Brown student suspected of killing 2 at university and fatally shooting MIT professor is found dead, AP source says
AP, KIMBERLEE KRUESI/ALANNA DURKIN RICHER/ERIC TUCKER: "A man who is suspected of killing two and wounding several others at Brown University was found dead Thursday in a New Hampshire storage facility, officials said.
Claudio Neves Valente, 48, a Brown student and Portuguese national, was found dead Thursday evening from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Col. Oscar Perez, the Providence police chief, said at a news conference."
Biden moved to reclassify marijuana. Now Trump’s taking it over the finish line
Chronicle, JOE GAROFOLI: "Finally, Donald Trump is potentially making America great when it comes to something close to California’s heart: weed.
At least that’s what advocates hope after Trump signed an executive order Thursday directing Attorney General Pam Bondi “in the most expeditious manner” to reclassify cannabis under the Schedule III category of the Controlled Substances Act, which would make it akin to codeine and anabolic steroids. It’s currently in the Schedule I category, equated with drugs such as heroin that have no known therapeutic value. Former President Joe Biden first ordered the herb rescheduled two years ago, but it stalled during the bureaucratic approval process."
California utilities will keep almost all profits as regulators ease up. They’re still upset
CALMatters, MALENA CAROLLO: "Regulators on Thursday approved a slight reduction to the profits shareholders are allowed to receive from California’s three major investor-owned utilities.
The decision dropped all three major investor-owned power companies’ returns by 0.3%, bringing the shareholder return for Pacific Gas & Electric to just below double digits for the first time in at least two decades. A decision proposed last month would have imposed a slightly larger profit cut of 0.35%."
READ MORE -- Edison neglected maintenance of its aging transmission lines before the Jan. 7 fires. Now it’s trying to catch up -- LAT, MELODY PETERSEN
What’s next for Medi-Cal? A former state health leader weighs in
CALMatters, ANA B. IBARRA: "As states figure out how to adjust to federal funding cuts, policy shifts, and major Medicaid shakeups, 2026 will be pivotal for California health officials and lawmakers.
Many Californians on Medicaid, better known here as Medi-Cal, already struggle to access timely and quality care. Now, experts warn that millions more could lose coverage under H.R.1, which makes sweeping changes to the country’s safety net programs."
Four S.F. immigration judges are retiring, deepening staffing crisis
LAT, BROOKE PARK: "Four immigration judges are retiring from San Francisco’s immigration court, further thinning the ranks of a system already stretched to the breaking point after the Trump administration fired 12 of the court’s 21 judges this year.
Only five judges will remain to handle cases in one of the nation’s busiest immigration courts, a skeletal staff almost certain to worsen an already towering case backlog as federal authorities push to move cases faster and fast track deportations in ways that advocates say can undermine immigrants' legal rights."
California’s minimum wage is increasing in 2026 as Los Angeles debates $30 an hour
CALMatters, CAYLA MIHALOVICH: "Californians will see the minimum wage increase to $16.90 per hour starting Jan. 1. The adjustment — a boost of 40 cents per hour — was calculated in August by the Department of Finance as part of its minimum wage annual review required by state law.
California has been raising its minimum wage over the past decade. Former Gov. Jerry Brown in 2016 signed a watershed law to increase minimum wage from $10.50 per hour to $15 per hour, plus annual adjustments for inflation."
In a divided America, Rob Reiner was a tenacious liberal who connected with conservatives
LAT. HAILEY BRANSON-POTTS/SEEMA MEHTA/MARK OLSEN: "In January 2018, conservative Fox News host Laura Ingraham was having dinner at Toscana, an Italian restaurant in Brentwood, when she spotted the renowned Hollywood director — and unabashed liberal — Rob Reiner.
She asked him to come on her show, “The Ingraham Angle.” He was on set the next day."
Mayor Lurie vowed to clean up S.F.’s troubled neighborhoods. How much has actually changed?
The Chronicle, LUCY HODGMAN/J.D. MORRIS: "Erika Slovikoski used to love “stoop-sitting” with friends in San Francisco’s Mission District, where she’s lived for the last three decades.
