California sues as Trump cuts $600M in public health grants to four states
CALMATTERS, ANA B. IBARRA: "California is suing the Trump Administration over its plans to cut $600 million in public health funding from California and three other Democratic states, Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Wednesday.
Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services told Congress it would end Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grants in California, Colorado, Illinois and Minnesota. The attorneys general in those states filed a joint lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Wednesday, arguing the cuts are based on “arbitrary political animus” and would cause irreparable harm."
AG Bonta deals cardrooms a defeat in their battle with the tribes
CAPITOL WEEKLY, BRIAN JOSEPH: "New regulations approved this month will dramatically change the operations of California’s cardrooms and are expected to take a sizable bite out of not only their revenues but that of several cities.
The changes, however, are in line with what the state’s gaming tribes have been pushing for."
CA lawmakers want to close a loophole they say allowed CSU to withhold raises
SACBEE, WILLIAM MELHADO: "Assembly members said the California State University system exploited a loophole in state labor law that allowed it to back out of contractually obligated raises last year. California lawmakers are getting behind a bill to tweak the law that governs higher education labor relations to ensure the university system has to honor agreed-upon salary increases. “
Year after year, the California State University exploits a loophole in the law to dodge accountability and blame me and my colleagues for not keeping their end of the deal,” said Assemblymember Liz Ortega, D-San Leandro, on the west steps of the Capitol on Wednesday announcing Assembly Bill 1818."
‘Valleycrat’ or Mamdani wannabe?: California Democrats are split on how to win swing votes
CALMATTERS, MAYA C. MILLER: "California Democrats, hungry to retake the U.S. House, all agree they must defeat Central Valley Republican incumbent Rep. David Valadao.
But they can’t agree on who his challenger should be."
UCLA professor’s emails to Epstein stir protest as academia is jolted by links to sex abuser
LAT, JAWEED KALEEM: "He was seeking a $500,000 donation from Jeffrey Epstein to boost research into how sound — like lullabies or a mother’s voice — could reduce pain, stress and heart rates among premature babies hospitalized in neonatal intensive care.
Dr. Mark Tramo, an adjunct professor of neurology at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, ultimately received only a fraction of what he wanted from Epstein before the convicted sex offender died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges."
LAUSD will vote on layoffs amid budget challenges, declining enrollment
EDSOURCE, MALLIKA SESHADRI: "The Los Angeles Unified School District is weighing layoffs that could reshape classrooms across the nation’s second-largest school district.
The district’s board at next week’s meeting is expected to decide whether to cut jobs, as it faces a projected $191 million deficit in the 2027-28 school year if it keeps spending at its current pace. The deficits in LAUSD and other districts are driven largely by the loss of Covid relief funds, declining enrollment and rising costs."
EDSOURCE, DIANA LAMBERT: "Elk Grove Unified School District’s new superintendent, David Reilly, has inherited one of the few school districts in California that is still growing. Although that makes balancing the district’s budget a little easier, the need to build schools and recruit staff in a district of more than 64,000 students can be challenging.
But Reilly, who was once in the Bay Area punk band Twain and quotes jazz great Miles Davis, is the epitome of cool. He recently sat down with EdSource to talk about his new position."
Onslaught of storms is headed to California — with chance of snow in Bay Area
CHRONICLE, ANTHONY EDWARDS: "One storm down, many more to come.
An onslaught of storms is expected to lash California beginning Sunday, continuing through Presidents Day week. Before the storm parade begins, though, there will be a few days of dry weather."
Lawmakers should safeguard Mojave water and environment
CAPITOL WEEKLY, MARY MARTIN: "If you’re a company trying to sell water in the American Southwest, you know it’s been a bad year when it starts with the California State Controller calling your project a risk to taxpayers and ends with an Arizona agency refusing to fund your project. And that’s exactly what happened to Cadiz, Inc., a Los Angeles based corporation that for 30 years has been targeting a Mojave Desert aquifer for pumping and profit.
