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For years Burbank residents, business owners and elected officials have been squabbling over a plan to run a speedy new bus line through the middle of town.

The North Hollywood to Pasadena Bus Rapid Transit project is slated to carve a bus-only corridor linking the eastern edge of the San Fernando Valley to the western extent of the San Gabriel Valley while connecting two of LA County’s most well-trafficked rail lines. To do so, LA Metro plans to take away a lane of traffic and a ton of parking spaces along most of the 18-mile route, which includes much of a four-lane stretch that runs through downtown Burbank.

Ever since the agency floated the project in 2017, a vocal coalition of ticked-off Burbankers, Glendalians and denizens of the northeast LA neighborhood of Eagle Rock has been protesting, petitioning and (unsuccessfully) suing to block, delay or revamp the plan.

Now, with the sweep of his pen, Gov. Gavin Newsom has turned this long-simmering battle over a bus into a full-fledged war over housing, local control and the future of the single-family neighborhoods.

Earlier this month, Newsom signed a law allowing apartment buildings to sprout up within a half-mile of major public transit stations. That includes stops for select bus routes that run frequently, get priority at stop lights and have their own lanes

The purpose of the law is to locate new housing close to publicly funded transportation, funneling more would-be riders onto those systems, while minimizing the traffic, pollution and climate impact of new residential development.

But the law also applies to future transit projects that have reached a certain point in the planning pipeline — including the NoHo to Pasadena bus line.

Susan O’Carroll, a planning and environmental consultant and Burbank resident, said she has long had issues with the bus plan. Now that its development carries the promise of a neighborhood-spanning zoning overhaul, the stakes feel much higher. The bus, in effect, will “destroy the single family neighborhoods on either side” of the route, she said.

The only way to stop the apartments now, she said, is to stop the bus.

The brewing battle in Burbank is an unintended consequence of Senate Bill 79, a law that pro-housing advocates, public transit boosters and many environmentally-minded urbanists lauded as a historic victory for sustainable planning. That law represents the culmination of a legislative trend, in which California has relaxed minimum parking requirements and allowed for more affordable housing and accessory dwelling unit development on lots close to bus and rail lines.

But even supporters of transit-oriented development recognize that it can sometimes result in “perverse” political incentives, said Amy Lee, a transportation researcher at UC Davis, who recently published a paper on how California city governments responded to a 2022 law banning local parking requirements for housing near transit.

When housing and transportation are tied together, for opponents of new residential construction, “logically, a response is to just say, ‘okay, we’ll just reduce the transit,’” she said.

That might mean scrapping a project altogether. In the case of the Senate Bill 79, it could also mean campaigning to put a bus back in the flow of car traffic or slowing down a commuter rail system, so as to skirt the specific thresholds that would trigger a rezoning.

Density-averse city governments may also exploit ambiguities in the law. For example, if a bus only gets a dedicated lane on part of its route, as is the case with the line designed to cut through Burbank, is rezoning triggered at every stop along its route, none of them or just those where the bus has its own lane?

Turning contentious local disputes over new bus or rail lines into even more contentious rezoning battles also just has a way of turbo-charging the politics of both. “It’s chummed the waters,” said Lee.

A barrier to LA’s transit boom?

It’s not that the backers of the new law didn’t see this coming.

The statute purposefully limits rezoning to projects that have already entered a regional transportation improvement plan — a short-list of projects that have already received a short- to medium-term funding commitment.

“If, in a few weeks, the Orange County Transportation Authority says they want to do a street car project from Fullerton to Disneyland, that wouldn’t be eligible,” said Marc Vukcevich, state policy director for Streets For All, which co-sponsored Senate Bill 79.

Further out, projects can still trigger changes to zoning once they are added to one of those transportation short-lists in the future, but only if they are part of a region’s longer-term capital plan as of the end of this year.

The pipeline of such projects isn’t especially full in most of the state’s major metro areas. The Bay Area’s transit system isn’t growing much these days. Nor is San Diego’s, where the city has upzoned most of its major transit hubs anyway.

The Los Angeles metro area is a notable exception.

