Only qualified candidates count
Write-in candidates in Southern California are no joke. Election officials require them to qualify. While many are already in, Tuesday is the deadline to be considered.
The full list will be released to the public Friday. The city of L.A. requires write-in candidates to file a form and pay $300 or submit 500 valid signatures, while other cities may not require anything except paperwork. Qualified candidate names are sent to county election officials and will post the information Friday for voters. As of 3 p.m. Tuesday, the L.A.
County Registrar of Voters listed 20 write-in candidates who filed in California for a wide range of races, from state Assembly and state Senate to governor. Of the 20, 11 filed as write-ins for the governor’s race. Most write-in campaigns are a long shot but some have won: Lisa Murkowski won an Alaska U.S. Senate seat in 2010; Washington, D.C. , Mayor Anthony Williams was reelected in 2002.in L.A.
County. Checking the box that says Show only Write In Records will show you write-in candidates. Orange County election officials say they have no write-in candidates. A fire on Santa Rosa Island has been burning since May 15, 2015.
The island is seen here in 1997. A large fire is burning on Santa Rosa Island in Channel Islands National Park. A fire in Simi Valley has destroyed one home and led to multiple evacuation alerts. Two fires are in Riverside County, and a small fire is in the San Gabriel Mountains.
Warm weather and Santa Ana wind conditions have hampered firefighting efforts and are expected to continue through Wednesday this week. Several fires are burning across Southern California, with some destroying structures, threatening homes and charring pristine landscapes. Warm weather and Santa Ana wind conditions have hampered firefighting efforts and are expected to continue through Wednesday this week. The National Weather Service forecasts cooler weather and"May gray" through the weekend.
The fire is burning in Channel Island National Park territory. Firefighters traveled by boat with their equipment to get to the island, according to news reports. The island is home to rare and endangered plants and animals. CalFire reported about 2:40 p.m. Tuesday that lessening winds allowed"firefighters to take full advantage of improved weather to strengthen containment lines and continue aggressive suppression efforts.
Crews remain actively engaged both on the ground and in the air to gain additional containment and keep the fire within its current perimeter.
" The fire started Monday in the southern part of Simi Valley. It eventually spread eastward toward L.A. County communities in the San Fernando Valley, but overnight conditions were favorable to firefighters, CalFire said. Several communities were under evacuation orders and warnings, and schools in the area were closed.
The fire was first reported around noon Tuesday, according to CalFire, near Jurupa Valley . Fire season is here. Make sure you're signed up for these alertsResources for fire victims, evacuees and first respondersCiting a desire to prevent corruption within county government, the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday established Los Angeles County’s first ethics commission.
In 2024, voters approved Measure G, which called for the creation of an Ethics Commission and Office of Ethics Compliance. The measure came amid a series of corruption cases at L.A. City Hall but calls for reform spilled over into the county government. The motion by Supervisor Lindsey Horvath and approved by the board Tuesday directs county departments to begin establishing the operational, staffing and legal infrastructure necessary to launch the commission in this year.
It also directs staff to prepare a charter amendment for voter consideration on the November ballot to enshrine the commission in the charter. Supervisors voted for a plan that calls for a seven-member commission. One member would initially be appointed by the Governance Reform Task Force then by the county executive position to be created in 2029. Four members would be appointed by the chair of the Board of Supervisors, county assessor, district attorney and sheriff.
The final two members would be selected through an application process administered by the Registrar of Voters. Supervisor Janice Hahn supported the overall motion but opposed the composition of the commission, saying too many members were to be appointed by elected officials — the same people the panel would be charged with watchdogging. The county has had its own campaign, lobbying and ethics laws on the books for years, but they were enforced by ethics officers in various departments.
The proposal calls for a 54-member ethics office now to enforce them and the commission to impose fines. If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less. After a spike in fraudulent applications to California’s community colleges, school officials say they are getting better at detecting and preventing fraud, though it still happens.
Between January and March 2025, scammers stole nearly $5.6 million in federal student aid and over $900,000 in state aid. By comparison, this spring colleges have reported losing just under $1.5 million in federal student aid and about $330,000 in state aid to fraudsters. Last spring was “really the peak,” Hadsell said. He said he anticipates the end-of-year total in 2026 to be “significantly lower” than last year.
, with scammers stealing millions more dollars of student aid than in any previous period, according to reports submitted by colleges to California’s Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office. California’s community colleges have been battling fraudulent students for years, trying to prevent scammers from stealing financial aid money. , with scammers stealing millions more dollars of student aid than in any previous period, according to reports submitted by colleges to California’s Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office.
Now fewer scammers are bypassing colleges’ vetting systems, according to monthly reports, and school administrators say they’re better, though still not perfect, at detecting and preventing fraud.for students. Colleges now are more vigilant about policing fraud, said Jory Hadsell, an executive in technology initiatives for the chancellor’s office, who pointed to better filtering practices and new software to detect fraud. Between January and March 2025, scammers stole nearly $5.6 million in federal student aid and over $900,000 in state aid.
