Ex-FBI Director James Comey indicted on charges of lying to Congress and obstruction
LAT, ERIC TUCKER/ALANNA DURKIN RICHER/MICHAEL KUNZELMAN: "James Comey was charged Thursday with lying to Congress in a criminal case filed days after President Trump appeared to urge his attorney general to prosecute the former FBI director and other perceived political enemies.
The indictment makes Comey the first former senior government official involved in one of Trump’s chief grievances, the long-concluded investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, to face prosecution. Trump has for years derided that investigation as a “hoax” and a “witch hunt” despite multiple government reviews showing Moscow interfered on behalf of the Republican’s campaign, and has made clear his desire for retribution."
Justice Department sues California, other states that have declined to share voter rolls
LAT, KEVIN RECTOR: "The U.S. Justice Department sued California Secretary of State Shirley Weber on Thursday for failing to hand over the state’s voter rolls, alleging she is unlawfully preventing federal authorities from ensuring state compliance with federal voting regulations and safeguarding federal elections against fraud.
The Justice Department also sued Weber’s counterparts in Michigan, Minnesota, New York, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania, who have similarly declined its requests for their states’ voter rolls."
Celebrities sign letter pressuring California Gov. Gavin Newsom to regulate AI
SacBee/LIA RUSSELL: "A host of who’s who in Hollywood is the latest group to pressure Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign a bill that would regulate artificial intelligence, according to a letter exclusively obtained by The Sacramento Bee.
“California is indisputably the epicenter of the current AI boom,” the letter to the governor read, which was signed by actors such as Don Cheadle, Mark Ruffalo, Fran Drescher, Rosie O’Donnell and Joseph Gordon-Levit. “The question is — can we trust big tech companies to build AI for the public good? And the answer is — no, we can’t.”
Daniel Lurie hires new adviser to push S.F.’s huge bureaucracy to deliver results
Chronicle, JD MORRIS: "Mayor Daniel Lurie is expanding his circle of advisers by hiring a new senior official tasked with keeping the vast San Francisco government bureaucracy focused on setting and achieving clear goals to help execute the mayor’s agenda.
Lurie announced Thursday that he has tapped Jessica MacLeod, a government technology and operations leader, to serve as San Francisco’s first chief of strategy and performance. In her new role, MacLeod is working across city departments to help them “deliver results San Franciscans can see and feel,” the mayor’s office said in a news release."
15 transfers. 11 facilities. 4,800 miles: How faster, more frequent transfers of ICE detainees sow fear
LAT, GABRIELLE LAMARR LEMEE: "At 3:25 in the morning of July 24, Milagro Solis Portillo was woken up and booked out of B-18, ICE’s basement detention facility in the downtown L.A. courthouse. She was not told where she was headed as she was put onto a commercial flight along with two immigration officer escorts. A few hours later, she was booked into the Clark County Jail in Jefferson, Ind.
Ming Tanigawa-Lau, an attorney at Immigrant Defenders Law Center representing Portillo, said her transfer was retaliatory, especially when there was open space at nearby facilities. The 36-year-old’s encounters with ICE had caused a local stir. She suffered a medical incident during her arrest outside her home in Sherman Oaks that required treatment at Glendale Memorial Hospital."
A U.S. veteran spoke out against his wrongful arrest by ICE. Now he’s being accused of assault
LAT, MELISSA GOMEZ: "George Retes Jr. grew up in Southern California, and when he turned 18, he decided to serve in the U.S. Army, he said, because he wanted to be part of something bigger than himself.
After a tour of duty in Iraq, Retes moved back to Ventura County this year to find a job and spend more time with his wife and two young children. In February, he began working as a contracted security guard for Glass House Farms at its cannabis greenhouses in Camarillo. Then, on July 10, everything changed as ICE raided Glass House — one of its largest immigration raids ever — while he was trying to get to work."
Bay Area attorneys are helping free asylum-seekers using a centuries-old legal doctrine
Chronicle, KO LYN CHEANG/JESSICA FLORES: "Erin Meyer was working in her downtown San Francisco law office when the receptionist called to say there was a man crying in the lobby. Meyer, who spoke Spanish, stepped out to meet the man, who didn’t speak English.