In 2016, county voters backed a sales tax hike to fund public transit improvements. With relatively little public transit infrastructure on and in the ground, LA Metro has a subway, light rail and bus rapid transit boom in its planning pipeline. All of those projects may trigger rezoning under the new housing law and so “have a chance to be impacted by the NIMBY politics of housing,” said Vukcevich.

Beyond Burbank

O’Carroll and other opponents of the NoHo to Pasadena project have called upon LA Metro to conduct another environmental review of the bus line. The first one, drafted back in 2020, didn’t take rezoning into account. That leaves significant land-use changes that would result from the bus line unexamined and unpublicized, she said.

Burbank’s city council has, for its own part, repeatedly voted to ask LA Metro to leave the bus in the regular flow of traffic along its route through the city.

It might be too late.

In a written statement, LA Metro spokesperson Missy Colman said that the agency will continue to “closely coordinate with the cities of Los Angeles, Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena” as it finalizes the design “in accordance with the Metro Board approved project.”

What the board approved is a route with a bus-only lane. Construction is scheduled to break ground before next summer. The pressing deadline of the 2028 Olympics could make further delay especially unpalatable.

“The Metro board would have to basically take the unprecedented step of stopping a project that has already begun,” said Nick Andert, a documentary filmmaker and public transportation advocate.

But with so many bus and rail projects in the pipeline across Los Angeles County, the extra-heated politics of Burbank’s new bus may be a preview of what’s to come.

Massive plans are in the works. New rail from the San Fernando Valley to the affluent neighborhoods around UCLA. A subway extension running south out of Hollywood. A bus rapid transit line connecting South Los Angeles to the neighborhoods east of Hollywood. All are controversial in their own right, said Andert. Throwing in the prospect of new apartment buildings could give local elected officials extra reason to dissent.

“Cities can really slow down permitting for certain things if Metro doesn’t work with them hand-in-hand and address their concerns,” he said.

‘They have no idea what’s coming’

Backers of the new zoning law say they hope such controversies will be isolated and short-lived. Once neighborhoods start getting rezoned beginning next July, it will likely take years for developers to start swapping out single-family homes for apartment buildings en masse. Significant, neighborhood redefining densification could take decades in any given location, if ever happens.

“Call me an optimist — or maybe ludicrous — but I think the general public will understand that housing is not the end of the world and that development happens on a really long time frame,” said Vukcevich.

It might be some time before irate homeowners along the NoHo to Pasadena bus line reach such levels of equanimity.

Lisa Cusack, a Glendale homeowner and local GOP activist who sits on the town’s historic preservation commission, said she was late to begin organizing against the planned bus route. It was only after this year’s zoning law advanced out of the state Senate that she realized the full implications of the proposed bus line and launched a petition and website to “save Glenoaks,” the major thoroughfare that will serve as its main route through town.

“I’ve been going around talking to neighbors and they have no idea what’s coming,” she said. When Senate Bill 79 was still floating through the Legislature, the “threat” of densification was a little abstract. Now that Newsom has signed it into law, the pitch to her neighbors is much easier to make — the only way to stop the coming zoning changes is to stop the bus.

“People are only now starting to find out,” she said.

Donald Lloyd Allen
September 6, 1931 to September 15, 2025

It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of Donald Lloyd Allen, a beloved husband, father and friend, who departed peacefully in Eureka just days after celebrating his 94th birthday with family by his side. Don lived a full life and brought joy to those around him with his sense of humor, infectious smile and willingness to help. He could make or fix about anything, with patience and steadiness. He would always have a pencil and notebook in this flannel shirt pocket, with suspenders and a hat rounding out his typical style.

Don was married to Gloria Benson (Fortuna) for 67 years and they lived most of those years in the house that Don built in Cutten on the street that he built and bears his name. They had three children, Julie Allen in Portland, Leslie Allen in Eureka and Steven Allen (Keri, son Bode) in Cutten.

Born in Eureka to Jesse Judd and Flora Eva Allen, Don was the third born of four brothers — Bill, Neil and Gail — all of whom preceded him in death. The Allen brothers shared a close bond, strengthened through both joyful and challenging times, with the oldest and youngest being born on the same day four years apart.

