First Take: Independents on the fence. Brown gets assist from Obama.

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

-- Steve Lopez says independent voters still have not picked a candidate in the race for California governor.

-- Council members in Bell were paid thousands to sit on boards that rarely met.

-- Jerry Brown got a fund-raising assist from President Obama on Tuesday, and the flood of support crashed Brown’s campaign website.

-- The U.S. Secretary of Education is pushing for schools to release data that would help parents evaluate teachers.

-- Get the latest from California politics. Follow PolitiCal on Twitter.