A surge of applicants vying for a chance to be chosen for a voucher worth up to 2,000 for the California E-Bike Incentive Program triggered an error in the program's website, blocking everyone from applying. Officials say they've fixed the glitch for the next round of applications next week. The California E-Bike Incentive Program, launched by the California Air Resources Board, was established to help lower cost barriers to alternative methods of transportation such as e-bikes, with the goal of getting cars off the road and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Eligible residents must be 18 years or older with an annual household income less than 300% of the Federal Poverty Level. The vouchers can be used toward the purchase of an electric bike.

As soon as Echo Park Eats opened on the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Douglas Street in the fall of 2023, Sandy Romero said her neighborhood became overrun with delivery drivers. "The first day that they opened business it was chaotic, unorganized and it's just such a nuisance now," she said. Echo Park Eats is a ghost kitchen, a meal preparation hub for app-based delivery orders. It rents its kitchens to 26 different food vendors. The facility is part of CloudKitchens, led by Travis Kalanick, co-founder of Uber Technologies, which has kitchen locations across the nation including 11 in Los Angeles County.

There is a little shuttle bus in the Inland Empire that's fueled with big aspirations. It's electric, tops out at 25 mph, and can only go on a pre-designated route set up by the Riverside Transit Agency. But here's a catch -- it also drives itself. As of Monday, commuters in Riverside are the first in the country to ride a fully self-driving, publicly accessible bus that is deployed by a city transit agency. "I like to say I have no lesser ambition than to be the new Detroit for vehicle manufacturing," Riverside Mayor Lock Dawson said.

Waymo, the autonomous ride-hailing company that launched its services in Los Angeles late last year, is recalling more than 1,200 vehicles due to a software defect, the National Highway Traffic Safety Assn. said Wednesday. The recall comes after a series of minor crashes with gates, chains and other obstacles in the road that did not result in any injuries, the Mountain View, Calif.-based company said in a filing with the NHTSA. The recall applies to 1,212 driverless vehicles operating on Waymo's fifth-generation automated driving software. Waymo released a software update to resolve the issue, and that update has already been rolled out in all affected vehicles, the recall notice said. The company operates more than 1,500 vehicles across Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix and Austin.

When survivors from January's wildfires in Los Angeles County apply to rebuild their homes, their first interaction might be with a robot. Artificial intelligence will aid city and county building officials in reviewing permit requests, an effort to speed up a process already being criticized as too slow. "The current pace of issuing permits locally is not meeting the magnitude of the challenge we face," Gov. Gavin Newsom said when announcing the AI deal in late April. Some 13,000 homes were lost or severely damaged in the Eaton and Palisades fires, and many families are eager to return as fast as they can. Just eight days after the fire began and while it was still burning, the city received its first home rebuilding application in Pacific Palisades.

In the largest gathering of 2026 gubernatorial candidates to date, seven Democrats vying to lead California courted labor leaders on Monday, vowing to support pro-union agreements on housing and infrastructure projects, regulation of artificial intelligence, and government funding for university research. Throughout most of the hourlong event, the hundreds of union members inside the Sacramento hotel ballroom embraced the pro-labor pledges and speeches that dominated the candidates' remarks, though some boos rose from the crowd when former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa strayed from the other Democrats on stage. Villaraigosa was the only candidate to raise objections when asked if he would support providing state unemployment benefits to striking workers, saying it would depend on the nature and length of the labor action. Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2023 vetoed a bill that would have provided that coverage, saying it would make the state's unemployment trust fund "vulnerable to insolvency." The Monday night event was part of a legislative conference held by the California Federation of Labor Unions and the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California, two of the most influential labor organizations in the state capital.

The California Highway Patrol is deploying new patrol vehicles in hopes of cracking down on what the agency called "video game-styled" driving. The vehicles, 100 Dodge Durangos, will be paired with a fleet of Dodge Chargers and Ford Explorers to "observe the most reckless and dangerous behaviors without immediate detection," according to a CHP news release. "The new vehicles give our officers an important advantage," CHP Commissioner Sean Duryee said in a statement. "They will allow us to identify and stop drivers who are putting others at risk, while still showing a professional and visible presence once enforcement action is needed." The vehicles will be placed in various regions across the state starting this week.

The California State Bar's botched roll out of a new exam -- a move that the cash-strapped agency made in the hopes of saving money -- could ultimately end up costing it an additional 5.6 million. Leah T. Wilson, executive director of the State Bar, told state lawmakers at a Senate Judiciary hearing Tuesday that the agency expects to pay around 3 million to offer free exams to test takers, an additional 2 million to book in-person testing sites in July, and 620,000 to return the test to its traditional system of multiple-choice questions in July. Wilson, who announced last week she will step down when her term ends this summer, revealed the costs during a 90-minute hearing called by Sen. Thomas J. Umberg (D-Orange), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to find out what went so "spectacularly wrong." Chaos ensued in February when thousands of test takers seeking to practice law in California sat for the new exam. Some reported they couldn't log into the exam because online testing platforms repeatedly crashed.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent kicked off Michael Milken's annual financial bash in Beverly Hills by doubling down on President Trump's economic policy of trade reform, tax cuts and deregulation -- promising the "America First" agenda would be "the blueprint for a more abundant world." The former hedge fund manager, in a brief speech Monday that opened the Milken Institute Global Conference, said that all three elements of the policy must be taken together in order to be understood. "They are interlocking parts of an engine designed to drive long-term investment in the American economy," he said, in remarks at the Beverly Hilton. "Tariffs are engineered to encourage companies like yours to invest directly in the United States. Hire your workers here, build your factories here, make your products here. You'll be glad you did, not only because we have the most productive work force in the world, but because we will soon have the most favorable tax and regulatory environment as well," he said.

The State Bar of California announced Friday that its embattled leader, who has faced growing pressure to resign over the botched February roll out of a new bar exam, will step down in July. Leah T. Wilson, the agency's executive director, informed the Board of Trustees she will not seek another term in the position she has held on and off since 2017. She also apologized for her role in the February bar exam chaos. "Accountability is a bedrock principle for any leader," Wilson said in a statement. "At the end of the day, I am responsible for everything that occurs within the organization. Despite our best intentions, the experiences of applicants for the February Bar Exam simply were unacceptable, and I fully recognize the frustration and stress this experience caused. While there are no words to assuage those emotions, I do sincerely apologize."