LAFD actions in Palisades fire shrouded in secrecy as city refuses to release records
LAT, ALENE TCHEKMEDYIAN/PAUL PRINGLE: "More than two and a half months after flames leveled much of Pacific Palisades, the Los Angeles Fire Department and Mayor Karen Bass’ office have maintained an extraordinary secrecy about the city’s preparations for and response to the inferno.
The Fire Department, the mayor and her representatives have yet to provide answers to basic questions from The Times about whether they approved the LAFD’s plan to protect the Palisades before the Jan. 7 blaze. Nor have they addressed The Times’ questions about which LAFD crews were the first to arrive at the scene."
READ MORE -- Palisades and Eaton firefighters had elevated blood levels of mercury and lead, according to an early study -- LAT, SALVADOR HERNANDEZ
Supreme Court faces Guantanamo test again: Does president’s power have limits?
LAT, DAVID G. SAVAGE: "Two decades ago, the Bush administration said its “war on terror” prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay were off-limits to the federal courts, but the Supreme Court disagreed.
“A state of war is not a blank check for the President,” said Justice Sandra Day O’Connor in 2004. “Whatever power the U.S. Constitution envisions for the Executive in its exchanges with other nations or with enemy organizations..., it most assuredly envisions a role for all three branches when individual liberties are at stake.”"
Trump clawed back billions in federal health grants. Here’s how much California is losing
CALMatters, KRISTEN HWANG: "California may lose more than $1 billion in public health and mental health funding as a result of new federal budget cuts that target COVID-19 pandemic response grants, according to the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency website.
The federal Department of Health and Human Services terminated $12 billion in grants intended for infectious disease response, mental health services and other public health issues, according to national reports."
California keeps poking holes in CEQA. A new bill could blow a crater through it
The Chronicle, JOE GAROFOLI: "Gov. Gavin Newsom boasts that he has signed 42 separate bills altering the California Environmental Quality Act, colloquially known as CEQA, the state’s landmark environmental law. By continually carving out exemptions to the law, whose regulations are often blamed for worsening the state’s housing crisis, lawmakers have created what critics deride as “Swiss cheese CEQA.”
Now a Bay Area lawmaker wants to carve the biggest hole in the law yet: A bill by Oakland Assembly Member Buffy Wicks would exempt most infill housing from the environmental reviews required under CEQA."
Capitol Briefs: Fast-tracking housing, exiting X and one very tall metal woman
Capitol Weekly, STAFF: "Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) and a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a 22-bill package on Thursday aimed at reforming the building permitting process in California, an effort to fast-track housing development statewide.
Wicks called the package an effort to “slash red tape, remove uncertainty and to drastically reduce the time it takes to get new housing approved and built” in California."
Statutory construction in California: Questions and answers
Capitol Weekly, CHRIS MICHELI: "In our system of government lawmakers make laws and courts are tasked with interpreting those statutes. That process is based on a surprisingly large number of factors.
What is the purpose of statutory construction? The “fundamental task is to ascertain the Legislature’s intent so as to effectuate the purpose of the statute.” Smith v. Superior Court California Supreme Court decision."
Exclusive: S.F. official paid $80,000 for staff glamour shots, mystery video project
The Chronicle, MICHAEL BARBA: "A top San Francisco city official spent $80,000 hiring a company to take “dynamic portraits” of her small staff and to produce a video series that apparently never came to fruition, adding to mounting concerns about her spending habits.
Kimberly Ellis, who was placed on leave last week from her job as director of the San Francisco Department on the Status of Women, awarded a contract worth up to $100,000 to a production company in September 2023, hiring the firm to snap portraits of 21 people and record a series of conversations around gender equity. Ultimately the department paid $20,000 less than the full amount of the contract."
More rain is coming to the Bay Area. Here’s when showers could arrive
The Chronicle, ANTHONY EDWARDS: "Dry weather Saturday will be sandwiched between two wet days in the Bay Area this weekend as a series of storms kicks off across Northern California.
Not everyone in the Bay Area will see rain Friday. A weak system is expected to clip the region and generate light showers along the coast and throughout the North Bay. There may be a rogue shower or two in the East Bay and South Bay but chances are slim. Enough sunshine should emerge for a nice sunset Friday evening."
California Republican lawmaker calls for seclusion of female transgender prisoners
Sac Bee, KATE WOLFFE: "A Republican lawmaker is pushing a new bill that would seclude female transgender prisoners from cisgender women prisoners in California correctional facilities.
