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  "description": "\"I’m not saying that anyone is lying, or that there is a series of mistakes. I am saying that we do not know,\" Bianco said.",
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  "publishedAt": "2026-03-22T14:00:16.000Z",
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    "Resistance state: Tracking California’s lawsuits against the new Trump administrationThis story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. Round 2 of California vs. Trump is well underway. President Donald Trump signed a flurry of executive orders moments after being inaugurated president, and many of them could directly affect California. These orders include revoking licenses for offshoreInland Empire Law WeeklyCalMatters Staff",
    "‘I was hooked’: California lawmakers target gambling addiction in youth",
    "Assembly Bill 2617 — the Protecting Our Kids from Gambling Addiction Act — proposes to...",
    "Newsom closed 5 California prisons. Why lawmakers might want to shut one more",
    "Gavin Newsom",
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    "\"If had to choose...\"",
    "This new California law will offer college students rehab before discipline for overdosing",
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    "wide-ranging stipulated judgment",
    "The Predators’ Playground",
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    "San Diego families file civil rights suit over cutoff of transgender care at children’s hospital",
    "“By singling out transgender patients...\"",
    "Sign up",
    "The Daily Cal reports",
    "Los Angeles Times reported",
    "Agents of Chaos: Border Patrol’s year of unchecked force",
    "Nashville journalist released on bond from ICE custody; a legal challenge to her arrest continues",
    "wrote in court filings earlier this week",
    "A legal challenge to Rodríguez’ March 4 arrest remains ongoing...",
    "Federal appeals court tosses Arizona GOP lawsuit seeking to purge 1.27 million voters",
    "sued Secretary of State Adrian Fontes",
    "Read it here",
    "Trump’s tariffs were ruled illegal. Where’s the refund of $166 billion — plus interest?",
    "\"I need the money back — if they're going to give it back.\"",
    "She was in labor at a Florida hospital. Then she was in Zoom court for refusing a C-section.",
    "Failing to agree to a C-section.",
    "US Supreme Court will hear case on end of legal protections for 350,000 Haitians",
    "The justices also declined to grant...",
    "Markwayne Mullin’s nomination to lead Homeland Security advances to US Senate floor",
    "But because Democratic Sen. John Fetterman...",
    "Federal judge temporarily blocks RFK Jr.’s vaccine agenda – an epidemiologist answers questions parents may have",
    "What exactly happened?",
    "Attacks on hospitals are surging in war zones. What do the laws of war say about protecting them?",
    "What the ‘laws of war’ say about protecting hospitals",
    "Information is a battlefield: 4 questions you can ask to judge the reliability of news reports and social posts about the US‑Iran war",
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  "textContent": "It's Sunday, March 22. Today's edition mostly breaks down the Riverside Sheriff's investigation into last year's election.\n\nWe now publish an audio edition! Our audio edition runs through the headlines we publish each week. You can find it on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.\n\nI went into journalism because I believe honest and accurate news are key to good governance, economy and quality of life. I don't take a salary, and all my money goes to production costs, document fees and freelance writers. I want to grow this newsroom into something that informs thousands of people all over the IE—but I need your help to get me there.\n\n\n                            Please subscribe\n                        \n\n* * *\n\n### Court to supervise Riverside Sheriff’s Prop 50 vote recount\n\nRiverside Sheriff Chad Bianco, center, with Assistant Sheriff Dave Lelevier to his left, on March 20.\n\nA judge ordered the Riverside County Sheriff's Office’s recount of the November election to be placed under the supervision of Riverside Superior Court on March 19.\n\nAt a March 20 press conference, Riverside Sheriff and governor candidate Chad Bianco denied any knowledge of election fraud occurring in the recent election, and said the recount is a fact-finding operation.\n\n\"I’m not saying that anyone is lying, or that there is a series of mistakes. I am saying that we do not know,\" Bianco said.