Aaron Schrank
has been on the ground, reporting on homelessness and other issues in L.A. for more than a decade.
Published August 6, 2025 5:00 AM
The entrance to the new Skid Row Care Campus, the first county program to formally incorporate input from homeless people.
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L.A. County Department of Health Services
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Topline:
Los Angeles County administrators say the new Skid Row Care Campus in downtown L.A. is the nation's first community-designed homeless services campus. The 36,000-square-foot site, which opened in May, provides showers, laundry, medical care and housing referrals for the community's unsheltered population.
Why here? The primary clientele are the more than 1,800 unsheltered people living on the neighborhood’s streets who — despite the large concentration of homeless programs in the area — have access to few public restrooms and public gathering spaces. Although it's only been open a few months, the center appears popular. But some nearby business owners complain of more drug activity on the street since the facility opened.
How it's funded: The care campus is funded with nearly $26 million a year in local, state, federal and private dollars over the next two years. The campus is the result of an initiative called the Skid Row Action Plan, a $280 million effort to expand services and housing funded by L.A. County, the city of L.A. and the state.
Harm reduction focus: The new campus includes so-called “harm-reduction” programs that focus on keeping drug users safe and alive, including by providing clean needles, safe smoking supplies and overdose reversal medication.
Read on ... to hear from people who have used the care campus' services and about the controversy surrounding harm reduction.
Floyd Howard Jr. calls it his comfort zone — a canopy-covered courtyard in the heart of Skid Row where he can charge his phone, smoke a cigarette and catch up with friends.
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At Skid Row Care Campus, homeless residents chart their own path to services
It's also the centerpiece of what Los Angeles County administrators say is the nation's first community-designed homeless services campus.
The Skid Row Care Campus opened in May on a 36,000-square-foot site in downtown Los Angeles. It’s the first county program to formally incorporate input from people living in Skid Row, according to officials, including so-called “harm-reduction” programs that focus on keeping drug users safe and alive.
“It was imperative that the plan be designed by the community to repair the harm done by decades of plans that did not involve people who live in Skid Row,” said Molly Rysman with L.A. County’s Department of Health Services.
The care campus is funded with nearly $26 million a year in local, state, federal and private dollars over the next two years. About 2,000 people visit the new campus each day, according to Homeless Healthcare L.A., the main nonprofit staffing the campus.
Although it's only been open a few months, the center appears popular with unhoused Angelenos who desperately need a place to rest. Last month, one woman visited the campus for her first shower in months, she said, after receiving a buprenorphine injection to help her stop using fentanyl.
But some nearby business owners complain of more drug activity on the street since the facility opened.
Howard, a longtime Skid Row resident, said he visits the campus often to pick up the testing strips he uses to check his crystal methamphetamine supply for fentanyl.
Sometimes, he drops by for art classes or acupuncture treatment.
“It’s like a safe haven,” he said.
Centering the community
The site, at 422 S. Crocker St., provides a range of services, including showers, laundry, medical care and housing referrals. Booths line the south side of the plaza, where a rotating cast of representatives from the county’s three health departments provide pop-up services to connect people with addiction treatment or case management.
The primary clientele are the more than 1,800 unsheltered people living on the neighborhood’s streets who — despite the large concentration of homeless programs in the area — have access to few public restrooms and public gathering spaces.
The campus is the result of an initiative called the Skid Row Action Plan, a $280 million effort to expand services and housing funded by L.A. County, the city of L.A. and the state.
L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis launched the initiative in 2022 to address historic racism and disinvestment in the neighborhood, where the majority of the unhoused population is Black.
“Engaging the community was not just important; it was essential,” said Solis, whose district includes Skid Row. “Their voices must guide the path forward. Real transformation can only be led by those who live this reality every day.”
A committee of 10 current and former Skid Row residents collaborated with government agencies in 2023 to come up with recommendations for the plan in 2023. That group, known as the Skid Row Action Plan Resident Advisory Committee, recommended the new campus.
They said they wanted a fun community space where they could connect with services and a place where drug users can pick up harm reduction supplies, such as clean needles or pipes, overdose reversal medication and drug testing strips.
As a member of the advisory committee, Skid Row activist General Dogon said he pushed for the campus entrance to be staffed by “community ambassadors,” rather than private security guards.
