Trump administration seeks to halt SNAP food aid payments after a court order
AP, DAVID A LIEB/MICHAEL CASEY/SCOTT BAUER: "President Donald Trump’s administration asked a federal appeals court Friday to block a judge’s order that it distribute November’s full monthly SNAP benefits amid a U.S. government shutdown, even as at least some states said they were moving quickly to get the money to people.
U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell Jr. had given Trump’s administration until Friday to make the payments through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. But Trump’s administration asked the appeals court to suspend any court orders requiring it to spend more money than is available in a contingency fund."
As SNAP benefits lapse, Bay Area food banks scramble to meet increasing demand
Chronicle, DANIELLE ECHEVERRIA: "With federal funding for SNAP benefits this month still delayed due to the government shutdown — and its status uncertain thanks to changing statements from the Trump administration — Bay Area food banks have been left scrambling to meet increased demand and a situation constantly in flux.
Bay Area food banks told the Chronicle that they have seen a surge in demand, both for food itself and to their websites, as people who are eligible for CalFresh, the state’s SNAP program, did not receive their monthly benefits this week."
Supreme Court weighs longshot appeal to overturn decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide
AP, MARK SHERMAN: "A call to overturn the landmark Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide is on the agenda Friday for the justices' closed-door conference.
Among the new cases the justices are expected to consider is a longshot appeal from Kim Davis, the former Kentucky court clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples following the court’s 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges."
California Supreme Court rejects free speech challenge to LGBT protections in nursing homes
CALMatters, NIGEL DUARA: "The California Supreme Court rejected a First Amendment challenge to a state law that protects the rights of gay and transgender people in nursing homes and forbids employees of those sites from using the wrong pronouns to address a resident or coworker.
The ruling, handed down today, holds that violations of the LGBT Long-Term Care Residents’ Bill of Rights are not protected by the First Amendment because they relate to codes of conduct in what is effectively both a workplace and a home."
Trump adds new reasons to deny visas to immigrants: obesity and other health issues
LAT, AMANDA SEITZ: "Foreigners seeking visas to live in the U.S. might be rejected if they have certain medical conditions, including diabetes or obesity, under a Thursday directive from the Trump administration.
The guidance, issued in a cable the State Department sent to embassy and consular officials and examined by KFF Health News, directs visa officers to deem applicants ineligible to enter the U.S. for several new reasons, including age or the likelihood they might rely on public benefits. The guidance says that such people could become a “public charge” — a potential drain on U.S. resources — because of their health issues or age."
California prepares for life without Nancy Pelosi
Chronicle, ALEXEI KOSEFF: "There was a time, not too long ago, when California enjoyed power in Washington, D.C., befitting its status as the largest, most economically prosperous state in the country.
San Francisco’s Nancy Pelosi was in her second stint as Speaker of the House of Representatives, while Bakersfield’s Kevin McCarthy led the Republican caucus. Kamala Harris, another product of Bay Area politics, had ascended to the vice presidency of the United States."
Increasingly irrelevant, California’s Republican Party is even more isolated after Prop. 50
CALMatters, MAYA C. MILLER: "First, they lost their speaker. Then, they lost a key special election.
Now, with the passage of Proposition 50, California Republicans are poised to lose five congressional seats in next year’s midterms — and with them, any remaining shred of national influence they once held."
Who’s running in what CA districts in 2026? A Sacramento Bee Prop. 50 scorecard
Sac Bee, KATE WOLFFE: "Nonpartisan groups that analyze House races were quick to say Wednesday that California’s Democrats strengthened themselves immensely in the Proposition 50 voting.
Sabato’s Crystal Ball had its outlook for 12 House races change because of the initiative’s redrawn district lines. Eleven now favored Democrats."
What veto drama and a Texas trip tell us about a potential shift in California’s homelessness strategy
Sac Bee, MARISA KENDALL: "When Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill last month that would have supported sober homeless housing, his reason left many scratching their heads.
Newsom said Assembly Bill 255, which would have allowed cities to use up to 10% of their state funds to pay for “recovery housing,” was unnecessary. That’s because using state funds for sober housing is already allowed, the governor said. He said “recent guidance” makes that clear."
Republican Kevin Lincoln to face Rep. Adam Gray after Prop. 50 redraw
Sac Bee, NICOLE NIXON: "Kevin Lincoln, the Republican former mayor of Stockton, is switching to run in a new Central Valley congressional district after California voters this week voted to redraw the state’s map.