But despite repeated failures to secure permits and funding, the company continues to threaten desert parks and monuments with its project. I know this threat well, having spent my entire career in the National Park Service and over a decade of that protecting our desert."
These maps show where California sank the most over the past decade
CHRONICLE, JACK LEE: "Over the past decade, parts of California have plummeted by multiple feet, according to satellite measurements.
The San Joaquin Valley saw the biggest drops, with parts of the Tulare Basin sinking more than seven feet between 2015 and 2025. Although the most dramatic declines occurred during drought years, subsidence did not stop when wetter conditions returned: even from 2024 to 2025, sections of the basin sank by as much as five inches."
California judges defend their independence and the rule of law (OP-ED)
CALMATTERS, ROBERT GREENE: "When the rule of law is under attack, judges are among its natural defenders. But the very nature of their positions prevents them from doing or even saying much outside of their courtrooms. They have to avoid any appearance of bias or partisanship.
That’s why it was so noteworthy, nine years ago, when California Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye stuck her neck out by calling on Trump administration officials to stop making immigration arrests in courthouses. Court is a place where witnesses, litigants, criminal defendants and anyone else should be encouraged to come without fear, in pursuit of justice, Cantil-Sakauye wrote. Using court as “bait” for arrests undermines that purpose, she said."
Can California police access my Ring home camera footage? What policy says
SACBEE, ANGELA RODRIGUEZ: "As investigators search for missing Arizona woman Nancy Guthrie, authorities have released home surveillance footage that they say shows her alleged abductor. Guthrie, 84, is from Tucson and is the mother of NBC “Today” show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie, according to Us Weekly.more at:"
Nithya Raman declared ‘Defund the police.’ Now she says L.A. shouldn’t lose more cops
LAT, NOAH GOLDBERG/DAVID ZAHNISER: "Two days after her surprise entry into the Los Angeles mayor’s race, Nithya Raman staked out her position on public safety, saying she doesn’t want the Police Department to lose more officers.
“We need to maintain the size of our police force and grapple with the fact that even the size of our existing police force is not enough to respond to 911 calls in a timely fashion,” she said Monday in an interview with NBC Los Angeles."
First phase of massive housing project set to break ground at this East Bay BART station
CHRONICLE, KATE TALERICO: "A long-planned transit-oriented development on BART property at the West Oakland Station is finally moving closer to starting construction.
Developers of Mandela Station expect to break ground in May on the first phase of the project, a 240-unit affordable apartment building on what is now a BART parking lot, one of the project’s partners, Alan Dones, told the Chronicle this week."
Secrecy surrounds hiring of LAPD messaging guru with Hollywood background
LAT, LIBOR JANY: "Last year, LAPD leaders quietly brought on a temporary consultant to advise on how to give the department’s battered public image a spit shine.
In a proposal reviewed by The Times, the consultant wrote that the LAPD’s standing as “one of the most prominent and visible law enforcement agencies in the world” was on the line."
A luxury Bay Area neighborhood’s $2 million pond problem — and the endangered frog behind it
CHRONICLE, SARAH RAVANI: "The pond at a Blackhawk golf course wasn’t always a mess. Eight years ago, water cascaded out of a waterfall into the pond, a pristine feature of the posh Tri-Valley neighborhood where homes routinely sell for several million dollars.
Today, the pond water sits stagnant and murky green. Algae blankets the surface. Mosquitoes swarm above it. And residents like Laurie Cindric, who drives past it multiple times a day, can’t stop noticing."
James Van Der Beek, Teenage Heartthrob of ‘Dawson’s Creek,’ Dies at 48
NYT, ANITA GATES: "James Van Der Beek, the golden-haired actor who starred as a coastal-town teenager facing the onslaught of first love and first sex in “Dawson’s Creek,” a popular turn-of-the-millennium TV drama series, died on Wednesday. He was 48.
His death was announced in an Instagram post from his official account, which did not say where he died. Mr. Van Der Beek revealed in November 2024 that he had colorectal cancer, which develops in the tissue of the colon or rectum."