The brothers were taking care of their family home near Pigeon Point while their parents were both in the hospital after being struck by a drunk driver on their way to work. When clearing and burning brush, Don’s leg was burned and he also ended up in the hospital. The scars remained, and when he and his brother Neil went to enlist in the Air Force, he was rejected because they said he could not wear combat boots. However with the Korean conflict heating up, the Army had no problem drafting him. So Don served in the Army along the DMZ zone in Korea.

After being honorably discharged, he milked cows for local dairies and attended Humboldt State College. However, his love for equipment and construction won the day and he never looked back.

Don was a heavy equipment operator, owning his own equipment and also working with and teaching classes for the Local 3 Union of Operating Engineers. He was a blade man, known for his skill to operate a grader and make grade even without survey grade stakes. He had a great eye and was widely admired for his ability to grade a flat site. He was busy helping the community recover from the ’64 flood and could not get the time off to be at the hospital when his son was born. He worked in Shelter Cove, helped build Highway 101 through Arcata, the bike paths and turn lane to Fern Canyon back when Rolf from Rolf’s Café used to come out and take lunch orders from the crew. He worked with many great people over the years, including Bud Balke, Tom Coy, Ernie and Bill Pierson and Bob King with Redwood Empire Aggregates. You couldn’t drive with dad around Humboldt County without him telling stories about a project he worked on along the way.

He could also make or fix about anything. In addition to building the family home, he built a horse trailer for his daughters, dump trucks from various parts, shops and a treehouse, and he held multiple patents for a radiation shield with his neighbor Harold Godfrey, as well as an adjustable height desk. The desk was recognized in the 1990s as one of the 50 best inventions by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and as such he and his PostureMate business partner Doug Beckstead were invited to Washington DC to showcase their desk. Don also helped his son Steve build two of the original local BMX race tracks and would take Steve to BMX races in Oregon and California. Don also bought, fixed up and enjoyed taking the family and friends out on a wood ocean sport fishing boat catching salmon, crab and other species.

He wore many hats in life, as a son, brother, husband, father, uncle, student, teacher, mentor, veteran, business owner, inventor and friend to many. He was a kind, generous, funny, patient (usually), playful, honorable, honest, creative, loving, talented, accepting, hard working, ethical, happy, optimistic, problem-solving and a very logical person. His dry wit was known by many and often referred to as “Allen humor” as his brothers and family all share some form of the same affliction. As dad often said, do what you want when I am gone as I won’t be there. Enough said.

There is a celebration of life planned at Freshwater Grange from 2 to 5 p.m. on November 15, 2025. Those who knew Don are welcome to come celebrate his life and share stories.

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At today’s meeting, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors got into a tense debate over the fairness of the county’s Tobacco Retailer Licensing Ordinance.

At the heart of the dispute is a non-transferability clause that prevents tobacco retail licenses from being transferred when a business is sold. The ordinance, which only applies to retailers operating in unincorporated areas of the county, allows for a license to be transferred to a “parent, child, spouse, or domestic partner for tobacco retailing at the same retail location” if the current license holder is in good standing with the county. In all other circumstances, “a new tobacco retailer’s license is required whenever a tobacco retailing location has a change in proprietors.”

At the outset of the discussion, First District Supervisor Rex Bohn and Board Chair Michelle Bushnell both admitted that they must have overlooked the non-transfer clause when the board adopted the ordinance in July 2023. 

Bohn | Screenshot

“I did hear the grandfather part — it was mentioned — [but] I thought that meant that they would be able to transfer to anybody,” said Bohn, who was appointed to the Tobacco Retailer Licensing Ordinance ad hoc committee along with Fifth District Supervisor Steve Madrone. “We’re just still separated on what I feel is … a miscarriage of how [the ordinance] was presented, and [how] it was presented to the retailers.”

Bohn questioned whether staff with the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Public Health Division had done an adequate job in researching the ordinance and communicating potential impacts to local retailers. 

DHHS staff provided the board with a detailed presentation on the county’s ongoing outreach efforts, which began back in 2022. Sofia Pereira, the county’s public health director, emphasized that the primary focus of the ordinance is to protect youth and reduce accessibility to tobacco products. She noted that staff would be willing to investigate approaches taken by other counties to address some of the concerns brought forth by business owners.

