California awaits disaster relief as GOP offers full support of Texas
Washington Post, CLEVE WOOTSON Jr, MAEVE RESTON and MARIANNA SOTOMAYOR: "For months, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has pressed the GOP-led Congress to free up $40 billion in federal relief for swaths of Los Angeles consumed by devastating wildfires.
President Donald Trump and other Republicans have so far withheld the funds, with many arguing that Newsom and other Democrats in the deep-blue state have mishandled the fires and should be forced to rescind liberal policies in exchange for aid.
But now deadly floods have struck ruby-red Texas — and the Republican response is much different, with Trump and others promising unfettered and prompt federal support in the months and years to come."
Supreme Court disabuses federal workers who thought their jobs were safe
Politico, ERIN SCHUMAKER: "Tens of thousands of workers across the federal government are hoping their unions and allies in local governments and nonprofit groups have a Plan B — a day after the Supreme Court said the Trump administration could proceed with firing them.
The hope hangs on the ruling’s suggestion that lower courts could still consider direct challenges to agencies’ reorganization plans. But that will require plaintiffs to bring more detailed cases quickly and convince judges to stop the layoffs before they become a fait accompli. As cases become more granular, plaintiffs will likely face an uphill battle. And the White House said it plans to restart the terminations immediately."
OPINION: California dreamin’ — of independence: Could the golden state ever secede?
SacBee, ROBIN EPLEY: "If you, like me, in recent days have wistfully considered a utopian fantasy where an economically powerful country of California breaks away from the chaos of a second Donald Trump presidency, then I have both good news and bad news for you: The good news is that the fantasy seems to be rapidly gaining support.
A new YouGov poll of 500 California adults, commissioned by the Independent California Institute last month, reports a record high 44% who say they would vote for the state to secede from America and become a fully independent nation."
Trump’s DOJ blames egg prices on California in new lawsuit
Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: "President Donald Trump’s administration sued California over egg prices on Wednesday, claiming the state’s voter-approved law protecting hens and pigs from being kept in small cages has driven costs skyward and violates U.S. farming laws and regulations. The suit did not mention that the California law, Proposition 12, has been upheld by the Supreme Court.
“California has contributed to the historic rise in egg prices by imposing unnecessary red tape on the production of eggs,” lawyers for Trump’s Justice Department said in the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Los Angeles. Under federal law since 1970, they contended, no state can impose its own standards on the “quality, condition, weight, quantity or grade” of eggs or their production that differ from nationwide standards."
‘Shaken up’: 31 workers scramble to safety after tunnel collapse in Wilmington
LA Times, CLARA HARTER: "The frightening partial collapse of an L.A. County sanitation tunnel under construction left 31 workers scrambling to make their way to safety on Wednesday evening.
The only entry point to the tunnel is near the 1700 block of North Figueroa Street in Wilmington, where more than 100 L.A. Fire Department personnel were dispatched after reports of the accident, including search and rescue teams specially trained and equipped to handle confined-space tunnel rescues."
As L.A. reels, White House sees ‘grand success’ in novel crackdown tactics
LA Times, MICHAEL WILNER: "National Guard troops and immigration agents on horseback, clad in green uniforms and tactical gear, trotted into MacArthur Park on Monday, surrounding the iconic square with armored vehicles in a show of force widely denounced as gratuitous. The enforcement operation produced few tangible results that day. But the purpose of the display was unmistakable.
The Trump administration’s monthlong operation in Los Angeles, which began on June 6 with flash raids at work sites and culminated days later with Trump’s deployment of Marines and the Guard, continues to pay political dividends to a president who had been in search of the perfect foil on his signature issue since retaking office, officials close to the president told The Times."
Los Angeles fire survivor is told State Farm’s $900K check on hold due to insufficient funds
CalMatters. LEVI SUMAGAYSAY: "Amelia McDonald couldn’t believe her ears. She had been navigating what she calls “a horrible experience” trying to get her claims paid by State Farm after the Eaton Fire burned down her Altadena home and ranch in January. She, along with her father, daughter and the goats that survived the fire, have been displaced since then.
Now a $876,354.07 check the insurer wrote her wouldn’t clear.
McDonald called the check-hold department of her bank, Chase, Tuesday, asking why the funds from the check she deposited on June 30 were not available more than a week later. She said someone there told her it was because State Farm — the state’s largest property insurer — had insufficient funds. In fact, he told her, the account had a negative balance."
These Younger Democrats Are Sick of Their Party’s Status Quo
New York Times, KATIE GLUECK: "A number of prominent younger Democrats with records of winning tough races are forming a new group with big ambitions to remake their party’s image, recruit a new wave of candidates and challenge political orthodoxies they say are holding the party back.
