The campaign over Gavin Newsom’s maps is one of California most expensive, ever
CALMatters, JEREMIA KIMELMAN: "With five weeks until election day, the fight over changing congressional districts in California to favor Democrats has already become one of the most expensive ballot measures in recent state history.
The official campaigns supporting and opposing Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Proposition 50 reported raising more than $215 million as of Oct. 2, with more than $100 million raised in September alone – the third most of any proposition for at least the past decade. Campaigns only spent more money on Prop. 22 in 2020, which would have changed the employment status of Lyft and Uber drivers, and Prop. 27 in 2022, which would have legalized online gambling."
Prop. 50 Voter Guide: What to know about California’s redistricting measure
Sac Bee, NICOLE NIXON: "To push back on President Donald Trump’s “authoritarian actions,” Gov. Gavin Newsom is asking California voters this fall to adopt new political lines intended to give Democrats more seats in the U.S. House.
Proposition 50 is California’s armament in a redistricting war that has stormed into at least three states and threatens to spread to others. It began when Trump pressured Republicans in Texas to redraw their congressional lines, with the goal of flipping five seats for Republicans and protecting the party’s narrow hold on the House during the 2026 midterms."
Trump sets Sunday deadline for Hamas to agree to a deal for ending the war in Gaza
AP: "President Trump said that Hamas must agree to a proposed peace deal for Gaza by Sunday evening and threatened that the group will face more attacks if it doesn’t.
“An Agreement must be reached with Hamas by Sunday Evening at SIX (6) P.M., Washington, D.C. time,” Trump wrote Friday on social media. “Every Country has signed on! If this LAST CHANCE agreement is not reached, all HELL, like no one has ever seen before, will break out against Hamas. THERE WILL BE PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST ONE WAY OR THE OTHER.”"
Trump uses repeated funding cuts to pressure California, complicating state’s legal fight
LAT, KEVIN RECTOR: "The federal Office for Victims of Crime announced in the summer that millions of dollars approved for domestic violence survivors and other crime victims would be withheld from states that don’t comply with the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
California, 19 other states and the District of Columbia sued, alleging that such preconditions are illegal and would undermine public safety."
Supreme Court will decide if gun owners have a right to carry in parks, beaches, stores
LAT, DAVID G. SAVAGE: "The Supreme Court agreed Friday to decide if licensed guns owners have a right to carry their weapons at public places, including parks, beaches and stores.
At issue are laws in California, Hawaii and three other states that generally prohibit carrying guns on private or public property."
California lawmakers keep dodging tough bills by not voting. Here are the worst offenders
CALMatters, RYAN SABALOW: "There’s a green button for “aye” and a red button for “no” on Concord Assemblymember Anamarie Ávila Farías’ desk.
She feels obligated to push one of those buttons for every bill that comes her way in the California Legislature – even if hitting the red one might make her an outlier among her Democratic colleagues. After all, they almost never vote against bills, particularly those authored by their fellow Democrats."
Adjournment in the California Legislature
Capitol Weekly, CHRIS MICHELI: "When the California Legislature adjourned its 2025 Session, it was not “adjournment sine die.” Instead, that will occur after the conclusion of the second year of the biennium session. There is a distinction between adjournment and adjournment sine die.
According to the Legislative Counsel’s Glossary of Terms, adjournment means the termination of a meeting, occurring at the close of each legislative day upon the completion of business, which is accomplished by a successful motion to end the session, with the hour and day of the next meeting being set prior to adjournment."
New US Attorney for Sacramento aims to focus on immigration, Trump priorities
Sac Bee, SHARON BERNSTEIN: "Sacramento’s new top federal prosecutor took the helm of the sprawling district that stretches from Bakersfield to the Oregon border with a clear understanding of the role: to bring prosecutions and civil actions focused on Trump administration directives to fight gangs and cartels, drugs and human trafficking, and illegal immigration.
Eric Grant, a longtime Sacramento-area attorney who grew up in Modesto, served in the first Trump administration supervising work on environmental and energy-related cases as deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department, a post that grew out of his years working on such cases for the Houston law firm Hicks Thomas."