\n\n### An ongoing investigation across 4 years\n\nThe Sheriff’s Office has been investigating Riverside’s elections since 2022, Bianco said. Through the investigation, the office has referred some allegations of election fraud to the District Attorney for prosecution. Bianco did not know how many cases were prosecuted, or whether the prosecutions resulted in convictions. The Riverside District Attorney’s Office is reviewing its records to determine the results of the referrals, and could not provide a report by the end of Friday.\n\nOn Feb. 9, the Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant and seized the ballots from the Nov. 4, 2025 election, in which California voters approved the partisan gerrymandering of Congressional districts. The Riverside Record first broke the news of the search warrant on Feb. 25.\n\n### The reason for the recount\n\nBianco said his office seized the ballots because of statements from a group of Riverside residents that call themselves the Riverside Election Integrity Team. The group said they conducted an audit of the vote. Under their count, 627,802 ballots had been delivered. Some were rejected, leading to 611,426 cast ballots. They compared that to the final tally, in which 657,322 ballots were reported by the Riverside Registrar of Voters. Their math came to a difference of 45,896.\n\nRiverside County Registrar of Voters Art Tinoco told the Riverside County Board of Supervisors on Feb. 10 that the group relied on unprocessed data and did not count confidential voters, conditional voter registration votes and provisional votes, the Riverside Record reported. The real discrepancy due to error was only 103 votes, Tinoco said.\n\n“If you add those numbers, you’re going to balance exactly like we did,” Tinoco said.\n\nThe Sheriff’s Office’s Media Information Bureau wrote by email that the Sheriff’s recount will include the count from those ballot types.\n\n### The point of the recount\n\nBianco said that the Sheriff’s Office’s recount is the best way to determine the truth.\n\n“Our investigation will determine the validity of that alleged discrepancy, and if found true, we will determine the cause. We will do that by physically counting the ballots,” Bianco said.\n\n“The investigation is going to determine what the discrepancy is. We don’t know what the discrepancy is. Is it human error? Is it machine error? Were the humans right in the number of ballots that came in, and the machines counted differently? It is impossible for us to know unless we do an investigation. The only way we know for sure is if we get a very accurate recount of the number of ballots and then compare that to what the voting machines tallied at the end and reported to the Secretary of State. What we want to see is the exact number. That would be ideal, if the exact ballots are exactly what the machines counted. That is what we would like to see, so we can assure Riverside County voters that their elections are completely secure. To be very honest with you, I don’t want to see a 50,000 difference,” Bianco said.\n\n### County response\n\nThe Registrar of Voters did not comment on Bianco’s comments. Riverside County Executive Officer Jeff Van Wagenen wrote a statement affirming the county’s commitment to following legal processes.\n\n“All five members of the Board of Supervisors and the Registrar of Voters are committed to safe, secure, accurate, and lawful elections in Riverside County. County election staff follow detailed procedures established by state and federal law to protect the integrity of the vote and to ensure that every eligible ballot is processed and counted in accordance with those legal requirements. The County and the Registrar of Voters will continue to comply with all lawful court orders and with all legal obligations applicable to election materials and election administration.”\n\n### Feb. 26: Attorney General Bonta questions affidavits\n\nIn a Feb. 26 letter to Bianco, California Attorney General Rob Bonta questioned two search warrants. One was issued Feb. 9, and the second Feb. 23. The affidavits underlying the search warrants contained no specific allegations of crime as required by law, and excluded information that would have informed the judges who signed the warrants, Bonta wrote. The California Department of Justice provided redacted copies of the letter to Inland Empire Law Weekly. The Sheriff’s Office provided unredacted copies to the Riverside Record, which the Record shared.