Fresno City Councilmember Annalisa Perea, who was backed by establishment Democrats, will face Republican Jim Polsgrove for the State Assembly District 31 seat in November. With all 99 precincts partially reporting Wednesday morning after Tuesday's primary, Perea had captured 43.7% of the vote compared to Polsgrove's 38.4% in the heavily...
Mullin Says ICE Training Going Back to ‘Regular Standards’
WASHINGTON — Markwayne Mullin, the Department of Homeland Security secretary, told lawmakers Wednesday that his agency would be increasing the training requirements for Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to their previous level starting this summer. The scope of ICE training became a point of contention as the Trump administration hired...
Samples From Texas Calves Tested for Possible Screwworm, Rattling Markets
Samples of an unconfirmed infestation of the flesh-eating screwworm parasite on a cattle ranch in La Pryor, Texas, have been sent to a federal government lab in Iowa to be tested, Texas Representative Don McLaughlin said Wednesday. The samples were taken from two calves on the same ranch on Tuesday,...
Shaw, Barrera Lead Big in CA Education Superintendent Race
In early returns for the state superintendent of public instruction, Sonja Shaw had nearly 25% of votes, followed by Richard Barrera at almost 20%. Shaw, president of the Chino Valley Unified school board, made headlines in 2023 when she took on the current superintendent, Tony Thurmond, over the privacy rights...
Trump’s Primary Endorsement Winning Streak Just Ended in Iowa
Until Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump was riding a near-perfect record of endorsements, with wins in Indiana, Louisiana and Texas. But that ended with the defeat of U.S. Representative Randy Feenstra in the Republican primary for Iowa governor. Nonetheless, the Trump-backed candidate for governor in California appears to be on...
Oil Gains as Middle East Hostilities Flare
Oil prices rose around 2% on Wednesday, extending gains from the previous session, as hostilities in the Middle East erupted anew and talks between Tehran and Washington showed little progress. Brent futures were up $1.68, or 1.75%, at $97.68 a barrel at 1:02 p.m. ET (1702 GMT), while U.S. West...
Trump Floats a Vance-Rubio Ticket for 2028
President Donald Trump suggested on a podcast released Wednesday that Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio should run on the same ticket in the 2028 presidential election, though he didn’t say whom he preferred at the top. In a wide-ranging interview with The New York Post’s...
Israeli Strikes Kill Three People in Gaza, as Truce Talks Stall
Israeli strikes killed three Palestinians in Gaza on Wednesday, health officials said, and the Palestinian militant group Hamas said ending such attacks was crucial to further talks on safeguarding a U.S.-brokered ceasefire. Medics said one Palestinian was killed in an airstrike near the Mughraqa area in the central Gaza Strip....
Tesla Rolls out Unsupervised Robotaxis in Austin
Tesla said on Wednesday it was rolling out its unsupervised robotaxis in the Austin Metro area in Texas, as the electric-vehicle maker looks to speed up its autonomous ride-hailing operation. Expanding the robotaxi service and wider adoption of its full self-driving software - a version of which underpins the technology...
Esmeralda Soria, Brian Pacheco. Adam Gray Advance to November Runoffs
The Merced FOCUS staff was up late on Election Night, compiling the latest results for the 2026 Primary. Here are a few big takeaways. Keep in mind, these are preliminary results: ✔️ In Assembly District 27, former Merced mayor and Republican Mike Murphy and Democrat Brian Pacheco, a Fresno County supervisor,...