Who Will Win California’s 37th Congressional District House Race?

Early voting opens Oct. 15 and runs through Oct. 31 in North Carolina, a key battleground in the 2025 midterms. The marquee race is the open U.S. Senate seat left by retiring Republican Thom Tillis, pitting Democrat and former Gov. Roy Cooper against Republican Michael Whatley, the Trump-backed former RNC chair, with Green and Libertarian candidates also on the ballot. Democrats are targeting the seat as part of a broader push to flip the four seats needed for Senate control.

The ballot also includes competitive U.S. House races, including Charlotte-area districts held by Reps. Alma Adams, Tim Moore and Mark Harris, plus down-ballot contests for the N.C. Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, state legislature, and Mecklenburg County offices. Voters will also weigh in on constitutional amendments covering voter ID, income tax caps and property tax limits, along with Charlotte bond measures for transportation, housing and neighborhood improvements. Election Day is Nov. 3, with North Carolina's results seen as a bellwether for national party control in Washington.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed Assembly Bill 1349, a bipartisan measure targeting "ghost tickets" — listings for concert and sporting event access sold by people who don't yet own the underlying ticket. The law bans the sale of tickets not yet owned by the seller and prohibits software used to bypass venues' purchasing limits, requiring resellers to take "reasonable measures" against speculative sales. Violations can bring misdemeanor charges and penalties.

Assemblymember Isaac Bryan introduced the bill after encountering inflated, pre-sale ticket listings for a Hollywood Bowl show. The bill's final version shifted late in the legislative session: Live Nation initially backed it, but StubHub, which spent heavily lobbying against earlier drafts, ended up supporting the final text after amendments appeared to exempt resale marketplaces like itself. Newsom flagged that carve-out as a concern in his signing statement, urging further negotiation. The National Independent Venue Association opposed the final bill, warning it burdens small venues while leaving resale platforms less accountable. A related bill capping resale markups at 10% stalled earlier in the Senate.

California's new AB 1349 law bans "ghost ticket" sales for concerts and events, though critics say it exempts platforms like StubHub.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed Assembly Bill 2599, the Truth in Disclosure Act, making California the first state to require large companies to disclose whether they or their corporate predecessors profited from chattel slavery. Authored by Assemblymember Isaac Bryan and backed by the California Legislative Black Caucus, the law applies to companies with more than $100 million in annual worldwide gross receipts that existed, or had a predecessor that existed, on or before December 1964. Sworn disclosures, subject to perjury penalties, must be filed by January 15, 2029, and will be posted in a searchable public database maintained by the state's Civil Rights Department.

Supporters say the measure, likely to affect banks, insurers, and agricultural firms, will help researchers and advocates trace links between modern corporate wealth and the slave economy. Some insurers opposed the bill, citing an existing 2000 disclosure law. The measure follows California's 2023 reparations task force report, which recommended over 100 remedies and estimated hundreds of billions owed to Black residents, though broader reparations legislation has stalled.

Thousands of union workers and supporters marched in Wilmington's Labor Day parade, blending celebration with anxiety over automation, trade policy and housing costs. Longshoremen from ILWU Local 13 described losing more than 2,000 jobs to automation over roughly 15 years and fear that foreign-owned terminal operators could accelerate workforce reductions. Some workers criticized President Trump's tariffs for raising domestic prices, while at least one longshoreman praised the current economy over the Biden era. Younger union members, including ship scalers who handle hazardous cleanup work, voiced separate concerns about workplace safety.

The event doubled as a campaign stop ahead of midterm and local elections. California gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and challenger Nithya Raman all addressed the crowd, with Bass and most labor leaders aligned, though the Western States Regional Council of Carpenters backed Raman over housing affordability concerns. Nationally, union membership grew in 2025, pushing overall density to 10%, though private-sector unionization held flat at 5.9%, with gains concentrated in government jobs. Workers also raised concerns about housing costs and self-checkout staffing burdens.

The Trump administration has warned California election officials that processing ballots cast by suspected noncitizen voters could expose them to criminal investigation and prosecution. A letter from acting deputy attorney general Trent McCotter called noncitizen voting a federal crime and said officials who knowingly facilitate it risk being treated as aiders and abettors. The DOJ sued California after it missed a 48-hour deadline to cross-check a federal list of roughly 20,000 flagged names; federal prosecutors have since charged 28 green-card holders across California, 11 arrested, saying all appeared on that list. Secretary of State Shirley Weber called the demand unprecedented and said officials provided too little information to verify names. Governor Newsom calls the suit voter suppression; the dispute looms over competitive California House races in the midterms.