\n\n“We (at the Office of the Attorney General) are concerned that the affidavits identify no specific felony offenses you have probable cause to believe were committed, nor do they identify particular persons whom you have probable cause to believe committed any such offenses, as required by Penal Code sections 1524(a)(4) and 1525. There also appear to be omissions of material facts in the affidavit that may have substantially interfered with the magistrate’s inference-drawing process,” Bonta wrote in a letter sent Feb. 26. The letter is available here.\n\n“In particular, your office did not apprise the magistrate that the Riverside County Registrar of Voters analyzed the key allegations underlying your investigation and reported to the Board of Supervisors at a public hearing on February 10, 2026 that the allegations are based on a misunderstanding of the relevant data.”\n\nThe letter asked Bianco to preserve all the ballots, and pause the investigation until Bonta’s office could review it. The letter also mentioned prior communication between the Department of Justice and the Sheriff’s Office.\n\n“We have tried unsuccessfully to work with you to understand the basis for this investigation. Today, Division of Law Enforcement Chief Stephen Woolery requested that you provide my office with copies of the affidavits supporting the probable cause determination for the subject warrants and briefly defer executing any warrants from the scheduled time of Friday, February 27, 2026 at 10 a.m. to March 6, 2026 so that we could better understand the basis for the search. We received the affidavits at 11:24 a.m. this morning. Instead of briefly delaying execution as Chief Woolery requested, however, we learned this afternoon that you accelerated your timeline and executed the warrants shortly after he made the request,” Bonta wrote.\n\n### March 4: Bonta tells Bianco not to recount ballots\n\nOn March 4, Bonta sent a follow up letter, saying he had not received a response from Bianco.\n\n“Earlier today, I learned that you intend to ignore my directives and plan to start counting the seized ballots tomorrow, March 5, 2026, using Sheriff’s Department staff members who are not trained and have no experience counting ballots. Let me be clear: this is unacceptable. Your decision to seize ballots and begin counting them based on vague, unsubstantiated allegations about irregularities in the November special election results sets a dangerous precedent and will only sow distrust in our elections. You are also flagrantly violating my directives, notwithstanding clear, express authority in the California Constitution and the Government Code giving the Attorney General ‘direct supervision’ over your office and authorizing me to ‘direct the activities of any sheriff relative to the investigation or detection of crime’ in the county,” Bonta wrote. The full letter is available here.\n\nBonta’s letter cited the California Constitution, Article V, Section 13, which says “The Attorney General shall have direct supervision over every district attorney and sheriff,” and Government Code Section 12560, which says “The Attorney General has direct supervision over the sheriffs.”\n\n### March 5: Bianco follows Bonta's direction\n\nOn March 5, Bianco responded to Bonta in an email obtained and shared by the Riverside Record.\n\n“This reply confirms I received last nights (sic) email. I can also confirm we are complying with the directive of the letter pending further communication with your office,” Bianco wrote. His email is available here.\n\n### March 6: Bianco asks for more information\n\nOn March 6, Bonta asked for all reports from investigator Robert Castellanos on the investigation, all reports from Sergeant James Merrill, the warrants and related affidavits from two earlier search warrants, correspondence between the Riverside Election Integrity Team and Castellanos, and all correspondence between the Sheriff’s Office and the Registrar of Voters that was described in Castellanos’ search warrant affidavits. He asked for the information by March 11. The full letter is available here.\n\n### Bianco challenges Bonta's supervision\n\nOn Friday, Bianco denied ever receiving offers to assist from Bonta.\n\n“At no time has AG Bonta offered assistance in determining the validity of the complaint, to quell concerns from the public or the task force. Additionally, neither AG Bonta nor our Secretary of State Shirley Weber ever showed concern or questioned a 45,000 vote discrepancy. Instead they expressed outrage and attempted intimidation to prevent this investigation from happening,” Bianco said.\n\nBianco said that Bonta was attempting to delay the investigation to better his political campaign.