“Uniforms don't go good with homeless people,” said Dogon, an organizer with the L.A. Community Action Network. “We want everyday faces to be at the door, not some G.I. Joe in a uniform.”
General Dogon observes an encampment sweep along a block of Skid Row.
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L.A. County officials said input from members of the unhoused community is sometimes ignored, and they are not properly compensated for their efforts. So authorities said they wanted to take a different approach at the care campus.
After the Skid Row Action plan started taking shape, the county hired an additional eight unhoused or formerly unhoused people to serve on resident councils for the Skid Row Care Campus. Each is paid a $10,000 consulting stipend and tasked with surveying other community members about what’s working and what isn’t. They also provide training and technical assistance for the campus’ programs.
“I like the fact that it's focused from the ground up and not the top down,” said Dwight Wilson, a member of a resident council. “It wants to incorporate the actual feeling of the people in the community that need the resources.”
Even the name, “Skid Row Care Campus,” came from the community. It was suggested by Henriëtte Brouwers, associate director of the L.A. Poverty Department, a nonprofit arts organization and theater group that’s been in Skid Row since 1985.
“ People often talk about Skid Row like it's a bad place; they don’t care to find out why it’s here,” Brouwers said. “But people recover when they build relationships, and you build relationships when you care about somebody.
“I think if we want to end homelessness, we need to actually care.”
An estimated 3,593 homeless people live in Skid Row, including those in homeless shelters, according to the region’s latest count. While the overall unhoused population in the neighborhood has declined by 27% since 2022, the remaining population faces greater health risks, according to survey data.
About 41% of the people in Skid Row’s unhoused population have a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or post traumatic stress disorder. Roughly 31% deal with substance use disorder, and 26% claim a physical disability.
To meet some of those needs at the Skid Row Care Campus, the nonprofit health agency John Wesley Community Health Institute runs an on-site clinic and a 48-bed board-and-care facility, which provides permanent housing to people who need help with basic activities like dressing or eating. It’s moving in residents this week, according to county officials.
In several months, Skid Row’s first-ever methadone clinic will open here.
Case workers from the county’s three health departments, LAHSA and other departments rotate through booths within the main courtyard of the Skid Row Care campus.
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People can check in at the medical wing, which includes a clinic, a harm reduction dispensary and dozens of respite beds. The first methadone clinic in Skid Row is expected to open there this year.
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Harm reduction
Many programs at the facility focus on harm reduction, a public health approach that recognizes addiction is a health condition and that some people aren’t going to immediately quit using drugs.
Harm reduction interventions typically focus on minimizing the negative health effects of drug use.
Public health officials and addiction experts say there is ample evidence these approaches not only save lives, but can also help people get into treatment or sobriety, connect them with other services or get them off the street.
But harm reduction remains controversial. Some view these approaches as enabling illegal behavior.
Last month, President Donald Trump signed an executive order encouraging the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to give priority for housing grants to local agencies that enforce laws against open illicit drug use.
Trump’s order directs his attorney general to ensure that federal substance use disorder grants do not fund harm reduction programs. It also directs HUD to require people with substance use disorders or serious mental illness to seek treatment before they participate in federal housing and homelessness assistance programs.
Days before the executive order, a Trump-appointed HUD administrator told L.A. County officials at a meeting that he believed the region wasn’t doing enough enforcement and was critical of providing housing subsidies to people who use drugs, according to local officials who were there. L.A. County officials said it’s too early to tell what the actual effects of the new order will be.
Drug overdose is the leading cause of death for unhoused Angelenos, according to the county Public Health Department. Skid Row is home to the largest homeless population in L.A. and the highest rates of drug overdose mortality.
There are no designated safe-consumption sites — where people are allowed to use drugs under supervision — in California, although some exist in other parts of the country. A few years ago, Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a state bill that would have allowed them.
On the street outside the Skid Row Care Campus, there are many signs that people are using illicit drugs. But they can’t use them inside the facility. The staff won’t allow it.
Last month, when one woman hit her meth pipe while lounging on the patio, a staff member tapped her on the shoulder and asked her to put it away. She complied.
