Is California’s proposed billionaire tax smart policy? History holds lessons
LAT, KEVIN RECTOR: "In the roiling debate over California’s proposed billionaire tax, supporters and critics agree that such policies haven’t always worked in the past. But the lessons they’ve drawn from that history are wildly different.
The Billionaire Tax Act, which backers are pushing to get on the November ballot, would charge California’s 200-plus billionaires a one-time, 5% tax on their net worth in order to backfill billions of dollars in Republican-led cuts to federal healthcare funding for middle-class and low-income residents."
Here’s what California leaders said about latest Minneapolis killing
CALMATTERS, LYNN LA: "Gov. Gavin Newsom on Saturday called for U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem to resign and Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino to be fired a day after federal immigration enforcement officers shot at another U.S. citizen in Minneapolis multiple times, killing him.
Weeks after the death of Renee Good, Border Patrol agents killed Alex Pretti on Friday, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse who worked for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. During an altercation in which Pretti was observing and documenting federal agents beforehand, multiple officers tackled Pretti to the ground. Pretti reportedly had a gun, for which he had a lawful permit to carry. After one agent took away the gun while Pretti was pinned on the ground, officers appear to have fired at him at least 10 times."
A federal judge is set to hear arguments on Minnesota’s immigration crackdown after fatal shootings
LAT, STEVE KARNOWSKI: "A federal judge will hear arguments Monday on whether she should at least temporarily halt the immigration crackdown in Minnesota that has led to the fatal shootings of two people by government officers.
The state of Minnesota and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul sued the Department of Homeland Security earlier this month, five days after Renee Good was shot by an Immigration and Customs officer. The shooting of Alex Pretti by a Border Patrol officer on Saturday has only added urgency to the case."
Experts Expound: The Mahan Question
CAPITOL WEEKLY, STAFF: "“With all due respect Matt Mahan is a nobody statewide, a political force only in his own mind because he likes to publicly crap on Newsom. I doubt his statewide name ID would be more than 2 or 3 percent — and some of them probably would have him confused with Dot McMahan, the Olympic runner. Plus, despite being a lovely city and California’s third-largest San Jose is the political black hole of California and has never produced a governor or a U.S. senator. The furthest any previous mayors have gone is being elected to Congress (including Mahan’s immediate predecessor, Sam Liccardo, and Norm Mineta) — actually a downsizing after running a city of more than a million. San Jose has historically been completely overshadowed politically by L.A., San Francisco, and even San Diego, which produced a governor Pete Wilson and senator Pete Wilson.”"
Sacramento Realtors sour on mayor’s proposed tax to help first-time homebuyers
SACBEE, MATHEW MIRANDA: "In early October — weeks before he publicly announced the proposal — Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarty gathered a small group of local Realtors in his City Hall office to test-drive an idea.
He pitched a ballot measure to increase the city’s real property transfer tax, a fee charged whenever a property is sold. The additional revenue would fund assistance for first-time homebuyers, renters at risk of losing housing and the mayor’s tiny home initiative."
What are immigrants’ legal rights in California ICE raids? What the law says
SACBEE, VERONICA FERNANDEZ-ALVARADO: "Since nationwide protests began against the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency, the Trump administration has escalated raids in cities across the country.
A recent Associated Press investigation uncovered an ICE memo that appears to reverse “longstanding guidance meant to respect constitutional limits on government searches.”"
31,000 Kaiser Permanente health care workers to strike in California, Hawaii
SACBEE, CAMRYN DADEY: "An estimated 31,000 Kaiser Permanente nurses and health care professionals in California and Hawaii will go on strike Monday, calling for fair wages and more staffing, according to a news release from the workers union.
United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals is asking for safer staffing, as it says short staffing is causing “dangerous delays in care” and a higher risk of errors; fairer wages; and retirement and benefits security. Picketing locations in Northern California include Roseville Medical Center, Oakland Medical Center and Santa Clara Medical Center."
Feds drop effort to get trans patients’ records from LA children’s hospital
CALMATTERS, ANA B. IBARRA: "Transgender patients of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles secured a win this week after the U.S. Department of Justice agreed to end its efforts to obtain personal and medical information of more than 3,000 young patients.
Last summer, the federal Justice Department announced that it sent subpoenas to more than 20 medical providers that offered gender-affirming care for minors. At the time, the department said it was doing so to investigate “healthcare fraud” and “false statements.”"
California school districts pay for abuse settlements despite no claims
EDSOURCE, THOMAS PEELE: "The costs of settling childhood sexual abuse claims under Assembly Bill 218 are not just hitting school districts that have been sued by victims.
