California sues White House to restore SNAP benefits as cutoff looms
Sac Bee, LIA RUSSELL: "California and 23 other states are suing the White House to restore public benefits days before 40 million Americans are set to lose access to federal food aid as the government shutdown enters its fourth week.
Attorney General Rob Bonta and Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday that they had filed suit in a federal Massachusetts court, along with states like Arizona, Minnesota, Kansas, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Kentucky to restore funding to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program."
The government shutdown is costing workers entire paychecks — here’s what you can do now
Chronicle, JESSICA ROY: "Federal workers are now missing entire paychecks due to the government shutdown.
The shutdown began Oct. 1, when Congress failed to pass an appropriations bill or a continuing resolution to keep the government funded. The parties are deadlocked over a disagreement about continuing funding for health-care subsidies. On Tuesday morning, Senate Democrats failed to advance a stopgap measure that would have kept the government funded through Nov. 21, saying Republicans need to come to the table to reach a compromise to preserve Affordable Care Act tax credits. Without those credits, average premiums for Affordable Care Act plans would more than double."
READ MORE -- How can California’s military veterans weather the federal shutdown? -- Sac Bee, DAVID LIGHTMAN
Prop 50 supporters have raised so much money it keeps straining the state’s reporting system
Chronicle, SOPHIA BOLLAG: "With a week to go, supporters of Proposition 50 have raised more than twice as much as opponents, a gap that has widened significantly in recent weeks.
Supporters have reported $129 million in contributions while opponents have reported just $46 million. Spending is also lopsided, with supporters reporting more than double the expenditures of opponents."
Trump says ‘it’s too bad’ he can’t run for a third term
LAT, CHRIS MEGERIAN/LISA MASCARO: "President Trump said Wednesday that “it’s too bad” he’s not allowed to run for a third term, conceding the constitutional reality even as he expressed interest in continuing to serve.
“If you read it, it’s pretty clear,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One enroute from Japan to South Korea. “I’m not allowed to run. It’s too bad.”"
With L.A.’s mayor focused on trash-strewn streets, her top sanitation official moves on
LAT, DAVID ZAHNISER: "With the 2028 Olympic Games less than three years away, Mayor Karen Bass is showing a newfound interest in one of L.A.’s less flattering qualities: its trash-strewn streets.
In April, Bass announced the launch of Shine L.A., a beautification program that sends ordinary Angelenos out with shovels, gloves and trash bags to remove detritus from streets and sidewalks."
Feds charge East Bay city council member in corruption case linked to Sheng Thao
Chronicle, MEGAN CASSIDY: "Federal prosecutors have charged San Leandro City Council Member Bryan Azevedo with two felonies related to what they described as a scheme to help a housing company win city contracts in exchange for kickbacks.
The charges, filed Tuesday, came nearly 10 months after Azevedo’s home was raided by the FBI. Azevedo was told by federal prosecutors in June that he was the “target” of an investigation into potential crimes including bribery and lying to federal agents."
Half a million young Californians aren’t in school or work. Most are men
CALMatters, ADAM ECHELMAN: "If you ask Jodeah Wilson how his life got off track, he’ll say it’s all about money.
He needs money for November rent. He also needs money to pay back the tuition he owes for the spring semester at Sacramento State University, which would allow him to re-enroll. Until then, he’s stuck in limbo."
Adam Schiff and Doug LaMalfa want to reopen this county’s only hospital. But it won’t be easy
CALMatters, ANA B. IBARRA: "Four weeks after Glenn County lost its only hospital, two California lawmakers in Congress have revived hopes for its return — though the road to reopening remains uncertain.
Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff and Republican Rep. Doug LaMalfa introduced two separate bills that aim to help Glenn Medical Center, a 25-bed hospital in the rural town of Willows. Each proposal would restore the hospital’s “critical access” status, a designation that brings increased Medicare reimbursement and regulatory flexibilities that help small hospitals."
Immigration agents are raiding California hospitals and clinics. Can a new state law prevent that?
LAT, CLAUDIA BOYD-BARRETT: "In recent months, federal agents camped out in the lobby of a Southern California hospital, guarded detained patients — sometimes shackled — in hospital rooms, and chased an immigrant landscaper into a surgical center.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents also have shown up at community clinics. Health providers say officers tried to enter a parking lot hosting a mobile clinic, waved a machine gun in the faces of clinicians serving the homeless, and hauled a passerby into an unmarked car outside a community health center."
