Newsom sues Fox News for defamation over story about call with Trump
LA Times, TARYN LUNA: "California Gov. Gavin Newsom is suing Fox News for defamation, alleging that the news outlet intentionally manipulated a video to give the appearance that the governor lied about a phone call with President Donald Trump.
The governor’s demand for $787 million in punitive damages escalates his aggressive effort to challenge misinformation. The lawsuit, announced Friday, places Newsom at the forefront of the political proxy war between Democrats and Republicans over the press by challenging an outlet that many in his party despise."
Asian American leaders urge their communities to stand by Latinos, denounce ICE raids
LA Times, MELISSA GOMEZ: "As federal immigration raids continue to upend life in Los Angeles, Asian American leaders are rallying their communities to raise their voices in support of Latinos, who have been the primary targets of the enforcement sweeps, warning that neighborhoods frequented by Asian immigrants could be next.
Organizers say many Asian immigrants have already been affected by the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants working in the country without documentation. Dozens of Southeast Asian immigrants in Los Angeles and Orange counties whose deportation orders had been on indefinite hold have been detained after showing up for routine check-ins at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices, according to immigration attorneys and advocacy groups."
Big Sur’s Remoteness Is a Selling Point. Now It’s Driving Longtime Owners Away.
Wall Street Journal, NANCY KEATES: "When Brigga Mosca, 70, and Reed Cripe, 82, moved from Los Angeles to Big Sur, Calif., in 1983, they camped out in a two-person tent on a 5-acre piece of land they bought for around $70,000. They took their time designing and creating a custom home with lots of glass for viewing the stunningly beautiful and dramatic landscape of mountains and sea.
Now the couple is selling the home for $3 million. The impetus is that their son, who lives in Santa Cruz, Calif., is expecting their first grandchild. Another factor: they are getting too old to live in such a rugged place, as much as they treasure it there, said Mosca."
Newsom can demand details on Trump’s deployment of troops in LA, judge rules
SacBee, SHARON BERNSTEIN: "A federal judge in San Francisco has ordered the Trump administration to respond to questions about how Marines and National Guard personnel are being deployed in Los Angeles, part of an ongoing legal battle over the president’s decision to send troops to the nation’s second-largest city over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
In an order released late Thursday, Senior U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer gave the White House two weeks to comply with a request from Newsom for information including whether the military is being used to conduct operations in the streets of L.A., rather than just protecting federal property as the administration has claimed."
Palisades reservoir that was empty ‘on the one day in history it was needed most’ is back online
LA Times, IAN JAMES: "Santa Ynez Reservoir in Pacific Palisades, which was empty and undergoing repairs at the time of the January firestorm, is finally back online, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power announced Thursday.
The reservoir had been out of service since early 2024 because its floating cover had a significant tear that needed to be fixed."
28% of people killed in Sacramento car crashes were homeless. She was one of them
SacBee, ARIANE LANGE: "Not everyone knows exactly how their mother will die, but Lisa Copelin had spoken to her mother’s doctors: Lindie Kraushar was supposed to die of cirrhosis.
She wasn’t supposed to die crossing the street. Kraushar was 53 when she was hit in South Natomas on Nov. 29. About three years prior, she was hospitalized with a host of troubling symptoms, and doctors found that she had advanced liver disease. The diagnosis was awful. She had struggled with drug addiction for many years, and her poor health was compounded by a sometimes brutal life without a permanent home."
State senator wants new Sacramento housing agency. These mayors are against it
SacBee, JACK RODRIGUEZ-VARS: "Elk Grove Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen was slated to speak in support of California state Sen. Angelique Ashby’s latest legislation for a regional housing development and homelessness agency on Wednesday.
But when Ashby took to the podium to announce her proposal, Singh-Allen was missing. Ashby’s proposed Sacramento Area Housing and Homelessness Agency will succeed the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency to develop affordable housing and administer homelessness programs should Senate Bill 802 pass. SHRA has distributed federal funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to the county and city of Sacramento since 1982."
Trump says he’s deporting ‘the worst of the worst.’ Here’s what California ICE data really shows
Chronicle, CHRISTIAN LEONARD: "A Chronicle analysis of ICE arrest data, released last week by the UC-affiliated Deportation Data Project, appears to contradict a persistent claim by the Trump administration that its efforts to deport undocumented immigrants targets “the worst of the worst.”
