Judge blocks Trump from deploying California National Guard — or any Guard troops — in Oregon
LAT, MELODY GUTIERREZ/DANIEL MILLER: "Hours after California Gov. Gavin Newsom vowed to seek a court order to stop President Trump from deploying 300 of the state’s National Guard troops in Oregon, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order on Sunday night.
Officials from California and Oregon sought the restraining order after the president sent California Guard troops to Oregon earlier on Sunday."
California sues city over surveillance data, warns it can be shared with federal agencies
CALMatters, WENDY FRY: "California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit today against the City of El Cajon, accusing its police department of repeatedly violating state law by sharing automated license plate reader (ALPR) data with law enforcement agencies in more than two dozen states.
The lawsuit comes at a moment of heightened concern for immigrants and women seeking reproductive care. Once data leaves California, it can be accessed by agencies in states with different policies regarding those populations."
California is about to have a massive fight over taxes. Here’s why Los Angeles is the frontline
CALMatters, BEN CHRISTOPHER: "In 2022, the Los Angeles electorate voted to slap the sale of mansions and other high-value real estate deals across the city with a hefty tax.
Locals have been debating Measure ULA ever since. Supporters call it a vital lifeline for the city’s unhoused and housing insecure who stand to benefit from the hundreds of millions of dollars the initiative has already raked in. Critics call it an economic own-goal that has choked off new apartment construction in a city where new housing is in excruciatingly short supply."
California braces for ‘devastating’ expected cuts to federal homeless housing funds
CALMatters, MARISA KENDALL: "The latest blow in a seemingly endless barrage of bad news for the California agencies tasked with fighting homelessness looms: President Donald Trump’s administration is expected to deeply cut federal funding for permanent housing.
The news has sent counties throughout California into a panic. The state is bracing to lose hundreds of millions of dollars for permanent housing, which is the one thing experts agree on as the most effective way to solve homelessness."
Conversion therapy heads to the Supreme Court. Conversion ministries never left California
Chronicle, RAHEEM HOSSEINI: "When church and state attorneys square off before the Supreme Court to debate the legality of conversion therapy on Tuesday, they will neglect the larger half of a controversial practice pioneered in the Bay Area and staking its comeback in Northern California.\
The case that the Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments on, Chiles v. Salazar, concerns a 2019 Colorado law barring mental health professionals from offering minors’ treatment that purports to change their sexual orientation or gender identity."
Katie Porter gains backing of powerful Democratic women’s group in 2026 governor’s race
LAT, SEEMA MEHTA: "Former Rep. Katie Porter of Irvine received the endorsement of a prominent Democratic women’s group on Monday that backs candidates who support abortion rights. The organization could provide significant funding and grass-roots support to boost Porter’s 2026 gubernatorial campaign.
“Katie Porter has spent her career holding the powerful accountable, fighting to lower costs and taking on Wall Street and Trump administration officials to deliver results for California’s working families,” said Jessica Mackler, president of EMILY’s List. “At a time when President Trump and his allies are attacking Californians’ health care and making their lives more expensive, Katie is the proven leader California needs.”"
Prop 50: What to know about California’s 2025 special election
Chronicle, SOPHIA BOLLAG: "Ballots are arriving in mailboxes across California for the upcoming Nov. 4 special election that has launched the Golden State into the center of a national battle over control of Congress.
The only issue on most Bay Area voters’ ballots is Proposition 50, a measure to redraw California’s congressional maps."
Newsom can help discourage political violence (OP-ED)
Capitol Weekly, ROBERT HERRELL: "Responding to our increasingly violent politics, Utah’s Republican Governor Spencer Cox recently called social media a “cancer on our society.” By signing SB 771, California Governor Gavin Newsom can prevent the cancer from spreading.
Violence in our politics is sadly spreading. Just this year:"
CA SOS can advance voting rights with one simple move (OP-ED)
Capitol Weekly, JONATHAN MEHTA STEIN: "Six years ago, I was part of a team of legal advocates that sought to make translated voting materials more widely available to California’s immigrant voters. That effort failed on one central point, meaning that as ballots head to voters today for the November 4 special election, over 50,000 limited-English speaking voters will try to vote without access to translated ballot materials.
In the coming months, Secretary of State Dr. Shirley Weber has the chance to remedy the situation. In a required guidance the Secretary will issue later this year, she can use her discretion to change a single definition and, in so doing, knock down barriers to the ballot for immigrant Californians."
Supreme Court rejects appeal from Ghislaine Maxwell, imprisoned former girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein
LAT, MARK SHERMAN: "The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from Ghislaine Maxwell, the imprisoned former girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein.
On the first day of their new term, the justices declined to take up a case that would have drawn renewed attention to the sordid sexual-abuse saga after President Donald Trump’s administration sought to tamp down criticism over its refusal to publicly release more investigative files from Epstein’s case."
Crime is down and scandals have faded, but can Barbara Lee turn Oakland around?
Chronicle, ROLAND LI: "Atop Samuel Merritt University’s new $240 million downtown Oakland campus, the potential of the beleaguered city unfolds.
