State senator beats rival Melissa Hernandez and will replace US congressman who quit amid sexual misconduct claims

Progressive Aisha Wahab has been elected to Congress in a special election following a bitter intra-party battle over the seat formerly held by Eric Swalwell, who resigned in April after facing sexual misconduct allegations. Swalwell has denied the allegations.

Wahab, a state senator, was widely considered the frontrunner in the district in California’s East Bay and had the backing of the state Democratic party as well as Our Revolution, labor unions, local officials and the state’s attorney general, Rob Bonta.

Exclusive: Rahil Prakash tells the Guardian: ‘I wanted to see if fake polls could penetrate the ecosystem that easily’

A 21-year-old recent college graduate was behind an anonymous website that put out widely shared fake election polling in Wisconsin, Nevada and California, the Guardian can reveal.

The website, Median Strategies, abruptly shut down and withdrew its polling earlier this week following questions from a reporter from the Los Angeles Times. In an unsigned statement, it described a “short-term social experiment” to examine how fake polling “could enter and spread through the political information ecosystem without independent verification”.

State sought to stop system off coast of Santa Barbara from resuming operations after Trump ordered its reopening

An oil pipeline can continue to operate off the California coast after a judge gave it the green light this week, despite the opposition of state regulators and environmental groups.

The system off the coast of Santa Barbara resumed operations earlier this year for the first time in more than a decade after Donald Trump ordered Sable Offshore Corporation to reopen it, citing US energy needs during the war in Iran.

Federal agents also ‘seized electronic devices’ from former Democratic representative at San Francisco airport

Authorities are said to have searched the Washington DC home of disgraced former California Democratic representative Eric Swalwell on Sunday amid an ongoing law enforcement investigation into sexual assault allegations.

CNN reported that federal agents on Saturday also “seized electronic devices” from Swalwell at the San Francisco airport, citing unnamed sources familiar with the investigation. Multiple other outlets have confirmed the federal search; the Daily Mail was the first to report this law enforcement activity.

Tenants can be evicted for not paying utilities even if they have paid rent – tenants and their allies are fighting back

• This story was supported and co-published by the journalism non-profit the Economic Hardship Reporting Project

In 2024, Constance Soule got a surprise from her landlord: a “notice of termination” that gave her 10 days to move out of her apartment.

Soule, a disabled Alzheimer’s patient with a housing voucher, had paid her rent at a Larkspur, California, complex managed by Greystar, the country’s largest apartment manager. But she was about to be evicted from her home across from the Golden Gate Bridge solely over utility charges, court documents show.

Avenal has been rocked by the council’s refusal to accept the results of a recall election – and the repercussions extend far beyond the Central valley

From the outside, the city of Avenal appears to embody every bit of its motto – an “oasis in the sun”. Approaching the community, passing through the dusty yellow hillsides of the Central valley, Avenal emerges with a sudden burst of green on the horizon.

Its small-town feel and quiet tree-lined streets offer respite from the bustling Interstate 5 about five miles away. But trouble is brewing here that has brought this lonesome city national attention.

Officers reportedly believed invitees were trying to make unauthorized entry on to Vandenberg base in California

Five news reporters and two members of the military who were invited to an event at the Vandenberg space force base in California were briefly detained at gunpoint by security officers who thought they were gatecrashers, according to local news reports.

The incident happened on Monday ahead of an invitation-only groundbreaking for a new training facility for missile operators at the federal airfield near Santa Barbara, California. Reporters from Noozhawk and KEYT were among those detained, and both outlets published articles detailing the detainment.

Zvezdelina Stankova says she used AI to ‘help edit’ an article about some of her students being ‘five to eight years’ behind

A math professor at the University of California, Berkeley, criticizing a “severe” math deficiency among students in an op-ed for the San Francisco Standard, admitted to using artificial intelligence to help edit the piece.

The Standard published a 2,000-word piece by Zvezdelina Stankova last week, in which the professor said some of her math students were “five to eight years” behind and lacked a “middle school” education on fractions and basic algebra. Stankova said the UC system’s test-blind admissions were to blame, suggesting that students who weren’t sufficiently prepared for the rigor of Berkeley’s mathematics program were admitted because a longstanding benchmark like the SAT had disappeared.

Regulations that would block sale of older tires praised by environmental groups amid rightwing backlash

California has become the first state in the nation to mandate that replacement tires be energy efficient, a major auto industry regulation set to block the sale of older tires and make vehicles on the road greener.

State regulators have said the new rules will reduce emissions and drivers’ fuel costs. But the rules – which come as the Trump administrations fights to block other California restrictions to promote greener cars – have already sparked a rightwing backlash, with one conservative news outlet calling the policies a “massive overreach”.

Firefighters describe being pushed to limit by a brutal wildfire season, with key leadership roles going unfilled

The US has faced a critical shortage of firefighters at the US Forest Service (USFS) this summer as thousands of fires erupted across the country.

Despite officials’ claims that the firefighting workforce was stronger than ever, the agency has failed to keep pace with escalating conditions and the catastrophic fires fueled by them, according to nine firefighters who spoke to the Guardian anonymously, because they are barred from disclosing the information to the public.

Compton’s Cafe is one of the earliest examples of LGBTQ+ resistance. Today, a prison company occupies the site

One of the earliest documented examples of LGBTQ+ resistance against police happened on a hot summer night 60 years ago this month. It started not with the throwing of a brick, as it did in New York City’s 1969 Stonewall riots, but with the throwing of a coffee cup inside Compton’s Cafeteria in San Francisco.

