The Brief

California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, who made history in 2021 as the first Black person to hold the office, is seeking a second four-year term.

As the incumbent and the only Democrat in the field, she will almost certainly cruise to victory in November. She faces only one serious challenger: Orange County Supervisor Don Wagner, a Republican. No Republican has won a statewide race since 2006.

During her tenure, Weber has faced criticism for California’s slow ballot-counting process — so slow that projected winners of state legislative races are often sworn in before Weber’s office certifies the results. Under state law, county election officials have 30 days to count ballots and conduct audits. Critics, including Wagner, say the time frame undermines voters’ trust in the state’s election integrity.

In an interview with CalMatters, Weber dismissed the concerns as an issue President Donald Trump drummed up to pick on California. She argued it’s important to count every ballot and that most outcomes are known before she certifies the results anyway.

“I know the value of being fast for some folks,” she said. “For me, accuracy is far more important.”

Wagner criticized Weber for doing little to lobby state lawmakers to speed up the ballot count. He said he would roll back the practice of sending universal mail-in ballots to every voter, which the state made permanent during the COVID-19 pandemic, though that would require legislative approval. He said he’d also support legislation to move up the deadline to certify election results.

“Rather than wait 30 days, let's make these changes that are right now causing people of all parties and no party to question: ‘Geez, is that really a fair election?’” Wagner said.

Weber, a former San Diego assemblymember, was appointed to the position by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2021 and later won a full term in 2022. The daughter of Arkansas sharecroppers who fled the Jim Crow South, Weber drew on her family history and campaigned on expanding voter access and boosting voter turnout.

Over the past five years, Weber has overseen the administration of contentious elections that drew the national spotlight, from the recall against Newsom in 2021 to the congressional redistricting fight last November. She said she has focused on expanding voter outreach to rural corners of California and encouraging voter registration on high school and college campuses — something she said she would continue to focus on in her second term if she is re-elected.

Weber has been in court several times defending California election laws. She has sued local governments for violating election law while also defending the state’s election administration against legal challenges from both Democrats and Republicans. She most recently fended off a lawsuit by Trump’s Department of Justice seeking voter registration data in California.

Weber said she fought to defend Californians’ voting rights. “If we were giving (voter information) away like candy, who would trust us … to protect their records?”

Weber has also faced criticism from advocates who say the state hasn’t done enough to make voting accessible. Disability advocates sued her in 2024 — albeit unsuccessfully — over state election laws that do not allow voters with disabilities to return their ballots electronically.

Former Assemblymember Don Wagner, a Republican from Irvine, is running for secretary of state.

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Wagner, the Republican challenger, wants to present an alternative to Weber, even though he acknowledged that a GOP upset would shock even himself. But if he were elected, Wagner, who also served in the state Assembly, said he’d garner enough national attention to use the office as a “bully pulpit” with the Democratic supermajority in the state Legislature. He said he would require voters to display ID while voting, which also would require a new law. A GOP-backed voter ID ballot initiative on Friday qualified for the November ballot.

Wagner argued that the goal is to restore voters’ trust in state elections.

“I am not one of those Republicans who is going to be out there telling you that unless a Republican wins, the election got stolen,” he told CalMatters. “What I am saying is I believe folks on either side of the political aisle and in the middle question the integrity.”

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

Sometimes, Gloria Gajownik wishes people acted more like bald eagles.

Bald eagle families don't yell at each other (except for the occasional squawk), they don't criticize, and they seem kinder at times than humans, she said. And Gajownik, 71, would know. She has spent the last 15 years watching hours upon hours of bald eagle nest cameras.

Starting in 2011, Gajownik has logged on to the livestream of a Decorah, Iowa, nest after dinner and been glued to the screen until she goes to bed. Now, she monitors a chat room, answering questions and helping track every movement of "mom and dad Decorah" and their two eaglets. She worked for years in the insurance industry, where some people loved their cars more than their families, so, Gajownik said, this is her passion.

"Eagle people — we're different," she said.

Gajownik's immediate family members have died, but she is never alone with her bald eagles and her fellow eagle lovers. "Between the eagles and the people in the chat rooms, I feel like I have a big … extended family," she said.

