U.S.-China trade war threatens to upend not only the American economy but the global order
LAT, JENNY JARVIE: "As President Trump pushes the United States into a trade war with China, the trade-offs are often described as higher consumer prices and inflation versus the potential to bring back manufacturing jobs that Americans lost over the last three decades.
But the economic showdown between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping is about much more than the price of an iPhone or a pair of Hoka shoes."
Long before El Salvador’s president cozied up to Trump, Gavin Newsom paid him a visit
The Chronicle, SOPHIA BOLLAG: "On Monday, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele made headlines when he met with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office for a chummy meeting where the two heads of state discussed the idea of Trump sending American citizens to a brutal mega-prison in the Central American country. Bukele also said he would not send back a migrant deported from Maryland in error.
Six years earlier, nearly to the day, Bukele met with a very different American official at an art museum in San Salvador, his nation’s capital. Bukele had just been elected president on an anti-corruption campaign, though he had not yet taken office, and he was meeting with another newly elected executive: California Gov. Gavin Newsom."
Is Folsom actually ‘Trump Country’? Election data says otherwise
Sacramento Bee, NICOLE NIXON: "As progressive leaders Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., rallied supporters in Folsom Tuesday evening, a small airplane circled above trailing a banner that read “Folsom is Trump Country!”
In an Instagram post later that evening, Sanders said the city of nearly 85,000 is “in a Republican county.”"
Amid deadly measles outbreak, California’s childhood vaccination rates are falling
EdSource, KAREN D'SOUZA: "Before the pandemic, Lillian Lopez never questioned the safety of vaccines. That’s why all her children are up to date on their immunizations. The Bakersfield mother of three used to be religious about getting her flu shot. She never missed a year.
No more. Lopez, 45, took offense at how Covid-19 vaccine mandates and restrictions were enforced. The experience gave her pause about the integrity of the entire public health apparatus. Now, she questions every shot."
Trump policy targeting immigrants shuts California students out of federal programs
CALMatters, ADAM ECHELMAN: "President Donald Trump has taken aim at students and professors at California’s elite institutions, such as UC Berkeley and UCLA, but community colleges, which enroll the majority of the state’s students, have largely avoided the administration’s ire.
Until recently. The U.S. Department of Education announced on March 27 that it was stopping California universities and colleges from using federal funding to “provide services to illegal immigrants.” The education department is specifically referring to federal TRIO programs, which provide various forms of financial aid and counseling to low-income, first-generation students."
California officials find bias in Bay Area district’s ethnic studies classes
The Chronicle,JILL TUCKER: "Two Silicon Valley ethnic studies teachers violated California law when they included content related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that was biased and discriminated against Jewish students, state education officials concluded in a recent investigation.
The ruling pertaining to Campbell Union High School District sent one of the clearest signals to date from the California Department of Education that taking sides in the conflict discriminates against students based on their religion, in this case Judaism."
Live colossal squid, super-heavyweight of the deep sea, caught on video for the first time
The Chronicle,SUMMER LIN: "The colossal squid, the world’s largest squid species, was caught on video for the first time swimming in its natural habitat, according to a California ocean research organization.
This squid, as its name suggests, can grow to as much as 23 feet in length and 1,100 pounds — the heaviest invertebrate in the world — according to the Schmidt Ocean Institute. But the creature the institute caught on video was a footlong juvenile."
Bay Area microclimates on full display Thursday as fog meets inland warmth
The Chronicle, GREG PORTER: "Thursday will put the Bay Area’s microclimates on full display, with fog curling around the coast in the morning and sunshine spilling across inland valleys by afternoon.
A thick marine layer will push inland early Thursday, dragging low clouds and a blanket of cool, damp air across the Golden Gate and into the East Bay hills, the Peninsula and even parts of the South Bay. That means it will be another foggy and potentially damp start in many spots, but by midday much of the region will begin to shake it off. Sunshine will return from the inside out, clearing first in the interior valleys and holding on the longest by the coast."
How to get your money in shape for a recession
The Chronicle,JESSICA ROY: "Are we headed toward a recession? Some economists think so.
J.P. Morgan Research economists put the odds at 60% for this year. At Morgan Stanley, the odds are at 40%. Goldman Sachs researchers projected a 45% likelihood of a recession."
Disney’s parks are its economic engine. Tariffs could put a damper on it
LAT, SAMANTHA MASUNAGA: "As trade tensions and tariff-fueled fears of a recession roil the economy, stock analysts warn that Walt Disney Co.’s theme parks could take a hit.
Typically, amusement park attendance in the U.S. is tied to the health of the American economy. When people feel better about their financial situation, they’re more likely to spend on discretionary purchases, such as a Disney vacation, said Laurent Yoon, senior analyst at Bernstein."
A cloud over L.A. home builders: How tariffs are tormenting contractors and developers
LAT, ROGER VINCENT/LIAM DILLON: "Uncertainty about which imports will be socked with new tariffs and when they’ll go into effect has thrown a cloud over home builders and other real estate developers trying to pay for new construction throughout Southern California, including neighborhoods scorched by the January wildfires.
Many builders are trying to budget for rising costs but are frustrated because they don’t know what construction materials and appliances, such as stoves and air conditioners, will cost in the months ahead."
Bipped economy? S.F. auto glass shops are suffering as car break-ins plunge
LAT, RACHEL SWAN: "At the height of San Francisco’s car break-in epidemic, phones were ringing non-stop at glass repair shops, and business was booming.
“We used to get 60 to 80 calls a day,” said Hank Wee, manager of In & Out Auto Glass, a large garage on Bayshore Boulevard. He remembered how the shop was abuzz in 2017, a year when thousands of people returned to their cars to find windshields splintered and glass lodged in their door frames."
What is stopping Trump from exiling you to a foreign prison?
LAT, MICHAEL WILNER: "With cameras rolling in the Oval Office, President Trump told reporters this week that he would carefully study the law before deciding whether to exile Americans accused of violent crimes to prisons overseas, where, according to his administration, U.S. courts are powerless to respond.
Yet before the press arrived, Trump shared a different, less equivocal message with El Salvador’s dictatorial president, Nayib Bukele, who has already built sprawling maximum security complexes in service of Trump’s scheme to deport noncitizens out of legal reach."
Menendez brothers face key hearing in bid for freedom as D.A. Hochman seeks delay
LAT, JAMES QUEALLY/RICHARD WINTON: "A Los Angeles County judge is expected to begin hearing evidence in a Van Nuys courtroom Thursday that could give brothers Erik and Lyle Menendez their first chance at freedom in more than 35 years.
Defense attorney Mark Geragos will ask L.A. County Superior Court Judge Michael Jesic to resentence the brothers to manslaughter in the execution-style slayings of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, citing years of sexual abuse allegedly suffered at the hands of their father."
30% jailed in Sacramento County are homeless. ‘Our lifestyle shouldn’t be illegal’
Sacramento Bee, ARIANE LANGE: "Elizabeth Williams didn’t want any trouble with the police. She also didn’t want to freeze to death, so she left her tent up overnight. As temperatures dropped into the 40s, she bundled up under her blankets. The deadline to move the camp was the next day; she could pack the tent away in the morning, she thought.
The cops had told her the encampment where she lived was being “swept,” and she was doing her best to comply. Most of her belongings, she and two neighbors said, were already in storage bins."