state ID is still very likely the one to emulate. That’s because when you register to vote online, your county elections office electronically requests a copy of the signature the DMV currently has for you, and this information is regularly updated.
To further set your mind at rest, know that California isn’t an “exact match” state, and doesn’t demand voters’ signatures 100% replicate the signature that’s on file.
If you’re really worried about the signature on your envelope not matching the signature you’re registered to vote with, there are two good solutions.
One: If it’s on or before Oct. 19, you can re-register to vote with your current signature, to be sure that the state now has your most recent one on file. If you are re-registering after Oct. 19, you’d need to complete the same-day voter registration process (also known as “conditional voting”) and request your ballot in person at your county elections office or polling location.
In 2021, Kim Alexander, president of the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation, told us there’s another solution if you’re worried about your signature: Go vote in person, if you’re able.
That’s because the signature goes only on your ballot’s envelope — and if you’re voting in person, there’s no envelope, because that ballot then goes straight into the ballot box without needing that envelope at all.
“So if you want that satisfaction of seeing your ballot drop in the box and know that it’s not going to get held up because of some signature issue, you can go and vote in person,” said Alexander.
Rest assured: There’s a whole system in place to help you correct your mistake.
If your county’s election office detects a signature mismatch on your ballot, they’ll reach out to you via mail to verify and work with you to correct it, so that your ballot can be counted after all. It’s called “curing” a ballot.
This system is also applied when it looks like a member of a voter’s family might have signed their ballot, instead of the voter. This happens a surprising amount when one household has several voters who all receive a ballot in the mail.
One way to get peace of mind: Sign up to track your ballot, and you’ll find out about any issues with your ballot or your signature quickly.
First, don’t panic. People make mistakes on ballots and find good ways to correct them.
Counties give different directions to voters about what to do if they make a mistake (remember: Read the instructions!), but you can usually simply X out the choice you didn’t intend.
The job of county elections officials — once they’ve verified your signature — is to make sure your ballot can be read correctly. If that means that your corrections on your ballot have resulted in readability issues, officials working in teams of two will actually remake it for you according to the intent you’ve signaled with your corrections.
Some counties, like Alameda, ask that you actually contact them first if you make a serious mistake — including voting for the wrong candidate — so they can send you a replacement ballot. So, wherever you live, it’s a good idea to check with your local elections office first to see what they recommend if you made a mistake.
And remember, there’s always this option …
If you’ve made a big mistake on your ballot — too big to fix — your best plan of action may be to focus on getting a new one. And that’s totally OK. You can:
You can also do this if you’ve accidentally damaged your ballot in some way (coffee spills happen).
First off, that date should be the date you signed your envelope — not your date of birth.
But if you’re worried you messed up the date, don’t worry. Elections officials say that the date they’re really looking for is the date that the ballot is postmarked, to make sure it was submitted on time.
Election officials will only truly scrutinize the date you’ve written if they receive your ballot after Election Day.
“Like maybe you mailed it Monday before Election Day,” John Gardner, assistant registrar of voters for Solano County, told us in 2020. “That’s when we have to start looking at postmarks on the ballot, or date that the voter signed the envelope, to determine if we can count the ballot or not.”
And if you haven’t mailed your envelope yet, it’s an easy fix: Just clearly cross out the incorrect date on the envelope and write in the correct one above it.
Getting physical assistance with filling out your ballot from someone you trust is always fine, whether you’re voting at home or at a voting site.
You just need to make sure your signature is your own and matches the one you’re registered to vote with.
Disabled voters can also choose to use the Remote Accessible Vote-by-Mail system to vote privately and independently at home, using their usual assistive device on their home computer to fill out the ballot on their screen and then print and mail it.
Every voting location in California is also equipped with an accessible voting unit. Here, voters with blindness or low vision or who have a disability that limits their dexterity, will be able to use the assistive device of their choice that allows them to vote privately and independently.
Remember, one big reason that ballots get disqualified in elections is that voters mail them too late: either too late on Election Day itself (after U.S. Postal Service mailboxes have already been collected), or after Election Day.
To be counted in this election, your ballot must be postmarked on Election Day, Nov. 3, at the latest. Your ballot has seven days to reach your county elections office.
So in this election, it’s as crucial as ever to make sure you have a plan for voting on time. And if you’re not voting in person, that means making sure you get your ballot into a USPS mailbox or into a secure voting drop box, at a polling location or your county elections office, by the time polls close on Nov. 3.
