Here are the morning’s top stories on Thursday, June 11, 2026
- In California’s congressional primaries, a slate of younger, often progressive, Democrats challenged some of their party’s aging incumbents, testing voters’ appetite for generational change.
- Reports of medical neglect in immigration detention are rampant – and deaths are rising. And when sick or injured detainees do get to an outside hospital, many say their care is still compromised. Now an LA-based immigrant rights group and a UCSF physician have guidance for medical providers on how to advocate for these patients.
- Two of California’s largest courts are testing an AI tool that can do a lot of the same work as a legal assistant. Right now, judges are mainly using this AI clerk for civil cases. But documents obtained by our partner CalMatters show in the future, it could be used in criminal cases where the stakes are much higher.
Obstacles Apparent for Progressive Challengers
When Sacramento City Councilmember Mai Vang decided to run against 20-year incumbent Doris Matsui, she said party insiders told her to wait her turn. Now, Vang is leading Matsui by a few percentage points and both will move on to the general election in November.
This rebuke of the so-called gerontocracy spanned the state, targeting representatives Mike Thompson in the Napa Valley, John Garamendi in Solano and Contra Costa County, Brad Sherman in the San Fernando Valley and Maxine Waters in South Los Angeles.
But election results so far show incumbents largely held on. Vang is the only challenger to pull ahead of the incumbent. She ran on a progressive platform, focusing on lowering costs for working families.
Jake Levine, a 42-year-old former White House climate aide under Presidents Obama and Biden, argued his loss to 81-year-old Sherman in L-A, should not be interpreted as a rejection of the generational message. Levine believes California’s redistricting under Proposition 50, whose new maps debuted in this month’s election, worked against him.
Levine said, “I really supported Prop. 50, but at the same time…that made our district significantly more Republican.”
35-year-old former venture capitalist Eric Jones, who is looking to unseat 75-year-old Thompson in the North Bay, also argues the state Democratic Party creates barriers for challengers…
“The Democratic Party is a party built to protect incumbency,” Jones said. “You see that with the way endorsements are granted, where in the vast, vast majority of cases, challengers aren’t even given the opportunity to interview. That is the biggest uphill battle.”
Jones is still sweating out the final results, just behind the Republican candidate in second place.
When U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers take immigrant detainees to the hospital, they typically stand guard, and even shackle a person to the bed. That can intimidate patients and doctors alike.Matthew Lopas with the National Immigration Law Center, who teamed up with a San Francisco emergency room doctor on a new guide for hospital staff, says medical privacy is protected by law.
“The medical provider should ask the ICE officer to leave the room, and the ICE officer should comply, in order to allow the patient to receive adequate care.”
With a record 50 deaths in ICE detention since the start of the second Trump administration, Lopas says it’s critical to put patient care first.
No comment from ICE.
“AI Cannot Replace Human Judgement,” says LA County Judge
One judge who spoke to CalMatters on condition of anonymity due to judicial rules of conduct was alarmed when their colleagues at a recent luncheon said the technology could be used one day to evaluate appeals from people who believe their conviction or sentence was tainted by racial bias.
“I think it is outrageous,” said the Los Angeles County Superior Court judge. “AI cannot and never will be able to replace human judgment in evaluating complex social dynamics. Ultimately, that will erode the public’s confidence in the competence and fairness of the judiciary.”
Superior courts in Los Angeles and Riverside Counties are testing an AI tool called Learned Hand that can draft court orders and produce research memos. Shlomo Klapper, the founder of the company says the tool will help understaffed courts cut down on big case backlogs. But the contract between LA County’s Superior Court and Learned Hand also includes a roadmap to test the tool’s use in criminal cases. And emails between the company and Riverside County raise similar possibilities.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman says, “When you’re dealing with someone’s liberty — as opposed to in the civil setting, which is everything other than liberty — the stakes couldn’t be higher.”
Officials from LA. County courts said decisions about using AI in criminal cases are months or years away, and Riverside court officials said they’re only “kicking the tires on the product.”