California’s concerning new shift on healthcare investment (OP-ED)
Capitol Weekly, REGAN PARKER: "California has long been a bellwether for national trends. From vehicle emissions standards to data privacy laws, California’s policies often serve as the template for federal action or state legislatures across the country. It’s disappointing then that the state known for shaping the future of medicine and technology would take a step backward on needed healthcare investment. In signing Senate Bill 351 and Assembly Bill 1415, Governor Newsom has advanced measures that may reverberate far beyond California, discouraging the very capital that keeps clinics open, hospitals solvent, and patients cared for. If history is any guide, what starts in California rarely stays there—and this time, that should worry everyone.
California’s newly enacted laws mark a concerning shift in how the state will approach healthcare investment. The laws double down on restrictions around investors’ involvement in areas like billing and coding, the very administrative headaches that private capital investors and healthcare providers manage so that doctors can spend more time focusing on patients. They also significantly expand the state government’s authority to review transactions involving management service organizations (MSOs) and private equity funds, among other provisions. In short, these new laws will raise barriers to needed investments in California’s healthcare infrastructure."
Recent California mpox cases spur vaccine push for high-risk people
Chronicle, CATHERINE HO: "California health officials are urging people at high risk of contracting mpox — a viral disease that causes painful rash and fever — to make sure they’re fully vaccinated, in light of three recent locally acquired cases in the state.
“We want people to know clade I is here, it’s circulating, and people should get up to date on the vaccine,” California Public Health Officer Dr. Erica Pan said Tuesday during a briefing with medical professionals."
Oakland has a major drug overdose problem. But San Francisco’s is deadlier
Chronicle, MAGGIE ANGST/CHRISTIAN LEONARD: "Over the past four years, more than 200 people have died annually of overdoses in Oakland. Yet just across the Bay, San Francisco’s drug epidemic is deadlier.
Although Oakland has more people per capita living below the poverty line and nearly double the number of people per capita living in tents and vehicles, San Francisco's drug crisis is claiming lives at a far higher rate, especially among Black residents."
UC coaches are California’s highest paid public employees. Who made the most?
Sac Bee, WILLIAM MELHADO: "The top-paid University of California employees who took home millions last year included a familiar cast of head coaches, doctors and leaders of health systems.
Justin Wilcox, UC Berkeley’s head football coach, earned the title of highest paid state employee last year, earning $4.7 million, according to the latest salary data. UCLA’s head basketball coach, Michael Cronin, came in second after earning $4.1 million in 2024."
UCSF gets ‘transformative’ $100M gift for research on memory, aging and Alzheimer’s
Chronicle, ERIN ALLDAY: "UCSF has received a $100 million donation for its memory and aging center, a gift that doctors at the dementia care clinic say comes at a critical moment in the development of new therapies for Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative conditions.
The gift from the Edward Fein Charitable Trust, announced Wednesday by UCSF, comes without restrictions other than that it must be spent in the newly named Edward and Pearl Fein Memory and Aging Center, located on UCSF’s Mission Bay campus."
UC Berkeley student’s ‘chicken rescue’ trial goes to jury, testing animal rights movement
Chronicle, CONNOR LETOURNEAU: "During his closing argument in a Sonoma County trial that could reverberate throughout America’s animal rights movement, Deputy District Attorney Matt Hobson seized several opportunities to stress something that should have seemed obvious: The defendant — not animal agriculture — is on trial here.
His need to reiterate that point Tuesday spoke to the unique nature of this case. It’s not just that Zoe Rosenberg, a 23-year-old UC Berkeley undergrad and animal rights activist, is facing nearly five years in prison for taking four chickens valued at around $24 from a Petaluma-area poultry processing facility in June 2023. By spurning a plea agreement in favor of a high-stakes trial, she had intended to force an examination of the meat industry’s practices."
As dry weather persists, here’s how likely a California storm will be
Chronicle, ANTHONY EDWARDS: "California is forecast to remain high and dry this week as rainstorms target the Pacific Northwest. Under mostly sunny skies, Wednesday will be the warmest day of the week in the Bay Area, with many cities reaching the 80s. Meanwhile, coastal Southern California is anticipated to flirt with the 90s.
Halloween weekend is shaping up to be warm and dry from San Francisco to Sacramento all the way to San Diego as a high-pressure system parks itself over California. While the dry pattern looks to persist for the next seven days, there are signs that wet weather could return by the middle of next week."
