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The Brief

The most important stories for you to know today
  • A look at the darker side of the Golden Age
    A black and white photo shows a man, left, and a woman, right, standing together and conversing.
    Ann Forst, right, was a famed Hollywood madam known as the "Black Widow." Here she is in court with her lawyer.

    Topline:

    During Hollywood’s Golden Age, powerful madams colluded with the LAPD and, some say, the powerful studio system.

    Why it matters: Exploitative sex work is nothing new in the City of Angels. Whatever the case, these alleged studio-sponsored brothels — a symptom of a good-old-boy system which often exploited young, vulnerable women who had come to California to break into the entertainment industry —- have become Hollywood lore.

    The backstory : From the earliest days of Hollywood, many starry-eyed hopefuls found themselves the victim of sex trafficking. Some of them went on in turn to run their own operations, catering to Hollywood’s elite.

    One drunken night in the late 1930s, Garson Kanin, who wrote or directed romantic classics including My Favorite Wife, Born Yesterday, and Adam’s Rib, found himself in a sexual farce more far-fetched than any he had ever dared dream up.

    According to Kanin’s Hollywood: A Memoir, that night the notoriously predatory talent manager Johnny Hyde (who later managed a young Marilyn Monroe) took an unsteady Kanin to a stately Greek Revival mansion high in the Hollywood Hills above Sunset Boulevard. There he was introduced to an elderly woman named “Mae,” who looked and acted exactly like Mae West. The madam of the joint, “Mae” ran a stable of “movie stars,” including “Barbara Stanwyck,” “Carole Lombard,” “Myrna Loy,” “Vivien Leigh,” and “Ginger Rogers."

    These look-a-likes were said to take their jobs seriously, reading the trades every morning to accurately talk shop with their Hollywood clients. According to Kanin, it took an army of professionals to turn these sex workers into believable facsimiles of Hollywood’s biggest stars, thus erasing their own personhood in the process. Kanin writes:

    The basement contained the makeup, hairdressing, and wardrobe departments. The wardrobe mistress turned out to be a dear Jewish lady from the Boyle Heights section, the mother of an assistant director who had spent years in the wardrobe departments of Metro, and Twentieth… and had many valuable contacts. Often, she would buy clothes from the studios, then remodel them to fit the girls.

    So uncanny were the results, according to Kanin, that the husband of one movie star frequented his busy wife’s brothel double so that he was not technically “cheating.” In his book Life Is Too Short, Mickey Rooney also references a brothel introduced to him by Milton Berle, filled with sexy imitations of the stars.

    “It was amazing,” Rooney writes. “Every girl looked like a film star. Clara Bow, Jean Harlow, Greta Garbo, Norma Shearer. They were dead ringers.”

    According to The Fixers: Eddie Mannix, Howard Strickling and the MGM Publicity Machine by film historian E.J. Fleming, “Mae” was in fact Billie Bennett, an actress at MGM, who allegedly had help from the studio- who used her establishment to entertain clients. There is a case for MGM being involved at least tangentially in prostitution. According to Marc Eliot’s Jimmy Stewart: A Biography, MGM operated a brothel next to their Culver City studio, which catered to male stars’ particular tastes. Suspicious of Stewart’s low-key life, a studio executive told him to prove his “manhood” at the brothel. “Get your ass over there,” he said, “and get those rocks off with at least two of those broads.”

    Whatever the case, these alleged studio-sponsored brothels — a symptom of a good-old-boy system which often exploited young, vulnerable women who had come to California to break into the entertainment industry —- have become Hollywood lore.

    “The top-dollar establishments operated out of houses on residential streets in the hills above the Sunset Strip,” explains Jon Ponder, historian and co-founder of the West Hollywood History Center. “These were by appointment only. The houses usually had no more than four bedrooms, and, just like today, parking on the narrow, hillside streets was dicey. The madams were careful not to annoy the neighbors.”

    Madams make the A-list

    According to historian Sherry Monahan, author of California Madams, the madams who rose to the A-list had often been the victims of trafficking and exploitation themselves. A few of them became famous, just like the celebrities they catered to.

    One of the most famous Hollywood madams was the whip-smart Lee Francis, who ran a series of brothels throughout LA in the 1920s and ‘30s. In her memoir, Call House Madam (ghostwritten by Serge G. Wolsey), Francis, going by the name of Beverly Davis, brags about the night the wife of a movie star spotted her at a premiere at Grauman’s Chinese Theater.

