California Republicans say they’re making a comeback. Can they keep Trump at arm’s length?
CALMatters, JEANNE KUANG: "After flipping three seats in the state Legislature last fall and increasing President Donald Trump’s vote share in nearly every county, California Republicans are seeking to capitalize on the momentum this year as they try to win back congressional seats and claw their way out of superminority status in the state capital.
Jubilant off their November gains, their next to-dos are clear but not undaunting:"
READ MORE -- Trump and recent gains give the California Republican Party hope -- LAT, SEEMA MEHTA
California Republicans love diversity — when it’s on their terms
The Chronicle, JOE GAROFOLI: "Corrin Rankin, a Stockton resident and national surrogate for President Donald Trump, was elected Sunday as the new chair of the California Republican Party, the first Black woman elected to the post.
But Rankin’s election is unlikely to change the Republican Party’s attempts to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion policies. Rankin has marched in lockstep with Trump — the driver of that dismantling — since his first presidential campaign, serving as the statewide director of coalition director for African Americans for Trump, the kind of affinity group now being dismantled in workplaces and universities across the country."
Are Donald Trump and Elon Musk putting Social Security benefits at risk?
Sac Bee, DAVID LIGHTMAN: "“It’s simple: Democrats believe that you deserve access to the Social Security you paid into. But Trump’s reckless firings at the Social Security Agency puts your hard-earned benefits at risk.”
So said Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., last week on X."
Republicans praise Donald Trump, Elon Musk at convention: ‘Make California great again’
Sac Bee, NICOLE NIXON/JENAVIEVE HATCH: "California Republicans were triumphant, still riding high from the results of the 2024 presidential election, at their spring organizing convention this weekend in Sacramento.
Although Democrat Kamala Harris won California with 58% of the vote, GOP delegates and officials saw statewide swings toward President Donald Trump as a sign of Democrats’ weakening influence and an opportunity to turn the state a lighter shade of blue."
The Micheli Minute, March 17, 2025
Capitol Weekly, STAFF: "Lobbyist and author Chris Micheli offers a quick look at what’s coming up this week in Sacramento."
Another California professional group wants a free pass from jury duty. This lawmaker says no
CALMatters, RYAN SABALOW: "Modesto Assemblymember Juan Alanis is a former sheriff’s sergeant. Corona Assemblymember Bill Essayli is a former county and federal prosecutor. The two Republicans agree on a lot of things when it comes to crime and courts.
But Essayli let Alanis know last week he staunchly opposes Alanis’s bill that would give county probation officers a permanent pass to get out of jury duty for criminal cases. State probation officers unions are championing Assembly Bill 387, since they think their members should have the same rights as police officers and sheriff’s deputies to avoid jury service."
The Alien Enemies Act: What to know about a 1798 law that Trump invoked for deportations
LAT, TIM SULLIVAN/ELLIOT SPAGAT: "President Trump on Saturday invoked the Alien Enemies Act for the first time since World War II, granting himself sweeping powers under a centuries-old law to deport people associated with a Venezuelan gang. Hours later, a federal judge halted deportations under Trump’s order.
The act is a sweeping wartime authority that allows noncitizens to be deported without being given the opportunity to go before an immigration or federal court judge."
Mayor Daniel Lurie unveils ambitious plan to address S.F. homelessness and mental health crises
The Chronicle, JD MORRIS: "Mayor Daniel Lurie is launching a one-year effort to reform San Francisco’s homelessness and mental health services as he seeks to make progress on confronting two of the city’s most urgent and serious challenges.
Lurie is expected to sign an executive directive Monday that lays out how he wants to make near- and long-term improvements to city systems that assist people who are unhoused or mentally ill. Overall, the directive seeks to consolidate services that Lurie thinks are too fragmented and add new measures he believes will promote greater accountability and efficiency to help the city’s roughly 8,300 unhoused residents."
The California Office for Civil Rights is closing. What now for school discrimination cases?
LAT, JAWEED KALEEM/HOWARD BLUME: "When the Trump administration announced last week that about half the staff of the U.S. Department of Education were to be laid off, the slashing closed down the San Francisco regional branch of the Office for Civil Rights responsible for providing the state’s students protection from discrimination.
The California office handled a bulging caseload of students, families and school staff: alleged unequal academic instruction for disabled students; allegations of campus sexual assault; claims of unfair discipline meted out to students of color; alleged bullying of LGBTQ+ students."
California wants more kids in bilingual classes — but won’t spend enough to expand them
CALMatters, TARA GARCIA MATHEWSON: "As California gets closer to its 2030 goal of having 1,600 dual language immersion programs in the state’s public schools and advocates call for a more ambitious vision, legislators have pumped the brakes on funding.
In 2021, the Legislature created a $10 million grant program to help schools expand dual language programs over the last three years, but now that money is gone. The only bill before the Legislature this session would have the state spend just half that over the next three years, with that $5 million going to buy or create books and other teaching materials in languages other than English."
Five years later: Covid’s impact on California education
EdSource, STAFF: "Five years ago, California's roughly 10 million K-12 and college students, along with parents, educators and school leaders, were thrust into an uncertain world of remote learning, followed a year later by a return to in-person schooling punctuated by social distancing, mask mandates, learning loss and chronic absenteeism. As EdSource reflects on the five years since Covid-19 impacted just about every aspect of American life, look back at the key milestones that marked the journey from a pre-pandemic world to today's new normal."
How expensive private school tuition is in S.F. Bay Area, school by school
The Chronicle, LYDIA SIDHOM/NAMI SUMIDA: "The cost of attending a private school in California just keeps rising. From 1990 to 2020, the average costs more than doubled, even after accounting for inflation. But the tuition and fees of individual schools vary greatly, with some costing upward of $60,000 and others less than $5,000.
