For some years, supporters of California’s secession from the United States have been trying to qualify an initiative, which would ask “Should California leave the U.S. and become a free and independent country?”. On October 15 the Secretary of State cleared the way for the group to obtain the necessary 546,651 signatures. The time period is six months.

The group had started an earlier attempt in January 2025 and had obtained over 200,000 signatures before giving up.

The group’s website is here.

As of October 15, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson still has not sworn in Adelita Grijalva, who was elected to the U.S. House from Arizona’s 7th District on September 23. The Secretary of State of Arizona certified the election returns on October 15. Johnson says he won’t swear her in because the House is not in session. However, earlier this year he sworn in three newly-elected members while the House was not in session.

The Attorney General of Arizona is preparing a lawsuit against the Speaker.

In less than a month, Missouri opponents of U.S. House redistricting have collected half the signatures they need to force a referendum on the bill that changes the districts. The campaign has until December to finish the petition. The effort has 3,100 volunteer petitioners. Assuming enough signatures are collected, the new law can’t go into effect until after the voters vote on the bill. Therefore, the bill would not be in effect for the 2026 election, and the old district boundaries would be used.