Districts that have not faced any abuse allegations involving employees are also paying for settlements because nearly all the state’s school districts obtain liability insurance through obscure public agencies called Joint Power Authorities that pool costs. These authorities, commonly called JPAs, pay settlements when a member district is sued, often after years of legal wrangling."
These are the most popular S.F. public schools — and how to navigate applying
LAT, JILL TUCKER: "Arguably nothing causes greater consternation among San Francisco parents than the annual public school assignment process — a complicated system that leads to fear, loathing and endless chatter of strategy and potential unfair advantages.
The district abandoned a neighborhood school model decades ago, choosing instead to offer families a wide array of choices and an application that allows them to list as many schools as they want in the order of preference."
Yuba City Unified settles with state over ‘severe’ anti-Black discrimination
EDSOURCE, EMMA GALLEGOS: "The California Civil Rights Department announced that it had reached a settlement with the Yuba City Unified School District over “severe anti-Black discrimination and harassment” at two of the district’s elementary schools.
The state’s Civil Rights Department received a complaint in 2024 that a student had experienced “repeated threats and acts of violence and anti-Black comments by students” at two different elementary schools whose names were not released."
Crypto billionaire invests $5 million in S.F. Tenderloin revitalization
CHRONICLE, ANNA BAUMAN: "Larkin Street, a small business corridor and cultural hub in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood, will soon be revitalized with new safety features, art installations and community events meant to attract pedestrians back to an area hollowed out by the pandemic.
The project will launch with a $5 million investment from crypto billionaire and philanthropist Chris Larsen, co-founder of payment network Ripple, who has previously donated millions to San Francisco police and public safety efforts."
Housing costs are crippling many Americans. Here’s how the two parties propose to fix that
LAT, GAVIN J. QUINTON: "Donald Trump’s promises on affordability in 2024 helped propel him to a second term in the White House.
Since then, Trump says, the problem has been solved: He now calls affordability a hoax perpetrated by Democrats. Yet the high cost of living, especially housing, continues to weigh heavily on voters, and has dragged down the president’s approval ratings."
This wealthy Bay Area beach town is battling to save one road. Billions of dollars in real estate is at stake
Airbnb rules have literally split this Bay Area beach town in two
LAT, ANNA BAUMAN: "Many California towns are divided over how to regulate short-term rentals like Airbnb, but few more so than Pacifica.
The idyllic community south of San Francisco imposed strict new rules for short-term rentals last year that have already sparked an exodus of permitted Airbnbs and similar vacation rentals."
The gap between S.F. and Oakland rents swells to highest level in years
CHRONICLE, CHRISTIAN LEONARD: "San Francisco rents are now roughly 70% higher than those in Oakland, the largest difference in the better part of a decade.
The median rent for a one-bedroom home in San Francisco was an estimated $3,110 in December, more than a thousand dollars higher than the median of $1,830 in Oakland, according to rental website Apartment List. That was the largest gap between the cities since at least 2018, the furthest back the company’s data goes."
This map shows the most dangerous streets for pedestrians and bicyclists in California
CHRONICLE, HARSHA DEVULAPALLI: "On average, more than 1,200 pedestrians and bicyclists are killed on California’s streets each year. The Chronicle mapped the exact locations of every one of these deaths across the state between 2020 and 2024, revealing the most dangerous streets and intersections in California.
We obtained this data from the Transportation Injury Mapping System at UC Berkeley, which compiles collision reports from every law enforcement agency in California. Each record includes precise details on where a pedestrian was stuck along with details of the victim, driver, road conditions and crash details. The interactive map below shows location, time and day of every fatality."
This wealthy Bay Area beach town is battling to save one road. Billions of dollars in real estate is at stake
CHRONICLE, TARA DUGGAN: "One of the Bay Area’s most expensive enclaves relies on a two-lane road that will be covered by rising seas in the coming decades. A powerful homeowners group says the county must protect the road into the future — or be liable for billions of dollars of inaccessible real estate.
Calle del Arroyo in Stinson Beach runs half a mile from Highway 1 to the gated community of Seadrift. It’s the emergency access and tsunami evacuation route for about 500 homes both in Seadrift and on the town’s narrow beachfront lanes."
California cities just saw their lowest homicide rates in decades. It’s not clear why
CALMATTERS, NIGEL DUARA: "For the second year in a row, Gov. Gavin Newsom is celebrating California’s declining homicide rate while using it as a cudgel against his political foes.
“Your state’s homicide rate is 117% higher than California’s,” he told a Missouri congressman who needled Newsom on social media last summer. "