Spring is primetime for bald eagle nests. Depending on the region, eagles mate and lay eggs sometime in late winter or early spring. If the eggs hatch, the eaglets will fledge around 12 weeks later and start their own lives.

The livestreams allow anyone, anywhere, to watch the birds at any time. They are on screens in DMV waiting rooms, hospitals, workplaces and schools. Diligent eagle monitors, like Gajownik, track every movement of the birds, from their PS (poop shoots) to their feedings to couple-esque moments between the parents.

Gajownik is one of millions of people who watch the more than 50 bald eagle nest cameras across the U.S. and who share countless photos, videos, memes and updates on Facebook groups and in chat rooms. The fans are the backbone of these nests, donating small-dollar amounts to keep some running and tracking every movement of the eagles and their eaglets. It's a dedicated and fiercely loyal group that sees the eagles just as much a part of the online community as the humans who run that community.

And, yes, most of the eagles and their eaglets have names.

"One of the most important aspects of the chat rooms and watching the eagles is that we're sharing it together," Gajownik said. "We watch through thick and thin."

A little bit of bald eagle history

After World War II, extensive use of the insecticide DDT was catastrophic to eagle populations, according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. By 1963, only 417 nesting eagle pairs could be found in the U.S.

They were virtually gone from states in the northeast and southeast, said Tina Morris, author of the memoir Return to the Sky: The Surprising Story of How One Woman and Seven Eaglets Helped Restore the Bald Eagle.

In 1976, Morris, then a graduate student at Cornell University, started the first bald eagle reintroduction program in New York, using one of the first eagle cameras to monitor the birds. "Eagles are hard not to be involved with," Morris said. "They're majestic, they're powerful, they're resilient."

Their resilience is an attribute that many camera watchers love. Jenny Voisard, the media manager at Friends of Big Bear Valley, located in the San Bernardino National Forest in Southern California, said the valley's eagles, Jackie and Shadow, have taken over her life. Jackie and Shadow average thousands of livestream viewers daily, including over 30,000 on a recent Monday morning.

"Watching this couple … you're reminded of resilience and how to move forward and kind of how to get through your own life," Voisard said.

Two eaglets at the Big Bear Valley nest look out across the horizon. The nest is famous for the eaglets' parents, Jackie and Shadow.

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Since the reintroduction work, the bald eagle population has soared in the Lower 48 states, with an estimated 71,400 nesting pairs in a 2020 population report, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

"I think back to 1782, when they picked it to be the national symbol. They picked the right bird," Morris said.

So, how do you get a camera into a bald eagle nest? 

"There's no way you're going to get a better look at a bald eagle's nest than on the eagle cam itself," said Randy Robinson, an instructional systems specialist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Robinson works at the National Conservation Training Center in West Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. The camera there follows Scout and Bella and their two newly hatched eaglets.

The camera lets Robinson observe the eagles up close throughout the spring, provide educational opportunities for kids and biweekly "Live! From the NCTC Eagle Nest" chats for the public, and make observational discoveries about the eagles. The nest cameras across the U.S. have a variety of uses, some for research purposes and others for pure curiosity.

To place the camera, a "knuckle-boom" truck with a 100-foot crane lifts a climber equipped with a harness about 95 feet aboveground, Robinson said. The climber, suspended in the air and attached to a rope at the end of the crane, reaches out to put a small security-like camera into the nest.

A climber, about 95 feet in the air, uses a crane to access a bald eagle nest.

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Today, the more than 50 cameras across the country range from high up in a tree to the edges of ragged cliffs. Placing a small, unnoticeable camera can be tricky and, for some nests, requires a helicopter.

The real citizen scientists

The people flocking to the livestreams have turned them into massive communities, which, at times, save the eagles from potential disaster.

Deb Stecyk, who lives in Alberta, Canada, has monitored eagle nests for over 20 years and focuses most of her free time chronicling the West Virginia eagles' movements in a daily spreadsheet and running a Facebook page.

Stecyk has the camera running on a computer in her house, and she records at night. In April of last year, for the first time in 22 years, the wind ripped the huge nest in West Virginia from its perch. All three of the 4-week-old eaglets died. Stecyk was the first one to tell Robinson.

