Trump’s Medicaid work mandate could kick thousands of homeless Californians off coverage
CALMATTERS, KRISTEN HWANG: "On a brisk January morning, physician assistant Brett Feldman searched the streets of Los Angeles for patients, knocking on car windows and peering into tents. It was the day after a winter storm had doused the city, and many of the unhoused people Feldman usually treats had moved to find somewhere dry.
Feldman leads the street medicine team at the USC Keck School of Medicine, providing primary care to thousands of L.A.’s homeless individuals. Many have chronic conditions, mental health disorders, wounds or other medical issues; they need health care desperately."
California’s next insurance commissioner will have ‘brutal’ balancing act
CALMATTERS, LEVI SUMAGAYSAY: "In November, Californians will vote for “the second-hardest job in the state behind the governor.”
That’s according to someone who has held the job twice: John Garamendi, who was the state’s first elected insurance commissioner in the 1990s and served again in the early 2000s. Garamendi, now a U.S. congressman, said the commissioner job is “complex, hard, detailed work.”"
Ticketmaster in the crosshairs again over California legislation
CAPITOL WEEKLY, BRIAN JOSEPH: "Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation are once again neck deep in state legislation they contend would protect consumers but which critics say is really aimed at furthering their monopoly over live event ticketing in California and the United States.
In late January, the Assembly passed AB 1349 by Assemblymember Isaac Bryan (D-Ladera Heights) to ban resellers from listing tickets they don’t actually have, a practice known as speculative ticketing. A week later, in early February, Assemblymember Matt Haney (D-San Francisco), introduced AB 1720, a spot bill intended to cap the resale price of concert tickets at no more than 10 percent above their face value, including fees."
Ranking California high schools: These public schools outperform on UC admissions
CHRONICLE, HANNA ZAKHARENKO: "One common yardstick for a California high school is how well it helps students gain admission to the most selective University of California campuses. But judging schools by raw admission rates alone can be misleading. Schools that enroll larger shares of students from high-income families and fewer students with disabilities, for example, tend to send more students to UC campuses regardless of school quality.
So the Chronicle’s new ranking asks a more nuanced question: How many more students receive UC admissions than would be expected given a school’s demographics?"
How college students can earn $10,000 for making a difference in CA communities
CALMATTERS, BRITTANY OCEGUERA: "For college students seeking a job that fits around their academic schedules, and the opportunity to do meaningful work in their communities, a popular state program offers both.
Since it launched in 2022, the state program known as College Corps has been paying college students for community service work. And it has become so popular that only 30% of students who apply get a position."
This hip L.A. neighborhood is installing emergency sirens to warn of ICE raids
LAT, SALVADOR HERNANDEZ: "Communities have used loud sirens to warn people about approaching storms, tsunamis and tornadoes, but now some activists in Los Angeles are using sirens to warn about immigration agents.
Since President Trump took office, Los Angeles communities have seen a stark increase in the number of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations, targeting business districts and neighborhoods, and some community groups have responded by looking for ways to alert residents."
Who pays for AI’s power? California watchdog urges new data center rules
CALMATTERS, ALEJANDRO LAZO: "If you’re worried about data centers and AI inflating your electricity bill, you’re not alone.
A California watchdog released a report Tuesday urging policymakers to act fast on the state’s fast-growing data-center industry – before soaring electricity demand from artificial intelligence lands on the bills of ordinary households."
How our AI bots are ignoring their programming and giving hackers superpowers
LAT, NILESH CHRISTOPHER: "Welcome to the age of AI hacking, in which the right prompts make amateurs into master hackers.
A group of cybercriminals recently used off-the-shelf artificial intelligence chatbots to steal data on nearly 200 million taxpayers. The bots provided the code and ready-to-execute plans to bypass firewalls."
An inside-slider pattern is reshaping California weather. Here’s what to expect
CHRONICLE, GREG PORTER: "’Tis the season for inside sliders, and not just because the World Baseball Classic is upon us. A long-awaited weather change has finally come to California. An inconspicuous cold front swept through the Bay Area on Wednesday, ushering in sunshine, gusty winds and promises of a weekend warmup with temperatures easily rising into the 70s region-wide.
The atmospheric reconfiguration will also help to generate a low pressure system that is cut off from the normal jet stream flow, unofficially called an “inside slider,” so named for its trajectory which takes it down the spine of central California before moving west towards the coast."
California grocery store wine scheme: Executives at top distributor charged with bribery
CHRONICLE, ALDO TOLEDO: "Executives at the nation’s largest alcohol distributor, Southern Glazer’s, engineered a sprawling multiyear bribery scheme to control which wines were offered on the shelves of hundreds of supermarkets across California, according to a federal indictment made public Wednesday.
A federal grand jury this week in Oakland indicted five high-level Southern Glazer’s employees and one Napa-based wine supplier, alleging they participated in a bribery scheme over about eight years to secure product placement at Albertsons-owned stores and later falsified records to evade authorities."
Solar energy for renters has taken off in 10 states. Not in California
LAT, BLANCA BLEGERT: "The tiny town of West Goshen, Calif., was exactly the kind of place that community solar was designed for.
Near Visalia, most of its 500 residents live in mobile homes, where companies won’t install rooftop panels without a solid foundation. And until recently, they used propane for heating and cooking, with price fluctuations in the winter posing hardships for low-income families."
Why California cops and firefighters are pushing for a new perk on top of their pensions
CALMATTERS, ADAM ASHTON: "A full career as a California Highway Patrol officer or a Cal Fire firefighter often ends with a six-figure pension that provides a comfortable retirement after countless hours spent in harm’s way.
This year, the unions that represent CHP officers and state firefighters are seeking a different end-of-career incentive: The opportunity to accumulate one big check in addition to that annual pension."
A BART police officer made a bigoted AI deepfake about a Sikh colleague. What happens next?
CHRONICLE, SUSIE NEILSON/DEMIAN BULWA: "In a brief video that circulated over the holidays among officers of the BART police force, the department’s chief pins a badge on a beaming young officer wearing the turban of his Sikh faith. Ominous music plays in the background, and it soon becomes clear why: The chief removes the turban, turns it over and discovers a semiautomatic pistol inside. The newly hired officer is no longer smiling.
In those six seconds, it’s not immediately clear that the video — which depicts a real BART officer and the actual BART chief, Kevin Franklin — is a fake made with generative AI."
