Republicans file second California redistricting challenge as Trump teases his own suit
Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: "Republican legislators returned to the state Supreme Court on Monday to try to remove Gov. Gavin Newsom’s redistricting plan from the November ballot, saying the abrupt redrawing of boundaries to increase Democratic representation violates the public’s right to fair and independent election maps.
GOP leadeArs asked the court last week to block Newsom’s mesfasure as it was being rushed through the Legislature, arguing that it had not been published long enough to meet the state Constitution’s public-notice requirements. The justices quickly dismissed that suit without a hearing."
READ MORE -- California GOP takes Newsom to court over redistricting, again. Will Trump sue next? -- CALMatters, MAYA C. MILLER/ALEXEI KOSEFF; Republicans try again to block California redistricting plan from November ballot -- LAT, LAURA J. NELSON/SONJA SHARP
L.A. congressional Democrats demand answers on Border Patrol force outside Newsom event
LAT, JULIA WICK: "Two weeks ago, scores of masked, gun-toting federal immigration agents assembled in front of the Japanese American National Museum in downtown Los Angeles.
Inside the museum, Gov. Gavin Newsom was surrounded by nearly every powerful Democrat in California, preparing to announce that he would take on President Trump’s redistricting plans with a special election campaign. Outside, Border Patrol Sector Chief Gregory Bovino was flanked by dozens of agents who looked ready for battle."
California voters undecided in 2026 governor’s race, but prefer Newsom over Harris for president in 2028
LAT, SEEMA MEHTA: "Former Vice President Kamala Harris’ decision to forgo a run for California governor has created a wide-open race in next year’s election to run the nation’s most populous state, according to a poll released Tuesday by UC Berkeley and the Los Angeles Times.
Nearly 4 in 10 registered voters surveyed said they are uncertain about whom they will support in the 2026 contest to replace termed-out Gov. Gavin Newsom."
Three bills would protect California workers from AI management, but will costs stand in the way?
CALMatters, KHARI JOHNSON: "Committees in both houses of the California Legislature will decide this week whether more than half a dozen bills that seek to protect people from AI will move on to final votes.
One closely watched bill before the Assembly appropriations committee, Senate Bill 7, would require employers to give workers 30 days notice before they use AI to make decisions related to employment such as compensation, hiring, firing, or promotions. It would also give workers the right to appeal decisions made by AI and prevent employers from making predictions about a worker related to their immigration status, ancestral history, health, or psychological state."
Why are all these leading Democrats suddenly facing mortgage fraud charges? Guess who’s behind it (OP-ED)
LAT, MIHAEL HILTZIK: "Like the White Queen in Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking Glass,” I am capable of believing as many as six impossible things before breakfast.
But my credulity is strained past the breaking point by the charges of federal mortgage fraud laid against three leading adversaries of Donald Trump—Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank), New York Atty. Gen. Letitia James, and (most recently) Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, whom Trump claimed to fire for cause Monday."
COVID rising fast in California, fueled by new ‘Stratus’ variant tied to Omicron
LAT, RONG-GONG LIN II: "COVID-19 is once again climbing to troubling levels in California — a worrying trend as health officials attempt to navigate a vaccine landscape thrown into uncertainty by delays and decisions from the Trump administration.
Public health departments in Los Angeles and Santa Clara counties have reported jumps in the coronavirus concentrations detected in wastewater in recent weeks. L.A. County also has reported a small increase in patients hospitalized with COVID."
ICE is suddenly showing up in California hospitals. Workers want more guidance on what to do
CALMatters, ANA B. IBARRA/RISTEN HWANG: "Federal immigration agents are more routinely showing up at California medical facilities as the Trump administration ramps up deportations.
They may come to the emergency room, bringing in someone who’s suffering a medical crisis while being detained. They may wait in the lobby, as agents did for two weeks at an L.A.-area hospital waiting for a woman to be discharged. Or they may even chase people inside, as federal agents did at a Southern California surgical center."
GOP widens UC antisemitism investigations, hitting UCLA, UC San Francisco medical schools
LAT, JAWEED KALEEM: "The UCLA and UC San Francisco medical schools have been given two weeks to submit years of internal documents to a Republican-led congressional committee about alleged antisemitism and how the schools responded, widening the federal government’s far-reaching investigations into the University of California.
The demands from House Education and Workforce Committee Chair Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) cited reports of Jewish people “experiencing hostility and fear” at each campus and that universities had not proved that they “meaningfully responded.”
Despite uproar over ethnic studies, few SFUSD freshmen opt out
The Chronicle, JILL TUCKER: "A campaign to spur San Francisco students to opt out of taking ethnic studies in the ninth grade this year seems to have fizzled, with just 43 of the 3,785 current freshmen requesting a transfer out of the class, the Chronicle has learned.
