Walmart, Mattel and other retailers to boost prices as trade war hits shoppers
LAT, MALIA MENDEZ/CAROLINE PETROW-COHEN/SEAN GREENE: "Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer known for affordability, announced it would be raising prices, providing the clearest signal to date of the effects of President Trump’s steep tariffs on U.S. shoppers.
In an earnings call on Thursday, executives for the retail giant told industry analysts that an increase in prices would be unavoidable in the face of the highest import duties the U.S. has seen since the 1930s."
Californians could get bigger state, local tax deductions. Why that matters
Sac Bee, DAVID LIGHTMAN: "The way it was: about one-third of Sacramento County taxpayers deducted an average of $12,000 from their federal income tax for the state and local taxes they had paid in 2017.
Thanks to the Trump administration’s 2017 tax overhaul, that deduction was capped at $10,000 annually. As a result of that law, and other changes, about 13% of county filers deducted what they could in 2022 in state and local taxes, or SALT."
Special Episode: California Insurance Crisis – Keynote by California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara (PODCAST)
Capitol Weekly, STAFF: "In this Special Episode, we present the Keynote address from yesterday’s California Insurance Crisis, by California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara
Commissioner Lara delivered a fierce defense of his administration’s efforts to stabilize the state’s struggling property insurance market, outlining new proposals and initiatives, including formation of a Smoke Claims and Remediation Task Force. He blasted special interests, and his predecessors in the office – both Republican and Democratic – describing them as placeholders who refused to address systematic problems in the state’s insurance market. For nearly forty minutes, Lara made the case for the work he and his department have done so far, and admitted that other necessary corrections – including possible rate hikes – may not be popular. “I might end up being the most unelectable person, but I don’t care, because this is going to be the most meaningful work that I do for the state of California.”"
Guidance by California appellate courts on the Legislature and its legislative process, part 1
Capitol Weekly, CHRIS MICHELI: "The California Government Code provides for aspects of the Legislature and the legislative process in this state. There have been many court decisions over the past century interpreting key provisions of the Government Code. The following cases highlight some of the key decisions interpreting these statutory provisions. This is Part 1 of a two-part series."
Californians would lose AI protections under bill advancing in Congress
CALMatters, KHARI JOHNSON: "House Republicans moved to cut off artificial intelligence regulation by the states before it can take root, advancing legislation in Congress that, in California, would make it unlawful to enforce more than 20 laws passed by the Legislature and signed into law last year.
The moratorium, bundled in to a sweeping budget reconciliation bill this week, also threatens 30 bills the California Legislature is currently considering to regulate artificial intelligence, including one that would require reporting when an insurance company uses AI to deny health care and another that would require the makers of AI to evaluate how the tech performs before it’s used to decide on jobs, health care, or housing."
Faced with budget woes, Gavin Newsom wants more tax credits for Hollywood
CALMatters, YUE STELLA YU: "Staring down a $12 billion budget deficit, Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed steep cuts to California’s health care services and public universities — all while promising more dollars to Hollywood.
Newsom on Wednesday doubled down on his proposal to expand the state’s investment in film and television tax credits, incentives created by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2009 to boost California’s marquee industry. If passed, the state would allocate up to $750 million each year to film production, up from the current $330 million."
Shadowy foreign financial interests are profiting off our legal system (OP-ED)
Capitol Weekly, MICHELLE RODRIGUEZ: "A loophole in federal and state financial laws allow for sanctioned Russian oligarchs and Vladimir Putin allies to make money off lawsuits filed in our court system.
Through a little known and understood investment instrument called “lawsuit financing,” foreign actors are manipulating our legal system for massive profits."
New data reveals how many serious drug users at risk of overdose live in San Francisco
The Chronicle, MAGGIE ANGST: "Kevin Monroe first tried methamphetamine 25 years ago and he’s been battling addiction ever since. Over that time, the 47-year-old has been to treatment programs a half-dozen times, secured stable housing at a city-subsidized hotel and achieved several longer stints of sobriety, including 10 years, five years and most recently, a year and a half.
But each time, the pull of meth and crack — both highly addictive stimulants — has proved too strong to shake."
Lowell sees dip in enrollment from S.F. private school students
The Chronicle, JILL TUCKER: "Fewer private school students are sitting in the coveted seats at San Francisco’s Lowell High School than years past, with district students taking 8 out of every 10 spots in the freshmen class, according to district data.
It’s a significant shift from just four years ago, when nearly a third of the 2020 ninth graders came from non-district middle schools."
