Friday, October 30, 2026

Good Morning! On this day in 1775, Father Lasuén founded Mission San Juan Capistrano, only to bury its bells and flee days later amid a San Diego revolt. Father Serra refounded it in 1776 as the seventh of California’s 21 missions.

How deep is Lake Tahoe? Deep enough to swallow the Empire State Building, with room to spare! We have a surprising look at the depths of Northern California’s lakes below, including one that’s much shallower than you might expect.

Does your car insurance renew automatically? Convenient, sure. But you could be overpaying. Today’s sponsor, Money.com, makes it easy to compare rates, switch, and save. Check your new rate now.

California Rail CEO Quits Amid Scandal

Ian Choudri, the CEO of California’s high-speed rail project, resigned Wednesday amid a scandal over nearly $600,000 in questionable consultant travel expenses.

A probe by the rail authority’s inspector general found consultants billed the agency for trips to a nightclub, a cigar lounge, and an escape room, plus after-hours travel to the Sacramento suburb where Choudri lives. The board had already voted this month to require legal review of contracts under $25 million.

Choudri, hired in 2024, said in his resignation letter that he was proud of how the project had transformed despite years of budget overruns and delays. He cited personal and family priorities.

The resignation came during a two-day board meeting. The board named state finance director Joe Stephenshaw as his replacement. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a longtime backer of the project, has committed $1 billion a year in state climate funding through 2045.

Judge Rejects DOJ’s California Ballot Bid

District Judge David Carter on Wednesday rejected the Justice Department’s bid to make California set aside roughly 20,000 mail ballots tied to people the government calls likely noncitizens.

Carter ruled that states control their own elections and that setting the ballots aside would disrupt voting already underway. He said the government’s allegations came from a process rife with uncertainty and errors.

Federal prosecutors said they wanted to sequester the ballots for review, not cancel any votes, and vowed to appeal to the 9th Circuit. They acknowledged some people on their list are likely citizens.

The planned appeal would return the case to the 9th Circuit, which had already declined to step in earlier in the week. Carter noted that people flagged as noncitizens in other states have repeatedly turned out to be naturalized citizens.

DoorDash to Buy Instacart for $17 Billion

San Francisco-based DoorDash agreed Thursday to buy grocery-delivery rival Instacart for about $17 billion.

The cash-and-stock deal is at least 75% cash, and DoorDash plans to keep the Instacart brand and app while merging the two services’ memberships into one. The companies will keep operating separately until the deal closes.

DoorDash already handles roughly two-thirds of the nation’s restaurant delivery volume, and Instacart extends its reach across groceries. The company says Instacart customers will gain access to more than 50,000 additional stores.

The deal still needs regulatory and shareholder approval before it can close. Analysts have warned that antitrust scrutiny could pose a major hurdle as the combined company expands its reach in grocery delivery.

A Note from Cole, CEO of The Flyover

Dear Reader,

Every year, auditors count how many copies America’s biggest newspapers actually put in people’s hands. The new numbers are brutal.

Of the 25 largest papers in the country, 24 shrank last year. Average decline: 12.5%. Nearly a quarter-million daily papers, gone in a single year. The Denver Post now prints about 24,000 copies a day. The Arizona Republic, 33,000. The Houston Chronicle, 35,000. The Dallas Morning News, under 40,000. These are metros of millions. And the steepest collapse in the country belonged to The Washington Post: down 21% in a single year to fewer than 88,000 print copies.

The industry will tell you it’s the internet. It’s a convenient story, because it means none of this is their fault.

Here’s the story they won’t tell: Americans didn’t stop caring about the news. They stopped trusting the people delivering it. Somewhere along the way, the papers stopped reporting what happened and started campaigning for what they wanted to happen—and their readers noticed. Trust in the media now sits at the lowest level ever recorded.

So no, that’s not an audience drifting away. That’s a jury coming back with a verdict.

And here’s the part the industry really doesn’t want to talk about: those readers didn’t give up on news. They went looking for someone who would just tell them the truth. Millions of them found their way to The Flyover network’s morning news publication built on one simple deal:We call things what they are.

