Hundreds boo GOP Rep. Doug LaMalfa at raucous Northern California town hall
SacBee, NICOLE NIXON: "Rep. Doug LaMalfa faced the fury of his Northern California constituents during an early morning town hall in Chico Monday, making him the latest in a string of Republican members of Congress shouted down at district events over their support for President Donald Trump’s agenda.
“We’re about seven months, eight months into the new administration. I think we have a lot to be grateful for,” LaMalfa, R-Oroville, began before being drowned out by loud boos."
Texas GOP again fails to pass Trump-backed redistricting as Newsom calls for halt
AP, via Times of San Diego: "Texas Republicans were unable again Monday to approve new congressional districts to meet President Donald Trump’s demands as Gov. Gavin Newsom and other Democrats urged Republicans to stand down and avoid a partisan brawl spanning multiple statehouses.
Texas Democratic lawmakers remained outside of Texas after leaving the state to deny their GOP colleagues the quorum necessary to vote on Trump’s aggressive redistricting play and push the stalemate into its second week. The president’s agenda also spurred Democratic governors, including Newsom, to pledge retaliatory redistricting efforts in their states — setting up the possibility of an extended standoff that could upend the 2026 midterm elections."
Newsom again threatens tit-for-tat redistricting
Politico, CHEYANNE DANIELS: "California Gov. Gavin Newsom is warning President Donald Trump and Republican governors that if they go forward with redistricting proposals, he will also implement mid-decade redistricting efforts in his state.
In a letter to the president Monday, Newsom said California “cannot stand idly by” as Texas — and other GOP-led states — attempt to follow Trump’s directive to create Republican-favored congressional maps."
On the campaign trail with Kevin Liao (PODCAST)
Capitol Weekly, STAFF: "We’re joined today by Kevin Liao of Frontrunner Strategies. Liao spent over four years as Press Secretary and Communications Director for former Speaker Anthony Rendon, before moving on to national campaign work. He was on first Elizabeth Warren and then Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign teams, and handled comms for Minnesota First Lady Gwen Walz as she barnstormed the Midwest for the Harris-Walz ticket in 2024. He shares stories from the road – and tells what advice he’d give any other California politicians who might be seeking the White House. Plus – Who Had the Worst Week in California Politics."
Can San Francisco avoid Trump’s ire after National Guard deployments in D.C. and L.A.?
Chronicle, J.D. MORRIS: "Once again, President Donald Trump has brought his campaign of retribution against liberal jurisdictions to the streets of a major American city, ordering hundreds of National Guard troops to deploy to another Democratic stronghold.
And once again, the city in question is not San Francisco, a past Trump target that has so far avoided the kind of direct clash with his administration that played out in Los Angeles and is now unfolding in Washington, D.C."
California’s lawmakers love to talk, but these eight barely say a word
CALMatters, RYAN SABALOW/OMAR RASHAD: "Most California lawmakers love to talk, but some hardly say a word.
Since the legislative session began in December, the average lawmaker has spoken for 6.3 hours. But eight lawmakers have talked for around an hour or less – six of them Republicans, who are a superminority in the Legislature, according to a CalMatters Digital Democracy analysis."
California taxpayers gave PG&E a huge, supposedly safe loan. The losses are already mounting
CALMatters, MALENA CAROLLO: "Two weeks before the 2022 legislative session ended, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration came to lawmakers with a big ask: authorize a $1.4 billion state loan to keep open California’s last nuclear power plant, Diablo Canyon. The money was supposed to be a stopgap that would be fully repaid by an expected federal award. There was even a fail-safe: if the award fell short, other federal funds or profits from Diablo Canyon’s final year could cover the difference.
The bill passed."
A coach detained. A friend gone. As kids confront immigration realities, they’re learning to stand up
LAT, KATE SEQUEIRA: "The scene at the dais in Riverside’s City Council chambers looked a bit different on a recent Monday morning: Instead of men and women in business attire, children wearing navy blue T-shirts emblazoned with vibrant orange and yellow butterfly wings occupied the swivel chairs.
The children were participating in a mock council meeting as part of a summer leadership program run by TODEC, a legal center serving immigrants and farmworkers in the Inland Empire and Coachella Valley. The organization brought kids from across Coachella Valley and nearby cities to the Riverside City Council to give them hands-on learning experience on civic engagement and culture."
