Trump targets California climate laws in new executive order
CALMatters, ALEJANDRO LAZO: "President Donald Trump has issued an order that takes aim at state and local climate change laws and policies, including California’s landmark market program for reducing greenhouse gases.
Trump’s executive order directs U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to identify state and local acts that may be unconstitutional or preempted by federal law. Within 60 days, the attorney general must report back to the president with findings and recommendations for action."
California heat wave: Record-breaking temperatures expected in these regions
The Chronicle, GREG PORTER: "Spring is just getting started, but parts of California and the West are already flirting with summer-level heat as an early-season warm spell intensifies through Friday.
Meanwhile, the Bay Area will largely be spared that heat: Temperatures in most places will rise just a few degrees above normal."
Secret changes Edison imposed after Eaton fire remain shrouded in mystery
LAT, SALVADOR HERNANDEZ: "Just weeks after the deadly Eaton fire ignited near three Southern California Edison transmission towers, the utility quietly changed an internal policy on how crews should ground idle electrical pylons.
The change attracted little attention at the time — due mostly to the fact that early suspicion about the cause of the blaze focused on two active transmission towers in Eaton Canyon."
READ MORE -- Could utility gear set your neighborhood on fire? California risk maps are 8 years old -- CALMatters, MALENA CAROLLO
Newsom enters Trump’s trade war. Does he have the cards?
LAT, MICHAEL WILNER: "Gov. Gavin Newsom promised action last week in response to President Trump’s dramatic decision to increase tariffs on trading partners worldwide. But does he have any power to protect California’s economy if Trump goes through with them?
His response was swift and forceful, one of the first from a Democratic governor with national ambitions: California “will not sit idly by during Trump’s tariff war,” Newsom said Friday, as markets tumbled over Trump’s new policy."
U.S. stock indexes drop 2% despite an encouraging inflation update as Trump’s trade war still weighs
LAT, STAN CHOE: "U.S. stocks on Thursday are giving back some of their historic gains from the day before as Wall Street weighs a global trade war that has cooled in temperature but is still threatening the economy.
The S&P 500 was down 2.3%, a day after surging 9.5% following President Trump’s decision to pause many of his tariffs worldwide. The Dow Jones industrial average was down 700 points, or 1.7%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 2.7% lower."
How will Trump tariffs affect California Republicans’ congressional races?
Sac Bee, DAVID LIGHTMAN: "Nothing usually matters more than the economy in political contests. So does that mean the financial markets’ plunge and the consumer uncertainty this week mean trouble for California’s Republicans?
It’s unclear, and Northern and Central California Republican House members are carefully describing their views on President Donald Trump’s tariff policies, policies that have sent financial markets reeling and triggering warnings about economic chaos."
Should retirees move their money amid market turbulence? What financial experts say now
The Chronicle, JESSICA ROY: "It’s a wild week for the stock market.
On April 2, President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcements brought markets to their knees, quickly entering 10% drop correction territory. The selloff continued early in the week, with a couple short bounces based on rumors and hearsay that ultimately ended in markets being down at close Tuesday."
Faced with $1-billion budget crunch, L.A. officials seek major trash fee increases
LAT, DAVID ZAHNISER/DAKOTA SMITH: "Faced with a nearly $1-billion budget shortfall, Los Angeles elected officials are returning to a tried-and-true formula for weathering difficult financial times: charging more for city services.
On Wednesday, two City Council committees — one focused on public works, the other on environmental issues — endorsed a plan to increase trash pickup fees in each of the next five years, with the first hike being the largest by far."
AB 1043 will protect children online (OP-ED)
Capitol Weekly, BRIAN POTH: "Every week at The Source LGBT+ Center, I meet young people who found us through online searches and social media. For these youth, online communities often serve as their first opportunity to see themselves reflected and accepted. In a world where many LGBTQ+ young people still face rejection at home or in their local communities, digital spaces provide crucial access to information, support, and connection that can quite literally save lives.
California now has an opportunity to protect these vital online spaces while also ensuring appropriate safeguards for children through Assembly Bill 1043, the Digital Age Assurance Act. As numerous states rush to regulate children’s internet access, this thoughtful legislation shows how we can balance safety with the critical needs of vulnerable youth."
As University of California searches for new president, Trump’s policies make the position more difficult
EdSource, MICHAEL BURKE: "The presidency of the University of California has long been considered one of the more challenging positions in American higher education. It requires overseeing nearly 300,000 students, 10 campuses, $8 billion a year of premier research, six medical centers and three federally funded national energy laboratories.
Now, UC’s board of regents is looking for the next person to fill the role and replace President Michael V. Drake, who plans to step down at the end of the academic year. But in the months since the search began, the job has only grown more complicated and pressured as a result of Donald Trump’s election and his policies affecting funding, racial diversity, student protests and many other aspects of higher education."