Plan to kill 450,000 owls creates odd political bedfellows — loggers and environmentalists
LAT, LILA SEIDMAN: "The strange political bedfellows created by efforts to save spotted owls in the Pacific Northwest just got even stranger.
Already Republican members of Congress were allied with animal rights activists.
They don’t want trained shooters to kill up to 450,000 barred owls, which are outcompeting northern spotted owls, under a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plan approved last year that would unfold over three decades."
It’s the language of S.F.’s first Chinese immigrants. Can it survive another generation?
Chronicle, KO LYN CHEANG: "Kim Torres was nervous as she stepped in front of two dozen classmates to perform the Cantonese dialogue she’d memorized. Although the language is her late mother’s native language, the 23-year-old didn’t learn it until this fall.
“Emily, neih daaihyeuk geinoih tai yat chi hei a?” she said, meaning “how often do you watch a movie?”"
An Oakland small business owner’s plea for stability (OP-ED)
Capitol Weekly, MARK TOMPKINS: "In 2015, I co-founded FlowWest in Oakland with a simple idea: put talented people to work solving real problems for our state. Over the years, our company has grown from 3 to 30 employees—scientists, engineers, planners, software developers, and data scientists who live here, pay taxes here, and want to keep building a stronger Bay Area and a stronger California.
But like thousands of small businesses across the country, we’re facing a level of uncertainty that’s impossible to plan around. As a government contractor, much of our work depends on federal programs and agencies that are now impacted by the government shutdown. Projects are stalled. Invoices are sitting unpaid. And opportunities for new work are in limbo. For a small business, this isn’t about politics—it’s about payroll."
Paramount lays off 1,000 workers in first round of cuts
LAT, MEG JAMES/SAMANTHA MASUNAGA: "Paramount on Wednesday began cutting about 1,000 employees, the first wave of a deep staff reduction planned since David Ellison took the helm of the entertainment company in August.
Ellison announced the layoffs in an early morning email to his staff, saying the long-anticipated move was aimed at “building a strong foundation for the future.” Wednesday’s cuts represent about 5% of the organization."
Meta confirms Bay Area layoffs affecting more than 300 workers in Menlo Park
Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI: "Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, confirmed new layoffs affecting more than 300 Bay Area employees.
In notices filed with the California Employment Development Department, Meta said it will permanently lay off 318 employees in San Mateo County, effective Dec. 22."
Investors own a surprisingly low share of Bay Area homes — except in one ZIP code
Chronicle, CHRISTIAN LEONARD: "Many investors put their money into tech companies like Meta. Others, it turns out, invest just a few blocks away — in the homes surrounding the tech giant’s campuses.
But it’s not as if BlackRock, as one urban legend holds, owns over a third of all area homes."
As Sacramento leaders talk homeless solutions, some want region to ‘move quicker’
Sac Bee, EMMA HALL/GRAHAM WOMACK: "Elected leaders for Sacramento County and most of its cities met for several hours Tuesday at the Tsakopoulos Library Galleria to discuss homelessness in the region and local government bodies’ approach to addressing the crisis.
The meeting, billed as the County-City Collaboration on Homeless Services and Behavioral Health, convened the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors, the Sacramento City Council, and one elected official from each of Citrus Heights, Elk Grove, Folsom, Galt and Rancho Cordova."
Sacramento Regional Transit shifts $1M to boost security on light rail and buses
Sac Bee, ARIANE LANGE: "The Sacramento Regional Transit board of directors voted Monday to allocate an additional $1 million to boost security on light rail and buses.
The money is being reallocated from existing funds. Although it was unclear exactly how it would be divided, the board voted to send the money to hire 10 more transit ambassadors, add two staffers in the security operations center and security guards who are typically police."
Report questions why LAPD mental health specialists must defer to armed officers
LAT, LIBOR JANY: "A new report from the city controller’s office questions the effectiveness of the LAPD’s signature crisis response program, saying clinicians trained in de-escalation too often are forced to defer to armed patrol officers.
For years, Los Angeles Police Department officials have touted the success of the Systemwide Mental Assessment Response Team, or SMART. But critics say the program, which pairs licensed specialists with officers in unmarked cars, is failing in the crucial initial minutes of encounters when multiple police shootings of mentally ill people have occurred."