California voters extend two key races; US and Iran exchange heavy strikes

An upset in Iowa, a runoff in Los Angeles, and California's race for governor is too close to call

The biggest winners and losers from primary night. Plus, a private staff meeting turns into a public mess at CBS News

Why Scott Pelley is gone and what he said on his way out the door

And the plug is pulled on that controversial anti-weaponization fund. The Justice Department now confirms the $1.8 billion program is dead

The stories that matter, clear and credible from across the country to around the world

These are your unbiased updates from Straight Arrow. Good morning, I'm Craig DeGrelly

This morning, the picture is getting a bit clearer after Tuesday's primaries across the country

starting in California, where Los Angeles appears headed for a high-profile mayoral runoff

Incumbent Mayor Karen Bass is on track to advance to November after falling short of the 50% needed to win outright

And with ballots still being counted, former reality TV star Spencer Pratt appears to have the inside track for the second spot

holding a lead over city council member Nithya Rahman. Bass is campaigning on experience and her efforts to rebuild Los Angeles after last year's wildfires

Pratt has positioned himself as a political outsider, promising change at City Hall

Los Angeles is the creative capital of the world where we dream and we make our dreams come true

Where our industry was leaving, but we're bringing it back. We're bringing it back

Ever now, I feel very confident that I'm going to continue to work hard, learn everything I need to learn

build my teams, show all the experience I'm going to surround myself with

That's a concern. I'm going to build that experience around. We have five months still

Best team the city could ever dream of around. The California governor's race is still too close to call

Republican Steve Hilton holds a narrow lead in early returns, with former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra close behind

If those standings hold, both men would advance to November under California's top two primary system

Billionaire Tom Steyer remains in contention as counting continues. Change is coming to California

Change is coming to California, and it's long overdue. I want to just say something from my heart to every single person who voted for me We not we not there yet but it looking good And while I take nothing for granted there are lots of ballots left to be counted

It appears that we are on track to advance to November. One step closer, one step closer to the son of those hardworking immigrants

Maria and Manuel Becerra, becoming the next governor of the great state of California

We're going to wait till every ballot is counted. We're going to give democracy a time to work

And we know we've finished really strong. In Iowa, one of the biggest surprises of the night came in the Republican race for governor

Trump-backed Congressman Randy Feenstra lost to farmer and businessman Zach Lon by about one

percentage point, a margin of roughly 2,000 votes. Feenstra has conceded, and Lon will now face

Democratic State Auditor Rob Sand in November. In Iowa's open U.S. Senate race, Republican

Congresswoman Ashley Hinson won the GOP nomination and will face Democrat Josh Turek in November

And the U.S. Supreme Court is allowing Alabama to use its current congressional map while legal

challenges continue. A lower court recently found the map discriminated against black voters

The Supreme Court's order means it will remain in place for now

The ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran is under new strain this morning

after both sides exchanged some of their most significant strikes overnight since the truce took hold

The escalation began when the U.S. said it used a Hellfire missile to disable an oil tanker headed for Iran

Iran responded by launching missiles toward Kuwait and Bahrain, accusing both countries of bearing what it called direct and clear responsibility for U.S. attacks

by allowing American forces to operate from their territory. Kuwait says its international airport sustained significant damage in the strike

Bahrain says it intercepted multiple missiles and drones before they could reach their targets

Meanwhile, the U.S. carried out additional strikes on Keshem Island, targeting a drone command site and communications infrastructure that officials say Iran uses to coordinate unmanned aircraft operations

The turmoil at 60 Minutes is growing this morning. Just days after a major leadership shakeup, veteran correspondent Scott Pelley is out

fired by CBS News following a heated confrontation with the show's new boss

According to multiple reports, Pelley used a staff meeting Monday to blast CBS News leadership

including editor Barry Weiss accusing her of quote murdering 60 Minutes and questioning the qualifications of new executive producer Nick Bilton Less than 24 hours later Bilton hit back In a termination letter he accused Pelley of

hijacking his first staff meeting and publicly disparaging him with what he called remarkable

incivility and contempt. Pelley responded with a statement of his own, taking aim at Weiss and

the network's management, quote, the leadership of 60 Minutes is no longer recognizable. The

principles I hold dear are gone, and so I must leave as well. The firing comes less than a week

after CBS removed correspondents Sharon Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega, along with several senior

producers, as part of a broader overhaul of the network's flagship news magazine. Anchor Anderson