\n\n“The conversation that I had with them was extremely vague and aloof, and wanting me to do a favor and pause the investigation until March 6. Unfortunately, in what I’m doing outside of, as sheriff of Riverside County, I know that March 6 is the filing date for another Democrat to run against him in his next election for Attorney General,” Bianco said.\n\n### No conclusions yet\n\nBianco said he has reached no conclusions, and that a person should not believe everything they’re told without an investigation.\n\n“I’m not saying that anyone is lying, or that there is a series of mistakes. I am saying that we do not know. I am also saying that he (Tinoco) did not have a definitive answer of what happened. He gave his opinion of what he thought happened. What we all have to realize is that we’re investigators. Because someone tells you something, doesn’t mean you just, ‘oh, that person said he didn’t kill that person, so let’s move on and not investigate.’ It makes absolutely no sense to not continue an investigation, especially when both parties are so far apart,” Bianco said.\n\nIt is not clear whether Bonta or Bianco asked the judge to oversee the recount, or which judge is handling the case. The search warrants are sealed. The next step is for the court to designate someone to lead the recount.\n\nThe full press conference is available here.\n\nBonta’s letters are available here.\n\n* * *\n\n## Local events\n\n### Navigating Today's Immigration Landscape\n\nInland Counties Legal Services is hosting a virtual immigration education seminar on March 24, led by attorney Latoya Belle. Tickets are free, and available here.\n\n### San Bernardino Expungement clinic\n\nThe Inland Empire Legal Literacy Project, San Bernardino Public Defender's Office, and the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights are putting together a legal education and expungement clinic on March 27. Empowered Living Community Church will host the event, at 2377 N. Sierra Way, San Bernardino, 12:30-3 p.m.\n\n### Mock trial team start-up information to be shared at SB County session\n\nAttorneys and teachers who are interested in starting a high school mock trial team in San Bernardino County can attend a 30-minute informational session that starts at 4 p.m., April 23.\n\nAttorneys and teachers interested can sign up for the session informational session through the Google form here.\n\n### Community & Justice Academy\n\nSan Bernardino Superior Court is launching a six-week educational program to educate the community on judicial process and civic responsibilities. The program will be led by judges and subject-matter experts. Sessions will be held Thursdays 5-7 p.m. at the San Bernardino Justice Center, from April 23 until May 28. There are only 24 slots. Applications close April 5. Topics include bail, juvenile justice, mental health diversion, civil litigation and court funding. More information at the program website.\n\n### Appellate mediation program\n\nThe Riverside Court of Appeal is asking for attorneys to participate in its mediation program. The volunteers can be experienced in all areas of law, and can be retired, but must have ten years of legal experience. One hundred and sixty five attorneys over the years have participated in the 34-year-old program, but now only has 15 active mediators.\n\nMediations are scheduled to the convenience of the attorney, and can be remote. The program saves time for litigants as well as the Court of Appeals.\n\nInterested attorneys can call the Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District, Division Two, and ask for Jackie Hoar.\n\n### Free legal aid clinics\n\nInland Empire Latino Lawyers Associations hosts free legal aid clinics at the 838 Alta St, Redlands, the last Wednesday of every month. They also host clinics the first, second and fourth Monday of every month at Bordwell Park, 2008 Martin Luther King Blvd., Riverside. All clinics are held from 9 a.m.-1 p.m.\n\n### Riverside city council candidate forums\n\nThe Raincross Gazette is hosting three forums for Riverside city council candidates. The first is April 23. Dan Bernstein moderates. Information available here.