ADAM ASHTON, CalMatters: "It’s bonus season for California’s public pension funds, and a few years of strong investment returns contributed to lucrative payouts for top executives.
The California State Teachers’ Retirement System last week disclosed its bonuses for its executives and for a range for employees whose pay is determined in part by performance incentives.
CalSTRS Chief Executive Cassandra Lishnock received a $645,000 bonus on top of her annual salary of $430,000. It was the most money she could earn under her contract, which includes an incentive based on investment returns over three ears, strategic planning and her personal performance."
Republicans keep House of Representatives majority in 2025. How it affects California
GILLIAN BRASSIL and DAVID LIGHTMAN, SacBee: "Republicans maintained a slim House of Representatives majority in 2025, the Associated Press projected, thanks in part to California GOP incumbents holding onto their seats in close elections. That means that when the 119th Congress convenes in January, Republicans will control of the presidency,
Senate and House. President-elect Donald Trump and GOP leadership should have an easier time passing their agenda — barring GOP renegades. Republicans last had that kind of control during the first two years of Trump’s presidency in 2017 and 2018."
Gaetz resigns from Congress — possibly skirting long-awaited Ethics report
OLIVIA BEAVERS and JORDAIN CARNEY, Politico: "GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz resigned from the House Wednesday, Speaker Mike Johnson announced, the same day that Donald Trump announced that he had tapped the Florida firebrand to be his attorney general.
“He issued his resignation letter effective immediately from Congress. That caught us by surprise a little bit,” Johnson told reporters during a press conference on Wednesday night."
Senate Republicans Alarmed by Gaetz Pick as Attorney General Nominee
KAROUN DEMIJIRIAN, NY Times: "Senate Republicans reacted with alarm and dismay to President-elect Donald J. Trump’s decision to nominate Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida, for attorney general, and several said they were skeptical that he would be able to secure enough votes for confirmation.
“He’s got his work really cut out for him,” Senator Joni Ernst, Republican of Iowa, said, chuckling as she spoke."
You thought DOJ staffers were in full-blown freakout before …
KYLE CHENEY, HOSH GERSTEIN, ERIC ORDEN and BETSY WOODRUFF SWAN, Politico: "Donald Trump’s decision to nominate Rep. Matt Gaetz for attorney general has Justice Department veterans petrified and warning of a crisis in the department marked by chaos and revenge.
The polarizing Republican lawmaker is already generating resistance on Capitol Hill, suggesting he may not get the votes to win the job. But even if the nomination is doomed, it sends an unmistakable signal about Trump’s expectations for the Justice Department in his second term: He wants a MAGA zealot in the post, one who has shown unbreakable loyalty to the president-elect and wrath for his adversaries, real and perceived."
S.F. Muni faces ‘terrifying’ cuts, possible cable car closures due to deficit
ROLAND LI, Chronicle: "San Francisco faces potentially “deep” and “terrifying” bus and train service cuts, as well as cable car closures as soon as next summer without new funding sources, Jeffrey Tumlin, executive director of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, said Wednesday.
The agency’s fiscal outlook darkened in the past week with the failure of Proposition L, which would have taxed ride-hailing services to generate an estimated $25 million annually for transit. The return of President-elect Donald Trump to the White House and likely Republican control of Congress also means “there is no chance there is additional federal relief coming,” Tumlin said. California’s budget deficit also dampens the chances of state aid."
Trump’s ‘border czar’ pick makes clear: Project 2025 is happening
KO LYN CHEANG and RAHEEM HOSEINI, Chronicle: "When Donald Trump announced his intent to name Thomas Homan to a new cabinet position of “border czar” upon retaking the White House in January, the president-elect continued erasing the distance between his agenda and Project 2025, the far-right blueprint crafted by the Heritage Foundation.
Homan, the acting director of U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement during Trump’s first term, is a visiting fellow with Heritage and a contributor to the Washington, D.C., think tank’s Project 2025, subtitled the presidential transition project."
Map shows which California demographic shifted most toward Trump
CHRISTIAN LEONARD, Chronicle: "With many California counties nearly finished counting the ballots cast in the 2024 presidential election, a clear pattern is emerging — not only did the state shift toward Donald Trump, it was one group that most clearly drove the shift.Although President-elect Trump lost the Golden State to Vice President Kamala Harris, he improved his margins in almost all counties with at least 80% of their expected vote counted. Outstanding counties aren’t likely to behave differently.
JESS LANDER, Chronicle: "Napa County has won the first round of its controversial legal battle against a small winery over its right to host tastings.
On Wednesday, Napa County Superior Court judge Mark Boessenecker ruled in favor of Napa County in its 2022 lawsuit against Napa’s Hoopes Vineyard and proprietor Lindsay Hoopes."
Palm Springs strikes tentative $27M deal on landmark reparations settlement
ERIC HE, Politico: "The Southern California resort town of Palm Springs is set to approve a $27 million reparations agreement with Black and Latino families who were forced out of their homes in the 1960s, making it one of the first cities in the country to do so.
The tentative deal, which was announced Wednesday and had received the backing of Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-Calif), will come before the city council for a final vote on Thursday. It follows a similar move in 2021 by Evanston, Illinois, and comes amid a statewide push for reparations in California that ran into pushback this year."
Trump has promised to ‘end’ offshore wind. What will that mean for California?
JULIE CART, Chronicle, CalMatters: "California’s offshore wind industry could be a casualty if President-elect Donald Trump makes good on his promise to sign an executive order to “end” the offshore wind industry.
He cannot do it with the stroke of a pen. But Trump can deeply wound the state’s next-generation renewable energy source by cutting off funding just as it’s gaining a foothold in the U.S. California’s offshore wind plans rely on a federal policy that offers billions of dollars in grants, subsidies and tax incentives."
