Gov. Newsom seeks to raise $18 billion to shore up state wildfire fund
LAT, MELODY PETERSEN: "Gov. Gavin Newsom is preparing draft legislation that would add an additional $18 billion to a state fund for wildfire victims that officials have warned could be exhausted by January’s deadly Eaton wildfire.
Under Newsom’s plan, customers of the state’s three biggest for-profit utilities would pay another $9 billion to supplement a state fund created in 2019 that holds $21 billion."
‘This fire could have been prevented’: How utilities fought removal of old power lines
LAT. MELODY PETERSEN: "The abandoned power line suspected of igniting the Eaton fire could have been removed years ago under a rule proposed by state Public Utilities Commission staffers, but the regulation was weakened amid opposition from Southern California Edison and other utilities, according to records and interviews.
State regulators have long known that old transmission lines could set off wildfires, and in 2001 they proposed a safety rule that would have forced Edison and other electric companies to remove abandoned lines unless they could prove they would use them in the future."
Nancy Pelosi appears to endorse a candidate for California governor after Kamala Harris bows out
The Chronicle, JOE GAROFOLI: "Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi appeared to endorse Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis for governor Wednesday during a CNN interview, hours after former Vice President Kamala Harris announced she wouldn’t run for governor next year.
“We have many great candidates, one in particular, Eleni Tsakopoulos, whom I support,” Pelosi said, referring to Kounalakis, a fellow San Franciscan, by her maiden name. Pelosi has raised more than $1 billion for Democrats over the past two decades."
Harris tells Colbert, in first interview out of office, that the U.S. system is ‘broken’
LAT, KEVIN RECTOR: "In her first interview since losing the election to President Trump and leaving office, former Vice President Kamala Harris told Stephen Colbert on “The Late Show” that her decision not to run for California governor was more “basic” than saving herself for a “different office” — which is to say, another run for president in 2028.
After years of being a “devout public servant,” Harris said in the interview, set to air Thursday night, she just doesn’t want to be “in the system” right now."
Joel Engardio recall proponents allege a coverup. He calls them conspiracy theorists
The Chronicle, KO LYNN CHEANG: "The recall election against San Francisco Supervisor Joel Engardio has taken an unusual turn.
About 40 recall proponents gathered in the Sunset District Thursday to accuse Engardio of “deliberately trying to coverup” a May 2024 meeting with a Great Highway Park advocate, Lucas Lux. Engardio’s campaign spokesperson responded by calling them tin hat conspiracy theorists.
‘Freedom week’: California gun owners moved fast to order ammunition after court ruling
CALMatters, JOE GARCIA: "Lifelong hunter J.R. Young of San Jose rushed to an online ammunition dealer last week after a federal court decision overturned a California gun law that required background checks in person at every point of sale.
“Is this freedom week?” he said. “I was just curious to see if this striking down of the law is allowing companies to ship into the state again."
The truth about cap-and-invest
Capitol Weekly, ARI FREISINGER/NIK MITTAL: "In May, Governor Gavin Newsom proposed a reauthorization of California’s Cap-and-Trade program (rebranded as Cap-and-Invest) to bring stability to the state’s carbon market. Despite this step, the program’s auction failed later that month, leaving millions of pollution allowances unsold because of investor concern about the state’s commitment to the program. Prices dropped far below the levels needed to drive clean energy investment and slashed state revenue to less than half of early 2024 levels, costing the state billions of dollars.
The collapse of the May 2025 market auction exposed the dire situation. Without strong signals from policymakers, many investors are choosing to take their capital elsewhere. With stable returns of 5% available in government bonds, investors are struggling to justify the higher risks and uncertainty of investing in the program."
S.F. judge blocks Trump plan to revoke legal status for immigrants from three countries
The Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: "President Donald Trump’s cancellation of legal protections for more than 61,000 immigrants from Honduras, Nicaragua and Nepal, most of whom have lived in the United States for more than 20 years, was blocked Thursday by a federal judge, who said it appears to be unjustified and racially motivated.