When police attempted to raid Compton’s – a hub for the drag performers, trans people and sex workers in the city’s Tenderloin neighborhood – hundreds of people in the community fought back. A drag queen threw a coffee mug at a police officer; others threw dishes and chairs outside. It was the culmination of years of police harassment, arrests and violence against the community and the beginning of the city’s trans movement.

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Those unfamiliar with Alaska politics are likely raising an eyebrow at some repeated names.

No, we’re not talking about Dan S Sullivan and Dan J Sullivan, two Republicans with the same name running for US Senate – an issue that went to the state supreme court earlier this summer. We’re talking about the Begiches. Nick Begich III, a Republican, is currently leading the race to represent Alaska in the US House of Representatives for a second term while Tom Begich, a Democrat, is advancing to the general election for governor in November.

Shasta county, hotbed of US election denialism movement, set to appoint ex-Colorado clerk who served prison term

A northern California county that has become a hotbed of activism for those who sow doubts about the reliability of voting machines plans to hire Tina Peters, the prominent Colorado election denier recently released from prison, to work on elections.

Clint Curtis, the top election official in Shasta county, told the Guardian he plans to hire Peters as a consultant to replace Brent Turner, his top deputy, who has been on medical leave. He said Peters would not have access to the county’s voting system and did not directly respond when asked what her responsibilities would be. Plans to hire Peters, who is still on parole and must receive permission to travel outside Colorado, were first reported by Action News Now.

President hosts Nathanial Rai and lifeguard Ryder Williams at White House after video of California rescue went viral

Nathanial Rai had been swept off his feet along the California coast, was rescued by a 16-year-old lifeguard – and was now sitting in the Oval Office with Donald Trump.

Of the rescuer, Ryder Williams, Trump said to Nathanial: “He’s a real hero. I don’t know if I’d do it.

Hi-tech cameras orbiting Earth and on the ground, along with AI, help firefighters extinguish blazes before they spread

The fires in Spokane, Washington, this summer are the latest reminder that when a wildfire is detected can be just as important as where it starts. A blaze found within minutes can often be contained before it spreads. Wait too long, and a small spark can become a major disaster.

A new effort to shorten that timeline began in July when a SpaceX rocket carried the first three FireSat satellites into orbit. The trio is the first part of a planned network of 50 satellites built solely to spot wildfires while they are still small enough to stop.

Famous raptor helped livestream viewers in difficult moments, and inspired a conservation project at her lake home

The bald eagle Jackie made her home on the shore of southern California’s Big Bear Lake for most of her 14 years. But her death earlier this week drew international attention.

The Los Angeles Times described her as “arguably the world’s most famous bald eagle”. For years, millions of people tuned into a live stream of Jackie’s nest, watching her rear her eaglets, work out life with her mate, Shadow, and, perhaps most memorably, incubate her eggs while almost completely buried in snow.

Sony Pictures in July announced that the celebrated theater, built in 1963 and shuttered during Covid, will reopen in 2028

Drive down Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, along the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and you’ll see a movie theater straight out of The Jetsons.

Built in 1963, the Cinerama dome is instantly memorable: a white, geodesic construction that looks like a giant golf ball cut in half and plopped down in the middle of the city.

Legislation requiring disclosure of chemicals in diapers passed assembly and will go before state senate soon

New California legislation would require manufacturers to disclose the “mystery cocktail” of toxic chemicals used in disposable diapers.

Diapers often contain among the most toxic substances – phthalates, lead, Pfas, quats, arsenic, a range of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and “fragrance”, which can include any number of 1,200 compounds thought to be hazardous to human health.

Tyler Muehl, 18, could face a year in prison for kicking marine animal four times on La Jolla coast

An 18-year-old California man has admitted he kicked a sea lion in a video that went viral recently – while referring to himself by the name of an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) competitor – and has pleaded guilty to a federal crime.

Tyler Muehl, of San Diego’s La Jolla neighborhood, faces up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine after acknowledging in court on Thursday that he violated the Marine Mammal Protection Act’s prohibition on harassment of wildlife, federal prosecutors said in a statement.

Experts say better regulation is needed but that bad press about ‘motorized menaces’ puts the ebike revolution at risk

Beware, Americans: there’s a battery-powered threat cruising down beach paths, rolling up hiking trails and zipping along the streets of our cities.

By now, you’ve probably seen footage on social media of teens racing along streets, popping wheelies and weaving around car traffic with reckless abandon. The Los Angeles Times recently dubbed them the “new Hells Angels”. Other news outlets have referred to them as “motorized menaces” terrorizing communities. Sounds scary.

State is US’s largest user of pesticide that is virtually proven to cause Parkinson’s disease

California is banning paraquat, a highly toxic, controversial herbicide used across millions of acres of American cropland.

Public health advocates characterize it as a deadly substance that is virtually proven to cause Parkinson’s disease. It is already outlawed in more than 70 countries, including China, the UK and the EU. Yet in the US, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reapproved it for use in 2021 and 2024.

More students are advocating for their own digital wellbeing and developing programs to thrive in tech-free learning environments

As students across the country return to school this month, many will be confronting a new reality: classrooms without smartphones.

Educators and parents have long fronted the fight against the debilitating influence technology can wield. Yet, many young people say they’ve been left out of important conversations around school phone policies, which are now in effect in at least 39 states and Washington DC.