No Kings protests set to draw thousands across Bay Area on Trump’s birthday
The Chronicle, MOLLY BURKE: "Thousands of protesters are expected to gather at No Kings demonstrations Saturday across the Bay Area — and the rest of the United States — to register opposition to President Donald Trump on his birthday.
The demonstrations, which will coincide with Trump’s military parade in Washington, D.C., follow days of increasingly tense protests in cities across the country over immigration raids and Trump’s deployment of military troops to Los Angeles."
READ MORE -- L.A.’s immigration raid protests reach 7th day; state’s effort to block military deployment faces test in court -- LAT, STAFF; Photos show how National Guard troops have been deployed in L.A. But their role is growing -- The Chronicle, JILL TUCKER/ST. JOHN-BARNED SMITH
California Congress members to question Hegseth about federal military deployment in L.A.
LAT, SEEMA MEHTA/LAURA J. NELSON: "California Democrats plan to question Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday about the immigration raids that have roiled Los Angeles, the federal commandeering of the state’s National Guard and the deployment of Marines in the region when he testifies before the House Armed Services Committee.
Several committee members said they received no advance notice about the federal immigration sweeps at workplaces and other locations that started Friday and that prompted large and at times fiery protests in downtown Los Angeles."
Can Trump deploy troops in LA? A federal judge hears Newsom’s case today
CALMatters, MIKHAIL ZINSHTEYN: "Does President Donald Trump or Gov. Gavin Newsom have final say on deploying the California National Guard to Los Angeles? And when can a sitting president send the Marines to a U.S. city, as Trump did in L.A.?
Those are the questions at the heart of a rapidly moving legal challenge Newsom and California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed against Trump that is scheduled to get its first hearing starting at 1.30 p.m. today at a federal court in San Francisco."
Death threats, vandalism, investigations: L.A. immigrant rights groups in the fight of their lives
LAT, RACHEL URANGA: "“No firmes nada,” a union organizer shouted into a bullhorn as he stood atop the flatbed of a truck outside Ambience Apparel, doling out battlefield legal advice not to sign anything. “You have a right to a lawyer. You are not alone.”
Advocates and lawyers had arrived at the downtown store minutes after tips began to pop off at the hotline set up by the Los Angeles Rapid Response Network, a coalition of 300 volunteers and 23 labor unions and immigrant rights and social justice groups that was organized last year to respond to enforcement."
READ MORE -- Beleaguered L.A. immigrant advocates are now threatened with federal probes -- LAT. RACHEL URANGA
Gavin Newsom establishes himself as Democrats’ chief social media troll
Sac Bee, LIA RUSSELL: "All it took was eight minutes and 40 seconds and a firehose of memes for Gov. Gavin Newsom to vault himself to the front of the previously necrotic resistance movement against the White House. In a fiery speech Tuesday evening, Newsom, wearing his usual navy suit and flanked by California and U.S. flags, stared into a camera and lambasted President Donald Trump’s deployment of the military to suppress protests of deportation raids in Los Angeles."
Lawmakers budget money to help private foster agencies weather insurance crisis
Capitol Weekly, BRIAN JOSEPH: "In contrast to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s budget, the Legislature’s budget proposal includes $31.5 million in bridge funding to help California’s private foster care agencies navigate a fast-moving insurance crisis that developed around the time lawmakers were leaving Sacramento last year.
In August 2024, the Nonprofit Insurance Alliance, which insured 90 percent of the 220 private foster agencies in California, announced that it would not renew coverage of the organizations."
L.A. Councilmember Lee breaks silence on infamous Vegas trip, ethics allegations
LAT, DAKOTA SMITH: "For years, Los Angeles City Councilmember John Lee declined to publicly discuss a fateful Las Vegas trip he took in 2017 with his then-boss Mitch Englander and a trio of businessmen.
That trip led to an FBI investigation of Englander, then a City Council member, who accepted an envelope of cash in a casino bathroom from one of the businessmen and later pleaded guilty to lying to federal investigators."
Mayor Lurie made ‘painful’ cuts in his S.F. budget proposal. The hurt is far from over
The Chronicle, JD MORRIS/ALDO TOLEDO: "San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie said he made “painful decisions” when assembling his recent budget proposal that would slash nonprofit contracts and shrink the City Hall workforce.
But the hurt is far from over. Lurie recently told the Chronicle that he is still eyeing a more ambitious overhaul next year as he tries to erase a deficit that’s projected to reach as much as $700 million in the 2028 fiscal year."
Can I be fired for being too old? Here’s what California law says about age
Sac Bee, ANGELA RODRIGUEZ: "From babysitting rules to tattoo restrictions, California has a range of age-based laws.
While California residents can legally start working at age 12, can you be too old to work?"
Sacramento councilmember’s last-minute push to expand youth funding failed. Here’s why
Sacramento Bee, MATHEW MIRANDA: "A last-minute attempt to further divvy up new youth funding failed at Tuesday night’s Sacramento City Council meeting after concerns were raised that the proposal went against a previously approved plan.
The effort, spearheaded by Council members Karina Talamantes and Roger Dickinson, centered around the distribution of Measure L — a 2022 ballot initiative that allocates some revenue from cannabis operations taxes to youth services. For weeks, the council had considered two potential scenarios by city staff that allocates the roughly $17.9 million to certain organizations."
AB 1264 Fails Latino communities (OP-ED)
Capitol Weekly, JULIAN CANETE: "Food is more than fuel in Latino communities. It’s culture, connection, and survival. For California’s 1.8 million Latino-owned businesses and the families they serve, any law affecting food access is a law that affects our lives and livelihoods.
