California voters, including those across Riverside and San Bernardino counties, are getting a clearer picture of what could appear on the November statewide ballot as a key qualification deadline arrives Thursday.
Several high-profile proposals are already positioned for the ballot or moving through final negotiations, with major political, labor and business groups weighing whether to fight expensive campaigns or settle disputes before voters are asked to decide.
Among the measures already eligible is a Republican-backed proposal requiring voter identification. Another would impose a tax on billionaires to support health care services, an effort backed by a major health care workers union.
A major affordable housing proposal also appears likely to go before voters after Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers reached agreement on an $11.25 billion bond measure. The plan would dedicate $10 billion to building, buying and preserving affordable housing. Another $1.25 billion would go toward helping veterans purchase homes.
Newsom’s administration says the bond could help more than 40,000 people buy homes while also creating or preserving tens of thousands of affordable units. The Legislature must still approve the bill to place the bond on the ballot, and Newsom is expected to sign it if lawmakers do so.
One expensive ballot fight that appears to have been avoided involved Uber and personal injury attorneys.
Since last fall, Uber had spent millions of dollars backing a proposed initiative that would have limited contingency fees for personal injury lawyers and restricted the amount crash victims could recover for medical costs. The proposal would have applied broadly to crashes in California, not only those involving Uber rides.
Trial attorney groups, doctors and medical providers strongly opposed the proposal and responded with their own measure aimed at increasing Uber’s liability in cases involving sexual misconduct against riders and drivers.
Instead, the two sides appear to have reached a compromise through legislation. The bill would limit medical cost recoveries in cases involving medical liens but would not cap attorneys’ contingency fees. Uber would be required to strengthen driver background checks and remove drivers from the platform if they have been convicted of certain violent crimes or found guilty of driving under the influence.
In other statewide developments, California is again suing the Trump administration over the state’s authority to enforce stricter air pollution standards.
The lawsuit focuses on four waivers previously granted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency during the Obama and Biden administrations. Those waivers allowed California to enforce its own vehicle and engine emissions rules. For more than five decades, California has had special authority under the federal Clean Air Act to set tougher standards because of the state’s severe air pollution problems.
Earlier this month, the EPA reclassified the waivers as “rules” rather than “orders,” a change that makes them subject to congressional review. California Attorney General Rob Bonta said Monday the move was designed to give Congress a path to block the state’s clean-air policies.
“Trump and his EPA overreach is illogical, politically motivated and illegal,” Bonta said. “This is nothing more than Trump’s latest effort to circumvent the law, to punish California for defying his plans to drag us backward.”
The case is California’s 72nd lawsuit against the Trump administration during Trump’s second term. The state argues the EPA does not have authority to reclassify the waivers. California is also pursuing a separate lawsuit over three other waivers that were reclassified and later revoked in June 2025 with congressional approval.
In education news, Alberto Carvalho has resigned as superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District amid an FBI investigation apparently tied to a failed artificial intelligence chatbot contract he had promoted.
Carvalho, who was widely credited with helping guide the nation’s second-largest school district through the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, announced his resignation Sunday. The Los Angeles Times first reported the decision.
“Placing students first has always guided my work,” Carvalho wrote in an open letter. “Because I believe our schools must remain focused on students and learning without distraction, I am resigning as superintendent of LAUSD.”
Carvalho, a formerly undocumented immigrant, had also become a prominent defender of immigrant students as the Trump administration increased immigration enforcement. Under his leadership, the district created a 24-hour hotline, hosted workshops on immigrant families’ legal rights, offered free legal help through local nonprofits and established a virtual academy for students afraid to leave home because of deportation concerns.
The FBI searched Carvalho’s home and office in February, shortly after the district renewed his contract. He had been on leave since then. Acting Superintendent Andrés Chait will continue leading the district while the school board searches for a permanent replacement.
Also in California education, the state prison system has distributed 30,000 laptops to incarcerated students over the past three years. Nearly half of those students are enrolled in community college courses. As more instruction and coursework move online, professors and incarcerated students are weighing whether remote learning can provide the same benefits as in-person classes.
In opinion and commentary, CalMatters columnist Dan Walters wrote that California’s Proposition 50 could help House Democrats gain some of the five congressional seats it was designed to influence, but its impact on control of Congress will depend on political developments in other states. Independent Los Angeles journalist Victoria Valenzuela argued that lawmakers should limit same-day visitation denials at California prisons for people who have made significant efforts to see incarcerated loved ones.
Original source: CalMatters
