NYTIMES (Livia Albeck-Ripka and Philip Cheung) - They Were Voted Out. They Refuse to Leave. Now What?
Avenal, Calif., a city in the rural Central Valley, has become an unlikely example of election denialism months after a recall election.
AMERICANALMANAC (Sadie Smith) - California's high-speed rail authority can't say when it will buy its trains — and that's why $4 billion vanished
The California High-Speed Rail Authority has repeatedly missed its own deadlines to purchase trains, quietly dropped a lawsuit against the federal government after failing to meet a promise it made to a judge, and still cannot say when it will award a trainset contract, a record that handed the Trump administration a straightforward case for […] The post California's high-speed rail authority can't say when it will buy its trains — and that's why $4 billion vanished appeared first on American Almanac .
The California High-Speed Rail Authority has repeatedly missed its own deadlines to purchase trains, quietly dropped a lawsuit against the federal government after failing to meet a promise it made to a judge, and still cannot say when it will award a trainset contract, a record that handed the Trump administration a straightforward case for pulling $4 billion in federal funding. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy cut the money in July 2025 after federal officials noted California had spent $15 billion over 16 years without laying a single mile of high-speed rail track. The state sued within days. Governor Gavin Newsom called the move a "political stunt to punish California." Attorney General Rob Bonta filed suit to block what he called…Open
ABCNEWS - A key congressional race in California will test progressives' appeal
Randy Villegas, a populist insurgent, has won the Democratic primary for a House seat representing California’s Central Valley
NYTIMES (Tracy Mumford, Will Jarvis, Margaret Kadifa, Jake Lucas, Ian Stewart and Jack Healy) - Extreme Water Shortages in the West, and Hegseth’s Pentagon Purge
Plus, the rocky, unpredictable race for California governor.
NYTIMES (Jennifer Medina and Ariana Drehsler) - In California’s Central Valley, Latino Voters are Up for Grabs in 2026’s Elections
As in other Hispanic areas of the country, voters shifted toward Republicans in 2024. But there are increasing signs that this was a blip more than a durable trend.
NYTIMES (Orlando Mayorquín) - Fresno Took 30 Years to Name Cesar Chavez Blvd. Undoing It Took a Day.
The reckoning for the labor leader’s sex abuse was swift in Fresno, Calif., the heart of the Central Valley region where the farmworker movement was born. Towns across the nation face similar debates.
DAILYCALLER (Hailey Gomez) - Water Woes Endgame? CEO Urges Trump-Newsom Alliance For California’s Thirsty Valley
'Not getting better'