Cooper announced in February that he too is leaving the show. The changes have sparked a

growing debate inside CBS over the future of 60 Minutes under new ownership. Last year, Paramount's

Skydance leadership hired Weiss and acquired her media company, the Free Press, as part of its

effort to remake CBS News. We've been following this story for weeks and now the Trump administration

has confirmed the controversial $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund is dead. Acting Attorney

General Todd Blanche told lawmakers Tuesday the Justice Department is abandoning the program

altogether. The fund was a product of President Trump's settlement with the IRS over the leak of

his tax returns and was supposed to compensate people who claimed they had been targeted by

government abuse or political prosecution during the Biden administration. But Democrats blasted it

as a taxpayer-funded payout for Trump allies, critics saying it could end up sending money

to people convicted in connection with the January 6th Capitol attack. Here's Blanche on Tuesday

We are not moving forward with the fund, period. The reasons for the fund is something that

President Trump talked about for a long time, which is the fact that there were a lot of people

in this country who had their government weaponized against them. The reasons for the fund, I think

were, remain as important as they were before, but we are not moving forward with the fund

Not moving forward ever? Correct. Oh. The Justice Department had already paused work on the fund after a federal judge

temporarily blocked it last week. But Republican senators wanted something more permanent

fearing the issue could derail a broader GOP push to approve billions of dollars for immigration enforcement and border security

President Trump has long argued the government should stay out of the way of artificial intelligence

Now his administration is asking some of the most powerful AI companies to give Washington an early look at their newest models

Trump signed a new executive order Tuesday that would ask companies developing the most advanced AI systems to voluntarily give the government access to those models up to 30 days before they released

The order says advanced AI makes the country stronger, but also creates new national security risks

The White House says the goal is to spot cybersecurity threats before powerful new systems reach the public

The move follows growing concerns the next-generation AI tools could help bad actors find software vulnerabilities or launch more sophisticated cyberattacks

Trump scrapped an earlier version of the order last month, saying he didn't want to slow America's AI race with China

The final version cuts the review period from 90 days to 30 and makes clear the program is voluntary

The order also creates a new AI cybersecurity clearinghouse to help identify digital threats

before they spread. Finally this morning, less than a week after a dramatic and fiery explosion

Blue Origin says it's already on track to get its new Glenn rocket back into space

The company's CEO says damage to the launch complex 36 wasn't nearly as bad as first thought

and the company now expects to fly its new Glenn rocket again before the end of the year

In what he described as a stroke of good luck, most of the pad's key structures survived the

blast. Even the damaged support tower can be repaired on site instead of being demolished

and rebuilt. The rocket that exploded last Thursday is a total loss, but a second New

Glenn vehicle stored inside the nearby integration facility escaped damage and is available for a

future flight. Investigators are still trying to determine what caused the explosion. The New

Glenn program is expected to play a major role in NASA's long-term moon plans. NASA Administrator

Jared Isaacman said earlier this week, he remains optimistic the U.S. can return astronauts

to the lunar surface by 2028. And we are all looking forward to that. A busy day on Capitol

Hill and in the courts. Here's what we're tracking. In Kentucky, supporters of Muhammad Ali marked 10

years since his death with a new day of compassion. At 10, Secretary of State Marco Rubio faces lawmakers

on the State Department budget. Also this morning, House Democrats and Republicans

hold dueling leadership briefings after their closed-door meetings. And later, a federal judge weighs whether to throw out the conviction

of a Wisconsin judge accused of helping an immigrant avoid federal agents

No noise, no sides. NewsGuard gives us a perfect score for reliability

All sides gives us a center rating with balanced certification. We give you facts first, the news straight

Those who run biased updates for this Wednesday, we'll see you back here tomorrow. For all of us here at Straight Arrow, I'm Craig DeGrelli

Have a great day.