The small number of students taking the opt-out might seem surprising given how controversial ethnic studies has been in the district and across California. Parents, students and educators — in public meetings and on social media — have sparred over what should or shouldn’t be taught in the course and whether students have to take the class."
Hundreds of students face SAT delays after trouble at S.F.'s Moscone Center
The Chronicle, JERRY WU: "A few hours after she dropped her daughter off at the Moscone Center on Saturday to take the SAT, Elizabeth Mitchiner texted to ask how it went. Her daughter’s reply made her heart sink.
“Her first response was ‘Awful,’” said Mitchiner, who lives in San Francisco. “I thought, ‘Oh no — that means the test was terrible, and she must feel like she did terribly.’”"
Nature-based climate credits a path forward for cap-and-trade (OP-ED)
Capitol Weekly, LAURIE WAYBURN: "Almost 25 years ago, I helped write the pioneering legislation that first allowed California landowners to earn money for protecting their carbon-absorbing forests, a key foundation for what would become the state’s groundbreaking cap-and-trade program. The goal was to use the enormous power of forests to help solve the climate crisis while also providing a tool to manage the overall costs of reducing carbon pollution, as forest projects are the most cost-effective method to do that. California has proven that market-based climate policy using cap and trade works. Now, the stakes are particularly high, as lawmakers must reauthorize the cap-and-trade program before it expires in 2030.
One thing is clear from the current reauthorization debate — cap-and-trade faces a crisis. Federal uncertainty and threats to state climate programs have caused allowance prices to plummet from $42 to $26 per metric ton, costing California up to $3 billion in potential revenue this past year. This revenue crisis comes at the worst possible time, as climate impacts intensify, affordability concerns mount, and the need for cost-containment becomes urgent."
Burning Man 2025: Fesitival faces 8-hour wait times, lightning storm threat
Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI: "Burning Man’s entrance gates reopened Monday after fierce storms shuttered access to the desert festival over the weekend, but fresh weather warnings raised new uncertainty for the tens of thousands traveling to Black Rock City.
Organizers said wait times stretched six to eight hours on County Route 34 as vehicles slowly moved toward the site."
READ MORE -- Fire danger lingering for another day before California cooldown -- The Chronicle, GREG PORTER
Napa Valley’s harvest just began. Here’s what the Pickett Fire could do to the grapes
The Chronicle, ESTHER MOBLEY: "As the Pickett Fire in Napa County continued to burn Monday, winemakers confronted the vexing question that always attends Wine Country wildfires: Will there be smoke taint on the grapes?
Although it’s too soon to know for sure, some vintners in the Howell Mountain and Pope Valley areas are resigned to the likelihood that some or all of their crop will be unharvestable."
Scion of one of America’s richest real estate families to buy Lake Tahoe hotel
Chronicle, ROLAND LI: "Lloyd Goldman, a member of the Goldman real estate dynasty, is part of a group buying a Lake Tahoe hotel, the Chronicle has confirmed. Goldman’s New York company BLDG Management and Metrovest Equities are in contract to purchase the 261-room Beach Retreat and Lodge at Lake Tahoe.
The price wasn’t disclosed and the deal has not closed. Seller Linchris Hotel Corp. previously bought the waterfront property for $27.9 million in 2019. It’s located at 3411 Lake Tahoe Blvd. in South Lake Tahoe."
S.F. to keep doing business with troubled homeless shelter operator despite fraud allegations
The Chronicle, MAGGIE ANGST: "San Francisco is betting an embattled homeless shelter operator accused of fraud and labor violations can clean up its act as the city copes with the fallout from a wave of nonprofit scandals.
A year ago, San Francisco officials said they found enough evidence to suspend the Providence Foundation of San Francisco. But now, a $1 million settlement is expected to resolve the case and keep the nonprofit on the city’s rolls for future contracts."
Trump orders could target ‘cashless bail’ cities from D.C. to L.A.
LA Times, MICHAEL WILNER and REBECCA ELLIS: "President Trump took executive action Monday threatening to cut federal aid to cities and counties that offer cashless bail to criminal defendants, a move that could place Democratic jurisdictions throughout the country under further financial strain.
Trump’s first executive order specifically targeted the practice of cashless bail in the District of Columbia, where the president has sent National Guard troops to patrol the streets. His second action directed the Justice Department to draw up a list of jurisdictions that have “substantially eliminated cash bail as a potential condition for crimes that pose a clear threat to public safety and order” — a list that would then be subject to federal funding cuts, the White House said."
An FBI agent killed a man after the Boston Marathon bombing. Oakland PD had helped hide his past
The Chronicle, KATEY RUSCH/MATTHIAS GAFNI: "Aaron McFarlane gained national attention in 2014 when law enforcement officials fouled up the redactions in an investigative report and mistakenly disclosed he was the FBI agent who killed an associate of the Boston Marathon bombers during an interrogation.
But perhaps more remarkable was that McFarlane had become a federal agent at all."