CalPERS members voted in an expensive board election. Here’s who won
Sac Bee, WILLIAM MELHADO: "Two-time incumbent David Miller defended his seat on the CalPERS Board of Administration from two challengers, Santa Monica fire Captain Dominick Bei and former Pasadena city manager Steve Mermell, according to CalPERS election results released Thursday.
The other incumbent running, Jose Luis Pacheco, lost his board seat to challenger Troy Johnson, a senior administrative assistant for a Southern California school district. Pacheco lost despite raising the most money of any candidate in the public employees’ retirement system’s election history."
California must act against transnational repression (OP-ED)
Capitol Weekly, HAMID YAZDAN PANAH: "California’s immigrant communities face countless challenges, from housing insecurity to limited access to healthcare. Yet one growing problem remains under the radar, despite its profound implications for safety and democracy, transnational repression.
Transnational repression occurs when foreign governments reach across borders to silence, harass, or intimidate people who fled persecution. It is a tactic designed to extend authoritarian control beyond national boundaries, and it puts not only immigrants at risk, but also the freedoms all Californians cherish."
Sacramento County to shut down this Department of Human Assistance building
Sac Bee, EMMA HALL: "Sacramento County will be closing its Department of Human Assistance Building in midtown due to federal funding cuts, according to a county spokesperson.
The office, located on 28th Street, employs 207 workers who will be reassigned to other locations. Services will continue at the department’s other sites — on Fulton Avenue in Arden Arcade, Research Drive in North Sacramento, Florin Road and 25th Street in south Sacramento, Watt Avenue in North Highlands and North Lincoln Way in Galt — and remain available online and by phone, spokesperson Allison Harris said."
Newsom threatens to cut USC funding if it complies with Trump demands
CALMatters, JEANNE KUANG: "Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday threatened to cut billions in state funding from the University of Southern California if it complies with a Trump administration request to impose the president’s political priorities on campus.
USC was one of nine public and private universities across the country that received offers of preferential access to federal funds from the White House Thursday in exchange for agreeing to a wide variety of policy directives, many of which align with conservative demands of higher education."
‘Can I just be a kid?’ Students shaken by immigration raids seek help from school counselors
CALMatters, ANA B. IBARRA: "A new school year brings an array of feelings: excitement, anticipation, nervousness, homesickness. Maria Caballero Magaña, a K-8 school counselor in Oxnard, knows these feelings well — familiar companions as students return to campus.
This year, however, she and other counselors detected acute emotional reactions: anxiety, sorrow and fear after a summer of intensified immigration raids."
Exclusive: Bay Area university to open $240 million downtown Oakland campus. Here’s a look inside
Chronicle, ROLAND LI: "Samuel Merritt University is gearing up for the biggest move in the health care school’s 116-year history. Its new $240 million downtown Oakland campus will open in January, in one of the city’s biggest economic investments since the pandemic.
SMU will bring 2,000 in-person Oakland students and hundreds of faculty and staff to a massive building at 525 12th St., potentially adding customers to downtown businesses and restaurants after a drop off of foot traffic due to remote work. The school is moving from 3100 Telegraph Ave. in Pill Hill."
Ex-school board member accused of $93,000 embezzlement scheme at Burbank Unified
LAT, CLARA HARTER: "A former member of the Burbank Unified School District Board of Education is facing criminal charges following allegations that she approved a contract with a company registered to her daughter and then funneled $93,000 worth of payments into her own bank account, authorities said.
In the same meeting that the alleged embezzlement scheme came to light, the district’s superintendent suddenly resigned."
Newsom slams Trump over $1.2 billion cut to California hydrogen hub
Sac Bede, CHAEWON CHUNG: "Gov. Gavin Newsom late Wednesday denounced the Trump administration’s decision to cut funding for a hydrogen hub in California — one of the latest actions against green initiatives by the administration as it continues to embrace the “drill, baby, drill” slogan.
The rebuke followed the U.S. Department of Energy’s announcement of the termination of 223 projects approved under the Biden administration, including California’s ARCHES hydrogen hub, a project worth up to $1.2 billion and led by the Alliance for Renewable Clean Hydrogen Energy Systems."