Heartbroken community members mourned together in the chat rooms. One YouTube commenter said: "this absolutely destroyed me."

This year alone, eagle-eyed viewers helped save an eaglet in Pennsylvania after it swallowed a fishing hook. Fans also alerted the Institute for Wildlife Studies, a nonprofit that runs multiple eagle cameras on islands off the coast of Southern California, that a Fraser Point eaglet fell out of its nest. The eaglet was safely returned to the nest after a heroic rescue operation.

Wildlife experts approach human intervention with extreme caution. Brian Hudgens, the institute's vice president, said the team uses a minimalist approach and considers a variety of factors before intervening.

Robinson, who monitors the West Virginia nest, said that eagle parents will accept eaglets back into the nest after human interaction, despite popular myth. Staff will intervene if there is a human-caused problem, like an eagle swallowing a fishing hook. Humans going into a nest typically scares away the parents and could allow a predator to grab an eaglet, and the disruption could cause an eaglet to fall out of the nest.

Next year, the Institute for Wildlife Studies will ask the citizen scientists watching the cameras to track the prey the birds bring to the nest. "You have this many observers, and watching so closely. It's something we really want to take advantage of," Hudgens said.

"It's like watching a soap opera"

The draw of the cameras includes the inevitable tragedies, dramatic turns, and joyous occasions that happen each year.

A newly hatched baby eaglet in the Decorah, Iowa, nest.

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"It's like watching a soap opera, " said Morris, the author of Return to the Sky. "Except they're birds."

There are cheating scandals, fertility struggles, early deaths, poisoned raccoons, snowstorms and fights with other birds. Most of the excitement revolves around the eaglets' struggle to make it out of the nests alive.

"As soon as you start watching those eagle cams, you recognize that the eagles are very similar to humans," Morris said. "They're monogamous. They're very loyal to their nest sites. They're incredibly good parents."

John Howe, the executive director of the nonprofit Raptor Resource Project, which runs many raptor cameras, including the one observing the Decorah eagles, said: "It's impossible to look at these cameras and not project your own family experience."

Voisard, the media manager at the Big Bear Valley nest, describes Jackie and Shadow lovingly, calling them "an old married couple."

Voisard said she hears dozens of stories about why people are so invested in the livestreams: Some viewers are stuck in an urban jungle with no nature. Some are recovering from tragedy or illness. Some are grandparents hanging out with their grandkids.

"It's very meaningful and emotional," she said. "It's very deep."

Voisard has six computer monitors around her house playing the livestream, so she doesn't miss a second. "It's a little ridiculous," she said, smiling.

But more than just watching the eagles, it's a community. Jackie and Shadow have 2.6 million followers across their official social media platforms. Some 35 contractors and volunteers watch the nest 24/7 to keep track of the birds. Right now, the fans are attempting to raise millions of dollars to keep a development from springing up less than a mile from the nest.

Gajownik, the eagle superfan, lives in Tennessee miles from the rural Iowa eagles she watches. Every year, she goes on a four-day trip to see the birds in person and meet up with her chat room friends.

Gajownik plans to attend the meetup this July. In the meantime, she will continue meticulously watching the eagles, "probably until I die," she added with a chuckle.
Copyright 2026 NPR

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Inglewood police will get drones, automated license plate readers and body-worn cameras after the City Council approved purchasing up to $6.3 million in new tech. 

The Inglewood City Council unanimously approved the tech package during its meeting Tuesday, clearing the way for city staff to finalize a contract with police tech company Axon. Mayor James Butts said the city’s public safety has come a long way in recent decades, but that the new equipment will help the city modernize.

“We have to continue to move to the future. We are an international destination,” Butts said.

Inglewood will host a string of international mega-events over the next few years, including this summer’s FIFA World Cup, the 2027 NFL Super Bowl and 2028 Olympic Games. Butts told The LA Local the tech package is the result of months of city research and negotiations with potential tech suppliers dating to last summer. 

The introduction of police body cameras, though, follows a more local controversy: Bryan Bostic’s still-unexplained March 10 death in Inglewood police custody. 