Bohn mentioned a provision in Sonoma County’s ordinance that allows licenses to be transferred, and suggested that the county adopt something similar.He also highlighted a local tobacco retailer who operates “30-plus stores” across the state, including six in Humboldt. The only time he’s ever had an issue closing escrow on one of his businesses, Bohn said, was when he recently tried to sell a store in Humboldt.

“Out of five counties and this was the only place he couldn’t do it,” Bohn said. “I don’t think anybody understood that they were going to take a viable part of their business … and have it become a non-entity if they changed hands unless it went to a relative. This has taken quite a bit of financial toll on this one individual. It’s actually degraded the business’s values.”

During public comment, several local business owners claimed they didn’t know anything about the ordinance before it took effect. Tom Bero, owner of the Redwoods Market & Deli in Myers Flat, said he didn’t know about the non-transfer clause until he listed his business for sale.

“We didn’t get any information on the new ordinance,” Bero said. “Our market’s been there for about 50 years, and it’s always been able to sell tobacco. We’re in the middle of trying to sell our business … and the person purchasing the business does not want to purchase it unless he can apply for a new license or we can transfer our license. Our family relies on the sale of this business because we want to move on and do something else. … It’s getting to be too much.”

Dan Noga, owner of Country Club Market in the Humboldt Hill community, recalled county staff inspecting his business, but said he was never told that he couldn’t transfer his license. Noga asked why the county has set its sights on tobacco retailers rather than liquor stores and cannabis dispensaries. 

Noga | Screenshot

“Ingesting any smoke into your lungs is not good for your health,” he said. “Yet, there’s tons of marijuana shops that are being approved, and there’s no restrictions on them. … Liquor is bad for your health — just like cigarettes are — yet a liquor license is transferable. I don’t see the problem with transferring a license from one retailer to the next retailer. I understand if you don’t want a new retailer with a tobacco license.”

One speaker, who did not identify himself, noted that most of the business owners who rely on tobacco sales to stay afloat don’t have pensions or retirement funds. “This business is the pension,” he said. “If somebody loses a [significant] portion of their sales, they will not be able to sell the business.”

Following public comment, Fourth District Supervisor Natalie Arroyo noted that the board has had “no less than 10 meetings about tobacco retail licensing” and pushed back on the assertion that staff hadn’t done an adequate job in informing business owners about the new ordinance. 

“I’m, frankly, a little bit miffed about the way that we’re talking about the outreach that has happened and the meeting conversations that we’ve had,” Arroyo said. “Not very often do I get ruffled by this board, but thank you for just kind of bearing with it to the staff that are working on this.”

Arroyo said she was open to potential amendments to the ordinance that would lessen the impact on local businesses, as long as those changes didn’t increase the cap on tobacco retail licenses in a given area. “I would actually love to see more restrictions on smoking products,” she added.

Third District Supervisor Mike Wilson felt similarly, emphasizing that the goal of the ordinance was to “reduce smoking and the harms of tobacco in general.” He recalled in 1998, when California became the first state to ban smoking inside. 

“I remember very, very clearly the sort of language around the Armageddon that would occur [to] these businesses if that was to happen,” Wilson said. “Well, it turned out some months later that people still went to bars and people still went out. … I think the way that we deal with these changes over time is through caps, and that we do this through attrition. But I think the attrition that we were talking about was the transfer of these licenses.”

Madrone emphasized Arroyo’s previous point about outreach, noting that “it didn’t happen in a vacuum.” He also echoed Wilson’s point that the whole idea of the ordinance was to “reduce the number of outlets down to a cap based on our population.”

“And the way that was going to happen was that if a business [was] sold to somebody other than an immediate family member, that they would lose that license,” Madrone continued. “All of a sudden, it sounds like some people feel like they didn’t have any communication, but my understanding was that every effort was made to do that.”

Madrone also voiced frustration over Bohn “trying to push” his opinion at ad hoc meetings. “I don’t want to hear his comments for the 20th and 30th and 50th time on the same stuff over and over again.”

