Why is Oracle assembling a secret database of Trump loyalists?
The Chronicle's RAHEEM HOSSEINI: "Oracle Corp., the $370 billion cloud-computing giant started in Santa Clara, is not shy about promoting a 430,000-plus-deep client roster that includes San Francisco-born tech companies like Open AI and Palantir or the government of Saudi Arabia.
But Oracle’s public-facing financial disclosures, its exhaustive customer index and searchable media releases do not mention its purported contract to build a secretive personnel database of politicos willing to implement Project 2025, a radically conservative agenda designed for a second Donald Trump term."
In Tim Walz’s rural hometown, his Democratic politics are an awkward fit
LAT's HAILEY BRANSON-POTTS: "Mayor Kyle Arganbright steered his dusty diesel truck through this ranching town, past the rodeo grounds and livestock auction, and pointed out the football field of the Valentine High School Badgers, whose roster once included a teenage Tim Walz. Next up: the quiet, tree-lined street where the Walz family once lived.
After Walz, the Minnesota governor, was named Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, reporters descended on his hometown of Valentine, population 2,600."
What 9 cases from Kamala Harris’ past say about her record as a California prosecutor
CALMatters's NIGEL DUARA: "In campaign mode, Kamala Harris doesn’t refer to herself as a politician, but a prosecutor.
Her rise in Democratic politics began in California’s courtrooms. Voters elected her first as San Francisco’s district attorney and then as the state’s attorney general."
Capitol Briefs: Party switch retribution, suspense file votes and new LGBTQ Caucus leadership
Capitol Weekly's STAFF: "LGBTQ Caucus announces new leadership: The Legislative LGBTQ Caucus announced Assemblymember Chris Ward (D-San Diego) as the caucus’s new chair, with Senator Caroline Menjivar (D-San Fernando Valley) as vice-chair. Ward will replace outgoing Sen. Susan Eggman (D-Stockton), who is termed out. Ward and Menjivar begin their terms on Dec. 2nd.
Hell hath no fury like a party scorned: The stunning party switch from Democrat to Republican by Sen. Marie Alvarado-Gil (R-Jackson) was never going to go without consequences and repercussions, and this week those started rolling in. While Alvarado-Gil was welcomed to the fold by Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones (R-San Diego), who lauded her “courage” in making the switch, at least one other Republican was less than happy about it."
Do outgoing legislators ‘shop’ for lobbying jobs in final weeks of the session?
CALMatters's RYAN SABALOW: "With some of the year’s biggest decisions still pending, nearly a quarter of California’s 120 lawmakers may soon be unemployed. Many of them are thinking about their next job as the Legislature wraps up this month.
If past experience is any guide, at least one in five departing lawmakers will end up working for companies or organizations trying to influence state government. In all, 20 incumbents are leaving elected office this year and another 15 are running for other seats."
Poll: Adam Schiff expands already sizable lead over Steve Garvey in California Senate race
LAT's KEVIN RECTOR: "Rep. Adam B. Schiff has slightly expanded his already sizable lead over retired Dodger All-Star Steve Garvey in new polling ahead of California’s U.S. Senate race, with the Burbank Democrat now holding a 20-point advantage over his Republican challenger.
Schiff was the preferred candidate of 53% of likely voters in the state, while Garvey was preferred by 33%, according to the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll, which was co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times."
Key S.F. union backs Mark Farrell for mayor after supporting London Breed in 2018
The Chronicle's J.D. MORRIS: "The union representing San Francisco firefighters has endorsed Mark Farrell’s candidacy for mayor, a snub to Mayor London Breed, who counted the labor group as one of her most important backers when she was elected six years ago.
San Francisco Firefighters Local 798 President Floyd Rollins told the Chronicle that his members voted “overwhelmingly” last week to give their sole backing to Farrell, a former interim mayor and supervisor. The union opted not to pick anyone else despite San Francisco’s ranked-choice voting system, which allows voters to choose up to 10 candidates in order of preference."