The immigrants are among about 1.1 million from 17 nations who have been granted temporary protected status, shielding them from deportation because of dangers in their home countries. Trump has ordered those protections revoked, saying conditions abroad have improved and some of the immigrants are gang members, while others cause financial burdens."
Thousands of DACA recipients in California to lose health insurance
The Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI: "More than 2,300 Californians enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program will lose their health insurance next month due to a change in federal policy, state officials announced Thursday.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently revised its rules to exclude DACA recipients from the definition of “lawfully present” under the Affordable Care Act. As a result, they are no longer eligible for coverage through federal health insurance programs."
Amid Epstein scandal, California navigates its own sex trafficking panic
The Chronicle, RAHEEM HOSSEINI: "With the Jeffrey Epstein scandal and Sean Combs trial jarring public attention around sex trafficking, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday signed a bill that aims to increase penalties for traffickers of teens and their customers.
But more than three dozen civil rights, survivor and immigrant organizations — and even some legislators who voted for the bill — say the well-intentioned Assembly Bill 379 revives a vague, Jim Crow-era law that Newsom largely struck from the books three years ago because of its discriminatory application against Black and gay communities."
Trump freezes $200 million in UCLA science and medical research funding, citing antisemitism
LAT, JAWEED KALEEM: "The Trump administration has frozen hundreds of science, medical and other federal grants to UCLA worth nearly $200 million, citing the university’s alleged “discrimination” in admissions and failure to “promote a research environment free of antisemitism.”
The decision to pull funding comes after Atty. Gen.Pam Bondi and the Justice Department said this week that UCLA would pay a “heavy price” for acting with “deliberate indifference” to the civil rights of Jewish and Israeli students who complained of antisemitic incidents since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, Israel’s ensuing war in Gaza and campus protests the events spurred last year."
READ MORE -- UCLA research grants suspended after Trump administration faulted campus for antisemitism -- CALMatters, MIKHAIL ZINSHTEYN
Student-run co-ops provide affordable housing at UC Berkeley
EdSource, ELLA CARTER-KLAUSCHIE/MEGAN LAM: "When Cyn Macias-Gomez was preparing for his freshman year at UC Berkeley in 2021, he was stunned to learn that on-campus housing would cost $18,000 — excluding a meal plan.
“I just have this vivid memory (of) when I went to tell my parents … how much (housing) was going to cost, and they kind of turned the question back to me, ‘Where are we going to get this money from?’” said Macias-Gomez, now a graduate student."
The energy source that could survive Trump’s attack on California’s green ambitions
LAT, HAYLEY SMITH: "At a construction site along the Los Angeles River, just south of where four freeways converge in Vernon, a crane hoisted a set of massive white pipes into the air on a recent weekday morning.
The pipes will eventually be connected to fuel dispensers where they will serve as storage vessels for hydrogen — a growing yet controversial source of energy that some see as key to California’s ambitious climate goals."
A California heat wave is coming. Here’s when temperatures will rise
The Chronicle, ANTHONY EDWARDS: "California is forecast to begin August the same way July ended: mild, at least relative to recent summers. But that cooler-than-normal weather isn’t expected to stick around.
A high-pressure system, possibly the strongest on record for August, is forecast to build across the Four Corners on Tuesday and expand toward California in the following days. It’ll likely result in the hottest stretch of weather so far this year from Sacramento to Riverside and other interior parts of the state."
Foie gras still on some store shelves in California, despite state ban
LAT, SUSANNE RUST: "Despite California’s ban on foie gras, the pumped-up bird livers are being sold in Southern California stores.
Foie gras, which is made by force-feeding ducks and geese, was spotted by Times journalists this week on the shelves of Wild Fork Foods stores in Venice, Manhattan Beach and Westlake Village."
Return of wolves sparks fear, strains law enforcement in rural California
SacBee, SHARON BERNSTEIN: "The wolf was quite literally at the door of the blue house on Highway 49 in Sierra County, tearing apart an elk on the front porch as the college-age son of the owner sat alone inside, listening to the thumps and snarls and hoping the latch was secure.