After a bit of additional discussion and a messy attempt at a straw poll, the board ultimately directed staff to further investigate license transfers, with a potential limit for business owners with multiple tobacco retail licenses. The board also asked staff to look into a cap on licenses within a certain radius of one another.

The motion passed in a 5-0 vote.

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PREVIOUSLY

• ‘This is a Big Deal for Humboldt’: State Awards $12.3 Million in Funding for Behavioral Health Triage Center in Arcata
• ‘A Game-Changer for Humboldt’: State Sen. Mike McGuire, County Officials Announce Additional Funding for Behavioral Crisis Triage Center in Arcata

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Large state investments for two mental healthcare facilities coming to Eureka and Arcata were announced by State Senator Mike McGuire at a press conference yesterday, totaling over $6 million for the Mad River Triage Center and the Sorrel Leaf Healing Center

The Mad River Triage Center will be a “crisis stabilization, sobering, and crisis residential center” with beds for 43 patients when it opens in 2027 on Mad River Hospital’s campus in Arcata. McGuire said yesterday that the state has earmarked $5.5 million for the project, which will break ground next year. 

It’s the latest addition to past rounds of funding for the project, which also received $12.3 million from the California Department of Health Care Services in 2023. 

Additionally, McGuire said the state was granting $750,000 to the Sorrel Leaf Healing Center near Indianola, a 12-bed, 13-acre “therapeutic farm” for youth experiencing mental health issues. It’s set to open in 2026. 

McGuire and other local officials highlighted the “desperate need” Humboldt has for expanded behavioral health services. 

“The reality has overwhelmed local emergency rooms and providers for years,” McGuire said. “[There’s an] increased number of homeless on our streets because there’s simply nowhere to go. There aren’t enough services. This is incredibly personal to me; it choked up my family. My family has seen addiction firsthand…From Westhaven to Weott, people in our community desperately need health care that’s appropriate, that’s comprehensive and effective, and treats patients in crisis.”

PREVIOUSLY:

• Eureka City Council Looks to Ban Nitrous Oxide Sales

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Press release from the City of Eureka:

The City of Eureka has removed Item G.6 from the October 21, 2025 City Council agenda. This item had proposed seeking Council authorization for the Eureka Police Department (EPD) to begin researching the potential implementation of an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) program. The proposed UAS program was intended to enhance EPD’s ability to safely and effectively respond to specific incidents, including:

• Mental health crises involving self-harm or suicidal individuals;
• Mental health crises involving potentially armed individuals;
• Searches for missing or at-risk persons, including children and adults;
• Barricaded suspect situations requiring interior or aerial assessment; and
• Public safety incidents occurring near schools or densely populated areas.
• Evaluation of Natural Disaster Incidents

These types of deployments have proven to improve outcomes and reduce risks to officers and community members. Currently, EPD must rely on outside agencies for UAS support, which can limit timely access to this critical resource. Examples of prior drone assisted operations include:

• De-escalating and negotiating with a person in crisis that was threatening to jump from the Eureka water tower;
• >De-escalating a crisis involving a person armed with multiple edged weapons inside a vehicle;
• Providing aerial lighting during nighttime tactical operations while maintaining officer concealment;
• Searching structures for armed barricaded suspects before team entry; and
• Locating armed subjects near school campuses during lockdowns.

Under Eureka Municipal Code Chapter 104 (Military Equipment), City Council authorization is required before EPD can begin research or prepare information regarding any UAS system. While this item has been pulled from the current agenda, EPD remains committed to ensuring community safety through the use of Council-approved technologies and maintaining transparency in any future program development.

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California, listen up: Former President Barack Obama wants you to know that the whole nation is counting on you this November.

“Democracy is on the ballot,” the 44th president says straight to camera in the latest advertisement from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s campaign for Proposition 50, the ballot question that asks voters to temporarily gerrymander California’s congressional districts to favor Democrats.

“Republicans want to steal enough seats in Congress to rig the next election and wield unchecked power for two more years,” Obama continues in the seven-figure ad buy airing across California, referring to GOP-led redistricting efforts President Donald Trump has backed in other states like Texas. “With Prop. 50, you can stop Republicans in their tracks.”

