Trump and Bondi want to turn Alcatraz back into a prison. Here’s the poop problem
Chronicle, TARA DUGGAN: "San Francisco is not privy to President Donald Trump’s exact plans to turn Alcatraz into a prison. But there is one issue it knows could foul things up.
Poop.
Alcatraz does not have its own wastewater treatment plant or water pipes connecting to the mainland. Right now, boats ferry wastewater from the national park’s restrooms to San Francisco, where it enters the municipal sewage system. If the city chose not to accept such a delivery, the federal government could have a serious problem on its hands."
Bondi, other officials tour S.F.’s Alcatraz as part of Trump’s pledge to reopen prison
Chronicle, ANNA BAUMAN, JESSICA FLORES, JOE GAROFOLI and TOM LI: "Beating the usual rush of tourists, the U.S. attorney general and interior secretary traveled early Thursday to Alcatraz, where they claimed to be starting work on an improbable plan to reopen the prison on the San Francisco Bay island, in what appeared to be a publicity stunt designed to portray President Donald Trump as tough on crime while antagonizing a famously liberal city.
Attorney General Pam Bondi and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum posted photos on social media showing their tour of the former maximum security prison, now a popular tourist attraction and national park, with a Fox News correspondent Thursday morning. Burgum said the visit was an effort “to start the work to renovate and reopen the site to house the most dangerous criminals and illegals.”
Citing security threats, California lawmakers want to shield their addresses from public
CalMatters, YUE STELLA YU: "California lawmakers want to limit public access to their addresses and phone numbers after two Minnesota lawmakers were shot, one fatally, in their homes last month.
One proposal would ban journalists from accessing that information through candidates’ and public officials’ voter registration records, even though there is no indication the Minnesota shooter used those kinds of records to track down his victims."
Tom Girardi, 86-year-old disbarred lawyer, begins prison sentence as dementia worsens
LA Times, HARRIET RYAN and MATT HAMILTON: "For the last four years, Tom Girardi’s daily life has been organized around his dementia diagnosis. At an upscale assisted living facility in Seal Beach, members of an around-the-clock nursing staff bathe and dress him, take him to the restroom, make sure he eats, prevent him from wandering away and remind him again and again where he is and why.
On Thursday, Girardi’s status changes from patient to inmate. The 86-year-old disbarred trial attorney, a legal legend who once towered over California’s justice system, becomes inmate 43156-510, one of more than 150,000 people federally incarcerated."
Day laborers, community members shaken after border patrol raid at South Sacramento Home Depot
CapRadio, TONY RODRIGUEZ and MANOLA SECAIRA: "Border Patrol agents detained at least nine individuals Thursday morning during an immigration enforcement raid outside a Home Depot on Florin Road in South Sacramento, according to multiple local authorities. This marks one of the most visible immigration enforcement operations in the region this year.
Following the arrests, the incident gained attention quickly on social media, as local community members and immigrant rights advocates shared it. Some community members, protestors, and immigrant rights advocates gathered at the site within hours of the event."
San Francisco tries new tack to battle homelessness: RV parking limits
Washington Post, MARIE ROSE-SHEINERMAN: "Lawmakers in San Francisco voted Tuesday to bar recreational vehicles from parking on city streets for longer than two hours without a special permit — a move aimed at reducing the number of city residents living in vehicles.
Proponents heralded the move as a win for safe and clean streets, while critics decried it as criminalizing a low-cost housing option amid the city’s long-standing affordability crisis. A city count in May found 437 RVs being used as housing.
Chronicle, TERRY CASTLEMAN: "As more and more Altadena residents choose to sell their fire-ravaged properties instead of rebuilding, owners are encountering a softening real estate market in which prices and the rate of sales are declining, according to data and interviews.
It’s impossible to know the long-term prospects of the market, but real estate agents and others say property sales are slowing as inventory grows and owners list their properties at lower prices."
OPINION: New California budget papers over $20 billion deficit, ignores day of reckoning
CalMatters, DAN WALTERS: "When Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders were drafting a more-or-less final 2025-26 state budget last month, they were closing what they described as a $12 billion deficit, a number that the state’s media repeatedly cited.
It was the wrong number; it minimizes the state’s chronic gap between income and outgo, as the state’s official budget summary released this week confirms."
