Here are the morning’s top stories on Thursday, April 9, 2026

1 in 3 Planned Parenthood patients in the United States receive care at clinics in California. But as the abortion-rights organization tries to manage after Congress cut its federal funding last year, one Planned Parenthood affiliate in California is diving into a new kind of service – cosmetics.
California’s Supreme Court has ordered Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco — a Republican candidate for governor — to halt his investigation into the 2025 election.
An attorney for the man shot by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Stanislaus County this week is disputing ICE’s characterization of his client.

Planned Parenthood affiliate looks beyond reproductive care

Planned Parenthood Mar Monte is the nation’s largest Planned Parenthood affiliate. It’s starting to offer a new set of aesthetic services, ranging from Botox to IV hydration after a night of drinking.

The shift comes as it faces financial uncertainty after the Trump administration stripped funding for the abortion-rights organization. “There’s uncertainty with HR1,” explains Dr. Laura Dalton. “There’s uncertainty about what other actions will be taken that will limit our ability for reimbursement. So there’s that revenue gap that needs to be addressed.”

Dr. Dalton is Chief Medical Operating Officer for the affiliate. She says patients pay for the new aesthetic offerings with cash, which will help the provider fill the funding gap as it navigates this new financial future. The affiliate’s had to close five clinics since the cuts and can’t collect Medicaid reimbursements anymore. Around 75% of their patients are on Medicaid.

California lawmakers allocated $90 million in state funding for the organization in this year’s budget, but it isn’t clear if that will cover costs for core services in the long run. “And then the second part is really about relevance and listening to our patients,” says Dalton. “And thinking about what are our patients saying they need, what do they want and it’s different than 10, 20, 30 years ago.”

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Dalton said they’re seeing more patients interested in aesthetic services, for cosmetic reasons sure, but also for things like migraines and gender affirming care.

California Supreme Court orders GOP sheriff to pause election probe and preserve seized ballots

The California Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered Riverside County’s Sheriff, who seized more than half a million 2025 election ballots, to pause his probe into election fraud allegations while the judges review the legal challenge against it.

The order came after California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, last month asked the court to step in, arguing Sheriff Chad Bianco has no authority over election materials. A voting rights group is also challenging the ballot seizure.

The dispute started earlier this year and escalated last month when Bianco, who is also running for governor, seized 1,000 boxes of election materials to investigate a complaint from a local citizens group about the ballot count from a November 2025 special election on redistricting. Local election officials told the county Board of Supervisors that the complaint was unfounded. After Bonta ordered Bianco to halt his probe, the sheriff seized another 426 boxes of ballots.

Bonta said the Wednesday order is essential to stop the sheriff’s probe. “What the Sheriff says and what he does are often two different things,” Bonta said in a statement. “Today’s decision by the California Supreme Court reins in the destabilizing actions of a rogue Sheriff, prohibiting him from continuing this investigation while our litigation continues.”

Attorney for man shot by ICE in California says his client did not try to run officers over

An attorney for a man shot by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during an arrest in central California said Wednesday that his client did not try to run over officers with his car and disputed claims that he has a warrant out for his arrest in El Salvador.

The Department of Homeland Security said ICE agents fired defensive shots at Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez after he tried to drive into them on Tuesday. DHS said they were conducting an enforcement stop targeting Mendoza, 36, in Patterson. Officials described him as a suspected gang member wanted in El Salvador for questioning in connection to a murder.

Attorney Patrick Kolasinski, who is representing Mendoza and his family, said during a news conference that his client has been stopped for minor traffic infractions but has no criminal record in the U.S. and is not the subject of an arrest warrant in El Salvador, where he was acquitted of murder. Kolasinski said he has found no evidence his client was part of any street gang but he added he has not had the chance to talk to him to confirm that. “If he was released after being acquitted, with no other holds on him, he cannot have a warrant,” Kolasinski said. “So that information must be either erroneous or completely made up. And only DHS knows what they’re looking at.”

According to a Oct. 25, 2019 court document from a judge in El Salvador, Mendoza, who was 29 at the time, was acquitted after being accused of murder and ordered immediately released. The document lists 10 others who were convicted of various crimes from aggravated robbery to murder, and mentions at least one of them was a member of the 18th Street Gang. But there is no mention of Mendoza belonging to a gang or being accused of carrying out gang activity in the document.

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