California must recognize historic forced deportations, lawmakers say. ‘Ripped families apart’
Sacramento Bee's HANNAH POUKISH: "California Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday called for the state to commemorate the Mexican Repatriation of the 1930s, a 15-year period when nearly two million people of Mexican descent were deported to Mexico.
Senate Majority Leader Lena Gonzalez, D-Long Beach, and Sen. Josh Becker, D-Menlo Park, introduced Senate Bill 537 to address injustices committed against Mexicans and Mexican Americans during the Great Depression."
California cuts back on safety enforcement as farmworkers toil in extreme heat
LAT's ROBERT J. LOPEZ: "California has sharply cut its enforcement of heat-protection laws for outdoor laborers while extreme heat has intensified in recent years — endangering farmworkers, construction workers and others who toil in scorching temperatures — an investigation by the Los Angeles Times and Capital & Main has found.
From 2017 to 2023, the number of field inspections conducted by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, known as Cal/OSHA, dropped by nearly 30%, according to agency data. The number of violations issued to employers in that period fell by more than 40%."
California lawmakers passed a slate of retail theft bills, but rifts over crime remain
The Chronicle's MOLLY BURKE, SOPHIA BOLLAG: "Before the Lego sets were kept behind locked glass panels, Michelle Leopold said the boxes of popular toys were regularly stolen from the shelves of her Laurel Heights Ace Hardware store. One time a group of shoplifters entered the store with garbage bags, filled them with Lego boxes and fled to a waiting van.
Leopold and her husband, who own six Ace locations across the Bay Area, have started locking other merchandise — including the entire tool aisle — in an effort to curb shoplifting."
In blow to affordable housing, $20 billion Bay Area bond yanked from ballot
The Chronicle's LAURA WAXMANN: "A $20 billion Bay Area affordable housing bond that was slated to come before voters in November was abruptly pulled from the ballot on Wednesday, a move that backers called a “tragedy” as the region continues to struggle with the astronomic cost of housing.
Backers yanked the bond, which would have helped build or preserve at least 70,000 homes, due to polls that showed a fading appetite for new taxes and legal opposition from taxpayer rights groups, which alleged that errors were made in advancing the measure."
White House says deals struck to cut prices of popular Medicare drugs that cost $50 billion yearly
LAT's AMANDA SEITZ, ZEKE MILLER: "The Biden administration said Thursday that drug price negotiations will knock hundreds of dollars — in some cases thousands — off the list prices of 10 of Medicare’s most popular and costliest drugs.
The discounts, agreed to after months of negotiations with drug manufacturers, range between 38% and 79% on the medication’s list price, which is the cost of medication before discounts or rebates are applied — not the price people actually pay for prescriptions."
GoFundMe campaigns show how transgender people are funding gender-affirming care
The Chronicle's EMMA STIEFEL: "At one point, Prestin Bailey felt like he and his Oakland friends were just passing money back and forth. His friend group was “chock-full of trans people,” and the funds they raised again and again were for gender-affirming health care. Bailey, a trans man, created his own GoFundMe campaign to support his recovery from top surgery in 2021.
His experience isn’t unique. GoFundMe crowdfunding is a common way for trans people to access health care. A Chronicle analysis found that as of Aug. 6, there were just under 3,000 GoFundMe campaigns seeking funds for gender-affirming medical procedures across the country. To identify these campaigns, the Chronicle searched for all campaigns that contained the keyword “gender affirming.”"
Sharp rise in ‘slapped cheek disease’ cases prompts CDC advisory
The Chronicle's AIDIN VAZIRI: "A highly contagious respiratory virus that causes “slapped cheek” disease is making a comeback, especially among young children, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The agency issued a health advisory on Tuesday, noting a sharp uptick in parvovirus B19 activity across the U.S. over the past two years. The virus, which causes a distinctive facial rash, is typically mild in children and healthy adults, often requiring minimal treatment. However, those who are immunocompromised or pregnant face significant risks of severe outcomes."
1.45 million California students are chronically absent. Can recess and cash get them back?
LAT's JOCELYN GECKER, VERONICA ROSEBOROUGH, HOWARD BLUME: "Ninth-grader Yaretzi Perez wants to be a neonatal nurse. But first, she has to find a way to stop missing so many days of school.