    “Is that Beverly Davis?” the woman yelled. “I’ll trade every autograph in the place for hers!”

    It has long been rumored that Francis ran a massive brothel — dubbed the “House of Francis”— out of Piazza del Sol on Sunset Boulevard (now home to Katana), where she lived for a brief time around 1937. “She did entertain there, and there may even have been assignations in the bedrooms, but it would have been very limited,” Ponder says.

    According to Ponder, Francis in fact operated her brothels in a series of leased mansions where activities including cards, swimming, billiards, and tennis were available along with sex work. He believes she ran houses at various times on Bedford Drive, Kings Road, Norton Avenue, and the 8200 block of Sunset Boulevard.

    Fleming counts Errol Flynn, John Gilbert, and Clark Gable among Francis’ Hollywood johns. Another regular was allegedly Spencer Tracy (who famed Sunset Blvd. gas station pimp Scotty Bowers also pegged as a frequent customer).

    “There’s a story that Spencer Tracy, a notoriously problematic imbiber, was a regular at Lee Francis’ on the Strip,” Ponder says. “One night he left there so blottoed that he accidentally drove his car over the curb leaving it perched off the side of the hill. When the police came to help, Tracy became so belligerent that they had to handcuff him and strap his legs down.”

    Francis’ rented houses of assignation so fit into the Hollywood landscape that there is a possibly apocryphal tale of the Earl of Warwick knocking on the door of the palatial mansion of movie star Kay Francis one night. Believing it only right to entertain royalty, she did her best to make him at home. According to Francis biographer Scott O’Brien, the confused Earl finally asked pleadingly, “You’re delightful Madam Francis, but would you mind bringing in the girls?”

    After quitting the business in the late 1930s, Lee Francis would claim to be the soul of discretion — although she would write more than one autobiography, including Ladies On Call, in which she claimed Jean Harlow was a frequent customer, but that Clark Gable was just a good friend.

    However, there was a truly dark side to the often violent, always misogynistic Hollywood sex trade, which many women entered through force as a last resort.

    Crumbling facades

    Three men with light-tone skin are dressed in suits. Two awards statuettes are being held.
    David Niven, center, photographed in 1959 presenting an American Cinema Editors award to George Tomasini for MGM's 'North by Northwest' while Richard H. Cahoon, TV winner for a CBS 'Perry Mason' telefilm. A memoir written by Niven memoir, published in 1974, talked about Hollywood brothels.
    (
    Courtesy Los Angeles Public Library
    )

    In his masterful memoir Bring on the Empty Horses, movie star and raconteur David Niven tells the story of his friend “Mary Lou,” a free-spirited struggling actress who becomes a sex worker in a cream-colored mansion in the North Hollywood hills. According to Niven, as a lark he went to visit this high-end brothel, which was overseen by a haughty “baroness,” who went to absurd lengths to display an air of propriety.

    “The girls will be seated in those three chairs,” she told him. “If you feel you would like to have a private word with one of them before you go, signal the fact to me by turning the handle of your teacup in her direction and I will see that she stays after the others leave.”

    However, the façade was soon broken when Mary Lou began to cry in embarrassment. A short while later, Niven writes, the house was abandoned when it was raided by the gangster Mickey Cohen, a not uncommon occurrence.

    The fate of “Mary Lou” and thousands of other Hollywood hopefuls meant that any spot in L.A. could become a makeshift brothel — or so city leaders believed. This particularly worried librarians at the Carnegie Library on Hollywood and Ivar.

    “They had a basement and the librarians, they really began to worry because there were all these young women spending their days downstairs reading scripts,” says Hollywood historian Gregory Paul Williams. “And the librarians were like, ‘these women are going to be imperiled for exploitation.’”

    The Black Widow(s)

    One of the most notorious predators of the 1930s was Ann Forrester (or Ann Forst), a ruthless madam known as the “Black Widow.” Stories of her “little black book” titillated Hollywood during her trial in 1940. According to historian Annie Murphy of LAPL Blog, her employees testified and “were quick to turn against Forst, revealing sordid details of their job including being forced to service several men a day, not being allowed to rest when ill, and only getting half their promised pay.”

    Brenda Allen Burns was one of the sex workers who bravely testified against Forrester. Shortly after the trial, Brenda began to emulate her former boss and quickly set out to become an even more notorious madam.

    “In the years after the trial, she dropped the name ‘Burns’ and transformed herself into a stylish and sophisticated player in the Hollywood sex trade,” Ponder says. “By 1946, she was raking in cash from a lucrative outcall business she operated out of an anonymous apartment building on Fedora Street, two blocks south of the Ambassador Hotel.”