Sheriff Mike Fisher came out to investigate and he followed a trail of blood to nearby bushes. There he found the elk’s carcass, confirming by working with a state wildlife biologist that the tracks and teeth marks were made by two wolves."
READ MORE -- Can California protect wolves along with people and livestock? -- SacBee, SHARON BERNSTEIN
Former Google executive buys two of California’s trendiest wineries
The Chronicle, ESTHER MOBLEYJESS LANDER: "A former Google executive has expanded his growing Sonoma County wine empire with the acquisitions of two of the Bay Area’s trendiest wineries.
Reeve Wines in Healdsburg and Martha Stoumen Wines in Sebastopol are the latest additions to the Overshine Collective (formerly Overshine Wine Co.), which David Drummond, the longtime top lawyer for Google, founded in 2024. These investments, first reported by the Press Democrat, come after Drummond bought Healdsburg’s Idlewild Wines and Armida Winery; purchased a 550-acre vineyard in the Russian River Valley; and launched two new brands, Overshine and Comunità. Reeve’s other wine brands, BloodRoot and Remy Saves the Sea, plus the Ramble, a wine and music festival benefitting gun safety reform, are also included in the deal."
What unionization could mean for California Uber and Lyft drivers — and riders
CALMatters, LEVI SUMAGAYSAY: "Uber and Lyft drivers in California have been fighting for years for higher wages and better working conditions — in the streets, before state lawmakers, in court and at the ballot.
Now, a bill making its way through the state Legislature would allow ride-hailing drivers to unionize."
Two thirds of Caltrans maintenance yard on leave after raucous retirement party
SacBee, WILLIAM MELHADO: "The California Department of Transportation issued termination notices for the majority of employees working at a Monterey maintenance station this week after they hosted a raucous retirement party, which included an exotic dancer and drinking on the job inside a state building.
Before the farewell event, 15 state employees worked at the Monterey maintenance yard, Caltrans confirmed. Two thirds of the staff were put on administrative leave on July 23."
Sacramento has a start and end date on I Street Bridge construction. Here’s when
SacBee, MATHEW MIRANDA: "Sacramento’s plan to replace the aging I Street Bridge is no longer just talk.
Construction is set to begin next spring following the City Council’s approval to move forward with a funding plan on Tuesday night. Work is anticipated to take four years, said city spokesperson Gabby Miller on Thursday."
She faced $500 daily HOA fines for an unapproved door in her home. A new state law saved her
LAT, JACK FLEMMING: "Jinah Kim’s HOA said she couldn’t fix a doorway inside her condo. She did it anyway.
She figured it was fine. After all, the doorway was completely inside her home, separating an office and dining room. But when the complex’s manager peeked into her place through the open garage door one day in March and saw the renovation, she received a notice the next day."
What’s the mortgage rate that would make Bay Area homes affordable? The data is bleak
The Chronicle, CHRISTIAN LEONARD: "High mortgage rates have frosted the Bay Area housing market. Many would-be homebuyers are waiting for rates, which this week hovered at an average of about 6.7%, to come down. That’s caused home sales to trail off — and, in some cases — home values to flatten.
In the San Francisco metropolitan area, where Zillow estimates the typical home value is roughly $1.2 million, shaving even half a percentage point off a mortgage can mean major savings. But home prices are so high that most people couldn’t comfortably afford a home here even if that 6.7% rate was 0%."
S.F. supes give amnesty to scores of homeowners who were victims of notorious permit frauds
The Chronicle,ST. JOHN BARNED-SMITH: "Scores of San Francisco residents who ran afoul of city building codes after being the unwitting victims of corruption will no longer have to pay for permits to fix their homes.
The city’s Board of Supervisors passed a limited amnesty program this week focusing on more than 100 homes inspected or worked on by two former city officials, Bernard Curran and Rodrigo Santos, who were convicted of fraud for taking or providing bribes for permit approvals from the Department of Building Inspection."