Her mother, Eleuteria Perez, is a single parent of five — ages 17, 14, 13, 10 and 8. They attend four schools, all starting at the same time. She’ll sometimes arrange a pick-up; sometimes pay someone to help. But the two older girls were supposed to walk to their middle and high schools from their Arlington Heights apartment."
Helping students with mental health struggles may get them back to school
EdSource's BETTY MARQUEZ ROSALES, MALLIKA SESHADRI: "Students who are chronically absent from school are much more likely to struggle with mental health challenges, with pre-teen boys and teen girls reporting some of the highest signs of distress.
When students need help, availability of mental health support often depends on the income of families. “As household income increased, so did the availability of mental health services” in children’s schools, University of Southern California researchers found in a survey of 2,500 households nationwide."
After the CSU mishandled Title IX, how are they implementing state recommendations?
Sacramento Bee's EMMA HALL: "Since legislation ordered the California State University to change the way it handles Title IX and sexual misconduct across its campuses, the system has adopted initiatives like a new system-wide policies on retreat rights and employment references.
A comprehensive audit last summer found that the California State University system failed to properly handle Title IX-related cases. In the last year, 10 of the 16 audit recommendations have been fully implemented across its campuses. The California State University system is required to implement the Cozen O’Connor audit recommendations by law."
S.F. schools likely face most tumultuous year in recent memory with huge changes ahead
The Chronicle's JILL TUCKER: "Classes start Monday for San Francisco’s 48,000 public school students, kicking off what will be one of the most tumultuous academic years the city has ever seen. District officials and families will have to grapple with the likely closure of at least 10 schools, massive cuts to prevent a state takeover, a divisive school board election and a big change to how students are assigned to schools.
That’s just for starters."
UC Berkeley responds to FAFSA delay with expanded support services
Daily Californian's ISABELLE KATZ: "The U.S. Department of Education has announced a delay in the release of the updated Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or Better FAFSA, for the 2025-26 academic year, with the official release now set for Dec. 1.
This delay has caused UC Berkeley’s Financial Aid and Scholarships Office to take additional steps to ensure students are supported during this transition. Associate Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs, Financial Aid, Scholarships and Cal Student Central Cruz Grimaldo explained that the office has been active in preparing for changes to the FAFSA processes."
Can Central California become an agave hub? Take a peek inside this farmer’s big bet
Sacramento Bee's ERIK GALICIA: "Fifty years ago, when Jack Woolf and his family founded Woolf Farming, he became one of the first in the western San Joaquin Valley to grow new crops including pistachios and almonds. Today, Stuart Woolf is following in his father’s innovative footsteps.
But he’s doing so at a time when the Valley’s groundwater crisis is taking countless acres out of agricultural production. Woolf Farming is planning to manage its 20,000 acres near the Fresno County town of Huron so that crops are produced on about 60% of the land."
Who disciplines LAPD officers? Records show same lawyers picked repeatedly for process
LAT's LIBOR JANY: "The pool of civilians who help determine the discipline for Los Angeles police officers accused of serious misconduct includes pastors, former public defenders and a travel consultant — but they are not the ones called most often to do the job.
Instead, records reviewed by The Times show, the task usually falls to the same handful of lawyers and arbitration professionals."
‘Our city is not an RV park’: L.A. to study widespread RV parking ban
LAT's RACHEL URANGA: "An effort to restrict the thousands of RVs parked in residential areas, next to schools and along commercial districts, is gaining steam, as Los Angeles struggles to figure out how to house the families and individuals living in them.
In a 14-0 vote Monday, the Los Angeles City Council ordered city agencies to come up with “recommendations for a citywide program” that would limit RV parking, while also providing restrooms, septic waste removal, help finding housing and other services in designated areas."
Arrest made in probe of Matthew Perry’s ketamine death
LAT's RICHARD WINTON, NATHAN SOLIS, BRITTNY MEJIA: "Federal authorities have made an arrest in connection with the death of “Friends” star Matthew Perry, law enforcement sources told The Times on Thursday.
Few details were available, and officials have scheduled a news conference for later in the morning."