Dear CalMatters reader,

Happy post-election day. This newsletter was written before the polls closed. For up to date information from the CalMatters team about the primary results, check out this live blog: Live California election results.

The final results of the election might take a while to come, writes CalMatters’ Nadia Latham. That is partly due to the state’s embrace of mail-in voting. It’s also partly due to how election officials count votes. Latham guides you through all the efforts to improve counting implemented this year at this story: California voting ends Tuesday. The results? Don’t expect them anytime soon.

Rancho Cucamonga’s Shrey Parikh won the Scripps National Spelling Bee last week, landing him a $52,500 cash prize, the Scripps Cup, and a slew of national news coverage. His secret: typing words out, and practicing five hours a day.

“I was just really really excited to see all my hard work pay off,” Parikh told CBS News.

He wasn’t the only IEer at the top of their field this week. Jurupa Valley’s AB Hernandez won two titles in the CIF championships. Due to new state rules regarding transgender athletes, of which she is one, she shared the high jump podium and #1 rank with Lelani Laruelle of Monta Vista, and Daniela Hughes of Los Altos for triple jump. The Los Angeles Times covered her Shielded by love, transgender athlete AB Hernandez defeated vitriol stoked by Trump.

The IE had more representation in track and field champions than just Hernandez. Maximo Zavaleta of Martin Luther King High School won the boys’ 3200 meter run and 1600 meter run and Arelle Middleton of Chino High School won the girls shot put.

On May 20, 16 days after the announcement that the Mission Inn would be bought by the San Manuel of Yuhaaviatam Nation, iconic art pieces by the hotel’s founder, Frank Miller, were removed by the owner, Kelly Roberts. 

The removed works included “Charge Up San Juan Hill,” which was displayed prominently in the steakhouse. The work by Vasily Vereshchagin depicts the Rough Riders in action during the Spanish-American War, led by Teddy Roosevelt. A second painting, California Alps, was in the lobby. David Allen of the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin reported on their removal on May 21. 

Raincross Gazette writer Ken Crawford asked people involved in the sale of the Mission Inn from Chemical Bank to Duane and Kelly Roberts what they knew about the rights to those works. Were they tied to the hotel? When the hotel was sold from the foundation to the Roberts, did any aspect of the contract require those items to remain there?

Read it here: The Mission Inn Artifacts Dispute Is More Complicated Than It Looks.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Sen. Sabrina Cervantes’ (D-Riverside) election integrity bill. The bill passed the state legislature on the fast track, with an emergency clause to ensure it was in effect by yesterday’s election. It restricts peace officers’ presence near polling places, issues guidance to election officials on how to respond to law enforcement requests for access to voting areas, and makes the removal of ballots from the county registrar’s possession a felony.

“California will not allow our elections to be commandeered by political intimidation, abuse of power, or chaotic interference from extremists chasing conspiracy theories,” Newsom said.

The California Senate passed two bills from Eloise Gómez Reyes on May 27.

SB 1130 would make it a crime to record people in private businesses using wearable cameras, such as smart glasses. The bill passed 30-8, along party lines. The Senate also passed Gómez Reyes’ San Bernardino redistricting bill along party lines. SB 1414 would establish a commission in San Bernardino County that would draw the Board of Supervisors’ districts. The county’s current commission, established by 2020’s Measure J, only has advisory power, and their members are appointed by the Board of Supervisors.

“If the very members who will benefit from the district lines are controlling who is on the committee and are then using the committee's recommendations as advisory, then it is not truly independent,”  Gómez Reyes said.

Sen. Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh spoke in opposition, arguing that it would disempower Measure J, and that it would cost the county $2 million. 

“SB 1414 would dismantle this voter approved, proven approach, and impose a new structure without clear justification or demonstrated need or benefit,” Ochoa Bogh said.

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