The Skid Row Care Campus’ main harm reduction provider is Homeless Healthcare L.A., best known for its overdose response teams who roll through Skid Row in Jeepsto pass out supplies like clean smoking kits and naloxone, the opioid overdose reversal drug.
“Harm reduction was created by people who use drugs,” said the nonprofit’s Aurora Morales. “And everything that we do reflects what they need.”
On a recent afternoon, Floyd Howard Jr. folded squares of clean tin foil to be packed into kits for fentanyl smokers, as part of a campus work program.
“People that smoke fentanyl, they use the foil to put their drug on and smoke it,” Howard said. “So it's safer to get this from them than to just use some off the ground or something that's not clean.”
Howard added that he’s seen supplies like these save countless lives, including his own.
“If it wasn't for these people, a lot of people would be dead,” he said. “I have a whole lot of people that I met downtown here that passed from overdose.”
An unhoused couple who go by “Porkchop” and “Angel” prepare to visit the Skid Row Care Campus to take their first showers in months. Both had recently taken long-acting injectable doses of buprenorphine to quit using fentanyl, after years of daily use.
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Building community
The care campus sits beside the Umeya Apartments, a 175-unit supportive housing complex managed by the nonprofit Little Tokyo Service Center. Representatives say tenants will start moving in this month.
Most of the site’s neighbors are also homeless services providers. But some business owners complain of increased loitering and drug use outside the campus gates.
“ A lot of people don't want to come here anymore just because the street is so bad and they're scared,” said one representative from a nearby business, who requested anonymity to avoid retaliation. “ They should be helping people get off drugs instead of helping them do drugs.”
Morales of Homeless Healthcare L.A. said she’s working on partnerships with local businesses, including sending work program participants to clean up debris in alleyways.
Many unhoused Skid Row residents say they’re frequently denied service and restroom access at local businesses. Some go days without a proper meal and weeks or even months without a shower.
That’s why the care campus is a refuge.
“ They cater to everybody, and they're not biased about anything,” said Lisa Parizo, a formerly unhoused Skid Row resident who visits the space daily. “If you come in with a dirty shirt, dirty pants, they don't care. They're not gonna give you any less attention.”
It’s too early to tell how the care campus may transform this section of Skid Row.
Months after opening, most people living on Skid Row’s streets still haven’t heard of the campus, said resident councilmember Dwight Wilson, whose responsibilities include evangelizing for the site.
“I haven't run into too many people that have actually been there,” said Wilson. “I'm usually letting them know for the first time.”
Wilson has been living in transitional housing in Skid Row for the past year, since getting out of prison. He saw a listing for this opportunity a few months ago and applied.
He said he’s learned a lot about his neighborhood during the last few months on the job.
“When I was sent down here, I was really upset,” Wilson said. “But actually being down here has been a very humbling experience for me. What I learned is that it is actually a community.”
California gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra speaks during an election night event in Los Angeles on June 2, 2026.
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Jae C. Hong
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AP Photo
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Topline:
California’s wild and wide-open primary election came to a close Tuesday with voters consolidating behind leading candidates for their parties.
Why it matters: It was a good night for normie Democrats, a bad one for self-funded campaigns, a mixed bag for state legislators aspiring to higher office and another electoral reminder of President Donald Trump’s dominant role in our politics — even in deepest blue California.
Governor's race: At the top of the ticket, Republican former Fox News host and British political adviser Steve Hilton and longtime Democratic politico Xavier Becerra hold the top two spots needed to progress to the November election for governor. Tom Steyer, the billionaire former hedge fund manager turned left-leaning political donor, is holding a distant though technically viable third. The Associated Press has not called the race.
Read on... for more on five things to know about California's election, from Congress to the governor's race.
It was a good night for normie Democrats, a bad one for self-funded campaigns, a mixed bag for state legislators aspiring to higher office and another electoral reminder of President Donald Trump’s dominant role in our politics — even in deepest blue California.
At the top of the ticket, Republican former Fox News host and British political adviser Steve Hilton and longtime Democratic politico Xavier Becerra hold the top two spots needed to progress to the November election for governor. Tom Steyer, the billionaire former hedge fund manager turned left-leaning political donor, is holding a distant though technically viable third. The Associated Press has not called the race.