Massive fire, explosion rock Chevron refinery in El Segundo
LAT, CLARA HARTER/GRACE TOOHEY: "An explosion and fire rocked a refinery in El Segundo on Thursday night, sending up massive flames that could be seen for miles.
The city of El Segundo said there was no public threat or evacuation orders, even as several local fire departments continued to work to suppress flames at the major Chevron refinery, located just off the Pacific Coast Highway."
California may be at high risk of ‘supershear’ earthquakes. Scientists fear we're not ready
Chronicle, JACK LEE: "Scientists are warning that underexplored “supershear” earthquakes could have serious impacts in California, particularly near the infamous San Andreas Fault.
“The San Andreas is the perfect setting for supershear,” said Ares Rosakis, a professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering at the California Institute of Technology and co-author of a recent scientific opinion article."
Tahoe could see first snow of season before Northern California warms up
Chronicle, ANTHONY EDWARDS: "Thursday wound up wetter than forecast across Northern California as a cold front provided the energy for a half-inch of rain in San Jose, Hayward and Livermore and even more in the Sierra Nevada. Things will dry out over the weekend, but not before one last round of showers in the Sierra and Sacramento Valley.
Friday’s showers could come in the form of snow, mainly above 7,500 feet where a few inches may accumulate at the summits of Tahoe ski resorts. Even more is possible in the high elevations of Yosemite National Park and Mammoth, but showers will be hit or miss. The snow won’t stick around long, but it could be the first taste of winter in the Sierra."
Marine mammals are dying in record numbers along the California coast
LAT, SUSANNE RUST: "On a spit of sand 12 miles north of Santa Cruz, a small, emaciated sea lion lay on its side. The only sign of life was the deep press of its flippers against its belly, relaxing for a few seconds, then squeezing again.
“That’s a classic sign of lepto,” said Giancarlo Rulli, a volunteer and spokesperson with the Marine Mammal Center, pointing to the young animal’s wretched self-embrace. The corkscrew-shaped bacteria, leptospirosis, causes severe abdominal pain in sea lions by damaging their kidneys and inflaming their gastrointestinal tracts. “They hold their stomach just like that. Like a sick child with a bellyache,” he said."
California’s dying salmon test our environmental values. We’re flunking (OP-ED)
Sac Bee, TOM PHILP: "California salmon are as central to our historic identity as the symbol on our state flag, the California grizzly. It is a sad and ironic tragedy that the grizzly has been extinct for generations. What does it say about us if salmon may soon follow?
California is known around the globe for its commitment to environmentalism. But the state is struggling in the present. Much is chronicled on how California is not on target to meet climate change goals, such as our pioneering plans for “net zero” emissions of global warming gases in just two decades. There is less attention on how the state is equally failing the signature inhabitants of its natural world."
A historic housing bill is on Newsom’s desk. Cities are scrambling to figure out how it works
LAT, JACK FLEMMING/DAVID ZAHNISER: "When Brendon Gerisch and his wife searched for a new home, they knew they wanted something with a little privacy — a backyard, some fully grown trees, less crowded surroundings.
The couple found what they were looking for in L.A.’s Westchester neighborhood, buying a four-bedroom in 2018 on a quiet street with one-story houses. “It was going to be our forever home,” he said."
Newsom vetoes bill for sober homeless housing
CALMatters, MARISA KENDALL: "Lawmakers’ efforts to free up state money for sober homeless housing have been thwarted for a second year in a row, after Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that had sailed to his desk with few “no” votes.
Assembly Bill 255 would have allowed cities and counties to spend up to 10% of their state funding on “recovery housing,” where people live in a sober environment and work on overcoming an addiction. The move would have tweaked California’s “housing first” strategy, which generally frowns on programs that put up barriers to housing — such as requiring people to stay clean or participate in treatment."
California FAIR Plan seeks huge rate hike. Map shows which ZIPs hit hardest
Chronicle, MEGAN FAN MUNCE: "The California FAIR Plan has proposed raising home insurance rates by an average of 35.8% starting next spring — a hike that, if approved in full, would be its largest in at least seven years.
Individual homeowners could see a range of impacts, above or below the average. About half of all customers would see an increase of between 40% to 55%. Rates for some would decrease as much as 78%, while four policyholders’ rates would increase more than 300%. If approved, the new rates would go into effect at customers’ next renewal date following April 1."