Instead of again challenging Rep. Josh Harder, D-Tracy, in the 9th District, Lincoln will run against Rep. Adam Gray, D-Merced, in the 13th District, which now includes an arm into Stockton."
California lawmakers found money for these pet projects even as they slashed the budget
CALMatters, RYAN SABALOW: "Despite facing a $12 billion deficit this year, California’s Legislature still managed to spend at least $415 million for local projects to help lawmakers win their next elections.
CalMatters found close to 100 earmarks inserted into just one of the state’s budget bills for local projects and programs that had little apparent benefit to anyone outside the lawmakers’ districts."
After outburst, Katie Porter’s support in the California governor’s race slips, new poll shows
LAT, PHIL WILLON/SEEMA MEHTA: "A new poll shows that former Orange County Rep. Katie Porter’s support in the 2026 governor’s race dropped after she tangled with a television reporter during a heated interview in October, an incident that rival candidates used to question her temperament.
Porter was the clear front-runner over the summer, but by late October she dropped behind Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, a Republican, according to a poll released Friday by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies and co-sponsored by The Times."
S.F. Mayor Lurie’s pick for Sunset supervisor faces political land mines ahead of election fight
Chronicle, KO LYN CHEANG/J.D. MORRIS: "San Francisco’s new supervisor, Beya Alcaraz, took office Thursday, facing not only a steep learning curve as a political newcomer, but what’s likely to be a tough election fight to keep her seat next year.
Mayor Daniel Lurie tapped Alcaraz to replace recalled Supervisor Joel Engardio in representing the Sunset and swore her into office as some residents expressed disappointment about her appointment, potentially setting the stage for a showdown in June when she will face challengers vying to win the seat. Alcaraz, a 29-year-old former small business owner, has no political experience, though she has deep roots in the community."
California D.A. retweets 9/11 attack images as he slams Mamdani
LAT, ANDREW J. CAMPA: "A California district attorney reposted on social media 9/11 images along with comments blasting the election of Zohran Mamdani as New York City’s first Muslim mayor. Despite the gory images and strong denunciation of Mamdani, Dan Dow insists that he has no issues with the Muslim community in San Luis Obispo County, where he is the top prosecutor.
He has “strong ties” with the community, Dow said in an emailed statement Thursday to The Times."
Sacramento income program may guarantee $1K monthly to foster youth
Sac Bee, MATHEW MIRANDA: "Sacramento remains on track to launch a first ever city-led guaranteed income program for foster youth.
The program is expected to provide monthly cash payments of at least $750 starting next July. The funding stems from Measure L, a 2022 ballot initiative that allocates some revenue from taxes on cannabis operations to child and youth services."
If Trump’s EPA abandons climate policy, could California take over on greenhouse gases?
CALMatters, ALEJANDRO LAZO: "California has long cast itself as the nation’s climate conscience — and its policy lab.
Now, as the Environmental Protection Agency moves to revoke the backbone of federal climate rules — the scientific finding that greenhouse gases threaten human health — one of the state’s top climate officials is weighing a provocative idea put forward by environmental law experts: If Washington retreats, California could lead on carbon-controlling regulation."
California can’t afford to go backward on wildfire prevention (OP-ED)
Capitol Weekly, BOB DEAN: "Wildfires in California are no longer a seasonal threat; they have become a year-round crisis. Over the past decade, they’ve destroyed tens of thousands of homes, claimed hundreds of lives, and burned more than 7 million acres. Today, one in eight Californians lives in a high or very high fire-hazard zone, and insurance companies are pulling out of the state, leaving families and businesses unable to protect what they’ve built.
That’s the reality that led lawmakers to pass SB 884 in 2022, a landmark law requiring utilities to submit 10-year undergrounding plans to permanently reduce wildfire risk. The goal was to move from reactive, project-by-project fixes to a coordinated statewide plan that hardens the grid, improves reliability, and keeps communities safe."
‘UC workers are going to end up homeless’: 86,000 University of California employees plan massive strike
Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI: "In what could become one of the largest labor actions in the University of California’s history, more than 86,000 nurses, health care professionals and campus workers — including those at UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley — plan to walk off the job this month, accusing the university of neglecting its lowest-paid employees while rewarding those at the top.
UC officials have sharply disputed those claims, arguing that the unions’ wage and benefit demands go beyond what the university can responsibly afford."