Veteran state election observers will know that it may be weeks before the final score of the June primary election is tallied. But a few early takeaways are already coming into focus:
Money can’t (always) buy you love
Whether Steyer ultimately claws his way into the top two spots in the governor’s race after spending a record-setting sum on his self-funded campaign, it’s got to be a disappointing return on investment.
Steyer ultimately spent nearly a quarter of a billion dollars on his populism-coded gubernatorial bid. The fact that all that advertising didn’t translate to an electoral blowout is no surprise, said Garry South, a longtime California Democratic strategist.
“It may sound facetious to say that you can have too much money in a campaign, but in fact the way these rich self-financing candidates spend their money becomes a liability. …They wear out their welcome.”
Steyer isn’t the only candidate to have drawn deeply on his personal finances only to flounder at the ballot box. Patrick Wolff put $600,000 of his own money toward his insurance commissioner campaign, Yvonne Yiu invested $750,000 in her race to join the state Board of Equalization and Saikat Chakrabarti put up the bulk of the millions he spent in his bid to replace Nancy Pelosi in Congress. In Los Angeles, Zach Sokoloff put up $1 million — with millions more coming from his mother — to unseat the sitting city controller.
Chakrabarti couldn’t crack the top two in his race, losing to state Sen. Scott Wiener and San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan. As of Wednesday morning, the remaining three trailed in their respective races.
A good night for ‘standard’ Democrats
Anti-incumbent populism may be in the national zeitgeist, but California voters seem perfectly happy with — or at least, fine settling with — experienced, garden variety Democrats.
“What they want is a Democratic elected official who can go and fight Donald Trump,” said Andrew Sinclair, a Claremont McKenna University political science professor.
Hence the sharp, sudden rise of Becerra following the political implosion of former frontrunner Eric Swalwell. Swalwell was also well known as an experienced politician who “Donald Trump didn’t like,” said Sinclair. Mild-mannered Becerra with a deep political resume and limited baggage was the next logical choice. “What’s your standard, out-of-the-box Democrat who you can get to fight Republicans? Becerra is probably that guy.”
It helped that Becerra’s main Democratic opponent, the self-styled populist Steyer, had the easily-attacked billionaire status, and Democrats worried about being locked out of the general election wanted to get behind whoever was polling best.
Tom Steyer speaks at his watch party on election day during the California gubernatorial primary at The Regency Ballroom in San Francisco on June 2, 2026.
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Many of the Democratic incumbents in Congress also appeared to be fending off challenges from younger, more progressive insurgents — or at least keeping them firmly in second place. Those include Mike Thompson, Brad Sherman and Doris Matsui.
Party still matters
Back in 2010 when California adopted the top-two primary system, proponents pitched it to voters as a way to shake the partisan gridlock out of California politics. Rather than have Democratic and Republican primary voters predictably electing candidates who appeal to the ideological poles, a system that lets every candidate from every party compete on the same ballot was supposed to encourage across-the-aisle reaching candidates who can appeal to voters in the middle.
Voters in the middle are less likely to show up in primary elections, said South.
Nor has the state’s top-two system ever produced a general election race for governor with two Democrats. For all the talk of then-Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom squaring off against Antonio Villaraigosa in 2018 or the possibility of a Becerra vs Steyer showdown this year, California governor races have always reverted to the partisan pattern with energized Democratic voters gravitating around their candidate and Republicans doing the same.
Similarly, the top two spots in both the lieutenant governor and treasurer’s races are also blue vs. red. The one exception: As of Wednesday, two Democratic candidates to become the next insurance commissioner — Jane Kim and Sen. Ben Allen — appear to be headed to the November election.
With so many Democrats packed into the race and none dominating the field, many party members worried early on that the two most prominent Republicans running, Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, could claim the first and second place spot in the primary.
Concerns over such a paradoxical, and for Democrats, nightmarish outcome prompted party chair Rusty Hicks to commission a poll to push some of the lowest-polling Democratic candidates to step aside for the good of the party and state.
Almost none did. But either because Democratic voters were sufficiently spooked into strategically avoiding that outcome — or because a shutout was never that likely in the first place — it doesn’t appear likely to happen.