READ MORE -- ICE processing center is all but empty when California Congress members arrive to inspect -- LAT, DAKOTA SMITH
You have a right to delete your data. Some companies are making it extra difficult
CALMatters, COLIN LECHER/TOMAS APODACA: "Data brokers are required by California law to provide ways for consumers to request their data be deleted. But good luck finding them.
More than 30 of the companies, which collect and sell consumers’ personal information, hid their deletion instructions from Google, according to a review by The Markup and CalMatters of hundreds of broker websites. This creates one more obstacle for consumers who want to delete their data."
Why California’s wealthiest taxpayers could get less of a Trump tax break
SacBee, DAVID LIGHTMAN: "The rich will get richer from President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill’s tax provisions – but California’s millionaires won’t get as much of a benefit as their counterparts in most other states.
Californians with the top 1% of state incomes, or more than $1.08 million, rank 48th in tax cuts among the states, according to a new analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a progressive Washington research group.."
Rideshare bill AB 1340 jeopardizes my job and privacy (OP-ED)
Capitol Weekly, STEFANIE WHITFIELD: "Rideshare work has been a lifeline I never expected to need. After undergoing unexpected back surgery, I could no longer stand for long periods, which meant the end of my career as a full-time teacher. After dedicated my life to education, I was uncertain about what the next chapter would hold.
That’s when I found app-based driving. What began as a way to earn supplemental income during recovery turned into something more meaningful. Rideshare gave me the flexibility to continue pursuing educational passions while serving my community in a new way."
Wild L.A. pursuit: Carjackers steal 3 cars, drive big-rig wrong way on freeway, then escape
LA Times, CLARA HARTER: "Two armed thieves led authorities on a wild pursuit from Lancaster to downtown L.A. on Sunday night, authorities said, stealing three vehicles, driving a big rig in the wrong direction on the 10 Freeway — and still managing to escape.
The chase began with a carjacking in Lancaster about 9:45 p.m., according to the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department. Two armed men stole a man’s white F-250 Ford pickup and fired gunshots at the victim as he attempted to pursue them."
S.F. schools paid $20 million for a new payroll system. It’s already glitching
The Chronicle, JILL TUCKER: "The San Francisco school district’s new payroll system, which replaced a $34 million version that never worked, has left at least a hundred teachers frustrated with errors in their paychecks over the past months and prompted the teachers union Monday to file a state labor complaint.
District officials tried to allay jangled nerves, saying new systems typically come with stutter steps in implementation, but that staff was in place to address issues and fix the problems."
Agents detain student at gunpoint near school; safe zones to be expanded around LAUSD campuses
LAT, HOWARD BLUME: "Los Angeles school district police, staff and community volunteers will form protective perimeters around at least 100 schools when classes begin Thursday to help ensure the safe passage of children — an announcement that came on a day that immigration agents reportedly handcuffed, detained and drew their guns on a student outside Arleta High School in a case of mistaken identity.
The 15-year-old boy, a student with disabilities, was at Arleta High School on Monday with family members — he attends a different district school — when federal agents detained him, L.A. Unified School District officials said. Family members intervened and, after a few tense moments, the agents released the boy. The school’s principal also came out to assess the situation. Agents left behind some bullets on the sidewalk, apparently by mistake, which were collected by school police."
The next ‘Big One’ on the San Andreas fault might not be the earthquake we expect, researchers say
LAT, RONG-GONG LIN II: "What could the next mega-earthquake on California’s notorious San Andreas fault look like?
Would it be a repeat of 1857, when an earthquake estimated at magnitude 7.7 to 7.9 ruptured the fault from Monterey County all the way through Los Angeles County? Would it be more akin to the great 1906 San Francisco earthquake, which began just offshore of the city and ruptured in two directions, toward Humboldt County and Santa Cruz County?"
Heat wave continues in parts of County, deserts could reach 115 degrees Tuesday
Times of San Diego, STAFF: "An extreme heat warning was in effect Monday in the arid eastern reaches of the San Diego area, alerting the public to potentially unhealthy triple-digit temperatures in local desert communities.