We keep the spin out and trust you with the facts.And The California Flyover stays free.

It turns out that when you just give people the facts and trust them to think for themselves, people respond.

So today I’m asking: will you help us continue? If news that plays it straight is something you want to see thrive, will you stand behind us?

Chip in and support the news that gives it to you straight—and free, every morning.

Will you make a generous donation to support The California Flyover?

While the biased legacy media is failing, will you join our movement to keep the bias out of the news, free to your inbox every morning? I’d be grateful if you did.

Give $25
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Our promise: we answer to you. Help us keep it.

— Cole
CEO, The Flyover

Flying together with our sponsor

Auto-renewing your car insurance? Read this first.

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Car insurance rates change all the time, and the company that offered you the best deal six months or a year ago might not be the most competitive today. Yet many drivers simply let their policies renew without checking what else is available.

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➤ Bay Area: San Francisco and Oakland airports could flood this winter if king tides, winter storms, and high ocean levels hit at once over the holidays, a UC Davis report warns. This week’s tidal flooding was a “preview,” its author said. (See Details)

➤ Dublin: Former prison guard David Perez pleaded guilty to sexually abusing two inmates and lying to the FBI, becoming the 10th officer convicted or to plead guilty in the scandal that closed FCI Dublin in 2024. He faces up to 15 years in prison at his March sentencing. (More)

➤ Bay Area: Pathfinder 1, a 400-foot helium airship from Google co-founder Sergey Brin’s startup LTA Research, made its first landing away from Mountain View this week after a year of test flights. The data will guide future airship designs. (Read Story)

➤ Tehama County: An investigation sustained 13 of 17 allegations against Sheriff Dave Kain, finding nine county policy violations, including allowing his children to work under his command. The county said the findings were not legal conclusions. (See Details)

➤ Sausalito: Record high tides flooded parking lots and hampered houseboat access. One 32-year resident said he’d never seen water this high, as flooding threatened the community’s emergency water system. (Watch)

Enjoy reading The California Flyover? Click here to share with your friends and family.

➤ Kern County: Rep. Vince Fong announced $2.575 million for Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake to develop biosynthetic fuels and defense materials, aiming to strengthen U.S. supply chains and reduce reliance on foreign adversaries. (More)

➤ Fresno: City Council candidate Naindeep Singh disputed a political mailer accusing him of driving under the influence after police cleared him following a negative drug test. The group behind the mailer, Fresno Healthy Communities, retracted the allegations. (See Details)

➤ Stockton: A San Joaquin County jury found Wesley Brownlee competent to stand trial on six counts of first-degree murder and one of attempted murder in a string of 2021-2022 shootings. The ruling clears the way for his trial after years of delays. (More)

➤ Central Valley: Rep. Adam Gray, D, leads Kevin Lincoln, R, in fundraising for California’s 13th Congressional District seat, raising more than $5 million to Lincoln’s $2.89 million. Gray also has nearly twice the cash on hand ahead of Election Day. (See Details)

➤ Fresno County: Volunteers set out to rescue 40,000 pounds of organic persimmons after a farmer warned that seven acres could go to waste. The fruit is now being distributed to local families. (Read Story)

Enjoy reading The California Flyover? Click here to share with your friends and family.

➤ Los Angeles: Actor Patrick Stewart, best known as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation, died Wednesday at his Los Angeles home. He was 86 and had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia. (More)

➤ Los Angeles County: A Caltech study estimates smoke from last year’s Eaton Fire exposed roughly 7 million people to lead levels reaching 80 times normal. Burning homes and vehicles released unusually high concentrations of toxic metals. (See Details)

➤ San Diego: Police are boosting patrols in the Gaslamp Quarter for Halloween weekend, expecting large crowds. The extra officers will supplement “Operation Last Call,” launched in August to curb fights and disorderly behavior. (Watch)

➤ Anaheim: Disneyland ranked as the world’s second-most-visited theme park in 2025, drawing 17.4 million guests, up 0.4%. Universal Studios Hollywood saw attendance drop 8% to 8 million, the steepest decline among North American parks. (See Details)