Democrats have dodged such electoral bullets before. In 2018, a glut of anti-Trump Democratic congressional candidates threatened to hand Republicans both top spots in competitive races across the state. There were no shutouts in that year's primary. California Democrats ended up cleaning up in the subsequent “blue wave” general election. There was similar Democratic hand-wringing in the run-up to the recall election over a possible procedural fluke that could have handed the governor’s office to a Republican. Newsom swatted down the recall in a landslide.
Despite the recurring bouts of Democratic angst, the most prominent top two “lock out” in recent memory was in a deeply conservative state Senate district in the Sierra foothills in 2022 which a crowded pack of Republicans ended up cannibalizing the GOP vote leaving two Democrats in first and second.
The victor in that race, Sen. Marie Alvarado-Gil, ended up switching parties to join the Republicans anyway. As of early Wednesday, she is trailing in third place in her re-election contest behind Jaron Brandon, a Democrat, and Alexandra Duarte, a Republican.
Senator who?
Anthony Rendon was the former speaker of the California Assembly. In an org chart of state governance, that made him one of the three most influential people in the Capitol, alongside his counterpart in the Senate and the governor.
Alas, that wasn’t enough star power for Rendon to secure the largely symbolic position of superintendent of public instruction. As of Wednesday, he sits in fourth place.
Likewise, state Sen. Anna Caballero, a Merced Democrat who once served as the state Senate’s powerful appropriations chair, is a distant third in her bid to become treasurer — far behind Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis and little-known Republican Jennifer Hawks. Assemblymember Jasmeet Bains, a moderate Democrat, is also trailing in her race to unseat Republican Rep. David Valadao in the Central Valley, currently boxed out of the second place spot by Sen. Bernie Sanders-backed college professor Randy Villegas. And former state Sen. Steven Bradford is bringing up eighth place in the insurance commissioner contest.
It wasn’t all bad news for state lawmakers looking for other employment opportunities. Sen. Ben Allen is in second place in the insurance race, while Wiener and Sen. Aisha Wahab, two Democratic legislators from the San Francisco Bay Area, both easily claimed the top spots in their respective races for Congress.
60 Minutes new executive producer has fired veteran journalist Scott Pelley.
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Michael Tran
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AFP via Getty Images
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Topline:
CBS fired veteran 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley late Monday evening after his fiery remarks at a staff meeting held by the program's new executive producer, Nick Bilton, who has never worked in TV news.
Why now: Pelley told Bilton that he was "murdering" the program, according to three people with direct knowledge of the conversation. Last week, CBS Editor-in-Chief Bari Weis fired the show's top executives and forced out two of its correspondents.
What Pelley says: In a statement shared with NPR, Pelley alleges that new management attempted to inject falsehoods, bias, and unverified claims into his reporting — efforts he says he fended off.
CBS fired veteran 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley late Monday evening after his fiery remarks at a staff meeting held by the program's new executive producer, Nick Bilton, who has never worked in TV news.
Pelley told Bilton that he was "murdering" the program, according to three people with direct knowledge of the conversation.
In a statement shared with NPR, Pelley alleges that new management attempted to inject falsehoods, bias, and unverified claims into his reporting — efforts he says he fended off.
It's all part of CBS Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss' effort to wrest control of the network's signature news program. Last week, Weiss fired the show's top executives and forced out two of its correspondents.
With Anderson Cooper's departure, the show is down from seven correspondents to just three.
This story was taken from an audio report by NPR's David Folkenflik. Copyright 2026 NPR
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In addition to California, voters went to the polls in New Jersey, South Dakota, Iowa, New Mexico and Montana to cast ballots in primary races for U.S. House, Senate and statewide offices.
What we know: Most of the attention is on California and Iowa, where there are competitive primaries for governor. In both states, the Democratic Party also sees a road map to control of Congress in the fall.
Keep reading... for the latest results.
Updated June 03, 2026 at 00:20 AM ET
Polls are officially closed in New Jersey, South Dakota, Iowa, New Mexico, Montana and California, where voters are casting ballots in primary races for U.S. House, Senate and statewide offices.
Most of the attention is on California and Iowa, where there are competitive primaries for governor. In both states, the Democratic Party also sees a road map to control of Congress in the fall.
In California's unique primary system, voters send the top two vote-getters to November's general election, regardless of candidates' political parties. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom is term limited, and California voters will also pick who should move on to the general election in five new Democratic-leaning congressional districts.