AB 1339 is the lifeline affordable housing providers need (OP-ED)
Capitol Weekly, SEANA O'SHAUGHNESSY/ERICH NAKANO: "Rising insurance costs and lack of coverage is a common headline in California and across the country these days, but the acute challenges for affordable housing—and the state’s most vulnerable residents who live there—have received far less attention. Between 2020 and 2022, insurance costs for California’s affordable housing providers increased by an average of 56%, with some facing hikes as high as 500% between 2022 and 2024. At the same time, coverage options have narrowed, further jeopardizing the long-term viability of these essential homes.
Gov. Gavin Newsom can ensure an important first step toward countering this unsustainable trend by signing AB 1339. This legislation requires the California Department of Insurance to study the availability and affordability of coverage for affordable housing providers, equipping the state with the information needed to craft solutions, protect affordable housing from skyrocketing costs, and keep Californians securely housed."
Will this YIMBY bill put more homes near transit? Our map shows where housing could be built
Chronicle, SRIHARSHA DEVULAPALLI/RACHEL SWAN: "The passage of Senate Bill 79, the Abundant and Affordable Homes Near Transit Act, seemed to herald the rise of pro-density urbanism in California, and the end of a seven-year crusade by San Francisco YIMBY lawmaker.
“Politics have shifted since I began this journey,” Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener said of his legislation to construct apartment complexes and other multifamily dwellings around major transportation hubs. His idea to combat sprawl by building up — not out — had long drawn support from environmentalists and people frustrated by grueling commutes. Now, he said, state leaders are starting to catch on."
S.F. speed cameras are generating mountains of tickets and fines. Here are the totals so far
Chronicle, DANIELLE ECHEVERRIA: "Speed cameras generated tickets sent to more than 16,500 drivers in San Francisco in August, the first month those tickets came with fines, according to data from SFMTA — more than 600 a day.
That’s good for more than $1.2 million in fines, if they are all paid in full."
Tesla sued: Parents say Cybertruck trapped daughter in fiery Piedmont crash
Chronicle, ST. JOHN BARNED-SMITH: "The parents of a Piedmont woman who died in a fiery car crash last year sued Tesla on Thursday, claiming design flaws prevented their daughter from escaping the burning Cybertruck.
Krysta Tsukahara, 19, died in an early morning car crash in November, when the Cybertruck in which she was traveling struck a retaining wall and tree and burst into flames. The vehicle’s driver, 19-year-old Soren Dixon, died, as did another occupant, Jack Nelson, 20. A fourth occupant was rescued."
Flying taxis are coming to L.A. This developer is already picking places to land them
LAT, ROGER VINCENT: "With electric air taxi services on the horizon, operators are already flying in to secure landing sites in Los Angeles.
Traffic-dodging aerial hops across big cities could happen as soon as next year, pending approval by the Federal Aviation Administration, and one of the country’s largest operators of airplane and helicopter landing sites is now on the hunt for L.A. locations that can handle the comings and goings of air taxis."
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs faces years in prison at sentencing in ‘freak-off’ case
LAT, RICHARD WINTON: "Music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs will learn Friday how long he will serve in prison for transporting prostitutes across state lines to engage in drug-fueled sexual performances that he dubbed “freak-offs.”
His sentencing comes a year after federal prosecutors unsealed a sweeping indictment that painted Combs’ Bad Boy Entertainment as a mob-style operation designed to allow him to sex traffic women for his own desire. But in July, a jury cleared him of the most serious charges — racketeering and sex trafficking — following a weeks-long federal criminal trial in New York."
Before she was found dead in D4vd’s Tesla, girl’s mysterious disappearances distressed family
LAT, NATHAN SOLIS/SALVADOR HERNANDEZ/RICHARD WINTON: "Celeste Rivas Hernandez was just one of the kids in her neighborhood in Lake Elsinore, an Inland Empire community that for generations has drawn young families looking for a piece of suburbia far from the high prices and drama of the big city.
She visited the corner store almost every day with her friends, wearing a backpack and her usual long, curly black hair. She got candy, soda and Takis. She was a familiar face to neighbors and local business owners."