Wall Street Journal, KHADEEJA SAFDAR and JOE PALAZZOLO: "It was Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday, and Ghislaine Maxwell was preparing a special gift to mark the occasion. She turned to Epstein’s family and friends. One of them was Donald Trump. Maxwell collected letters from Trump and dozens of Epstein’s other associates for a 2003 birthday album, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Pages from the leather-bound album—assembled before Epstein was first arrested in 2006—are among the documents examined by Justice Department officials who investigated Epstein and Maxwell years ago, according to people who have reviewed the pages. It’s unclear if any of the pages are part of the Trump administration’s recent review."
Mother lost with son in dense California forest uses trail of notes to point rescuers their way
LA Times, CHRISTOPHER BUCHANAN: "A missing mother and her child were found in deep California forestland recently by rescuers who located them after following a trail of notes the woman had left behind, authorities said.
In another unmodern twist in this rescue tale, searchers also got help from ham radio."
‘There is no sanctuary anywhere:’ Border Patrol raids come to California’s capital
CalMatters, WENDY FRY and SERGIO OLMOS: "Border Patrol agents moved their operations northward Thursday to California’s capital, targeting a Home Depot in Sacramento, this time more than 500 miles away from the border.
On Friday, a judge in Los Angeles ordered federal immigration agents to temporarily stop the “roving patrols” in which heavily armed agents have aggressively detained immigrants and U.S. citizens throughout Southern California during a month-long crackdown. They targeted car washes, construction jobs, and Home Depots, arresting mostly Latino men who were longtime residents of Los Angeles."
Behind the masks: Who are the people rounding up immigrants in California?
CalMatters, MICHAEL LOZANO: "They appeared in plain clothes outside a San Diego hotel, wore camouflage as they raided a Los Angeles factory and arrived with military gear at a Ventura County farm.
The presence of thousands of hard-to-identify federal agents is a new fact of life in Southern California this summer as the Trump administration carries out the president’s promised deportations."
State parole officer killed on the job in Oakland — suspect arrested
Chronicle, JORDAN PARKER and JERRY WU: "A state parole agent was fatally shot in Oakland as he worked in his office Thursday afternoon, and a suspect is in custody.
The agent, identified as Joshua Lemont Byrd, 40, in a news release by Gov. Gavin Newsom, was shot inside the Division of Adult Parole Operations office around 12:50 p.m., state officials said. After the shooting, the suspect, identified as Bryan Keith Hall, 48, of Oakland, fled the scene and was detained by Oakland police officers near the intersection of 90th Avenue and International Boulevard, the California Highway Patrol said."
‘Spinal Tap’ star and longtime Bay Area musician dies at 79
Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI: "David Kaffinetti, the British-born musician and actor who brought to life the endearingly vacant keyboardist Viv Savage in the 1984 cult mockumentary “This Is Spinal Tap” has died. He was 79.
His death, at his East Bay home on Friday, July 11, was announced by his bandmates in the local group Mutual of Alameda’s Wild Kingdom, who wrote on Facebook that Kaffinetti “passed away peacefully in his sleep.” No cause of death was given."
‘Like having a hand cut off’: California schools reeling after AmeriCorps cuts
CalMatters, ADAM ECHELMAN and CAROLYN JONES: "AmeriCorps may have won a temporary legal reprieve to keep operating, but the long-term future looks bleak for the popular program that sends thousands of workers to California schools, food banks, health clinics, and disaster relief sites.
In an effort to rein in government spending, President Donald Trump cut funding for the program in April, prompting California and 23 other states to sue in a Maryland district court. In June, a federal judge granted a temporary injunction, reinstating California’s grants and allowing its AmeriCorps workers to return to their jobs. But many workers who are eligible to return have found other employment."
Sacramento’s ‘Good Trouble’ rally draws hundreds, hours after immigration arrests
SacBee, AMELIA WU: "In front of the Capitol building about 800 people gathered as part of the nationwide protest against the Trump administration. Called “Good Trouble Lives On,” the demonstration focused focusing on racial justice and voting rights.
Organized by the same group behind the “No Kings” rallies last month and “Hands Off” in April, hundreds of thousands of Americans were expected to take to the streets Thursday, the fifth anniversary of Congressman John Lewis’ death."