State Sen. Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, announced Senate Bill 311 Thursday, calling it a “proactive step” that addresses “growing concerns about current housing policies in women’s prisons.”"
California EDD settles lawsuit over unemployment eligibility notification
Sac Bee, CATHIE ANDERSON: "As part of a settlement of an Alameda County lawsuit, the California Employment Development Department agreed to overhaul how it informs claimants that the agency has retroactively denied them benefits and will be seeking repayment of benefits, the plaintiffs announced Thursday.
Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld brought the lawsuit in June 2023 on behalf of California residents Renee Okamura and Kathryn Din and the nonprofit Legal Aid at Work, seeking class-action status to represent all claimants in similar circumstances."
High-profile San Francisco law firm stands up to Trump: ‘Courage to fight’
The Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: "As President Donald Trump moves to punish law firms that criticize or oppose him — revoking their security clearances, canceling government contracts, denying their attorneys access to federal buildings — one San Francisco firm is speaking up, regardless of the consequences.
“I’d had it up to my gills with all these attacks on lawyers and judges,” Elliot Peters, a partner at Keker, Van Nest & Peters, said Thursday. “Too many law firms are silent, and the risks right now to the legal profession and to the country are too great.”"
Trump declared war on fentanyl traffickers. Is it what parents of overdose victims want?
LAT, MALIA MENDEZ: "The first time Harold Noriega voted for Donald Trump in 2016, it was from a business standpoint.
But when he cast his ballot again in 2024 — two years after his 19-year-old son, Cooper Noriega, took a fentanyl-laced pill and died — his primary motivation had changed."
Justice Department probes major California universities for ‘illegal DEI’ in admissions
LAT, JAWEED KALEEM/DANIEL MILLER: "The Department of Justice on Thursday said it would investigate four California universities for potential “illegal DEI” in admissions, suggesting the schools flouted state law and U.S. Supreme Court precedent banning the use of race as a factor when evaluating college applicants.
In announcing the actions against UCLA, UC Irvine, Stanford and UC Berkeley, Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi said she and President Trump were “dedicated to ending illegal discrimination and restoring merit-based opportunity across the country.”"
Federal investigation targets California ban on parental notification policies
EdSource, MALLIKA SESHADRI: "Jennifer Vietz’s transgender daughter came out to a teacher and friends at her school’s Gay Straight Alliance group.
“If my daughter didn’t get the kind of support that she did,” Vietz said, “she wouldn’t be here now.”"
READ MORE -- California not backing down on trans student privacy — despite Trump’s threat to yank funding -- CALMatters, CAROLYN JONES
California international students on alert as Trump ramps up arrests of pro-Palestine activists
LAT, JAWEED KALEEM: "Ali, a UCLA student who joined pro-Palestinian protests last year, avoided arrest when riot police dismantled the school’s encampment last May. An international student who took part in a surge of campus activism around Israel’s war in Gaza, he was wary of having a record that could affect his visa. But he did not otherwise hide his activism.
Now, as federal authorities act on President Trump’s directive to deport international student activists he accuses of being antisemitic “pro-Hamas” terrorism supporters, Ali has taken new precautions. He’s moved out of his apartment — the address listed with the government — and is staying with a friend. He attends classes but avoids social events. He carries a piece of paper with the number for a 24-hour hotline faculty set up for students detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement."
Education Department revokes waivers for California universities to use federal funding for undocumented immigrants
EdSource, STAFF: "The Department of Education announced Thursday that it is revoking waivers granted to colleges in California and Oregon to tap into federal funds to offer services to undocumented immigrants, through the Performance Partnership Pilots for Disconnected Youth (P3) program.
The purpose of the program is to allow states and local institutions to use federal funds to bolster systems serving at-risk youth, not provide services to “illegal immigrants,” the agency announced. Through waivers approved during the Biden administration, colleges and universities had previously been allowed to use these programs earmarked for low-income students, first-generation college students, and individuals with disabilities to help “illegal immigrants.” California’s waiver, which began in November 2022, had been set to expire in September 2026."
No need to apply: Cal State is automatically admitting high school students with good grades
CALMatters, MIKHAIL ZINSHTEYN: "More than 17,400 high school seniors last fall got the sweetest news any anxious student can get: Congratulations, because of your high school GPA, you’re automatically admitted to one of 10 California State University campuses of your choice — and they’re all relatively affordable.