By comparison, this spring colleges have reported losing just under $1.5 million in federal student aid and about $330,000 in state aid to fraudsters. Last spring was “really the peak,” Hadsell said. He said he anticipates the end-of-year total in 2026 to be “significantly lower” than last year. Even in the worst months, such as last spring, the money distributed to scammers is less than 1% of the total financial aid distributed to community college students in California.
Students use the money to help pay for tuition, books and the cost of daily living expenses, such as rent, transportation and food. But any fraud, however small, is unacceptable, said Chris Ferguson, executive vice chancellor of finance and strategic initiatives.
“The ultimate goal for our system is zero. ” Some anti-fraud policies have been slow to take effect. The California Community Colleges Board of Governors voted nearly a year ago to require ID verification for all students, but only about 50% of college students are doing it as of this month.
Hadsell said the delays arose in part because of complications verifying information of students under 18 years old, who representThe board also voted to “explore” the option of charging students an application fee of no more than $10, but with the rates of fraud declining and other solutions that seem to work, the chancellor’s office is no longer pursuing that option, Ferguson said. After blaming California officials, the U.S. Department of Education, which shares responsibility for administering federal aid and detecting fraud, said it would implement a “screening process” for applicants.
It was, according to press releases from the department and statements from the California Student Aid Commission. CalMatters reached out to the U.S. Education Department five times over the last 12 months, seeking clarification, but the department has refused to respond to questions about delays with the screening process.
After classes suddenly moved online during the COVID-19 pandemic, the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office saw an increase in financial aid fraud on their application portal, CCCApply, which is used by nearly every student as the first step in applying to community college. After they apply through CCCApply, students get filtered locally at their college of choice.
In the Los Rios Community College District, which represents Sacramento, college officials suspected 64% of local applications from January to March 2025 were fraudulent. And that was after the state already vetted them through its portal, said Gabe Ross, a spokesperson for the district. The San Diego and Los Angeles community college districts also reported spikes in the number of fraudulent applications around the same time. CalMatters reached out to the five largest community college districts for an interview.
The Rancho Santiago Community College District, which includes parts of Orange County, did not provide sufficient data to draw conclusions about trends in fraud. The State Center Community College District, which represents schools in Fresno and Madera counties, did not respond to CalMatters’ questions. Monthly data reports to the chancellor’s office show that once detected, most scammers who applied to community colleges were then caught and kicked out before they could apply for financial aid, but some succeeded.
This year, both Sacramento and San Diego community colleges say they’re seeing fewer attempts at fraud and are getting better at stopping those who try. The San Diego Community College District is now manually screening for fraudulent applications twice a week and is finalizing a contract with a company to help improve its detection software. CCCApply has improved its filtering process, which helped reduce fraud attempts at Sacramento area colleges, said Ross.
“When we talked about such a complex dynamic challenge, it's always hard to identify what's the one thing that sort of moved the needle. The truth is that we needed support from the feds, we needed support from the office, and we needed to invest in tools locally. ”Measuring fraud is, by definition, imprecise. If a scammer is truly successful, colleges have no way to identify that fraud.
For a long time, administrators assumed bots enrolling in online classes were responsible for most fraudulent attempts. Yet teachers, students and financial aid administrators say some of the scams are more sophisticated now and are coming from real people impersonating students. Many fraudulent applications to Los Angeles’ community colleges have real names, dates of birth, and addresses that are likely “leaked or stolen,” said Nicole Albo-Lopez, the deputy chancellor of the Los Angeles Community College District.
In San Diego, Victor DeVore, dean of student services, said the college district only requires ID verification for students flagged as fraudulent. At that point they must prove their identity, either in person or through Zoom. Once, a potentially fraudulent student appeared on Zoom and presented a valid-looking ID that matched their face, but DeVore’s team noticed that the student’s IP address was odd.
“One minute they’re logging in from Nairobi, the next minute they'll be logging in from Virginia,” he said, adding that the use of AI, virtual private networks or other technology has made fraud harder to detect.. Last week, Canvas — one of the go-to learning platforms for California’s community colleges, University of California and California State University campuses — went offline temporarily due towith N2N Services Inc., enabling any college in the state to access the company’s software at a discounted rate.
The software uses AI to detect potentially fraudulent applicants. Colleges are not required to use it, and so far, only about two-thirds do. Some districts, such as the Los Angeles Community College District, use a different fraud detection software, known as Socure. Colleges and the state chancellor’s office continue to face political pressure and scrutiny of their approach to fraud.