Fire weather watch issued in these parts of California
The Chronicle, GREG PORTER: "A cooler weather system sliding through the West this weekend will knock Bay Area temperatures back down and kick up the winds, especially through coastal gaps and along ridgelines. Just to our east, including parts of the interior East Bay and North Bay, the same system has prompted a Fire Weather Watch from Sunday morning through Monday evening, as strong north winds and dry air raise the risk for rapid fire spread.
This marks the third straight weekend shaped by a broad, cool weather system diving out of the Pacific Northwest. It’s not a rainmaker, but it’ll be enough to stir up wind and bring down temperatures. As the system dips south Friday, it’ll carve out a zone of lower pressure over the interior West while high pressure builds offshore. That growing pressure gradient will help drive gusty winds across Northern California and the Bay Area from late Friday into Sunday."
READ MORE -- How bad will California wildfires be this summer? Experts weigh in on forecast -- Sac Bee, HANNAH POUKISH
California’s Klamath River opens for visitors after nation’s largest dam removal project
The Chronicle, KURTIS ALEXANDER: "With the recent completion of dam removal along the California-Oregon border, the public is being invited in to see the results.
A string of new recreation sites on the Klamath River began opening Thursday, allowing visitors to view and access the free-flowing waters that Native Americans and environmentalists had long pushed to undam."
PG&E plans to reopen lithium battery plant near Monterey County site burned in toxic fire
LAT, HAILEY BRANSON-POTTS: "Four months after a massive fire ignited in Monterey County at one of the world’s largest lithium-ion battery storage facilities, Pacific Gas & Electric said it intends to reactivate an adjacent battery site by June to meet summer energy demands.
The plan comes over the objections of county officials who requested that both facilities remain offline until the cause of the January fire in rural Moss Landing is determined."
Trump’s auto tariffs reignite concerns about GM’s future in South Korea
LAT, MAX KIM: "In South Korea, the Trump administration’s 25% tariff on imported cars has sent local automakers Hyundai and Kia scrambling to protect one of the country’s most valuable exports. But General Motors, which last year shipped 418,782 units from its factories here to American consumers — or 88.5% of its total sales — may be facing a much larger predicament.
Unlike Hyundai and Kia, which control over 90% of the domestic market here, the Detroit-based automaker produces budget SUVs like the Chevrolet Trax or Chevrolet Trailblazer almost exclusively for the U.S. market. The Trax has been South Korea’s most-exported car since 2023."
San Francisco Zoo's CEO could get ousted as internal turmoil explodes into view
The Chronicle, MICHAEL BARBA/TARA DUGGAN: "A union representative for San Francisco Zoo employees said Thursday that Tanya Peterson, the CEO and executive director of the facility, is expected to face a vote on her potential ouster next week, following concerns about her leadership and the well-being of animals and staff.
Peterson said she was not aware of a scheduled vote by the governing board of the San Francisco Zoological Society, the nonprofit that the city pays to run the zoo. Rather, Peterson said, there is a dispute over whether the board chair, who appears to be pushing for the CEO’s dismissal, remains in her position."
A blood feud rocks O.C. law enforcement with claims of ‘dirty cop,’ ‘corrupt’ D.A.
LAT, SALVADOR HERNANDEZ: "It’s a bitter feud the likes of which are seldom seen in law enforcement circles — or at least those that boil over into public view.
For over seven years now, Orange County’s top prosecutor and a decorated former cop have been locked in an acrimonious dispute that shows little sign of abating. Both parties have accused the other of fractured ethics and corruption, and even an independent arbitrator likened the situation to a simmering cauldron.
Before killings linked to cultlike ‘Zizians,’ a string of psychiatric crises befell AI doomsdayers
The Chronicle, MICHAEL BARBA/MEGAN CASSIDY/MATTHIAS GAFNI: "While seeking life’s greater purpose on a tropical island off Morocco, amid marathon meditation sessions and experiments with self-optimization, Maia Pasek discovered a new source of enlightenment halfway across the globe.
It was “Ziz,” the Bay Area blogger now linked to six violent deaths from Vallejo to Vermont."
The S.F. Public Defender is so overwhelmed with cases it had to stop taking them. Here’s what’s going on
The Chronicle, DANIELLE ECHEVERRIA: "The San Francisco Public Defender’s Office is so overloaded with cases that, one day a week, it won’t accept any new ones.
“Right now we’re in a position where we just can’t take any more cases,” Public Defender Mano Raju said at a hearing last week. “Because if we keep on taking cases, we’re not going to be able to provide the representation that our clients deserve, and it’s going to have a negative impact on the just outcome in the case.”"