Sometime after the start of the pandemic, the party relocated from her front steps to her friend’s enclosed backyard to escape rising street refuse, open-air drug use and an encampment that has waxed and waned for years across the street."
How Sacramento can respond to changes in federal food policy (OP-ED)
Capitol Weekly, STACIA HILL LEVENFELD/BLAKE YOUNG: "California produces nearly half the nation’s fruits and vegetables. Yet this holiday season, more than one in five California households face food insecurity. Among households with children, it’s one in four.
California Association of Food Banks, representing 42 food banks and nearly 6,000 partner agencies, is deeply grateful to Governor Gavin Newsom and state legislators for ensuring that Californians can put food on the table this holiday season. But as the 2026-27 budget cycle approaches, there’s an unprecedented challenge before our state leaders: increasing food insecurity paired with declining federal funding."
The next Bay Area storm is on the way. This timeline shows when heaviest rain will hit
Chronicle, GREG PORTER: "The final weekend before Christmas is shaping up to be the Bay Area’s wettest weekend since November of last year, with San Francisco in line to receive somewhere between 1 and 3 inches of rain by Sunday night.
But the rain will not be steady, or even especially dramatic hour to hour. Rather than one burst of heavy rain, several rounds of light to moderate rainfall will arrive up from Friday through Monday."
Northern California arrest linked to deadly Esparto explosion that killed seven
Chronicle, BROOKE PARK: "Northern Californian authorities arrested a man last week in a sweeping investigation relating to the deadly fireworks explosion that killed seven over the summer.
Ronald Botelho III was arrested on Friday after authorities executed a search warrant stemming from a multi-agency investigation into the deadly July 1 fireworks explosion in Esparto, the Del Norte County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement."
This Bay Area city is having its highest number of earthquakes in nearly 50 years
Chronicle, JACK LEE: "San Ramon residents have been rattled by dozens of small earthquakes in the last two months. The pattern continued Thursday morning, with two small quakes — a 2.0 and a 2.4 — centered just southeast of City Center Bishop Ranch.
It’s been decades since the region experienced such high levels of seismic activity. In November, San Ramon experienced 19 earthquakes stronger than magnitude 2, more than any month since 1976. And December was even shakier, with 38 by Dec. 18."
California confronted its sexual abuse claims of the past. Will today’s students pay the price?
LAT, MATT HAMILTON: "Starting in 2020, survivors of childhood sex abuse in California were given a powerful tool to confront their abusers and the institutions that employed them.
Churches. Schools. Youth sports leagues. Boy Scouts. Foster care homes. Juvenile justice wards. Summer camps. Boarding schools. All were suddenly on notice that survivors had a three-year window to pursue a lawsuit over past molestation and sexual assault."
Huge budgets cuts, enrollment drops: Pasadena schools struggle to rebuild after Eaton fire
LAT, DANIEL MILLER/IRIS KWOK/HOWARD BLUME: "When Altadena’s Eliot Arts Magnet Academy burned in the Eaton fire, its theater program’s substantial collection of largely handmade costumes was destroyed. Last week, however, the middle school took a small but meaningful step toward recovery.
The Pasadena Educational Foundation awarded drama teacher Mollie Lief and a colleague a $2,000 grant to fund the purchase of costumes for the school’s upcoming musical production."
Why homeownership in California isn’t nearly the financial slam dunk it once was
CALMatters, BEN CHRISTOPHER: "It’s the benchmark of success, a milestone of responsible adulthood, a time-tested way to amass wealth for you and your progeny.
Homeownership, we’re told again and again, is a status that every right-thinking person should aspire to — the white-picket-fence-fronted embodiment of the American Dream.
But what if it’s also a little overrated?"
Watchdogs warn L.A. County is undermining efforts at oversight of Sheriff’s Department
LAT, CONNOR SHEETS: "After steadily gaining power and influence for more than a decade, the watchdogs that provide civilian oversight of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department face an uncertain future.
A recent leadership exodus has left behind gaps in experience and knowledge, and a succession of legal challenges and funding cuts by the county have left some concerned that long-fought gains in transparency are slipping away."