Members of the initiative, Majority Democrats, have different theories about how the national party has blundered. Some believe a heavy reliance on abortion-rights messaging or anti-Trump sentiment has come at the expense of a stronger economic focus. Others say party leaders underestimate how much pandemic-era school closures or reflexive defenses of former President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s re-election bid have eroded voters’ trust in Democrats."
Read more on Democrats: New Democratic Group Says Answer to the Party’s Woes Lies With the States, NY Times, KATIE GLUECK and NICK CORASANTI
A Bay Area fault that could produce a major earthquake is not where scientists thought it was
Chronicle, JACK LEE: "The Bay Area’s Concord Fault — which is capable of unleashing a major earthquake — isn’t where scientists thought it was.
The fault runs for about 20 miles through Walnut Creek and Concord, from North Gate Road near Mount Diablo north to Suisun Bay. A previously unknown 4.4 mile stretch, or strand, of the fault is actively moving about a tenth of an inch per year as it runs beneath residential neighborhoods in the Ygnacio Valley."
LA Times, LIAM DILLON and SANDHYA KAMBHAMPATI: "More than 800 homeowners in Pacific Palisades, Altadena and other areas affected by January’s wildfires have applied for rebuilding permits, according to a Times analysis of local government permitting data.
Of those, at least 145 have received approval to start construction on major repairs or replacement of their homes in the cities of Los Angeles, Malibu and Pasadena and in Altadena and other unincorporated areas of L.A. County, the analysis found."
As Fires, Floods Rage, California’s Push to Make Big Oil Pay Stalls — For Now
KQED, EZRA DAVID ROMERO: "California lawmakers and environmental advocates behind a bill that would have required large gas and oil companies to pay for the effects of climate change promised to keep pushing after the legislation stalled in Sacramento.
The Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act of 2025, introduced in February, faced fierce opposition from Republican lawmakers and a slew of influential groups, including the California Chamber of Commerce, as well as millions of dollars in lobbying efforts by the fossil fuel industry. It also emerged during a challenging legislative year, marked by a major overhaul of the California Environmental Quality Act and a significantly reduced state budget."
Bill to provide descendants of slavery preference in college admissions moves forward
EdSource, MALLIKA SESHADRI: "A bill that would give California colleges and universities an option to provide preference in admissions to descendants of slavery has cleared the state’s Senate Education Committee with a 5-2 vote after being passed in the Assembly with overwhelming support. But as the bill moves to the Judiciary Committee, even its proponents say they are pessimistic that it will become law at a time of increasing scrutiny over measures suggesting racial preferences.
Assembly Bill 7, authored by Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, is the first statewide measure of its kind to address the harms of slavery, said UCLA education professor Tyrone Howard, and it has been backed by nearly two dozen organizations, including the California Federation of Teachers and the University of California Student Association."
Asylum-seekers wait on average 4½ years for their hearings. Now many fear ICE at the courthouse
Chronicle, KO LYN CHEONG and CHRISTIAN LEONARD: "In a windowless courtroom in Concord this May, an El Salvadoran man sat before an immigration judge and an attorney from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He had waited four years for a hearing on his application for asylum.
In the days leading up to his day in court, the man told the Chronicle, he had felt sick with fear that he would be deported back to El Salvador, where he said he’d been terrorized by MS-13 gang members who killed six of his family members."
Amid ICE raids, bishop tells SoCal worshippers they can stay home on Sundays
LA Times, ANDREW J. CAMPA: "A Southern California Roman Catholic bishop told his diocese of roughly one million parishioners this week that they can stay home on Sundays to avoid Mass while concerns about federal immigration sweeps still loom over the region.
Bishop Alberto Rojas of the Diocese of San Bernardino wrote in the decree Tuesday that many church-goers have shared “fears of attending mass due to potential immigration enforcement action” and that “such fear constitutes a grave inconvenience that may impede the spiritual good of the faithful.”
L.A. vowed to remove 9,800 encampments. But are homeless people getting housed?
LA Times, DAVID ZAHNISER: "Musician Dennis Henriquez woke up in a doorway in East Hollywood last month, hidden behind cardboard and sheltered by a tarp.
When he peered outside, half a dozen sanitation workers were standing nearby, waiting to carry out one of the more than 30 homeless encampment cleanups planned that day by the city of Los Angeles."
California to Pay $14 Million to Former Student Abused at Deaf School in Fremont
KQED, GILARE ZADA: "The state of California will pay $14 million in a settlement involving a former student at the California School for the Deaf in Fremont, who allegedly endured years of abuse at the hands of a former employee.
The plaintiff, whose identity has been concealed, was enrolled at the California School for the Deaf Fremont, or CSDF, between 2009-2011. The state-funded boarding school serves about 400 deaf and hard-of-hearing students, ages 3 to 21, from 46 counties across California."