ICE arrested about 1,730 people in the San Francisco “area of responsibility” in just over five months from the start of 2025 to June 10, a 70% increase from the final six months of the Biden administration. The area covers a wide swath of California — Kern County and the counties north of it — as well as Hawaii, Guam and Saipan. The Chronicle’s analysis excluded arrests that occurred outside of California."
New audit flags more than $200,000 in spending by former LAFD union president
LA Times, ALENE TCHEKMEDYIAN: "The parent organization of the Los Angeles Fire Department’s labor union has doubled down on allegations that the union’s top official failed to properly document hundreds of thousands of dollars in credit card transactions.
The International Assn. of Fire Fighters, which oversees the United Firefighters of Los Angeles City, suspended President Freddy Escobar and two other union officials last month over “serious problems” with missing receipts identified in a wide-ranging audit going back to 2018."
California budget comes down to the wire as Newsom, lawmakers face off over housing
Chronicle, SOPHIA BOLLAG: "California lawmakers are scheduled to pass a budget that rolls back health care benefits for undocumented immigrants and makes other cuts, even as they continue to negotiate with Gov. Gavin Newsom over housing policies that have so far prevented them from reaching a final deal.
The housing policies at issue would represent some of the most significant reforms to the state’s landmark environmental law, the California Environmental Quality Act, known as CEQA, since its inception. They would grant broad exemptions to CEQA for homes and other buildings in already developed areas. The lawmakers who crafted the original proposals argue that the law has been abused by people trying to block development and that building more homes in already densely populated areas where people live and work is good for the environment. Newsom agreed, and has made his signature on the budget contingent on lawmakers agreeing to enact some of the CEQA exemptions."
Trump administration announces yet another investigation into the UC system
Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: "Once again, the Trump administration is targeting California’s renowned higher-education system with an investigation — this time, into whether the University of California is considering the race and sex of applicants for teaching positions. It’s the latest of a series of attacks on states’ policies that hamper President Donald Trump’s war on diversity, equity and inclusion.
Among other things, the U.S. Justice Department said Thursday that the university is ordering its campuses “to hire ‘diverse’ faculty members to meet race- and sex-based employment quotas.”
Controversial project to widen one of Bay Area’s most congested highways is a step closer to reality
Chronicle, TARA DUGGAN: "Caltrans got one step closer to its controversial $500 million project to widen Highway 37, a notoriously trafficky corridor, with an infusion of funding Thursday. But critics said the money could be wasted as rising tides are expected to flood the low–lying highway within decades.
On Thursday, the California Transportation Commission approved $73 million toward the plan, which calls for widening Highway 37 between Sears Point in Sonoma and Mare Island in Vallejo from two lanes to four. Caltrans said the project will greatly reduce congestion on a highway used by 47,000 daily. However, the highway is also expected to be inundated by rising tides by 2050, threats that will not be addressed by the project, Caltrans said. Instead, the agency has a separate $10 billion plan to elevate and protect the highway in the future."
Two more officers charged in Bay Area prison sexual abuse scandal
Chronicle, ANNA BAUMAN: "Two former correctional officers were charged with sexually abusing prisoners at a women’s prison in Dublin as part of an ongoing federal investigation into a long troubled facility that is now permanently closed, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The Justice Department on Wednesday charged Jeffrey Wilson, 34, with five counts of sexual abuse of a ward and Lawrence Gacad, 33, with one count of abusive sexual contact at the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, according to the agency."
‘Abundance’ movement hits a labor wall in California
Politico, JEREMY B. WHITE: "California’s Year of Abundance just crashed into political reality.
For months, Democrats here raved about an ascendant movement to supercharge housing and energy infrastructure, mainlining the buzzy Ezra Klein book, “Abundance.” Gov. Gavin Newsom, a potential presidential contender, and allies in the Legislature argued that an aggressively pro-building agenda could lift their moribund fortunes by addressing skyrocketing housing prices while proving they are the party of bold action."
The California climate export catching fire in Trump’s DC
Politico, CAMILLE VON KAENEL: "California’s wildfire tech companies are seizing their moment in Washington as Congress and President Donald Trump eye sweeping fire reforms.
Representatives from Truckee, California-based forest mapping company Vibrant Planet and Earth Fire Alliance, a nonprofit coalition working on wildfire-tracking satellites that includes Google and Muon Space, backed the bipartisan Fix Our Forests Act in a House Natural Resources subcommittee hearing in Washington on Thursday focused on wildfire policy and technology."