Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau resigns amid political turmoil
LAT's ROB GILLIES: "Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his resignation Monday, citing “internal battles” as not the best option in an election year.
Trudeau — who has become deeply unpopular over a range of issues, including the soaring cost of food and housing — had kept publicly mum in recent weeks, despite intensifying pressure for him to step down after the abrupt resignation of his finance minister on Dec. 16."
California Assembly Speaker taps political newcomer to head up high-profile committee
Sac Bee's ANDREW SHEELER: "Demonstrating a considerable amount of trust, Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas last week announced that his decision to name first-term Burbank Democratic Assemblymember Nick Schultz as chair of the high-profile Assembly Public Safety Committee.
It’s sure to put a spotlight on the SoCal lawmaker as he heads up a committee that is certain to tackle high-profile legislation this session."
Five things to watch as California’s Legislature returns to the Capitol in 2025
CALMatters's ALEXEI KOSEFF: "With the election and the holidays behind them, the California Legislature returns to Sacramento today to kick off a new session in earnest. It will be several more months before the political wrangling over the state budget and thousands of proposed bills truly ramps up, but priorities are emerging as lawmakers try to stake their claim on the hottest issues of the day. Here are some stories to watch at the Capitol in 2025:
After a disappointing election for Democrats, legislative leaders reemerged with a message aimed at easing voters’ anxieties about how expensive California is. Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire, a Healdsburg Democrat, and Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, a Salinas Democrat, both told CalMatters last month that their focus this session will be advancing policies that lower the cost of living for working Californians, including by building more housing, making energy cheaper and improving public infrastructure."
The Micheli Minute for January 6, 2025
Capitol Weekly STAFF: "Lobbyist and author Chris Micheli offers a quick look at what’s coming up this week in Sacramento."
Court reporters and the new front in the war over electronic recording
Capitol Weekly's BRIAN JOSEPH: "A record of court proceedings is an essential component of our justice system. Without an audio or video recording or word-for-word transcript, the facts of what happened in court may be disputed, which could ultimately jeopardize a party’s chance for an appeal.
But in California, court hearings are regularly held without a verbatim or near-verbatim record ever being created. Some legal advocates say that’s a violation of basic constitutional protections and blame an unusual state law for the problem."
Column: Biden’s legacy, like Jimmy Carter’s, is complex — and it’s in Donald Trump’s hands now
LAT's DOYLE MCMANUS: "By the standard President Biden set himself, the core purpose he proclaimed when he ran in 2020, it is impossible to assess his one-term presidency as anything but a failure.
“We are in a battle for the soul of this nation,” Biden said as he began his campaign in 2019. “If we give Donald Trump eight years in the White House, he will forever and fundamentally alter the character of this nation. And I cannot stand by and watch that happen.”"
California is failing to meet its disability employment goal. State workers say they know why
Sac Bee's WILIAM MELHADO: "
H-1B visas are polarizing the right. Here’s why that matters for the Bay Area
The Chronicle's ASEEM SHUKLA, SRIHARSHA DEVULAPALLI: "On December 22nd, president-elect Donald Trump tapped Sriram Krishnan, a partner at Menlo Park-based venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and prominent advocate of immigration reform, to be an advisor on AI.
Then all hell broke loose."
Bay Area may see record highs this week as dry, gusty winds dominate
The Chronicle's GREG PORTER: "Bay Area temperatures are poised to be above average all week, with the possibility of some locations pushing 70 degrees and breaking daily temperature records by the end of the week.
What’s driving the above average warmth?"
Businesses sue state over new workplace law
CALMatters' JEANNE KUANG: "California businesses are suing to halt a new state law that bars them from requiring employees to attend anti-union meetings at work.
The state’s Chamber of Commerce and California Restaurant Association filed the suit in federal court on New Year’s Eve, a day before the new law was to go into effect, seeking to block it from being enforced."
An ‘industry behemoth.’ Inside the federal government’s efforts to break up Google
LAT's QUEENIE WONG, WENDY LEE: "In its early days, the quirky tech startup known as Google adopted a visionary corporate credo: “Don’t be evil.” That later evolved into the motto: “Do the right thing,” reflecting the idealistic ambitions of the company’s founders that its technology could be a force for good.
Google’s pioneering search technology would transform the internet and its home in Silicon Valley."
Worst-case mortgage scenario is playing out for home insurer in California
The Chronicle's MEGAN FAN MUNCE: "Unlike most homeowners in his situation, Mike Patterson isn’t insured through the California FAIR Plan because he couldn’t find insurance anywhere else. He’s on the FAIR Plan because he couldn’t find any other insurance that would satisfy his mortgage lender.
Last year he was paying just $700 a year to insure his property through an insurer that offered specific benefits for teachers like Patterson, who’s spent the past three decades at South Lake Tahoe High School. Patterson rents out the property, which sits just outside of South Lake Tahoe in Meyers (El Dorado County), to locals at below market rates."
New homelessness data: How does California compare to the rest of the country?
CALMatters's MARISA KENDALL: "California’s homeless population remains the biggest in the nation, but the crisis is growing more slowly here than in most of the rest of the country, according to new federal data.
The number of homeless Californians increased just over 3% last year compared to the year before, with more than 187,000 people sleeping on the street or in shelters in the state as of January 2024. Overall, the country saw an increase of slightly more than 18%, and 22 states saw double-digit increases. Just six states, including Wyoming, Tennessee and Maine, saw their homeless populations decrease."
California property tax map: How much homeowners in every ZIP code are saving due to Prop 13
The Chronicle's EMMA STIEFEL: "Since the late 1970s, many California property owners have received large property tax subsidies thanks to Proposition 13. The map below shows estimates of how much homeowners in different parts of the state save on average, based on data from the real estate company Redfin.
Prop 13 often keeps the taxable value of a home far below its market value, which results in tax subsidies. Redfin provided data on the market value and taxable value of homes in most California counties, cities and zip codes, which the Chronicle used to estimate average tax subsidies in the 2023 fiscal year. For more detailed information about a place, click on it on the map."
"To this day, some people will look you in the eye and tell you Sutter County native John Joseph Montgomery, who died more than a century ago, is, and always has been, the true father of flight.
But aviation history, and the personal motivations of the people who shaped it, with all the insights and recriminations — still hasn’t agreed on a place for Montgomery, the subject of some books and a footnote in others."
‘Out of control’: People keep dumping cars in this part of Oakland. Why can’t the city clean it up?
The Chronicle's SARAH RAVANI, MAGGIE ANGST: "Along the railroad tracks in a mostly residential area of East Oakland is a sprawling graveyard of abandoned cars — dozens of rusted metal frames flipped, burned and stripped bare of valuable parts.
The assortment of Ford and GMC pickup trucks, Chevrolet Tahoes, cargo vans and sedans is clustered on property owned mainly by the Union Pacific Railroad near Kerwin Avenue, wedged between the Nimitz Freeway and International Boulevard south of the Coliseum."