The advisory from the National Weather Service, which runs through 8 p.m. Tuesday, forecasts “dangerously hot conditions” — specifically, thermometer readings up to 115 degrees in Borrego Springs, Ocotillo Wells and surrounding locales."
Exclusive: California police departments struggling to fill jobs turn to controversial applicants
The Chronicle, MEGAN CASSIDY/NAMI SUMIDA/JENNIFER GOLLAN: "'Amid chronic staffing shortages, California law enforcement agencies desperate to backfill their ranks have been increasingly hiring from a controversial category of applicants: Officers who were previously fired or otherwise let go from other departments.
At least 1,531 active officers revived their careers after other agencies across the state cut them. Those officers made up 1.8% of the total sworn workforce as of Jan. 1, 2025, according to a Chronicle analysis of state data obtained by the newspaper and UC Berkeley’s Investigative Reporting Program."
READ MORE -- The LAPD is struggling to hire Black recruits. Will Trump’s war on DEI make it harder? -- LAT, LIBOR JANY
Cal Fire knew Esparto site had fireworks. Should it have checked local permits?
SacBee, DANIEL LEMPRES: "After an explosion in Esparto last month killed seven people and burned more than 70 acres, the Office of the State Fire Marshal quickly pointed out that safety inspections and local permits are not under their purview.
As the investigation into the tragedy enters its seventh week, records have unearthed a troubling gulf in California’s otherwise strict explosives oversight: the system depends on small, often underfunded, local agencies to enforce permits and inspections without providing much support to those agencies or double-checking their work."
Hidden in Trump’s spending package: A surprise boost to California’s affordable housing
CALMatters, BEN CHRISTOPHER/MARISA KENDALL: "California lawmakers are preparing for a historic surge in federal funding for affordable housing construction, a tsunami of subsidy that advocates say could as much as double the number of low-rent units produced by the state over the next decade.
It comes from an unlikely source."
The dark side of California’s backyard ADU boom: How much do they ease the housing shortage?
LAT, TERRY CASTLEMAN: "With California facing a critical housing shortage, accessory dwelling units now account for a significant portion of the state’s meager growth in new homes, data reviewed by The Times show.
Shohei Ohtani and his agent accused of sabotaging $240-million real estate project
LAT, JIMMY GOLEN: "A Hawaii real estate investor and broker are suing Shohei Ohtani, claiming the Dodgers’ star and his agent got them fired from a $240-million luxury housing development on the Big Island’s coveted Hapuna Coast that they brought him in to endorse.
According to the lawsuit filed in Hawaii Circuit Court on Friday, Ohtani’s agent, Nez Balelo, increasingly demanded concessions from developer Kevin J. Hayes Sr. and real estate broker Tomoko Matsumoto before demanding that their business partner, Kingsbarn Realty Capital, drop them from the deal."
California has struggled to keep up with demand, increasing housing stock by only 0.84% in 2024, or 125,000 units. ADUs made up about one-fifth of those units, according to California Department of Finance data."
The latest plan to connect BART to downtown San Jose: One tunnel rather than two
The Chronicle, RACHEL SWAN: "When BART and Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority first discussed plans to send trains rolling under downtown San Jose, transit officials contemplated a design with two tunnels that would burrow for miles under the street.
Now VTA officials have abandoned the side-by-side tunnel idea, deeming it monumentally expensive and time-consuming, and saying it would have set BART’s Silicon Valley extension back years. On Monday the agency released a new cost report that appeared to validate a decision the VTA board made years ago, to pursue a more modern single bore configuration."
Crazy Crab not quite sold on Valkyries’ Violet, the Bay Area’s newest mascot
The Chronicle, SCOTT OSTLER: "Ducked into a dive bar in Dogpatch on Monday night, after the Golden State Valkyries’ game. Quick stop to wind down from all the excitement.
Guess who I saw? You’ll never guess."
4 arrested in break-in at Brad Pitt’s home, other residences, sources say
LA Times, TERRY CASTLEMAN and RICHARD WINTON: "Four people have been arrested in a series of burglaries that included the home of actor Brad Pitt, law enforcement sources told The Times.
The suspects were arrested in a series of burglaries across Los Angeles — some of which targeted celebrities, including the Los Feliz home of Pitt, according to two law enforcement sources. Los Angeles police said the arrests were made in the 77th Division in South L.A. on Thursday evening."