➤ Southern California: Rain could dampen Halloween festivities Saturday night, with widespread showers expected into Sunday morning. Meanwhile, coastal flood alerts remain in effect as high tides of 6 to 7 feet threaten beaches across Los Angeles, Orange, and Ventura counties. (More)

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➤ The Golden State Valkyries fell 80-69 to the Atlanta Dream in Game 6 of the WNBA Finals after trailing by as many as 25. The Valkyries will host Game 7 on Saturday in San Francisco. (More)

➤ Mark Walter, owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, said he’s keeping the team “no matter what” in his first public comments since a federal investigation into his businesses raised questions about the club’s future. (More)

➤ Nationally ranked St. John Bosco visits powerhouse Mater Dei tonight, headlining the nation’s biggest high school football games this week. (See Preview)

➤ A game-worn high school jersey from the late Los Angeles Lakers great Kobe Bryant sold for $2.2 million, breaking the previous record of $1.3 million set by a LeBron James jersey in 2024. (More)

➤ The Los Angeles Rams and LA County will open a mobile vote center at SoFi Stadium during Sunday’s Rams-Chargers game, allowing voters to cast ballots, register to vote, or drop off completed mail ballots ahead of Tuesday’s election. (More)

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➤ Disney’s Experiences division is cutting 100 to 200 jobs, mostly at Walt Disney Imagineering’s Glendale campus. The layoffs follow a review of the division’s priorities, investments, and project timelines. (More)

➤ Square Pie Guys, the San Francisco-founded pizza chain, closes its Palo Alto shop today after months of deliberation. Founder Marc Schechter called the decision difficult but did not specify a reason. The chain’s five other Bay Area locations remain open. (More)

➤ Roseville’s former Hewlett-Packard campus could gain up to 200 engineering jobs under a Shyft Global Services expansion requiring 15 additional megawatts of power. The Planning Commission unanimously backed the proposal, which heads to the city council later this year. (See Details)

➤ Google’s $32.5 million purchase of an 83,000-square-foot Goleta campus was the South Coast’s largest commercial property sale of the third quarter. The August deal expands Google’s AI and quantum computing research ties with UC Santa Barbara. (See Details)

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Still Paying the Same Car Insurance Rate?

The average U.S. driver now pays about $194 a month for car insurance. If you’ve been with the same insurer for years, it may be worth checking whether you’re still getting a competitive rate.

Shopping around can uncover lower-priced options, and comparing quotes only takes a few minutes.

Money’s car insurance comparison tool can help you see rates from providers in your area and find out whether switching could put more money back in your pocket.

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➤ Far-northern Siskiyou County leans into its spooky reputation in a roundup of local legends: the polite stagecoach robber Black Bart, Bigfoot sightings in the Marble Mountains, and the tale of the Lemurians, an ancient people said to live in a hidden city beneath Mount Shasta. (Read Story)

➤ TikTok launched its Must Eat restaurant guide in Los Angeles, the Bay Area, and New York, helping users find popular local spots, browse food videos, and book tables at select restaurants. (More)

➤ Burbank’s “Horror Row,” a half-mile stretch of Magnolia Boulevard packed with year-round horror shops, goes all-out for Halloween. With two Halloween Town stores and elaborate nearby yard haunts, locals call the area LA’s Halloween epicenter. (Read Story)

➤ Ever wonder how deep NorCal’s lakes run? Lake Tahoe plunges 1,645 feet, enough to swallow the Empire State Building. Lake Oroville reaches 695 feet and Lake Shasta about 520, while Clear Lake averages just 27 feet. (Read Story)

Flying together with our sponsor

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The following stories are featured exclusively on The Flyover Podcast—a daily show that gives you the most important headlines in under 15 minutes.

➤ Protesters clashed with riot police in Madrid, demanding the prime minister’s resignation after Wednesday’s train crash killed nearly seventy people. (Hear Details)

➤ Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang reportedly grew close to a suspected Chinese spy whom U.S. intelligence spent a year tracking. (Hear Story)

➤ A popular WNBA star said the FBI is monitoring roughly 20 people tied to stalking and threats against her. (Listen Now)