As voters face a Nov. 4 deadline to turn in their ballots, California’s redistricting fight has reached a pinnacle as both sides pour tens of millions of dollars on their final push to persuade and mobilize voters. The Yes side has largely outraised and outspent its opponents, pulling in nearly $97 million — more than double the No side’s haul of $42 million — and garnered far more big names to appear in its ads.

Still, recent polling shows the race remains close, and persuasion in the final weeks is critical for both sides. While opponents of Prop. 50 are going all-in on a good governance message and playing on most voters’ unease with politicians drawing their own districts, supporters of the measure are doubling down on anti-Trump rhetoric. And both campaigns are trying to turn out Latino voters, a key constituency that could swing the election.

A survey from the nonpartisan Cook Political Report earlier this month found that although 50% of registered voters said they would support Prop. 50 and 35% said they would oppose it, nearly half of those surveyed indicated they were undecided or only softly committed to their vote. The poll included 918 registered voters with a sampling error margin of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.

There’s still plenty of time to sway voters, especially those who are just now tuning into the fact that an election is happening. If voters approve Prop. 50, California would temporarily adopt gerrymandered maps drawn by Democrats through 2030 and suspend the ones drawn by an independent citizens redistricting commission just four years ago. The ballot question informs voters that California’s redistricting is a direct response to Texas Republicans’ decision to redraw their district lines mid-decade.

And when it comes to persuasion, money is critical.

More than 68,000 people have given money in support of the Yes on Prop. 50 campaign since July, according to campaign finance data analyzed by CalMatters, with the biggest contributions coming from the House Majority PAC controlled by congressional Democrats and the Fund for Policy Reform controlled by Democratic megadonor George Soros. That doesn’t include the nearly $13 million that billionaire investor Tom Steyer spent separately to run his own ads supporting the measure.

By contrast, only 200 contributors have given to the two separate No campaigns, including a massive $30 million from wealthy Republican physicist Charles Munger Jr., who funded the 2008 and 2010 efforts to establish the state’s independent redistricting commission.

“‘No’ has the steeper hill to climb, there’s no doubt about that,” said Amy Walter, publisher and editor-in-chief of the Cook Political Report. She explained that opponents of Prop. 50 would not only need to solidify their tentative supporters and ensure they vote, but also persuade all undecided voters and also convert some of the tentative “yes” voters.

But working in the opposition’s favor is widespread unease with the idea of elected officials influencing the shape of their districts. About 56% of the Cook poll’s respondents who indicated they would probably vote “Yes” said they agreed that politicians shouldn’t draw their own district lines.

“If you’re the ‘No’ campaign, it is the one place where you can see you can get some traction,” Walter said.

Opportunity for Prop. 50 opponents

Opponents of Prop. 50 are trying hard to capitalize on that discomfort in their recent advertising.

“Prop. 50 takes us backwards and rips power away from the people,” an unidentified woman tells viewers in a recent No on 50 advertisement. Then the declaration “Politicians Can Rig Elections” flashes across the screen in bold red and black text.

Jessica Millan Patterson, the former state GOP chairperson who is leading the No on 50 campaign backed by House Republicans, said she’s targeting independents and Democrats who are dissatisfied with the party. That means focusing on a limited, simple good-governance message to turn out undecided voters.

Millan Patterson isn’t concerned about mobilizing the Republican base, she said, adding that the Yes campaign is already doing that for her by demonizing Trump and deifying Newsom, whom conservatives despise. In a small nod to the party faithful, the campaign is running one advertisement criticizing the governor. It hammers him on affordability.

“We can’t win with just Republican votes, so we need to make sure that those persuadable voters … that the conversation is happening with them,” Millan Patterson said. “They know that giving this power to politicians, it will not serve anyone but those politicians, and they just need some permission to vote no on this.”

That mirrors the message of the other No campaign paid for by Munger.

“If you look at all the polling since the beginning, voters don’t like gerrymandering, full stop,” said Amy Thoma Tan, spokesperson for that campaign. “So we’re just reminding people that this is gerrymandering.”