\n\n* * *\n\n## Local news from local sources\n\nLawsuit Filed Over Ballot Access In Riverside County Board Of Supervisors Race // Riverside Record\n\nRedlands Superintendent addresses middle school gun incident // Community Forward Redlands\n\nRiverside Whistleblower Sues City Over Measure Z Ballot Language // Riverside Record\n\nRedlands police investigate armed salon robbery, stolen shipping containers // Community Forward Redlands\n\nNational Organization Files Petition To Reform Title IX On Behalf Of CBU’s Discontinued Men’s Athletic Teams // Riverside Record\n\n* * *\n\n## California news\n\nResistance state: Tracking California’s lawsuits against the new Trump administrationThis story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. Round 2 of California vs. Trump is well underway. President Donald Trump signed a flurry of executive orders moments after being inaugurated president, and many of them could directly affect California. These orders include revoking licenses for offshoreInland Empire Law WeeklyCalMatters Staff\n\n* * *\n\n### ‘I was hooked’: California lawmakers target gambling addiction in youth\n\nWhen Kim Freudenberg’s son, Kurt, started online gambling at age 11 — first through video game skins, then virtual betting sites — she had no idea it would cost him thousands of dollars and derail his college education.\n\nNow, California lawmakers are trying to stop similar cases with a new bill aimed at restricting online gambling access for minors in the state.\n\nAssembly Bill 2617 — the Protecting Our Kids from Gambling Addiction Act — proposes to...\n\n* * *\n\n### Newsom closed 5 California prisons. Why lawmakers might want to shut one more\n\nBy the time Gov. Gavin Newsom leaves office, California will have five fewer state prisons than when he came into power.\n\nSome California state lawmakers want to make it six.\n\nSen. Laura Richardson told California Corrections Secretary Jeffrey Macomber she would prefer to keep prisoners in tight quarters, such as double-person cells, if it meant saving money that could be used to help people in need.\n\n\"If had to choose...\"\n\n* * *\n\n### This new California law will offer college students rehab before discipline for overdosing\n\nCalifornia college students have two choices when they are experiencing an overdose: Ask for help and risk punishment from their university, or stay quiet and leave it up to fate.\n\nNow, starting in July, students who experience an overdose will have more protections and resources. Signed into law in October, Assembly Bill 602 requires all campuses in California’s public university systems – California State University and University of California – to offer students the opportunity to receive rehabilitation services for drug and alcohol use before taking disciplinary action against them.\n\nThe bill was drafted by a group of students from...\n\n* * *\n\n### State finds ‘systemic’ failures in how a California school district handles sex abuse allegations\n\nA Southern California school district agreed to sweeping reforms Friday in settling a state attorney general investigation into how it handled allegations staff sexually abused students.\n\nThe wide-ranging stipulated judgment with the El Monte Union High School District draws to a close an 18-month investigation, which found “systemic shortfalls in the district’s response to allegations and complaints of sexual harassment, assault, and abuse of students.” The investigation was spurred by a 2023 article in Business Insider, The Predators’ Playground, which documented decades of sexual misconduct by teachers, coaches and other staff at one of the district’s schools, Rosemead High, ranging from sexual harassment and groping to statutory rape.\n\n“Every child deserves to learn and grow in a safe and supportive school environment...\"\n\n* * *\n\n### San Diego families file civil rights suit over cutoff of transgender care at children’s hospital\n\nour San Diego-area families allege that Rady Children’s Health violated the civil rights of their transgender children by deciding to discontinue gender-affirming care, according to a class action lawsuit filed Thursday.\n\nThe complaint, filed in San Diego County Superior Court, accuses the regional health system of discriminating against transgender children in violation of multiple state laws. It claims the roughly 1,900 patients of Rady’s gender clinic suffered harm from canceled appointments, inability to access medications such as hormone therapy and emotional distress caused by the hospital’s decision.\n\n“By singling out transgender patients...\"\n\n* * *\n\n### UC Berkeley settles lawsuit, agrees to bar Zionist speaker restrictions\n\n _By Emma Gallegos, EdSource. This story was originally published by EdSource._ Sign up_for their daily newsletter._\n\nUC Berkeley has agreed to bar student groups from restricting Zionist speakers in order to settle a lawsuit by two Jewish groups. The university has also agreed to pay $1 million in legal fees.