Here are the morning’s top stories on Monday, June 16, 2025…

2,000 cities across the country participated in Saturday’s No Kings protest. Organizers say five million people took to the streets. That included cities up and down the state of California.
If you’re arrested and charged with a crime, you have a right to an attorney to defend you in court. But what about an investigator to collect evidence to help tell your side of the story? New reporting from our partner CalMatters has found that people accused of crimes in California are routinely convicted without an investigation to verify or debunk the accusations against them.

‘No Kings’ Protests Draw Thousands Across The State

Thousands of people flooded streets across California Saturday as part of a national day of action against President Donald Trump and his administration’s policies.

The protests coincided with a military parade in Washington D.C. and President Trump’s 79th birthday.

From across the state, the president’s policies were top of mind for protesters. Michelle Espinoza, a San Francisco resident, is a daughter of immigrants from Mexico. She said she was at the protests to show her support for her friends and family and those who were not able to join out of fear. “It does make me feel better to see that there’s all of these people who are coming to support, not just the Latino community but all people affected by this administration,” Espinoza said. “It brings a kind of hope.” John Perez, a former farmworker, was clear on why he came out to the protest in Los Angeles. “Donald Trump cannot claim power that our Constitution does not give him,” he said. “For the military to be turned on its own people, is just totally against everything this country stands for. We’re the civilians, they are under our orders. He is breaking all the protocols of how civilian deployment should be happening in this country.”

California Is Failing To Provide A Vital Safeguard Against Wrongful Convictions

A CalMatters investigation has found that poor people accused of crimes, who account for at least 80% of criminal defendants, are routinely convicted in California without anyone investigating the charges against them.

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Close to half of California’s 58 counties do not employ any full-time public defense investigators. Among the remaining counties, defendants’ access to investigators fluctuates wildly, but it’s almost always inadequate.

The cost of this failure is steep, for individual defendants and for the integrity of California’s criminal justice system. Defense investigators interview witnesses, visit crime scenes, review police reports and retrieve video surveillance footage that might prove the defendant was on the other side of town when a crime was committed, or that an assault was an act of self-defense. They do work that most lawyers are not trained to do. Without them, police and prosecutorial misconduct — among the most common causes of wrongful convictions — remain unchecked, significantly increasing the likelihood that people will go to prison for crimes they did not commit.

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Thousands Protest The Trump Administration Across California