Read more about why California election officials are urging voters to make sure their ballot arrives on time — and why they’re urging caution around using USPS too close to Election Day.
It’s common to see partners or roommates accidentally mix up their ballots. So make sure you’re signing the document that bears your name.
It reads better, and it doesn’t slow workers down when they have to check to see what voter intent was. (Don’t use a felt-tip or a Sharpie that bleeds through the paper and marks other pages on your ballot.)
It does happen. Keeping your envelope and your ballot together in your home might be a helpful way of avoiding this problem. And of course, when you’re ready to mail your ballot, make sure it’s actually inside the envelope before you seal it.
Your ballot envelope is postage-paid. You don’t need it.
If you’re reading this and you’re worried that your ballot hasn’t arrived yet, make sure you’re not worrying too early, as the deadline for counties to start sending out ballots is only Oct. 5.
But if it gets to late October and your ballot still hasn’t materialized, don’t panic: You have options. Here’s what to do:
Input your details on the secretary of state’s voter status page to check your registration status. This will show whether you’re actually registered to vote, and to which address. It should also show whether your ballot was mailed out.
You can also use the Where’s My Ballot? tool to check whether your ballot has been sent.
If you update your voter registration and address using the secretary of state’s voter status page before the Oct. 19 deadline to register online, your county will cancel the ballot that went to your old address and send you a new one.
And if it turns out your ballot was missing because your voter registration wasn’t updated, don’t feel bad — people move all the time and forget to update their registrations accordingly.
The California Voter Foundation’s Alexander confirmed to KQED in 2021 that updating your address at the post office doesn’t, in fact, update your voter registration. The DMV, on the other hand, will update your voter registration details if you update your address with them.
If it’s more than six days before Election Day, you can call your county elections office and ask them to send a new ballot. Find your county elections office in our contact list (below).
Your county elections office won’t mail you a ballot six days or less before Election Day, because it can’t be sure it’ll reach you in time. So if you’re trying to get a ballot in the immediate run-up to Election Day, go to your county elections office in person and request one at the counter.
From Oct. 5, your county elections office will be open for early voting through Nov. 3, so you could also go there in person during opening hours and vote right there at the counter. More early voting locations will be opening throughout October.
And remember, if you’re not actually registered to vote, you always have the option of same-day voter registration, also known as conditional voter registration, at a voting location, where you can then fill out and submit your ballot, too.
Topline:
California community colleges are trying to discourage immigration enforcement on campuses, but they can’t do much to bar ICE agents from public spaces.
ICE arrests: Immigration enforcement agents are inciting panic at California’s community colleges. Santa Monica College said that one of its students was arrested and deported last May. Then in December, Santa Barbara City College said that federal immigration officers used their campus parking lot as a staging ground, prompting an uproar from community activists. Last month, the San Diego Community College District said ICE agents arrested a student on a public street that cuts through the urban campus and proceeded to chase another student up the steps of the school’s Arts and Humanities building. Last Monday, federal agents arrested the father of a student in a campus parking lot at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, south of San Luis Obispo.
Public areas: State laws require colleges to notify students if immigration enforcement agents are on campus and agents must present a warrant before entering a “nonpublic” area in a school, such as a classroom or office building. But parking lots, quads and many other outdoor spaces are considered public.
Read on... for more on how community colleges are responding.
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Immigration enforcement agents are inciting panic at California’s community colleges.
Santa Monica College said that one of its students was arrested and deported last May. Then in December, Santa Barbara City College said that federal immigration officers used their campus parking lot as a staging ground, prompting an uproar from community activists.
Last month, the San Diego Community College District said ICE agents arrested a student on a public street that cuts through the urban campus and proceeded to chase another student up the steps of the school’s Arts and Humanities building.
Last Monday, federal agents arrested the father of a student in a campus parking lot at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, south of San Luis Obispo.
College presidents say they’re doing everything in their power to keep students safe and prevent federal immigration enforcement officers from coming on campus. But they admit that they have limited power in these situations.
“If ICE agents want to come and walk in the middle of campus, they can do that,” said Kevin Walthers, the president of Allan Hancock College.
State laws require colleges to notify students if immigration enforcement agents are on campus and agents must present a warrant before entering a "nonpublic” area in a school, such as a classroom or office building. But parking lots, quads and many other outdoor spaces are considered public.