\n\nThe Brandeis Center claimed in the suit that UC Berkeley failed to respond to antisemitic harassment in the wake of pro-Palestinian protests in 2023, The Daily Cal reports.\n\nUC Berkeley also agreed to mandatory antisemitism and anti-discrimination training for students, faculty and staff, as well as conducting an annual campus student life survey that includes questions for Jewish and Israeli students.\n\n“This settlement reflects UC Berkeley’s long-standing values and objectives when it comes to combatting abhorrent antisemitic expression, harassment and discrimination when it occurs on the Berkeley campus,” said campus spokesperson Dan Mogulof, who also affirmed the campus’s practice of rejecting calls for boycotts and divestment from Israel.\n\nIn a message sent to the law school, Dean Erwin Chemerinsky said that students may “choose speakers based on their views” but cannot have bylaws that ban specific types of speakers, the Los Angeles Times reported.\n\n* * *\n\n## National news\n\n* * *\n\n### Agents of Chaos: Border Patrol’s year of unchecked force\n\nBorder Patrol agents have been roving from city to city over the last 15 months, far from their home bases in California and elsewhere along the U.S.-Mexico border, engaged in an unprecedented mass deportation campaign.\n\nA collaboration between CalMatters, Evident Media and Bellingcat has tracked these agents, documenting their tactics on the ground and through mountains of video footage, since their first proof-of-concept raid in Bakersfield in January 2025.\n\nIn this new film, we focus on the activity of five agents from the US-Mexico border whose identities we’ve been able to confirm.\n\nWatch the video here\n\n* * *\n\n### Nashville journalist released on bond from ICE custody; a legal challenge to her arrest continues\n\nNASHVILLE — Estefany Rodríguez, a Nashville journalist who reported on local immigration enforcement arrests before she herself was detained, was released Thursday from a Louisiana detention center, according to the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition, which is providing legal representation.\n\nRodríguez spent 16 days in detention, where she was subject to “inhumane and difficult treatment,” her attorneys wrote in court filings earlier this week.\n\nA legal challenge to Rodríguez’ March 4 arrest remains ongoing...\n\n* * *\n\n### Federal appeals court tosses Arizona GOP lawsuit seeking to purge 1.27 million voters\n\nARIZONA — A federal appeals court upheld a lower court’s ruling that tossed out a lawsuit by Arizona Republicans that accused the state of violating federal law and sought to purge up to 1.27 million voters from the rolls.\n\nIn 2024, then-Arizona Republican Party Chairwoman Gina Swoboda, who is now running for the nomination of her party for Secretary of State, along with Arizona Free Enterprise Club President Scot Mussi and unsuccessful 2018 Republican Secretary of State candidate Steve Gaynor sued Secretary of State Adrian Fontes and accused the state of violating the National Voter Registration Act.\n\nThe lawsuit claimed that Fontes failed to purge over a million ineligible and unaccounted for voters from the state’s registration rolls, costing the Arizona Republican Party time and resources on voter education and mobilization claims.\n\nHowever, a trial court judge concluded that they had no standing to sue. On Tuesday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed.\n\nRead it here\n\n* * *\n\n### Trump’s tariffs were ruled illegal. Where’s the refund of $166 billion — plus interest?\n\nWASHINGTON — Arizona coffee roaster Gabe Hagen is wondering if he’ll ever recoup the tens of thousands of dollars he paid in tariffs to import beans from the world’s major coffee-growing regions in South America, Africa and the Indo-Pacific.\n\nWeeks after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s emergency tariffs as illegal, Hagen is among an army of small business owners who are unsure if they’ll be made whole after a year of increasing costs and uncertainty.\n\n\"I need the money back — if they're going to give it back.\"\n\n* * *\n\n### She was in labor at a Florida hospital. Then she was in Zoom court for refusing a C-section.\n\nJACKSONVILLE, FL — It’s difficult to put yourself in the place of Cherise Doyley, a pregnant mother of three who found herself facing a judge while in labor at the University of Florida Health hospital in downtown Jacksonville.\n\nShe had arrived at the facility with a plan for her birth. She wanted to try for a vaginal delivery, but she understood from years of experience as a professional birthing doula that things don’t always go as planned.