    Allen specifically catered to Hollywood bigwigs, embedding herself within the industry. “Brenda was a master of the art of marketing with discretion,” Ponder explains. “For example, she placed ads in the back of the AMPAS Players Directory that featured herself in two glamorous head shots, along with her name and the number of her telephone exchange. It was easy to remember: HO-2555.”

    In careful, precise handwriting, she had recorded the sexual services each of her rich and famous clients had paid for, dates of assignations and their costs.
    — Jon Ponder, West Hollywood History Center

    Allen would control numerous private house brothels above the Sunset Strip on both Cory Avenue and Miller Place, and controlled an entire bungalow court on Catalina Street. She was finally arrested in May 1948, when one of the houses she operated on Harold Way above Sunset Boulevard was raided.

    During the raid, a black box was discovered, featuring the names of hundreds of clients. “Police recovered a box containing her client files on index cards. In careful, precise handwriting, she had recorded the sexual services each of her rich and famous clients had paid for, dates of assignations and their costs,” Ponder says.

    “Names Found in Vice Raid Set Hollywood Agog,” the Los Angeles Times blared. A photo of a policeman sifting through the index cards taunted Allen’s worried patrons. Ponder explains:

    “At Brenda’s trial, the judge reviewed the cards one by one … When he finished, he addressed the court. He’d seen ‘names of dignitaries of the screen and radio and executives of responsible positions in many great industries,’ he said. ‘Publication of their names would be ruinous to their careers and cause them great public disgrace.’ The judge ordered the files sealed, permanently. They were likely destroyed.”

    The unmasking of Brenda Allen would implicate Sgt. Elmer Jackson, her corrupt partner in the LAPD, and usher in the reign of the controversial reformer Chief William Parker. But Hollywood heavyweights stayed suspiciously safe.

    “Releasing the names would have been a public-relations disaster for the movie industry, which in those days was the biggest moneymaker in the state,” Ponder says. “The industry had every reason to do whatever it took to clean up the mess. Whatever they did must have worked. None of the names was ever released.”

    The fallout from Allen’s trial seemed to signal the death knell of the exploitative Hollywood supported brothel — but you can’t keep the world’s oldest profession down. In July 1951 (before Allen was even released from jail), another A-list brothel was busted on Schuyler Drive in Beverly Hills. The walls were papered with autographed headshots of celebrities, and a black book discovered was filled with names from the film industry. It conveniently disappeared.

  • Five things to know about the election
    California gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra, a man with medium skin tone, wearing a dark blue suit and glasses, smiles as he claps his hands.
    California gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra speaks during an election night event in Los Angeles on June 2, 2026.

    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, a man with light skin tone wearing a blue suit, speaks behind a podium with signage that reads "Tom Steyer for Governor."
    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.
    (
    Tâm Vũ
    /
    KQED
    )

    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.

    The shut out that wasn’t

    Democrats can now officially stop worrying about a dreaded “shut out” scenario.

    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.

    Jeanne Kuang contributed reporting.

    This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

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  • Veteran '60 Minutes' journalist ousted by CBS
    Scott Pelley wears an open collar shirt with a jacket in front of a CBS logo.
    60 Minutes new executive producer has fired veteran journalist Scott Pelley.

    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

  • NJ, South Dakota, Iowa, New Mexico, Montana

    Topline:

    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.

    Here are key races to follow:

    California governor | California U.S. House | Iowa governor | Iowa U.S. Senate | New Jersey and Montana

    You can also check out June 2 voter resources from the NPR network.


    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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    Apu Gomes
    /
    Getty Images
    )

    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.

    Loading...

    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.
    (
    Mario Tama
    /
    Getty Images
    )


    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.

    Follow results here.


    Iowa's GOP gubernatorial primary

    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.

    Loading...


    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.

    Loading...


    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.


    June 2 voter resources from the NPR Network

    California | Iowa | Montana | New Jersey | New Mexico | South Dakota

    Copyright 2026 NPR

  • See where LA ranks (and the stuff people leave)
    A light-skinned man wearing a gray hat, black shirt and sunglasses exits the back door of a black sedan at Los Angeles Interenational Airport. The car has an Uber sticker in the lower right corner of its windshield.
    An Uber rider exits at Los Angeles International Airport in March 2026 (and hopefully didn't forget anything in the car).

    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.