Two words in UC Berkeley grant application have led to defunding of 50-year-old program
Chronicle, NANETTE ASIMOV: "The presence of two words — “equity” and “inclusion” — on page 50 of a 5-year-old grant application just killed a program at UC Berkeley that for half a century helped thousands of East Bay teens recognize that they could go to college and even pay for it.
The canceled grant is one of 120 that the Trump administration has canceled across the country amid this fall’s college application season, with more likely to come."
California steps in as Trump skips global climate summit in Brazil
LAT, HAYLEY SMITH/MELODY GUTIERREZ: "Nearly 200 nations are gathering this week in Belém, Brazil, to kick off the annual United Nations climate policy summit, but there is one glaring exception: The Trump administration is not sending any high-ranking officials.
California hopes it can fill in the gap. The state, as it usually does, is sending a large delegation to the Conference of the Parties, including first-time attendee Gov. Gavin Newsom and top officials from the California Natural Resources Agency, Department of Food and Agriculture, Air Resources Board, Public Utilities Commission and Governor’s Office of Tribal Affairs."
Major storm could drench California — or miss much of the state. Here are the odds
Chronicle, ANTHONY EDWARDS/GREG PORTER: "A multi-day rainstorm from San Francisco to Los Angeles, or quick-hitting showers that only brush California.
Those are just two possible outcomes for next week’s weather across the Golden State as a complex atmospheric pattern over North America throws a giant wrench in the forecast."
‘Navy has broken the trust’: Shipyard residents wary after report of airborne plutonium
Chronicle, LAURA WAXMANN: "Priced out of their rental in San Francisco’s Mission District at the start of the pandemic, Chris Henderson and her partner moved into the Merchant condo building that sits on a hill at the former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, thinking they’d call the sunny and quiet community home for a long time.
Constructed about half a decade earlier, the 63-unit property was one of the first buildings completed as part of a massive and longstanding redevelopment plan for the decommissioned Navy shipyard and federal Superfund site on the southeastern edge of the city. It offered Henderson an affordable path to home ownership when real estate prices were peaking."
Thieves stole 1,000 items from the Oakland museum. But they’ll have trouble selling anything
Chronicle, ANNA BAUMAN: "Two suspects wearing masks and gloves rifled through cases and cabinets, eventually making off with more than 1,000 museum collection items, including jewelry and historical artifacts.
But the Louvre heist this was not."
A shadowy L.A. crime ring is hijacking the IDs of foreign scholars, fraud expert says
LAT, CLARA HARTER: "Using apartments in the San Fernando Valley and Glendale area, a shadowy group of identity thieves has been quietly exploiting a new kind of victim — foreign scholars who left the U.S. years ago but whose Social Security numbers still linger in American databases, according to a cybercrime expert.
Criminals are resurrecting these dormant identities and submitting hundreds of applications for bank accounts and credit cards, says David Maimon, head of fraud insights at SentiLink and a criminology professor at Georgia State University. The Southern California-based fraudsters can then max out lines of credit while unknowing victims live halfway across the world, he says."
Flight delays are causing chaos at SFO this week. Here’s how bad it is
Chronicle, HANNAH ZAKHARENKO/DANIELLE ECHEVERRIA: "Travelers at San Francisco International Airport faced an extraordinary number of delays this week, with Wednesday’s 546 delays higher than just about every day in 2024, a Chronicle analysis found.
The ongoing government shutdown has meant that air traffic controllers, who are responsible for making sure planes takeoff, land and fly safely, have gone unpaid for over a month, causing some to call in sick to work other jobs, the Associated Press reported, and leaving the towers short-staffed."
More than 1,000 flights cancelled as airport chaos begins: ‘People are just fed up’
LAT, HANNAH FRY/JENNY JARVIE: "Sandra Pleites has been looking forward to visiting her sister for months, trading in the crisp New Jersey weather for a sun-soaked trip with her kids to San Diego.
Once a year, one side of the family hops on a flight and jets out to the other coast to spend some quality time together. Pleites booked an Airbnb for herself, her fiancé and her two children, secured a rental car and was busy planning an itinerary of activities."
Your flight was canceled amid FAA’s cuts to air traffic. Here’s what you can do about it
LAT, KAREN GARCIA: "With the holiday travel season around the corner, travelers are bracing for possible flight delays and cancellations as the Federal Aviation Administration plans to cut commercial air traffic by 10% at 40 airports starting Friday.
The unusual conditions are the result of the government shutdown, which is entering its second straight month. The FAA is cutting air traffic to relieve pressure on air traffic controllers who are working without pay, with many calling in sick, leading to staffing shortages in the airport control towers."