Meyer recalled that the man told her his sister, a Colombian asylum-seeker, had been arrested after attending her immigration hearing at the courthouse across the street."
Federal judge decides whether to keep ABC10 Sacramento shooting suspect in jail
SacBee/ROSALIO AHUMADA: "A federal judge on Thursday ordered a man accused of shooting at the ABC10 TV station last week in Sacramento to remain in jail as he faces criminal charges in court. Anibal Hernandez Santana, 64, of Sacramento faces several felonies stemming from the shooting in separate cases in federal and local superior court.
The accused man, a retired lobbyist, returned Thursday afternoon to federal court for a detention hearing to determine whether he should remain behind bars while awaiting prosecution."
Trump says research links Tylenol and autism; scientists say their paper is being misinterpreted
LAT, CORINNE PURTILL: "During this week’s White House press conference in which President Trump named the over-the-counter drug Tylenol as a possible cause of rising autism rates, he did not mince words, urging pregnant women to “fight like hell” not to take it.
But outside those remarks in the Roosevelt Room — during which Trump himself acknowledged “I’m not so careful with what I say” — the discussion on the common fever and pain reliever’s role during pregnancy is a lot more nuanced."
California ‘MAGA Dentist’ under fire for viral joke about hurting liberal patients
LAT, CLARA HARTER: "A self-proclaimed “MAGA Dentist” is facing backlash after a video of her joking about turning down pain-relieving gas for liberal patients at her Santa Clarita clinic blew up online.
Dr. Harleen Grewal of Skyline Smiles made this quip and other wisecracks about her distaste for left-leaning clients during a speech at the Republican Liberty Gala in 2021, comments that recently attracted mass attention after a video of the speech went viral on TikTok. That video has since been taken down, but recorded versions of it and response videos criticizing Grewal continue to circulate."
SB 41 threatens to increase prescription drug costs (OP-ED)
Capitol Weekly, POOJA VASANI: "For my family, pharmacy is more than a profession—it’s a legacy. My uncle was the first to become a licensed pharmacist, and since then, my brother, sister-in-law, husband, and I have proudly followed in his footsteps. Today, I serve as a pharmacist at CVS Specialty in Redlands, California, where I work closely with patients living with hemophilia—a rare bleeding disorder—and their care teams to ensure timely access to lifesaving medications.
That kind of high-quality access is now at risk. The California Department of Finance has officially opposed Senate Bill 41, citing a California Department of Justice warning that its implementation costs would be “significant and unquantifiable.” When the state’s own fiscal experts flag a proposal this strongly, Governor Newsom should pause—especially when patient care could be disrupted."
Reform of “insurance middlemen” is overdue for Californians
Capitol Weekly, DEBBIE SHAEFFER: "Many Californians are being forced to choose between affording health care or putting food on the table thanks to health industry middlemen who are raising costs for consumers. For patients living with mental health disorders, who often rely on multiple prescriptions to prevent life-threatening crises, health care affordability is not optional—it is essential. Yet unregulated pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) practices are driving up medication costs at the expense of patients. Now is the time to rein in drug costs and protect thousands of Californians.
PBMs work between insurance companies and drug manufacturers to determine which drugs are covered by health insurance plans, negotiate pricing, and process claims. Based on negotiated prices and rebates, PBMs can dictate which drugs appear on the list of medicines (formularies) covered by a health insurance plan, what the out-of-pocket costs are, and what patients must do to gain access to a provider-prescribed medication."
How LA Unified is trying to protect immigrant families during Trump’s pervasive crackdown
LAT, CAROLYN JONES: "As the Trump administration has ratcheted up immigration enforcement, school districts across the country have rallied to support students and families without legal status. But perhaps none more so than Los Angeles Unified.
The nation’s second largest school district — under the guidance of Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, himself formerly an immigrant living in the country illegally – has emerged as a national model for how school districts can help families gripped by fear."