He spent decades researching dementia. Trump’s DEI purge killed his grant, and dozens more
CALMatters, MIKHAIL ZINSHTEYN: "A California neurologist who’s among the nation’s top researchers on dementia has been swept up in President Donald Trump’s purging of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, adding to the growing cadre of research science terminated because of the administration’s edicts.
In this case, the National Institutes of Health sent Dr. Charles DeCarli of UC Davis a letter in late March telling him that his nearly $36 million research project was being canceled on the grounds that it perpetuated a “DEI” agenda. With that notification, gone are about $10 million in remaining money for a project that included 28 clinical and research sites across the country and 1,700 participants with mild cognitive impairments."
Sacramento-area schools await California response to federal funding threats
Sac Bee, ROSALIO AHUMADA/JENNAH PENDLETON: "Sacramento-area school districts said it’s too early to know which school programs might be affected by Trump Administration threats to cut federal education funding as it seeks to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
Officials at the Sacramento City Unified School District believe losing grants from the U.S. Department of Education could affect efforts to train teachers who reflect a diverse student population."
Overrun by burros, San Bernardino County inks new deals to sterilize and relocate animals
LAT, SUMMER LIN: "Burros were used by gold miners as pack animals in California more than a century ago. Today, wild donkeys teem in areas of San Bernardino County, where they have become a safety hazard on local roads.
To address the overpopulation problem, county officials have approved new deals with a local nonprofit to help sterilize and relocate many of the pint-size equines to sanctuaries."
As weed celebrations approach, California’s cannabis industry is still far from flying high
The Chronicle, JOE GAROFOLI: "San Francisco Space Walk — a weeklong, adults-only music, art and cannabis celebration — launches April 13, but the mood behind the scenes is somber this year. That’s because cannabis consumers — and retailers — are bracing for the state excise tax to jump from 15% to 19% on July 1. The tax bump couldn’t come at a worse time: An estimated 15% of state retailers are behind on their taxes, and legal California weed is already the most expensive in the country.
Cities throughout California should be celebrating their own Space Weeks, honoring cannabis with the music and culture it inspired and is intertwined with. Instead, the voter-approved legalization of cannabis in 2016 is yet another thing California has screwed up, along with building housing, addressing homelessness and creating a high-speed rail line."|
Tariffs chill Southern California’s vast industrial property market
LAT, ROGER VINCENT: "Demand for warehouses used to move goods through Los Angeles County ports is expected to fall if widespread tariffs take effect, potentially damaging the economic vitality of one of the world’s largest industrial real estate markets.
Leasing of buildings used to collect and distribute imported goods has slowed at least temporarily as businesses wait to see whether the tariffs take hold at their announced rates or ease through negotiations."
California increased penalties for some drug and theft crimes. Here’s how the law is working
The Chronicle, MAGGIE ANGST/DAVID HERNANDEZ/SOPHIA BOLLAG: "Five months after California voters approved harsher punishments for repeat theft and drug crimes, an early snapshot of charging data reveals uneven implementation of the law across the state.
Some counties have filed far more theft cases while others have focused on felony charges for drug possession. San Francisco lags behind its counterparts in the number of cases filed under Proposition 36 in both categories. Even among prosecutors who backed the law, approaches differ. Some instituted time limits for considering past crimes to avoid punishing people for decades-old offenses, while others have not. Some say they won’t pursue felony charges against people who appear to be stealing to survive, while others are throwing the book at suspects regardless of what they’re accused of taking."
A major roadblock stands in California’s way to a transformed prison system
Sac Bee, WILLIAM MELHADO: "One windy January afternoon Katie Jackson stood on the West Steps of the Capitol as she described how a man locked up in a California prison managed to break into a control room where she was working as a correctional officer, rape her and hold her hostage for several hours.
Announcing a lawsuit against her employer, Jackson said the reason for the attack at the Sierra Conservation Center was due, in part, to a new system-wide change to state prisons."
Here's what plummeting S.F. crime means for Mayor Daniel Lurie
The Chronicle, J.D. MORRIS: "Mayor Daniel Lurie walked down Capp Street in the heart of San Francisco’s Mission District on a recent morning and encountered a welcome sight: mostly empty sidewalks.
Lurie has paid regular visits to the Mission to see how his administration’s crackdown on illegal vending and open-air drug scenes in the neighborhood is unfolding. While the biggest problem on Capp Street that morning was some damp cardboard and other trash littering the ground, the mayor admitted that conditions there are often very different."
A rich L.A. neighborhood donated surveillance technology to the LAPD — then drama ensued
LAT, LIBOR JANY: "When residents of a ritzy West L.A. neighborhood experienced an increase in burglaries last year, they decided to invest in technology to fight the problem.
The neighborhood association in Cheviot Hills — a community of million-dollar homes sandwiched between the 10 Freeway and Century City — raised more than $200,000 to purchase scores of controversial, high-tech cameras that scan license plates."