In Iowa, Democratic voters picked state Rep. Josh Turek as their candidate in a key Senate race. In order to win a majority in the Senate, Democrats must pick up four seats, forcing the party to win in Republican-leaning states like Iowa. For the first time in years, Iowa Democrats have a shot at winning the governor's office.
California decides top two gubernatorial contenders
It's been a chaotic scramble to pick the next leader of the country's largest state. After three prominent Democrats — former Vice President Kamala Harris, Sen. Alex Padilla and state Attorney General Rob Bonta — decided not to run, Democratic voters haven't had a clear front-runner for the first time in decades. Voters have more than 60 candidates to choose from, but only a fraction of those are considered serious contenders. Only the top two vote-getters will move on to the general election in November.
California Democratic gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra hugs a supporter at the Long Beach Arena on May 31 in Long Beach, Calif.
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The race got a shakeup when former Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell, the presumed favorite, dropped out of the race after he was accused of sexual misconduct by several women. Most recently, polls show the contest could be between two Democrats — the Health and Human Services secretary under former President Joe Biden, Xavier Becerra, and billionaire philanthropist Tom Steyer.
Before Becerra was appointed to Biden's Cabinet, he served 12 terms in Congress and was elected as the California attorney general in 2016. He's considered by many as the candidate with the strongest political background. Becerra's pitch is that he is a proven leader who can hold his own and protect California from President Trump.
Steyer has forked over more than $213 million of his own fortune on the race and is also financially backed by Our Revolution, a group aligned with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. Steyer's platform is centered on taking a stand against special-interest groups in politics.
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Polling just a few points behind Becerra and Steyer is Republican Steve Hilton. The former Fox News host was endorsed by President Trump in April, after which Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, another Republican in the race, quickly dropped in the polls. Hilton's platform focuses on increasing affordable housing supply for first-time homebuyers, bolstering tech industries and reviving California's film industry.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer speaks with students during a Get the Youth Vote with Bruin Democrats event at UCLA's campus on June 1 in Los Angeles, Calif.
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The outcome of California's new congressional districts
In response to Texas redrawing its congressional lines to create five Republican-leaning districts at the behest of President Trump, Californians approved Proposition 50 in November last year. The measure temporarily sidestepped the independent redistricting commission tasked with drawing nonpartisan influenced congressional boundaries, in favor of politically gerrymandered districts. That allowed state Democrats to redraw their map so five previously Republican-held districts now lean Democratic.
This has left those Republican incumbents figuring out their political futures. Rep. Ken Calvert, the longest-serving Republican from California, and Rep. Young Kim are running in the same district, for example, in a race that's gotten quite heated.
Then there's Rep. Kevin Kiley. After being drawn into a much more Democratic-leaning district, he decided to run in a new seat and announced he was leaving the Republican Party and running as an independent instead, though Kiley said he would still caucus with the Republicans.
Because of California's primary system, some of these more competitive seats are creating competitive primaries between Democrats, allowing primary voters to signal to the party what kinds of candidates speak to them most in places that have the most to lose — and gain.
While the Associated Press hasn't called the race, Republican candidate businessman Zach Lahn narrowly led in the polls late Tuesday night. Out of five candidates vying for the spot, Rep. Randy Feenstra was the only one endorsed by Trump, but he conceded the race even though he trailed Lahn by less than 1%.
The governor's office is an important race for both parties. It's the state's first open race for governor since 2011, as sitting Gov. Kim Reynolds opted not to run for reelection.
There is a good chance, though, that Iowans won't know the outcome of the race on Tuesday because a candidate must secure 35% of the vote to win outright. If no one clears that threshold, the nominee will be decided at a Republican convention where delegates — not primary voters — make the final choice.
But the Republican-backed candidate isn't a shoo-in come November. Cook Political Report categorizes the governor's race as a toss-up with a slight Republican advantage. Whatever Republican wins on Tuesday will face unopposed Democratic state Auditor Rob Sand in the general election. Sand is popular among voters and has, so far, outraised any other candidate for governor.