By the time Walthers learned ICE agents had arrived at the campus parking lot, they were gone — the arrest happened in a matter of minutes. He said he never received a warrant and was only able to issue a notification to students and faculty after the arrest. The same was true in San Diego, said district Chancellor Gregory Smith.
President Donald Trump rescinded a longstanding policy that prevented immigration enforcement in “sensitive” locations, such as schools. The California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, which oversees the state’s 116 colleges, has been outspoken about protecting students without legal status and offered guidance to schools on dealing with immigration agents. Attorney General Rob Bonta released his own, more detailed guide last month.
Chandler Rebel, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees immigration enforcement, said “ICE does not target schools” and denied arresting anyone on the Allan Hancock campus, despite witness testimony and photographs. Rebel did not respond to questions about the officer who chased a San Diego City College student on campus.
After their interactions with immigration agents, Santa Barbara and San Diego city colleges put up or are in the process of installing signs in parking lots, sidewalks or at the entrances to classrooms and buildings, telling agents they need approval to enter.
In practice, these messages may not prevent immigration agents from coming onto their campuses, college presidents say. “It's kind of our district putting every effort that we can think of, and hopefully it is a deterrent,” Smith said.
Last Monday morning, Mayrin, 18, said she was sitting in the passenger seat while her father drove her to Allan Hancock College, where she had statistics class that day. As they drove by the Olive Garden just outside of campus, she said she saw a large black car follow them down the road.
Mayrin and her father parked in the campus lot, she said, where a masked man approached the window and asked for their identification. CalMatters agreed to withhold her full name because she fears drawing attention to her family’s legal status.
“I was calling people. I was crying. It was a mix of emotions, mostly just worried about my dad,” she said. Maryrin gave the officer her state ID and told him that she’s a U.S. citizen. Her father, who immigrated from Mexico and has lived in the U.S. for about two decades, did not have identification on him and the officer pulled him into his car, she said.
Mayrin spent the next 20 minutes alone in her father’s car, crying and calling family, before college staff, including campus police officers and the dean of counseling, brought her into a conference room to ask what happened and provide support.
Mayrin’s father was one of at least 17 people who were arrested last Monday by immigration enforcement agents in the Santa Maria area, said Assemblymember Gregg Hart, a Santa Barbara Democrat, in an emailed statement. “Mass enforcement sweeps like this are designed to send a message of fear and intimidation – one straight from President Trump.”
The largely Latino towns in California's Central Coast region, which include Santa Maria, have experienced waves of immigration enforcement since Trump took office.
In April, Walthers said the college’s police chief had a meeting with other local police chiefs, the FBI and ICE officers who oversee the Central Coast. The college’s police chief asked immigration officials to provide advance notice before coming on campus. “The response was that ICE would not be coming to campus,” Walthers said. In retrospect, he said he wished the agreement was more formal.
After the arrest last week, Walthers said he got in touch with a federal immigration officer in Los Angeles and said he felt “optimistic” after the conversation that it wouldn’t happen again.
In December, a local organization that advocates for immigrants, 805 UndocuFund, alerted Santa Barbara City College officials that ICE agents were at a campus parking lot and appeared to be using it as a staging area, according to Jordan Killebrew, the executive director of public affairs for the college.
Killebrew said agents were “occupying our parking lots without us knowing or without any previous approval.”
The college has since signed an agreement with 805 UndocuFund to help alert the college of the presence of federal law enforcement agents. The group will also provide college students and staff with resources and referrals including legal, financial, mental health and emergency support services for immigration-related matters.
Killebrew said the college spent about $1,200 on 12 signs, which say its campuses “may not be used for civil immigration enforcement staging areas, processing locations, or operations bases.”
The San Diego college district was already in the process of putting up similar signs when ICE appeared on campus last month. District spokesperson Jack Beresford said the four-college district spent $71,000 on 68 signs, including the cost of the labor to install them. The district also created a new policy requiring any entity, including law enforcement, to get prior approval before conducting “official business” on campus.
“We don't let a bank just come and set up a booth,” said Smith, the chancellor of the San Diego district. He said immigration enforcement agents would need approval before conducting their business, including arrests.
Whether the policy will actually work is less clear. “By the time I know that they're here and get down there to tell them they're not allowed to be here, they're going to be gone,” Smith said. “What I'm hoping that we have set up with this is a legal argument that it's an illegal seizure, the same as if they just broke into somebody's home.”
The policy has never been tested in court. He said he hopes it never gets there.
This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.