The Justice Department is urging a federal judge to rule quickly on its bid to stop California from counting ballots cast by people on a federal list of more than 20,000 potential noncitizens. The request came after Secretary of State Shirley Weber and L.A. County registrar Dean Logan did not review the list on the DOJ's timeline; California's Attorney General Rob Bonta has moved to dismiss the suit, calling it legally weak. Federal officials separately charged 28 legal permanent residents with voter fraud-related offenses this week. In a related case, a federal judge blocked the Department of Homeland Security from using its own noncitizen-voter list, finding it unreliable. State audits show noncitizen voting is rare.

California's High-Speed Rail Authority secured only one of the several legislative priorities it said were needed to keep the Merced-to-Bakersfield rail segment on schedule. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 1425, letting the authority issue permits to utilities, local governments and developers on authority-controlled land, but broader proposals—faster environmental reviews, expedited court dispute resolution, sales tax exemptions on construction materials, and new authority to tap local tax revenue near the rail line—stalled or were never formally introduced. Local officials strongly opposed the tax-revenue idea, calling it a raid on funds needed for services and road repairs.

A separate bill from Sen. Henry Stern to let the authority spend more state climate funds outside the Central Valley segment died in committee, as did a utility-relocation bill from Sen. Scott Wiener. The authority and lawmakers traded blame over the losses. The project, now estimated to cost $126-231 billion with full buildout by 2040, depends on $1 billion in annual state carbon-auction funding that could shrink under pending climate rule changes, adding further uncertainty to its timeline.

Records obtained by LAist show the L.A. Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) continued awarding contracts worth millions to the nonprofit Abundant Blessings even after its own compliance team labeled the group "High-Risk" in May 2024. The nonprofit's leader, Alex Soofer, was charged earlier this year with fraud; prosecutors allege he diverted at least $10 million in homelessness funds through the nonprofit and a related for-profit company, spending it on a Westwood house, a Range Rover, private jet travel and luxury goods. Soofer has pleaded not guilty and agreed to repay LAHSA $1.25 million without admitting wrongdoing.

Despite red flags, LAHSA finalized new contracts totaling over $3 million in mid-2024, and Mayor Karen Bass's office directed additional funding for a homeless services program a month after the warning. Auditors found LAHSA took eight months to report the suspected fraud to federal officials as required by law. County supervisors have since pulled funding from LAHSA, and federal officials briefly suspended funds to the agency, citing the case among broader oversight failures. Separately, records show Bass has skipped more than half of LAHSA Commission meetings since appointing herself to the board in 2023, raising further questions about oversight of the agency. Soofer's trial is scheduled for November 10.

Inglewood is projecting a $30.8 million general fund deficit next year, its largest in at least two decades, after spending roughly doubled following SoFi Stadium's 2020 opening while revenue growth has since leveled off. City officials say more than $150 million in reserves can cover the shortfall in the near term, and Mayor James Butts has downplayed public concern, framing the reserves as enabling ambitious infrastructure investment. The City Council approved the budget 4-0.

The deficit's trajectory now hinges on two competing Nov. 3 ballot measures tied to a dispute between the city and its stadiums over billboard advertising. Measure AT, backed by billboard company WOW Media, would remove the cap on SoFi Stadium's ticket tax and add a new levy on Intuit Dome tickets, potentially generating $45–50 million annually and erasing the deficit. Measure BB would instead ban most commercial billboard advertising, cutting a revenue stream worth several million dollars a year and pushing the deficit toward $39 million. Officials caution the revenue estimates remain uncertain.

Inglewood plans to break ground next month on a $287.5 million shuttle bus network connecting the city's stadiums to Metro's K Line and C Line stations, with service targeted for April 2028 ahead of the Olympics. The project is a scaled-back version of a nearly $2 billion automated rail line first proposed in 2018.

The network centers on four transit hubs, three along Market Street and one at Hawthorne Boulevard and 111th Street, offering parking, bike facilities and rideshare drop-offs. The largest hub, at Market Street and Florence Avenue, will include a pedestrian bridge to the Downtown Inglewood Metro Station and a five-level, roughly 1,000-space parking structure with retail space. The city is acquiring and demolishing an existing shopping center there through eminent domain, drawing concern from some affected business owners. Additional improvements include wider sidewalks, new lighting, landscaping and a plaza along the Market Street corridor. Officials call it the largest project the city has ever undertaken itself, fully funded through state and local grants, while leaving room for a future rail line.