Judge grants gag order in Trump’s 2020 election case
LA Times, SARAH D. WIRE: "U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan granted special counsel Jack Smith’s request Monday for a limited gag order to prevent former President Trump from attacking prosecutors, witnesses and court officials involved in his federal case over attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
Chutkan prohibited all parties in the case, including Trump, from making or reposting any statements publicly targeting Smith or his staff and the court or staff, and prohibited statements about witnesses or their expected testimony."
On tax deadline day, IRS gives most Californians a new extension
The Chronicle, JESSICA FLORES: "In a last-minute announcement Monday, the Internal Revenue Service once again extended the federal tax filing deadline for most Californians in response to the deadly winter storms that pounded the state at the beginning of the year.
The agency said the new deadline is Thursday, Nov. 16, for businesses and residents in 55 of California’s 58 counties to file 2022 federal tax returns and to make payments. The IRS had previously postponed the deadline to Monday, Oct. 16."
Bashing Republicans for ‘rights regression,’ Newsom sidesteps protections for marginalized Californians
CALMatters, ALEXEI KOSEFF: "Nearly two decades ago, Gavin Newsom catapulted onto the national political stage when, as mayor of San Francisco, he began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. It was an act of defiance, far ahead of public opinion at the time, and so controversial that some of his fellow Democrats blamed him for costing the party the presidential election later that year.
But for Newsom, who said he was driven by a “moral obligation,” it eventually became a political calling card — validation for progressive voters of his fearless leadership and forward thinking that would be proven right by history."
Laphonza Butler knows how to amass quiet power. Will she win in the public arena?
LA Times, NOAH BIERMAN, TARYN LUNA, MATT HAMILTON, SEEMA MEHTA: "As then-Sen. Kamala Harris’ presidential bid was collapsing in late 2019 amid factional infighting, her campaign badly needed a trusted person who could close the operation down — pay off bills, terminate contracts and counsel staff members who needed jobs.
Internal backbiting and lackluster support from voters had undone a two-year effort, and Harris, once seen as a top-tier contender, was now bowing out a full two months before the Iowa caucuses, the first contest of the Democratic primary season."
A Conversation with Sen. Steve Glazer (PODCAST)
Capitol Weekly, STAFF: "We’re joined today by Democratic Senator Steve Glazer, who represents SD7 in the Bay Area. While Glazer was first elected to the senate in a 2015 Special Election, he has been engaged in politics for four decades, including stints working for Gray Davis, Chief Justice Rose Bird, and two stints – thirty years apart – for Governor Jerry Brown.
Glazer is the only California senator to host own podcast, Table Talk with Senator Steve Glazer. He recently broke news on the podcast, announcing that he will not seek reelection when his term ends. We asked him why, and what he plans to do after leaving office."
Column: What would Kevin de León’s comeback mean for Los Angeles?
LA Times, JEAN GUERRERO: "Kevin de León has lost the trust of countless Angelenos. But he does have a path to reelection on the City Council, albeit an uphill one.
What will it mean for L.A. politics if his Eastside district gives him another chance?"
Is there legislator liability for enacting invalid laws?
Capitol Weekly, CHRIS MICHELI: "Some Capitol observers have wondered whether there is any recourse when the Legislature and Governor enact a law that violates the state and/or federal constitutions. Obviously, the first action would be to challenge the enacted bill in either a state or federal court depending on the basis for the constitutional challenge. If the other two branches of government enact an objectionable law, there are only two avenues of recourse: the third branch of government (i.e., the courts) or the ballot.
However, to make a determination of whether an enacted law (i.e., a statute) is valid or not, there is only one avenue – the state or federal courts. When the appropriate court determines that a legislative act (a law) conflicts with the constitution, the court finds that law unconstitutional and declares it void in whole or in part. This is judicial review and obviously is the role of the third branch of government and part of our republic’s system of checks and balances."
Humanitarian aid is stuck at Gaza-Egypt border amid Israeli siege. Biden to visit Israel
AP, NAJIB JOBAIN, SAMYA KULLAB, JOSEPH KRAUSS: "Truckloads of aid idled at Egypt’s border with Gaza, barred from entry, as residents and humanitarian groups pleaded Monday for water, food and fuel for generators, saying the tiny Palestinian territory sealed off by Israel after last week’s rampage by Hamas was near total collapse.
As the situation deteriorates in Gaza, President Biden will travel to Israel on Wednesday to signal White House support for the country and amid fears that Israel’s war with Hamas could spread to other countries. U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken announced the trip early Tuesday in Tel Aviv following hours of talks with Israeli officials, and an invitation from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu."
Israel Attacks 200 Targets in Gaza Ahead of Biden Visit
WSJ, RORY JONES, OMAR ABDEL-BAQUI: "The Israeli military said Tuesday that it attacked 200 targets in Gaza overnight, as aid workers warned of a looming humanitarian collapse in the strip and U.S. diplomats prepared for President Biden to visit Israel.
The Biden administration is seeking to achieve a complicated set of goals after Hamas, the U.S.-designated terrorist group that controls Gaza, struck Israel more than a week ago in one of the most devastating attacks in the country’s history."
Israelis in the Bay Area plead for the release of loved ones taken captive by Hamas
BANG*Mercury News, ELISSA MIOLENE: "For 10 days, Yael Nidam’s life has been on hold.
That’s how long it’s been since Nidam last heard from her husband’s sister, Rimon, a 36-year-old woman who last Saturday was seized from her home in southern Israel by Hamas."
Biden agrees to settle ACLU lawsuit over Trump-era migrant family separations
LA Times, ANDREA CASTILLO, HAMED ALEAZIZ: "Government policies that cause widespread separation of migrant children from their parents would be banned under a proposed legal settlement filed Monday by the Biden administration and the American Civil Liberties Union.