In the distance are the white cranes powering the Port of Oakland, the Bay Area’s logistics heart. City Hall’s slender spire juts up from a cluster of federal and local offices, the nexus of the East Bay’s local government. Thousands of new apartments are visible across a trio of glassy new towers that are among the city’s tallest buildings. And the health care school’s new immediate neighbor is a beige building topped with a defiant “Warriors” sign — though that team has left for San Francisco’s swankier arena, the wildly successful Valkyries now practice here."
Health care in crisis: Capitol Weekly conference recap
Capitol Weekly, STAFF: "The first panel consisted of Susan Bonilla, CEO of California Pharmacists Association (CPA); Miranda Dietz, interim director of the healthcare program at the UC Berkeley Labor Center; Anna Marshall, associate director of federal affairs and policy at California Primary Care Association (CPCA); Jodi Hicks, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California (PPAC) and Amanda McAllister-Wallner executive director of Health Access.
Moderator and California Health Care Reporter for Politico, Rachel Bluth, kicked off the panel asking how H.R. 1 is affecting Planned Parenthood, which was a substantial target of the bill."
How CapRadio’s ex-treasurer brokered $1.1M in contracts — with his own company
Sac Bee, ISHANI DESAI: "Two influential Capital Public Radio leaders skirted guardrails intended to fortify the nonprofit against ethical lapses and steered $1.1 million in contracts to a former board treasurer’s company.
Bill Yee, then-CapRadio’s board treasurer, initiated a conversation in 2018 to secure a deal to supply the station’s new headquarters with furniture from his company. He emailed Jun Reina, then CFO and COO, to ask if they could bypass the formal process for bidding on a project, known as a request for proposal, or RFP."
California has a severe nursing shortage. Inside the battle to get more students in schools
LAT, TERESA WATANABE: "Oscar Mateo dreamed of being an artist, but after he contracted leukemia when he was 20, his life plans abruptly changed. The compassionate nursing care he received while hospitalized touched him so much that he decided he wanted to provide the same for others.
That goal led him to the registered nursing program at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut. But getting there wasn’t easy, as he had to battle competition for limited seats in one of the highest-demand fields in higher education, a career offering purpose, plentiful jobs and potentially six-figure paychecks."
‘All the trees are dead’: An ancient California forest has been wiped out
Chronicle, JULIE JOHNSON: "Roughly 500 years ago in California’s High Sierra, pine cones dropped to the ground and a cycle began. The Aztec Empire was falling. The printing press was new. The seedlings grew.
Half a millennia later, U.S. Forest Service scientists began testing strategies to save these now ancient and massive trees in the little-known area east of Fresno called the Teakettle Experimental Forest. They had plans to light a huge prescribed burn to clear overgrowth next year."
New SALT cap means savings for California homeowners. Here’s how much
Chronicle, JESSICA ROY: "Millions of Americans could get a boost on their federal tax return next April after the Republicans’ spending megabill raised the SALT deduction limit. But how much do California homeowners actually stand to save?
A new analysis from real estate website Redfin aimed to answer that."
A billionaire’s son sold investors on the ‘ultimate man cave.’ Was any of it real?
LAT, JAMES QUEALLY: "On paper, “The Bunker” was an ideal playground for Southern California’s ultrarich.
Described as “the ultimate man cave,” a $14,500 monthly membership offered access to a fleet of high-end vehicles including Ferraris, Bugattis and Porsches, according to investor decks obtained by The Times."
Why San Francisco has seen a sudden, stunning surge in the demand for mansions
The Chronicle, LAURA WAXMANN: "After just four days on the market, a 5,000-square-foot mansion in San Francisco’s ritzy Pacific Heights neighborhood went into contract to sell for roughly $9.4 million last month. It was nearly the same price the property fetched eight years ago. But, back in 2017, 112 days passed before an offer came in.
“It was a difficult house at the time,” said luxury broker Peter Rodway, senior partner at Neal Ward Properties, who worked to sell the 1994 Jackson St. home in 2017 and whose team also facilitated the current sale. “This time, buyers were just banging at the doors to get into it. An offer came in on the first day, at full price.”"
Newsom just vetoed a bill to regulate license plate readers — even as fresh evidence of misuse emerges
CALMatters, KHARI JOHNSON/MOHAMED AL ELEW: "Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have tightened rules on how police in California use automated license plate readers, saying the regulations would impede criminal investigations.
The Legislature approved the proposal last month amid reports police were misusing the data, including a CalMatters story in June showing that officers on more than 100 occasions violated a state law against sharing the data with federal authorities and others outside the state."
Oakland lost its legal battle against coal. So when could coal trains start running?
Chronicle, TARA DUGGAN: "Developer Phil Tagami recently won a 10-year legal battle over his right to build a shipping terminal on Oakland’s waterfront that could be used to export coal. But how soon and even whether coal cars will travel through West Oakland is still a big question.
Tagami has been working on a plan to redevelop a former U.S. Army base at the foot of the Bay Bridge toll plaza since at least 2009, with a shipping terminal central to the proposal. In 2015, city officials and community and environmental groups began fighting the project when news went public that it involved shipping coal through already polluted West Oakland."