\n\nShe arrived overnight at the hospital after her water broke. Doctors told her they were concerned about the risk of uterine rupture, a potentially deadly complication for her and her baby. She understood the risk to be less than 2% and repeatedly told doctors she wouldn’t consent to a cesarean without trying to have a vaginal delivery first. The doctors appeared to relent, leaving her to labor for several more hours.\n\nThen a nursing supervisor wheeled a tablet up to her bed and informed her she was in court. The reason? Failing to agree to a C-section.\n\nFailing to agree to a C-section. \n\n* * *\n\n### US Supreme Court will hear case on end of legal protections for 350,000 Haitians\n\nWASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court Monday said it will hear oral arguments in April in two cases brought by immigrants hailing from Syria and Haiti after the Trump administration tried to end their temporary protections, initially granted because their countries had been deemed too dangerous for return.\n\nMonday’s order consolidates two cases, one brought on behalf of 6,000 Syrians with Temporary Protected Status and another from 350,000 Haitians.\n\nThe justices also declined to grant...\n\n* * *\n\n### Markwayne Mullin’s nomination to lead Homeland Security advances to US Senate floor\n\nWASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Thursday voted to move forward Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin’s nomination to lead the Department of Homeland Security.\n\nAfter the 8-7 vote, Mullin’s nomination will head to the Senate floor.\n\nThursday’s vote comes a day after Mullin, a Republican, appeared before the committee in a contentious nomination hearing in which the GOP chair, Sen. Rand Paul, questioned whether Mullin should lead the department given his “anger issues.”\n\nPaul, of Kentucky, voted against advancing Mullin’s nomination, the only Republican on the panel to oppose a fellow senator.\n\nBut because Democratic Sen. John Fetterman...\n\n* * *\n\n### Federal judge temporarily blocks RFK Jr.’s vaccine agenda – an epidemiologist answers questions parents may have\n\nPublic health advocates have largely applauded a Massachusetts judge’s ruling on March 16, 2026, to temporarily block major changes to vaccine policy made by the Department of Health and Human Services since 2025.\n\nThe ruling pauses two major actions ushered in by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. since he stepped into the role. First, it blocks Kennedy’s restructuring of a key vaccine panel called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices in June 2025. Second, it suspends HHS’s overhaul of the childhood vaccine schedule in January 2026, which cut the number of routine vaccinations children are recommended to receive from 17 to 11.\n\nAs an epidemiologist who studies vaccine hesitancy and a public-facing science communicator, I view these HHS actions as extremely damaging to public health, and I am relieved they have been paused, at least while legal proceedings are ongoing.\n\nWhat exactly happened?\n\n* * *\n\n### Attacks on hospitals are surging in war zones. What do the laws of war say about protecting them?\n\nAttacks on health-care facilities are surging worldwide.\n\nOn March 14, an Israeli airstrike hit a health-care facility in Lebanon, killing 12 doctors, nurses and paramedics. The strike brought the number of health-care workers killed in Lebanon in recent days to 31.\n\nSince early March, the World Health Organization (WHO) has verified 27 attacks on health-care facilities in Lebanon alone, as Israeli strikes in Lebanon and joint US–Israeli operations in Iran have intensified.\n\nThe Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the WHO condemned these attacks as violations of international law.\n\nSo, what laws protect medical facilities, staff and patients during conflict? And do they lose this protection if facilities are used to shelter combatants?\n\nWhat the ‘laws of war’ say about protecting hospitals\n\n* * *\n\n### Information is a battlefield: 4 questions you can ask to judge the reliability of news reports and social posts about the US‑Iran war\n\n_By Andrea Hickerson, University of Mississippi_\n\nIn times of conflict, information about military activity can be seen as another domain of conflict, much like air, land and sea. Countries, including Iran, have long tried to manipulate information to persuade or influence what people think outside the region.