If approved by a judge, the settlement, filed after three years of negotiation in federal court for the Southern District of California, would prevent the federal government from using prosecutions of adults who enter the U.S. illegally to separate them from their children."
Historic Big Sur property, once owned by William Randolph Hearst, to get new owners, including tribe
BANG*Mercury News, PAUL ROGERS: "It may be one of the most scenic Boy Scout camps in America — a rustic collection of cabins and campsites, with a dining hall, waterfalls, hiking trails, a rifle range and an outdoor amphitheater, all nestled under towering redwood trees on 718 acres in the Big Sur wilderness.
Newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst hunted and fished here in the 1920s and 30s, then donated the property to the Boy Scouts in 1948, allowing thousands of children to enjoy it for generations."
‘A massive enterprise’: California’s offshore wind farms are on a fast track
CALMatters, JULIE CART: "If the American West represents the “geography of hope,” as author Wallace Stegner wrote, then what better place than California’s far north to illustrate the eternal tension between the limitless potential of big ideas and the brutal disappointment of broken dreams?
The Golden State’s verdant North Coast, a great empire of trees and home to the Yurok, the state’s largest Native American tribe, has seen centuries of boom and bust — riches taken from above and beneath the earth. When gold miners brought their nuggets from the foothills to the coast, Eureka’s broad bay became a bustling transit hub."
‘Another attempt to industrialize the coast’: California’s Central Coast residents work to stop — or at least slow down — offshore wind
CALMatters, JULIE CART: "Joey Racano used to have a dining room table. Now the sunlit nook off the family kitchen more often than not serves as a conference room. The table is covered with maps, thick binders bulging with tech reports, towers of meeting minutes, abandoned coffee mugs — the accumulation of years of community vigilance.
On this day, his home is a lively place where a handful of locals are discussing one of California’s most complex and audacious initiatives — loading the Pacific Ocean with sprawling wind farms that float 20 miles from shore."
California’s groundwater supplies rose after winter storms. Now we know how much
The Chronicle, KURTIS ALEXANDER: "For decades, California’s groundwater supplies have plummeted because of too much pumping. In some places, due to the heavy draws, the land above has collapsed, roads and bridges have buckled and communities have run out of water.
But this year, after the historically wet winter, there was at least some reprieve for the state’s overburdened aquifers. Groundwater levels rose or were flat at the vast majority of wells tracked by the state, compared with last year, while groundwater levels dropped significantly at just 9% of the thousands of monitored wells."
Credentialing commission could change the way California tests teachers
EdSource, DIANA LAMBERT: "California’s Commission on Teacher Credentialing is considering whether the state should continue to use educator assessments customized for the state, adopt assessments given in other states, use a combination of both, or do something else.
A $25.6 million Pearson contract, which expires on Oct. 31, 2025, currently provides testing for the California Basic Education Skills Test, the California Subject Examinations for Teachers, the Reading Instruction Competency Assessment and the California Preliminary Administrative Credential Examination."
Vast $2 billion innovation hub eyed at NASA Ames Silicon Valley complex
BANG*Mercury News, GEORGE AVALOS: "A major $2 billion innovation hub is being eyed for development at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View in an effort designed to create a birthplace for cutting-edge technologies.
UC Berkeley and SKS Partners, a San Francisco-based commercial developer, have teamed up to create what’s being called the Berkeley Space Center at NASA Research Park, officials said Monday."
S.F. district attorney deletes tweet calling march for Palestinians a ‘pro-Hamas rally’
The Chronicle, RACHEL SWAN: "San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins has deleted a tweet in which she characterized a rally in support of Palestinians as a “pro-Hamas” event, saying she only meant to condemn a piece of antisemitic graffiti that appeared downtown.
“This weekend a pro-Hamas rally was held downtown, where ‘Death 2 Israel,’ amongst other hateful rhetoric was graffitied across buildings,” Jenkins wrote in a post Sunday night that she has since scrubbed from the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter."
Doctors abandon a diagnosis used to justify police custody deaths. It might live on anyway
KFF Health News, MARKIAN HAWRYLUK, RENUKA RAYASAM: "Brooks Walsh hadn’t questioned whether “excited delirium syndrome” was a legitimate medical diagnosis before the high-profile police killings of Elijah McClain in Colorado in 2019 and George Floyd in Minnesota in 2020.
The emergency physician in Bridgeport, Conn., was familiar with the term from treating patients who were so severely agitated and combative that they needed medication just to be evaluated."
Gavin Newsom signs bill that could bring automatic speed cameras to six California cities
Sacramento Bee, ANGELA RODRIGUEZ: "Speed cameras will be authorized to ticket California drivers in select cities as soon as next year, after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a pilot program bill into law Friday.
While this is the eighth try to authorize speed cameras in the state since 2005, it is the first time the proposal made it to the governor’s desk. Assembly Bill 645 passed the legislature with bipartisan support."
San Francisco is getting 33 speed cameras. Here's where they could go
The Chronicle, NORA MISHANEC: "San Francisco will study where to place cameras that automatically catch and ticket speeding drivers next year, city officials announced Monday.
At least 33 cameras will be placed in school zones and other high-risk corridors around the city to catch speeding drivers, officials said. Gov. Gavin Newsom legalized their use Friday in a traffic safety bill."
DOJ appeals sentences of Proud Boys members
The Hill, REBECCA BEITSCH: "The Justice Department on Monday appealed the sentences of five members of the Proud Boys, including its former Chair Enrique Tarrio, aiming to get stiffer penalties for those convicted for their role in the Jan. 6 attack in the Capitol.
Tarrio, along with Ethan Nordean, Joe Biggs, Zach Rehl were all convicted of seditious conspiracy in connection with the attack, while Domenic Pezzola was found guilty of other charges."