California unions settle on Trump message

By contrast, their opponents on the Yes side are investing heavily in an anti-Trump message, a move that Walter said was smart given that the president is “the special catalyst” that helps the Yes side overcome California voters’ traditional preference for rejecting ballot measures.

In digital ads, the powerful California Labor Federation is reminding its 2 million members that Trump has terminated federal workers’ contracts and cut infrastructure spending, which paid for many trades workers’ projects.

But in phone-banking operations, its president Lorena Gonzalez said the catch-all framing of Prop. 50 as a way to “fight back against Trump” works best to motivate voters, who all “know what they’re not happy about.”

“Do we want to talk about ICE? Do we want to talk about LGBTQ (issues)? Do we want to say, ‘fight fascism?’” Gonzalez said of discussion among labor organizers working to turn out students on University of California campuses.

The Service Employees International Union of California is taking an all-of-the-above approach, said Tia Orr, the union’s executive director. A digital advertisement urges viewers to fight back against the Trump administration’s “inhumane immigration policies” by supporting Prop. 50. And a recent mailer sent to SEIU’s 800,000 California members, many of whom work in health care, reminded them that the Republican-controlled Congress approved Trump’s megabill that would take health insurance coverage from an estimated 10 million Americans.

“I urge all registered nurses to volunteer, vote, and share the message with your friends and family,” reads the mailer, written in the first person and signed by Monique Hernandez, vice president of an SEIU local that represents nurses.

In Asian American immigrant communities, pro-Prop. 50 organizers are emphasizing cuts to health care programs and how Trump policies destabilize local economies — a nod to tariffs. For Latino voters, the Yes campaign is airing ads in English and Spanish featuring New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla of California, who was forced to the ground by federal agents in Los Angeles this summer during the height of the immigration raids that jolted the city.

Latino voters ‘the most undecided’

Latino voters, the state’s largest racial group and about 30% of likely voters, are a key constituency that could swing the election.

Affordability remains a top priority for Latino voters, a survey by the Latino Community Foundation of 1,200 Latino registered voters in California in September shows. But they also disapproved of the president by wide margins, and felt pessimistic about their personal economic prospects in higher shares than ever, vice president of policy Christian Arana said. By a three-to-one margin they said they felt Trump had betrayed them on immigration.

“There’s a lot of people that say if you really want to talk to Latino voters, you only have to talk about the economy,” said Yes on 50 consultant Juan Rodriguez. “It’s a false choice. You can’t just talk about kitchen-table issues when they’re burning down your house.”

The campaign has spent more than $10 million specifically on Latino outreach, Rodriguez said, including broadcast, digital, print and radio ads in Spanish and English, and phone banking operations with Latino community groups.

Still, Arana called Latinos “the most undecided voter.” Latino approval for Prop. 50 is just under 50% in the Inland Empire and Central Valley, according to the group’s survey, which has a sampling error margin of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.

Arana is most concerned that fears of immigration or other federal agents showing up to polling places could depress turnout, particularly as immigration raids in California and elsewhere have ensnared U.S. citizens. The survey showed two-thirds of Latino voters statewide are concerned about immigration enforcement this election.

Democratic organizers emphasized in a recent Zoom call for volunteers that they were pushing for early voting by mail instead.

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CalMatters’ Jeremia Kimelman contributed reporting.

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Press release from the California Highway Patrol:

On October 19th, 2025, at 1713 hours, Humboldt Communications Center notified CHP units of a solo vehicle crash on US-101, in Richardson Grove. A semi tractor without a trailer, was traveling on US-101 when, for reasons still under investigation, the semi tractor drove off the roadway collided with the barrier of the bridge just south of the entrance to Richardson Grove State Park. The semi tractor travelled off the bridge and landed on its roof, beneath US-101. The driver, Juan Herrera Garcia (75), was uninjured and DUI was not a factor in this crash. US-101 was closed for approximately 30 minutes as a result of this crash.  Fluids from the engine of the semi tractor leaked from the vehicle onto the roadway below.  Mitigation measures were placed, and State Parks is overseeing the cleanup efforts within the State Park.
 
The CHP Garberville Area would like to thank Cal Trans and the California State Parks Office for their assistance during this incident.
 
The CHP Garberville Area Office is investigating the cause of the crash.

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