Unfortunately, Assembly Bill 1264 doesn’t help us, it harms us."
California voters passed a $6.4 billion mental health bond. Now, see where that money is going
CALMatters, MARISA KENDALL/JOCELYN WIENER/ERICA YEE: "A little more than a year after Californians approved a $6.4 billion mental health bond with a nail-bitingly close vote, we’re getting our first glimpse into how that money will be spent.
Last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom awarded nearly half of the money to projects that range from a crisis stabilization unit in rural Del Norte County to a residential addiction treatment program for mothers in Los Angeles. The initial $3.3 billion should fund more than 5,000 treatment beds and 21,800 outpatient treatment slots for people struggling with their mental health or addiction, according to his office."
New COVID variant linked to painful ‘razor blade throat’ symptom
The Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI: "As summer brings another rise in COVID-19 infections, patients across Asia, Europe and North America are reporting a searing sore throat so intense it has earned a dramatic nickname: “razor blade throat.”
Though not a new symptom, the phenomenon has gained fresh attention amid the spread of a fast-moving Omicron subvariant, formally known as NB.1.8.1 and colloquially as “Nimbus.”"
Low-income, first-generation students could lose vital college resource under Trump’s budget cuts
The Chronicle, KO LYN CHEANG: "Mission High School graduating senior Mariana Aguilar, the daughter of working-class Colombian immigrants, had always wanted to make her parents proud by becoming one of the first in their family to go to college. But she doesn’t know whether she’d have been able to earn a spot at San Jose State University — where she’ll enroll with a full scholarship this fall –—without the help of her college access counselor, Alexis Lopez.
“Alexis just changed my life,” Aguilar said last week after she celebrated alongside 44 other high school seniors from low-income families who participated in a program that provides intensive coaching for disadvantaged teens to become first-generation college students."
Trump administration moves to abolish California’s two newest national monuments
The Chronicle, KURTIS ALEXANDER: "The Trump administration is moving forward with plans to abolish California’s two newest national monuments, Sáttítla Highlands National Monument in the state’s far north and Chuckwalla National Monument near Joshua Tree.
The push to eliminate the designations, issued earlier this year by former President Joe Biden, was revealed in a U.S. Justice Department memo this week, responding to legal questions from the administration about rolling back the California monuments."
READ MORE -- Justice Department says Trump can undo national monuments; California areas could be on list -- LAT, LILA SEIDMAN
The Klamath River’s dams are gone. Now, a group of native teenagers will paddle the whole thing
The Chronicle, GREGORY THOMAS: "In celebration of the largest dam removal project in U.S. history, a group of native youths will embark today on a kayaking descent of the Klamath River from its headwaters in Southern Oregon 250 miles to its mouth in Northern California — the first source-to-sea journey on the newly undammed river.
Decommissioning and razing four of the six dams along the Klamath, which stood for more than a century and generated hydroelectric power, took decades of advocacy from environmentalists, fishing groups and in particular the region’s indigenous tribes, who regard the mighty waterway, with its historic salmon runs, as the pillar of life. Two remaining dams on the river, both in Oregon, are being left alone due to their importance managing flood water and supporting agriculture."
A creek on California’s most famous vineyard is the site of a contentious, yearslong fight
The Chronicle, JESS LANDER: "A four-mile creek that runs through California’s most famous vineyard is at the center of a yearslong battle between a fourth-generation Napa Valley grape grower and major wine corporation Constellation Brands. After a 16-page appeal, repeated delays and even a fraud allegation, the conflict may finally get resolved this week.
The farmer, Graeme MacDonald, “grew up on and in” the creek, which babbles through land his family has owned since 1954. The property is part of the hallowed To Kalon Vineyard — made famous by California wine pioneer Robert Mondavi — and the unassuming creek is a geological star. Within its ancient bed, mineral deposits of gravel, sand and silt formed and spread, creating what’s known as an alluvial fan: rocky, fertile and well-draining soil that’s widely believed to be the best in the world for growing wine grapes. Known for producing some of the most complex and sought-after wines worldwide, these alluvial soils are famously found in renowned wine regions such as Burgundy and Bordeaux."
Federal DEI, “wokeness” restrictions put California homeless providers in a bind
CALMatters, BEN CHRISTOPHER/MARISA KENDALL: "Homeless service providers across California — and as much as $683 million in federal funding for the state’s most economically vulnerable residents — have been caught up in the Trump administration’s war on “wokeness.”
Beginning earlier this spring, organizations that use federal Continuum of Care Program grant money to provide housing, rental assistance, street outreach and other services to tens of thousands of unhoused Californians started receiving notification from the Department of Housing and Urban Development that those dollars now come with an unusual list of conditions. Grantees would be barred from using the funds to promote “gender ideology,” “elective abortions,” and “illegal immigration,” among other restrictions."
Would speed cameras get California drivers to slow down in construction zones?
Sac Bee, TINA LI: "While replacing a pavement panel on Pomona’s Interstate 10 in 2021, Ricardo Alarcon witnessed a car run over two of his coworkers. The driver had somehow blown past their construction trucks, warning signs, and a line of bright orange cones.
Alarcon, who’s been working in highway construction since 2012 and now serves as a traffic control supervisor in Irvine, has four children. Sometimes when he calls them while on break, they’ll see how fast the cars are going around him. “It worries them every day, because they never know if it’s gonna be that phone call,” he said."