Even with less than a week to go before the campuses wrap their final decisions about whom to admit, a pilot program focusing on Riverside County is already showing that more students have been admitted from the county than last year, about 10,600 so far in 2025 compared to last year’s roughly 9,800."
Pandemic-era push to ‘build solutions’ must continue, panel says
EdSource, LASHERICA THORNTON: "The Covid-19 pandemic, which first shuttered schools five years ago, disrupted learning, disengaged students and harmed their mental health, amplifying the long-standing inequalities in their achievement.
Recovering from the effects of the pandemic has proven difficult for most of California’s schools, and the challenges that defy easy fixes, such as chronic absenteeism, require partnerships with families, community members and organizations to develop support systems that will focus on student academic success, as well as a willingness to analyze and change those approaches, according to panelists at EdSource’s Thursday roundtable, “Five years after Covid: Innovations that are driving results.”"
The most important part of the ocean you’ve never heard of
LAT, IAN URBINA: "The most important place on earth that virtually no one has ever heard of is called the Saya de Malha Bank. Among the world’s largest seagrass fields and the planet’s most important carbon sinks, this high-seas patch of ocean covers an area the size of Switzerland. More than 200 miles from land, the submerged bank is situated in the Indian Ocean between Mauritius and Seychelles. It has been called the world’s largest invisible island as it is formed by a massive plateau, in some spots barely hidden under 30 feet of water, offering safe haven to an unprecedented biodiversity of seagrass habitats for turtles and breeding grounds for sharks, humpback and blue whales."
Worried about Social Security changes? There’s one key thing to do now amid confusion
The Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI: "The Social Security Administration recently announced significant changes to how it handles identity verification for individuals applying for benefits.
These changes, framed as a way to combat suspected fraud under the Trump administration, have raised concerns, particularly among beneficiaries without internet access or those who struggle with technology."
California bill would stop cities from fining, jailing homeless people for camping
Sac Bee, THERESA CLIFT: "On Friday, Sacramento police took Ginger Gibbons to jail for violating a city ordinance — camping on public property.
After several hours at the downtown jail, she said she returned to her North Sacramento camp to find her belongings and dogs gone. Among the items missing was her new ice chest where she planned to keep water bottles for herself and her camp mates as the summer heat approaches."
Judge tosses police union lawsuit against LAPD commander accused of computer fraud
LAT, LIBOR JANY: "A Los Angeles County judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by the union for rank-and-file police officers against an LAPD commander accused of accessing emails, surveys and materials intended only for lower-ranking cops.
In a ruling Monday, L.A. County Superior Court Judge Bruce Iwasaki sided with Cmdr. Lillian Carranza and her co-defendant, Deputy Chief Marc Reina, who argued that the Los Angeles Police Protective League failed to prove the allegations of unlawful computer data access and fraud."
L.A. sheriffs can’t get inmates to court on time, angering judges, delaying justice
LAT, KERI BLAKINGER/JAMES QUEALLY: "Zhoie Perez slouched against the holding cell wall in Men’s Central Jail and closed her eyes, hoping a guard would jolt her awake with the words she’d been waiting for: The bus is here! Time for court!
The 51-year-old just needed to make it back to court one more time so she could be sentenced and, she hoped, released. She’d been jailed months earlier, but since then had repeatedly missed hearings — usually, she was told, because the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department didn’t have enough buses."
BART traffic remains in a hole. But it’s worse at these stations
The Chronicle, DANIELLE ECHEVERRIA/SRIHARSHA DEVULAPALLI: "On a recent Thursday at the North Concord BART station, people exiting trains onto the platform were few and far between. Cows grazing placidly on the nearby hillsides seemed more plentiful.
It’s no surprise: ridership at the station was down more than 66% in 2024 compared with 2019. And trips to and from downtown San Francisco from the East Bay station were down even more, with 75% fewer trips in 2024 than before the pandemic."
One of S.F.'s busiest streets is on track for a makeover — after years of pushback
The Chronicle, SAM WHITING: "San Francisco officials could soon move forward with a makeover of a major city thoroughfare to improve safety, after the plan was delayed by concerns that it would cut badly needed street parking — the latest example of tensions over street changes that continue to flare in the city.
The proposed changes would revamp Oak Street between Stanyan and Baker streets, where the busy one-way artery borders the southern edge of the Panhandle — a hazardous eight-block stretch of road in a city that has struggled to reduce traffic injuries and fatalities."