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Iowa Senate matchup set: Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson and Democratic state Rep. Josh Turek
Democratic voters in Iowa selected state Rep. Josh Turek as their nominee against Trump-endorsed Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson for a competitive Senate seat, according to race calls from the AP.
The seat is one that Democrats believe they have a shot at flipping come November. It's part of a larger strategy of expanding their map — and winning in states currently held by Republican senators — if they want a chance to retake the Senate majority.
Turek, a two-time gold medal paralympian, won the nomination against state Sen. Zach Wahls. Both candidates are courting different Iowa voters though. Turek sought the independent-leaning vote, while Wahls was hoping to gain the support from committed Democrats. Turek flipped a state House district held by a Republican, and now Democrats hope he can do the same with the Senate seat.
And with three competitive congressional races on the ballot, some Democrats in the state are feeling like the road to a Democratic majority in Congress runs through Iowa.
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Looking beyond Tuesday
New Jersey and Montana also have competitive races that could decide which party has control of Congress.
In New Jersey, Democrat Rebecca Bennett won the primary in the competitive Congressional District 7, according to an AP race call. Voters there believe Bennett is the best shot the party has flipping the swing seat blue in November.
Bennett will face the uncontested Republican Rep. Thomas Kean Jr. in the general election. The sitting congressman has been notably absent from Washington for weeks due to what Kean cites as unspecified medical issues. He has missed more than 100 House votes since his last recorded vote on March 5.
Bennett, who is a former Navy helicopter pilot, beat three other Democrats for the nomination. Bennett's platform is centered around affordability, lowering healthcare costs and protecting America's national security interests.
Two races in Montana may be more competitive than originally expected with the last-minute announcements — shortly before the filing deadline — by Republicans, Sen. Steve Daines and Rep. Ryan Zinke, that neither would seek reelection. When Zinke announced he was retiring from Congress, it was seen as an opening for Democrats to compete.
But the Democratic nominee for Montana's 1st Congressional District is too close to call, according to the AP. As of Tuesday night, Ryan Busse, an author and sales professional, maintained a small, 2-point lead, against Sam Forstag, a smokejumper who is supported by popular progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. Whoever wins the Democratic primary will face Republican Trump-endorsed nominee Aaron Flint.
While an open Senate seat does not make Montana, which has long been considered a Republican stronghold, necessarily competitive for Democrats, an independent candidate is outraising candidates in both major parties. Seth Bodnar, Iraq war veteran and former president of the University of Montana, is hoping voters will send him instead, mostly on the message that he won't work for either party and is focused on changing the direction America is heading. In Bodnar's case, he has enough voter signatures to land himself on the November ballot, but the Montana Secretary of State's Office hasn't yet certified those signatures.
But two Senate candidates who will for sure appear on November's ballot are Republican nominee Kurt Alme, an attorney endorsed by Trump and Democratic nominee Alani Bankhead.
An Uber rider exits at Los Angeles International Airport in March 2026 (and hopefully didn't forget anything in the car).
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Myung J. Chun
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Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
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Topline:
Los Angeles came in fifth on Uber's list of most "forgetful" cities over the last year — that is, the cities where people most frequently leave items in their rideshare. The ranking was part of Uber's annual Lost & Found Index, a report on what folks forget in Ubers each year and the cities where people leave things most frequently.
Start spreadin' the news, I'm leaving (my stuff): New York, New York topped the list of most "forgetful" cities in Uber's rankings. Miami was second, Chicago third and San Francisco fourth.
The frequent fliers: Items most commonly forgotten in Ubers won't surprise you — phone, wallet, luggage, keys and headphones were the top five.
Fish tanks and toboggans and Gushers, oh my! And then there were the more ... unique items that folks left behind. Here are just a few:
A 75-gallon fish tank
A toboggan
A textured photo with a rhinestoned picture of Jesus
Two pounds of blue raspberry Gushers fruit snacks
420 donuts
A dishwasher
A child's prosthetic eye
What if I actually leave something important? Uber says it's rolling out a new lost item feature in some markets that will allow you to report a missing item, receive a report back if and when the driver finds it and set up a time for it to be delivered to you. You'll still have to pay the driver a fare for bringing it back to you, though.
Wait but I need to know more absurd things people forgot: Obviously! You can see Uber's full Lost & Found Index here. And if you've lost something, here's how to find some help.