Activists have redoubled calls for body cams in Inglewood since Bostic died; unlike other L.A.-area police agencies, Inglewood officers are not outfitted with cameras. 

Bystander video from Bostic’s arrest shows police forcibly pinning him to the street after a traffic stop, but it remains unclear what caused his death. Investigations by the L.A. County District Attorney’s office into the police use of force during Bostic’s arrest and by the L.A. County Medical Examiner’s office are ongoing. 

Marie Darden, Bostic’s aunt, said after the council meeting she believes the city only moved the tech package forward because family and activists have pressed the issue.

“They’re doing this to try to silence us,” Darden said. 

Darden and others in Bostic’s family spoke during the Tuesday meeting — as they have for weeks — and asked the city to share more information, including the names of the officers involved in Bostic’s arrest.

Butts replied in his own comments during the meeting that the city is still waiting on the county medical examiner’s findings.

“No one wants to know more than I and the council do, what was the cause of death,” Butts said. 

Here’s the new gear Inglewood police will get

Axon will kit out Inglewood police officers with body cameras as well as new Tasers. The department has 186 sworn officers, according to the city. 

Cameras will also be installed in twenty-five vehicles. The Fleet 3 devices have capability to automatically read and look up vehicle license plates. 

The Automated License Plate Recognition, or ALPR, tech will also be rolled out via 98 stationary cameras mounted on light posts and in other locations. The devices Inglewood is purchasing also have livestream video capability, according to Axon’s website.

Stationary ALPR devices scan the license plate of passing vehicles and log their location at a given time. Police tout the ability of ALPR networks to rapidly locate stolen vehicles or fleeing suspects. Critics say they lack oversight and that their data can be too broadly shared, including with federal immigration agents.

In a statement on Tuesday, local activist Najee Ali called on the city council to create protections for the public before putting the new equipment into use.

“There are no guarantees that body camera footage will be released. No independent oversight. No clear rules about who controls the data or how it will be used,” he said. “You cannot expand surveillance without expanding accountability.”

Axon will also provide the city with seven camera drones, including the Skydio 10 and its indoor-focused cousin, the Skydio R10, as well as a suite of software to manage it all. 

Inglewood Police Chief Mark Fronterotta said the tech package puts Inglewood cops on “the cutting edge” and that the tech is expected to roll out between this summer and the end of the year. 

Councilmember Gloria Gray — who attended the meeting remotely — said she hopes the council and community members will get a chance to discuss police training and policy connected to the new systems.

“Technology alone does not create public trust,” she said.  

The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision along partisan lines, ruled that Louisiana's 2024 election map, which created a second majority-Black congressional district, was "an unconstitutional racial gerrymander."

Although the court kept Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act intact, Wednesday's decision all but guts the landmark law that came out of the Civil Rights Movement and protected the collective voting power of racial minorities when political maps are redrawn.

It isn't yet clear how the decision will affect November's midterms. Primaries are well underway in most states.

Once considered the jewel in the crown of the civil rights movement, the Voting Rights Act has been largely dismembered since 2013 by the increasingly conservative Supreme Court. The major exception was a decision just two years ago that upheld the section of the law aimed at ensuring that minority voters are not shut out of the process of drawing new congressional district lines.

At issue in the case was the redistricting map drawn by the Louisiana legislature after the decennial Census. Following years of litigation, the state, with a 30% Black population, first fought and then finally agreed to draw a second majority-Black district. Two of the state's six House members are African American.

Normally, that would have been the end of the case, but a self-described group of "non-African-American voters" intervened after the new maps were drawn up to object to the legislature's redistricting.

The Trump administration supported them, contending that the Black voters should not have gotten a second majority-minority district.

On Friday, the court agreed.

"Correctly understood, Section 2 does not impose liability at odds with the Constitution, and it should not have imposed liability on Louisiana for its 2022 map," Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the majority opinion. "Compliance with Section 2 thus could not justify the State's use of race-based redistricting here."

In her dissent, Justice Elena Kagan wrote that she dissented "because the Court betrays its duty to faithfully implement the great statute Congress wrote. I dissent because the Court's decision will set back the foundational right Congress granted of racial equality in electoral opportunity."

Copyright 2026 NPR