\n\nA preprint, not yet peer-reviewed study authored by academics affiliated with the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Air Force Academy describes increased government funding and attention to “cognitive warfare,” or efforts to influence what people think through strategic messaging.\n\nA common call to action from advocacy and educational groups in politicized situations where misinformation weighs heavy is to teach media literacy. Conventional wisdom holds that if people only knew how to read the news and look for bias, they would understand a situation more clearly.\n\nAs a journalism scholar and educator, I agree that media literacy is valuable. But it’s also time-consuming. It’s impractical to complete a full training or curriculum when faced with immediate current events. As an abbreviated measure to assess the current Middle East conflict, readers can start with the premise that information is contested and an extension of the battlefield.\n\nKey questions to ask\n\n* * *\n\n## In perspective\n\n* * *\n\n## The Declaration of Independence:\n\nInland Empire Law Weekly is analyzing each of the 27 reasons for independence as laid out in the Declaration of Independence. The 12th reason: \"He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.\"\n\nThe American colonists accepted the British soldiers during the French and Indian War, but once the United Kingdom Parliament passed the first Quartering Act in 1765, the colonists were finding themselves with thousands of troops to feed and house during a time of peace. Last week, we learned about their first opposition to the troops: they considered their imposition an unfunded mandate that messed up the colonies' budgets.\n\nTheir opposition, however, went a bit further. The importance of the military being under civilian control was a foundational aspect of British political philosophy.\n\nIn 1689, based on the ideas of philosopher John Locke, the United Kingdom Parliament passed the Bill of Rights. This bill was introduced after the overthrow of King James II, and during the ascension of King William of Orange. According to the Bill of Rights, King James attempted to subvert the laws of the United Kingdom by, among other actions, \"raising and keeping a standing army without consent of Parliament, and quartering soldiers contrary to law.\" The bill further prevented the raising or keeping of a standing army in time of peace, unless Parliament consented.\n\nIn Letters from a Pennsylvania Farmer, patriot John Dickinson wrote that no oppression would be more complete, miserable, or disgraceful than that of a people whose justice, government and army are all maintained at their expense, without having to answer to them.\n\n\"What then will be our chance, when the laws of life and death, are to be spoken by judges, totally dependant on that crown and kingdom—sent over, perhaps, from thence—filled with British prejudice—and backed by a standing army, supported out of our own pockets, to 'assert and maintain' our own 'dependance and obedience,' Dickinson asked.\n\n* * *\n\n## This day in history\n\nOn March 22, 1972, the Equal Rights Amendment passed the United States Congress, and was sent to the states for ratification. The ERA would have granted equal rights under the law on the basis of sex, but was never approved by states.\n\n> **Section 1.** Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.\n\nThirty-eight states need to ratify the ERA for it to pass, and thirty-eight states did—but three of them were done after a March 22, 1979 deadline. Nevada ratified in 2017, Illinois in 2018 and Virginia in 2020.\n\nThere is an ongoing legal question as to whether the 1979 deadline is Constitutional. If it is not Constitutional, then the ERA would become law. On Jan. 6, 2020, the Department of Justice issued an opinion that the deadline is still standing.\n\n\"We conclude that the ERA Resolution has expired and is no longer pending before the States,\" the opinion said.\n\nIn 2024, Sen. Denjamin Cardin (D-Maryland) brought a Senate Joint Resolution that would say the ERA is passed. It died.\n\nRead more from The 19th: Why the Equal Rights Amendment is still a work in progress, 100 years later.\n\n* * *\n\n## Reading\n\nEvery week, Inland Empire Law Weekly recommends a book. This week's selection, to tie in to this week's historical relevance, is Ordinary Equality: The Fearless Women and Queer People Who Shaped the U.S. Constitution and the Equal Rights Amendment.\n\n$27 from Simon & Schuster",
  "title": "No. 42: Court to oversee Riverside Sheriff's election recount",
  "updatedAt": "2026-03-23T23:02:08.403Z"
}