So how much does it take to attend each school? With no authoritative and centralized database of tuition costs for the 2024-25 school year available elsewhere, the Chronicle decided to create one. Earlier this year, we compiled private school tuition data for the previous school year."
Modernized procedures at California’s Oroville Dam could improve flood safety, report finds
Sac Bee, JAKE GOODRICK: "Modernized changes to long-held operating procedures at the dams walling Lake Oroville and New Bullards Bar Reservoir in Northern California could improve flood safety for communities along the Feather and Yuba rivers.
That’s the finding several agencies reached in a new report exploring the effects of using improved monitoring, weather and runoff projections to determine when and how to release water from the reservoirs."
Bay Area braces for one more storm before spring breaks through. Here’s what to expect
The Chronicle, GREG PORTER: "As the most recent storm system departs the region Monday, we will be left with a somewhat unstable environment as another shot of cold air filters in. Through Monday afternoon, the atmosphere will be conducive to pop-up showers, some of which will contain brief heavy downpours and small hail.
But this isn’t exactly uncharted territory for us, at least not lately. Since the start of the month — excluding the most recent storm system — the Bay Area has been hit by a steady parade of moderately strong storms, rolling in every few days. After each storm clears, we’re typically left with a 6- to 12-hour window of unsettled weather, where pop-up storms can strike at any moment."
L.A. man scalded by Starbucks drinks is awarded $50 million
LAT, MALIA MENDEZ: "A Los Angeles County jury says Starbucks is liable for injuries of a customer burned during a botched drive-through drink handoff — to the tune of $50 million.
L.A. resident Michael Garcia claimed that he was severely burned in 2020 after his tray of hot teas “caved in on itself,” he said in a deposition. First one, then another hot drink toppled onto his lap, their lids popping off. He suffered severe burns, including to his genitalia, he claimed."
Are the S.F. Giants turning into a real estate empire — at the expense of the baseball team?
The Chronicle, SUSAN SLUSSER/LAURA WAXMANN: "As the San Francisco Giants’ Mission Rock development becomes more visible over the baseball team’s right-field fence, there are free agents and their representatives wondering: “Are they a real-estate company or a baseball team?”
In today’s billion dollar business of sports ownership, perhaps the response should be: Why not both?"
He calls himself L.A.’s rags-to-riches pot billionaire. Investors allege in court their money disappeared
LAT, NOAH GOLDBERG: "To investors, Vincent Mehdizadeh pitched himself as a rags-to-riches Los Angeles success story — a man whose family fled religious fundamentalism in Iran and who later grew up to transform the legal cannabis industry through technology.
As the founder of Medbox, a company that pioneered the use of biometric sensors in pot vending machines, Mehdizadeh wrote that he had “pushed the conversation about cannabis, an amazing wonder plant, into the mainstream public’s psyche.”"
S.F. Pride seeks alternative funding for LGBTQ celebration after major sponsors drop out
The Chronicle, NORA MISHANEC: "Several corporate sponsors have pulled out of San Francisco’s 2025 Pride Celebration, which the parade’s executive director suspects is due to the country’s changing political climate under the Trump administration.
San Francisco Pride’s street fair is scheduled for June 28-29, with the famed Pride Parade scheduled for 10 a.m. on the second day. Founded in 1970 as the Gay Freedom Day Parade, the event has grown to become one of the largest and most renowned LGBTQ+ celebrations in the world, attracting up to 1 million visitors each year."
Homeowners in this Bay Area metro stay longer than nearly anywhere else in the U.S.
The Chronicle, CHRISTIAN LEONARD: "The typical Bay Area homeowner keeps their home for nearly two decades — one of the longest periods of any major U.S. metropolitan area.
San Francisco metro area homeowners had lived in their homes for a median of 17 years in 2024, according to an analysis of county records by real estate company Redfin. That was tied for the fourth-highest median among the 47 largest metro areas for which Redfin had data."
This Bay Area city is known for a memorial with thousands of white crosses. Will new housing erase it?
The Chronicle, JK DINEEN: "Even after nearly 20 years, architect Lara Dutto is still astonished by Lafayette’s Hillside Memorial, a collection of thousands of simple, wooden white crosses across from the city’s BART station.
“Its scale and rawness and simplicity somehow makes me stop, forces me to take a deep breath, and in that moment I am so grateful for my freedoms,” she said. “Sometimes on a foggy day, the entire installation appears celestial somehow, and with each season and each passing year the symbols change and evolve.”"
Bay Area thieves are stealing license plates. Do this to protect yourself
The Chronicle, NORA MISHANEC: "Police in Vallejo were tracking a prolific thief known for stealing thousands of dollars worth of Red Bull and vodka from convenience stores when officers noticed an anomaly in the surveillance footage: The suspect’s getaway car did not match its license plate.
A search of vehicle records revealed that the car’s license plates had been switched. The car was a Hyundai, police noted, but the license plates were registered to another person’s Toyota."
Could Bay Area’s traffic nightmares bring back casual carpool?
The Chronicle, RACHEL SWAN: "Before COVID shutdowns took hold in 2020, Kuan Butts had a breezy commute from Oakland to San Francisco — by catching rides with strangers.
Every morning he joined the rush-hour throngs at Monte Vista and Oakland avenues, an intersection in the Grand Lake neighborhood where cars lined up at the curb to pick up passengers. From about 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. the street served as a meeting point for casual carpools, marked only by a small red sign. Anyone could climb into a vehicle, offer $1 for gas, and be in the Financial District within 15 minutes."