UCLA chancellor ready to stand firm against Trump demands, unless they’re ‘valid’
LAT, JAWEED KALEEM: "UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk says the university will address “valid” concerns of the Trump administration and be “fully compliant” with the law, but will defend the campus against federal civil rights investigations and funding suspensions.
In a wide-ranging online appearance Thursday evening hosted by a Los Angeles-based Jewish civic group, Frenk said the University of California was still considering suing the Trump administration over its August demand that UCLA pay a $1.2-billion fine and make sweeping changes in its diversity programs, admissions practices and policies governing gender identity on campus and international students."
Trump’s bid to scrap EPA climate finding may hit CA car emissions, experts warn
SacBee/CHAEWON CHUNG: "California officials this week lined up in opposition to the Trump administration’s proposal to rescind the 2009 Endangerment Finding, led by Gov. Gavin Newsom, who called the plan a “moral abdication” in a letter to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin while accusing the agency of betraying its mission to protect Americans.
“By siding with polluters over science, EPA is telling wildfire victims to ignore the flames, flood victims to ignore the rising water, and parents of asthmatic children to ignore the dirty air that chokes their respiratory systems and takes their breath away,” Newsom wrote on Monday as the public comment period ended."
Autumn’s arrival brings sharp transitions to Bay Area weekend weather, significant storm to follow
Chronicle, GREG PORTER: "The first official weekend of autumn arrives and each day will feel a little different, thanks to a stubborn upper-level low pressure system drifting across the state.
This weekend won’t bring the kind of steady, predictable weather pattern California is known for. Instead, the weather will swing in noticeable ways, in the Bay Area and statewide."
Are new laws speeding up California home permits? Here’s what the data says
Chronicle, CHRISTIAN LEONARD: "California is permitting even less new housing than before.
Roughly 102,000 new homes were approved in the state last year, about 10,000 fewer than the 2023 total, according to estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Building Permits Survey. That comes even after the state has passed several laws meant to boost housing permitting over the past few years."
Why figuring out how many homes California needs is more art than science
CALMatters, BEN CHRISTOPHER: "Imagine you’ve finally taken your car to the mechanic to investigate that mysterious warning light that’s been flashing on your dashboard for the past week and a half.
The mechanic informs you that your car’s brake fluid is too low. Dangerously low. Your brake fluid supply, he says, has reached “crisis” levels, which sounds both scary and very expensive."
Insults are already flying in the crowded race for L.A. County sheriff
LAT, CONNOR SHEETS: "The race for Los Angeles County sheriff is already heating up — even with the primary not scheduled until next June. Six candidates have officially entered the field to unseat Robert Luna, with the early challengers slinging barbs, probing the incumbent’s political weaknesses and setting the stage for a heated campaign in the coming months.
Most vocal and well-known among the contenders is former Sheriff Alex Villanueva, who lost to Luna in 2022 and is now vying for a rematch. He is among a field of current and former lawmen who have criticized Luna’s time in office as ineffective, uninspiring and opaque."
California shrank prisons with sentencing changes. A new study shows how that’s working
CALMatters, CAYLA MIHALOVICH: "California over the past dozen years enacted a series of criminal justice laws that were meant to give more people an opportunity to be resentenced and thin out the state’s severely overcrowded prisons. This week a state agency released the most-comprehensive look yet at how those changes are playing out among formerly incarcerated people.
The report found low recidivism rates among people who were older and had served lengthy sentences. Those patterns contrasted with people serving shorter prison sentences for nonviolent crimes, which showed higher rates of recidivism, the majority of which were for misdemeanors."
California EV drivers have another 60 days to leave carpool lanes before being ticketed
Chronicle, RACHEL SWAN: "Next Wednesday solo drivers of electric vehicles in California will lose their access to fast-moving carpool lanes. But law enforcement will wait two months to start handing out tickets.
The Department of Motor Vehicles has offered a 60-day grace period for motorists to adjust their habits, said Sgt. Andrew Barclay of the California Highway Patrol. So it may take until December for all of these motorists to merge into general traffic, and potentially snarl the statewide highway system."