Last month, the U.S. Education Department said it had prevented more thanin fraud in California after implementing a new policy regarding ID verification. Hadsell, with the state chancellor’s office, said the federal policy had no impact on California’s colleges.
“They issued some interim guidance last year that basically said you should at least have a Zoom call with students and have them show an ID when you're approving their aid. And those were things that were already happening. It was not, you know, some new thing at least for most of our colleges. ” Kiran Kodithala, the CEO of N2N, which collects its own data on fraud at community colleges, said the education department’s claim makes no sense.
“I don’t see how $171 million in fraud in California can occur,” he said. “There’s no basis for those numbers. We’re not seeing anything remotely close. ” Kodithala estimates that N2N has prevented over $34 million in fraud since last summer, though his platform is not yet in use by all of California's 116 community colleges.
Collecting more precise data may take months or years. U.S. Representative Young Kim, who represents parts of Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, launched the effort forlast spring, but her office could not provide any updates or confirm that an investigation was in fact underway.
At the state level, the Legislature last year approved conducting an audit of how California’s community colleges handled fraud but the findings won’t be released untilLandlords in Los Angeles County will soon be allowed to raise rents by more than 10% from their baseline before the January 2025 fires. A vote by the county’s Board of Supervisors that could have extended a ban on post-fire price gouging for another month failed on Tuesday.
Supervisors Lindsey Horvath and Hilda Solis voted in favor, but Supervisors Kathryn Barger, Janice Hahn and Holly Mitchell abstained. As a result, the long-standing countywide prohibition on rent gouging will expire on May 29. The milestone comes more than 16 months after the L.A. fires destroyed thousands of homes and plunged families into a hectic rental market.
Landlords in Los Angeles County will soon be allowed to raise rents by more than 10% from their baseline before the January 2025 fires.for another month failed on Tuesday. Supervisors Lindsey Horvath and Hilda Solis voted in favor, but Supervisors Kathryn Barger, Janice Hahn and Holly Mitchell abstained.
As a result, the long-standing countywide prohibition on rent gouging will expire May 29. The milestone comes more than 16 months after the L.A. County fires destroyed thousands of homes and plunged families into a hectic rental market.through June 27, Horvath argued the ban should be preserved because about two-thirds of fire survivors are still in temporary housing.
Horvath wrote that many families “have run out of financial displacement coverage from their insurance companies, which reinforces the need to continue price gouging restrictions, to protect these homeowners from drastic price increases. ” In a statement Tuesday afternoon, Horvath said she was"deeply disappointed" that most of her colleagues abstained from the vote.
"We continue hearing from residents who are struggling to recover financially and stay housed as they rebuild," she said. Landlord groups have been pushing county leaders for months to end the rent gouging ban. During public comment in Tuesday’s meeting, Jesus Rojas with the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles said the rules have long outlived the post-fire emergency.
“They are wrongfully being used to harm thousands of rental housing providers throughout the entire county,” Rojas said. “This must stop, and it must stop now. ”In March, the county ended post-fire price gouging restrictions on hotels, because survey data found that few displaced families were still staying in temporary motel rooms. Horvath argued the rent-gouging ban should be continued until the Department of Consumer and Business Affairs could deliver further data on resident displacement and the rental market.
The rules have banned landlords from raising rents by more than 10% from advertised pre-fire levels. They also prohibited rents exceeding 200% of fair market value, as established by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, on previously unlisted properties.spoke with one agent who encouraged her client to raise the rent on a Bel Air home nearly 86% from a previous 2024 listing. The agent, Fiora Aston with Compass, said at the time, “I've never seen anything like this.
People are desperate. There’s so many families without a house. ”on other listings that appeared to violate price-gouging laws. By January 2026, the group reported finding 18,360 listings featuring likely violations.
Chelsea Kirk, one of the founding organizers of The Rent Brigade, said the protections likely wouldn’t have lasted this long without pressure from tenant advocates. But she said she was disappointed to see how infrequently the rules were enforced.
“Now that these protections are actually ending, any political will or resources towards getting this enforced no longer feels like a possibility,” Kirk said.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
AFT President Under Fire for Using Union Funds for Book ProjectA financial analysis suggests Randi Weingarten used over 1.4 million dollars in AFT union resources to write and publish her book on fascism and education.
Read more »
‘The Housemaid’ Is Being Developed for the StageBekah Brunstetter, who adapted 'The Notebook' for Broadway, will write the stage adaptation.
Read more »
Christopher McQuarrie’s ‘Conan the Barbarian’ Sequel Will Shoot in 2027, Says Arnold Schwarzenegger20th Century Studios has attached the filmmaker to write and direct 'King Conan.'
Read more »
Report: Weingarten Used $1.4M in Union Resources to Write BookWeingarten reportedly used union resources for her book 'Why Fascists Fear Teachers: Public Education and the Future of Democracy.'
Read more »