Here are the morning’s top stories on Friday, March 27, 2026

It will soon be a month since the start of the U.S.-Israel war with Iran. In response to U. S. military action, the Iranian regime has restricted which trade ships can pass through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical passageway not only for oil moving from the Middle East to North America, but also for fertilizer, the fertilizer American farmers need to start growing crops. The agricultural industry has started to ring the alarm about the potential impacts the crisis at Hormuz could have on food prices.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is set to pay nearly $2 million to settle a lawsuit over a violent incident at a women’s prison in Chowchilla.
Shasta County voters will see a proposal to change their election system on the June primary ballot. Among other things, Measure B would require residents to present photo ID when voting in person, and limit who can cast an absentee ballot.

War with Iran disrupts fertilizer exports as U.S. farmers prepare for planting season

Farmers around the world are feeling the squeeze of the Iran war. Gas prices have shot up and fertilizer supplies are waning due to Tehran’s near shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for U.S. and Israeli bombing.

The fertilizer shortage is putting the livelihood of farmers in developing countries — already troubled by rising temperatures and erratic weather systems — further at risk, and could lead to people everywhere paying more for food.

In California, things are a bit different. Daniel Sumner is a professor at U.C. Davis in the Department of Agricultural and Research Economics. He’s also the former Assistant Secretary for Economics at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “Farmers don’t get up in the morning and say, holy smoke, I better buy some fertilizer. They will have contracted and actually purchased and taken delivery of fertilizer in the middle of the winter,” he said. “Much of what we’re talking about with fertilizer will be decisions that people are making months, maybe six months from now, many of them for the 2027 planting decision.”

So while fertilizer supply and prices is not quite as important in California, there are other issues at play that are proving to be a challenge. “The most important thing I would say from this war for consumers and for farmers in the sense of demand for food is a potential recession,” Sumner said. “Because of higher prices for gasoline that hits everybody’s budget, people say, gee, I love strawberries, but they’re off the budget here for a month or two. So those kind of demand hits hitting consumers directly and farmers indirectly are crucially important.”

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Iran is seriously limiting shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow passage that usually handles about a fifth of the world’s oil shipments and nearly a third of global fertilizer trade. Nitrogen and phosphate — two major fertilizer nutrients — are under immediate threat from the blockade.

California agrees to $1.9 million settlement in prison use-of-force case

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has agreed to pay $1.9 million to settle a lawsuit filed by 13 women who say correctional officers injured them during a mass use-of-force incident at the Central California Women’s Facility in 2024.

The plaintiffs say they suffered seizures, respiratory distress and long-term vision problems after officers used batons, physical force and chemical agents on them. “I couldn’t breathe. My lungs were on fire … I thought I was going to die,” plaintiff Wisdom Muhammad said in a recent interview at her home in Los Angeles.

The women received settlements ranging from $200,000 to $50,000 each, based on the severity of their injuries, according to their attorney Robert Chalfant. “Sexual abuse of inmates, excessive force, cruel and unusual punishment, retaliation, those things need to stop,” Chalfant said. “And the only way those things stop is through lawsuits and forcing the payment of large amounts of money so that people take notice of what’s happening.”

In an email, CDCR spokesperson Mary Xjimenez said the agency has reviewed the incident and has taken corrective action. More than 41 staff members were found to have violated policy, making it one of the largest disciplinary actions issued against CDCR staff in a single incident, according to CDCR. Punishment ranged from transfers to termination, CDCR said, but the department has not yet responded to a public records request for disciplinary documents related to the incident.

The Aug. 2, 2024, incident began when officers removed more than 150 women from their cells and locked them in the dining hall while staff conducted a large-scale search of their cells. As temperatures in the Chowchilla facility climbed to more than 100 degrees and time wore on, the women began to ask for water, food and medication. Prison officials have said that the incarcerated population “became disruptive.” Officers used physical force, batons and chemical agents to “stop the incident,” according to a review from the Office of the Inspector General.

The complaint claims the women were complying with the officers’ orders and that the force was excessive and unnecessary. It also alleges that some women were denied or delayed medical care after being injured, leaving them with lasting physical and psychological harm. A total of 109 incarcerated persons were medically evaluated, CDCR said, and three were transported to an outside medical facility for a short time. In the wake of the incident, CDCR also said it made mental health staff and resources available to those affected.

Judge allows Shasta County election reform measure on ballot

Shasta County voters will weigh a proposal to overhaul the county’s election system on the June primary ballot after a judge declined to block the measure.

Local resident Jennifer Katske filed a lawsuit seeking to keep the measure off the ballot, arguing several provisions would violate state and federal laws.

The proposed charter amendment would make sweeping changes to how elections are conducted, including requiring voter identification at polling places, mandating hand counts of ballots and banning universal vote-by-mail. Following a hearing Wednesday, Shasta County Superior Court Judge Benjamin Hanna ruled that Katske’s petition was invalid because it could not point to a specific law that requires a county clerk to pull a ballot measure based on its substance.

Hanna did not rule on whether the measure itself is legal. Instead, he said pre-election challenges are an extraordinary step and that any legal review would be more appropriate after voters weigh in. “That litigation would have the benefit of full and complete briefing and analysis without the severe time constraints that this case has involved,” Hanna said in his ruling.

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Ballots are scheduled to be mailed to voters in late April. The case unfolded on a compressed timeline because final ballots must be sent to the printer by April 2.

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