Senate takes first step toward ending the government shutdown
AP, MARY CLARE JALONICK/LIKSA MASCARO: "The Senate took the first step to end the government shutdown on Sunday after a group of moderate Democrats agreed to proceed without a guaranteed extension of health care subsidies, angering many in their caucus who say Americans want them to continue the fight.
In a test vote that is the first in a series of required procedural maneuvers, the Senate voted 60-40 to move toward passing compromise legislation to fund the government and hold a later vote on extending Affordable Care Act tax credits that expire Jan. 1. Final passage could be several days away if Democrats object and delay the process."
Supreme Court dismisses long-shot challenge to right to marry for same-sex couples
LAT, DAVID G. SAVAGE: "The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed without comment a long-shot challenge to the constitutional right to marry for same-sex couples.
The justices turned away an appeal petition from Kim Davis, a former Kentucky county clerk who defied the court’s landmark decision in 2015 and repeatedly refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples."
States face uncertainty as Trump administration tries to reverse SNAP food payments
LAT, DAVID A. LIEB/GEOFF MULVIHILL: "States administering a federal food aid program serving about 42 million Americans faced uncertainty Monday over whether they can — and should — provide full monthly benefits during an ongoing legal battle involving the U.S. government shutdown.
President Trump’s administration over the weekend demanded that states “undo” full benefits that were paid under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program during a one-day window between when a federal judge ordered full funding and a Supreme Court justice put a temporary pause on that order."
Trump pardons Rudy Giuliani and others who backed efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss
AP, ALANNA DURKIN RICHER: "President Donald Trump has pardoned his former personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, his onetime chief of staff Mark Meadows and others accused of backing the Republican's efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
The “full, complete, and unconditional" pardon applies only to federal crimes, and none of the dozens of Trump allies named in the proclamation were ever charged federally over the bid to subvert the election won by Democrat Joe Biden. It doesn't impact state charges, though state prosecutions stemming from the 2020 election have hit a dead end or are just limping along."
READ MORE -- Trump pardons Rudy Giuliani and others who backed efforts to overturn 2020 election, official says -- LAT, ALANNA DURKIN RICHER
Proposition 50 passed: What now? (PODCAST)
Capitol Weekly, STAFF: "After a lightning speed rollout and campaign, Proposition 50 passed decisively last week, with voters approving a partisan temporary gerrymander of the state’s congressional districts – and handing California Democrats a major win. The new maps will shift district lines and upend the seats of five Republican members of Congress, throwing them into distinctly less friendly territory – if Prop. 50 survives the GOP legal challenge filed the day after the election. Our guests today are two of the state’s foremost redistricting experts, Matt Rexroad and Paul Mitchell. Rexroad is a former Yolo County Supervisor and longtime GOP consultant. Mitchell, a lifelong Democrat, is the state’s best-known political data expert, and led the team that created Prop. 50’s maps. They name the winners and losers in this epic political battle, walk us through the various legal challenges, and look ahead at what this means for redistricting reform in the long term.
Plus: our longest-ever list for Who Had the Worst Week in California Politics. They say that success has many fathers but in the case of Proposition 50 there appear to be even more losers than winners. We’ll go over the list, but ultimately leave the final decision to you! Scroll down to cast your vote!"
Prop 50 did better than Kamala Harris in certain California counties. One demographic may be why
Chronicle, ASEEM SHUKLA: "Although California’s notoriously slow vote-counting process is still ongoing, it looks likely that the ‘Yes’ vote for Proposition 50 will win by a substantially larger margin than Kamala Harris did in her presidential run last year.
Where Prop 50 performed best compared to Harris — and worst — may say something about where the state’s politics are heading."
Newsom: Senate Democrats risk squandering Election Day momentum in shutdown deal
Sac Bee, LIA RUSSELL: "The Democratic Party “rolled over” in Sunday’s deliberations to reopen the federal government, less than a week after claiming landslide victories on Election Day, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The governor spoke Monday at a global investors summit in Sao Paulo before decamping to Belém, Brazil, for COP30, the annual global climate conference. Late Sunday, the U.S. Senate announced it had opened a path to reopen the federal government in a deal that did not include subsidies for Medicare provisions that had led Democrats to walk out for 40 days."
Riverside sheriff Chad Bianco leads as Katie Porter slips in CA governor poll
Sac Bee, KATE WOLFFE: "Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, a Republican, leads a new Berkeley-IGS poll of gubernatorial candidates — but not by much. The key finding of the survey is that 44% of voters are undecided on who should succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom, who can’t run for a third term."
Trump says Americans will receive $2,000 tariff dividend
LAT, NOAH GOLDBERG: "President Trump said Sunday that most Americans would receive a $2,000 dividend payment as a result of his administration’s tariffs levied against foreign countries.
Trump announced the potential payments on his Truth Social platform, calling opponents of his tariffs “FOOLS” in a post."
Dispensaries are recommending cannabis for pain and sleep — with no evidence, UCSF study finds
Chronicle, CATGHERINE HO: "Cannabis dispensaries in the Bay Area often recommend specific strains and doses of cannabis to customers for sleep and pain — despite a lack of scientific evidence for most of the recommendations, according to a new UCSF study.
Cannabis dispensary sales associates, or budtenders, in San Francisco and Alameda County most frequently recommend topicals for pain and edibles for sleep, often citing personal experience as their reason for their recommendation, the study found. Budtenders also strongly prefer indica strains for sleep."
His students suddenly started getting A’s. Did a Google AI tool go too far?
CALMatters, CAROLYN JONES: "A few months ago, a high school English teacher in Los Angeles Unified noticed something different about his students’ tests. Students who had struggled all semester were suddenly getting A’s. He suspected some were cheating, but he couldn’t figure out how.
Until a student showed him the latest version of Google Lens."
A much stronger, wetter storm will hit California this week. Here’s a timeline
Chronicle, GREG PORTER: "You can call it weather whiplash. That’s what it will feel like this week as the Bay Area turns from unseasonably warm to wintry, wet and windy in the blink of an eye.
After a continuation of warm weather Monday, probably the warmest day of the week with San Francisco and Oakland pushing 80 degrees and even higher temperatures inland, the mild pattern will hold through Tuesday."
‘From 25 mph to 100 mph’: How the Bay Area housing market changed in 2025
Chronicle, CHRISTIAN LEONARD: "It’s been a dizzying year for the Bay Area housing market. The red-hot South Bay went cool seemingly overnight, while lukewarm San Francisco came out of hibernation.
Much of what happened in the Bay Area’s housing market this year reflects influences that are national in scale. Economic worries and affordability challenges, along with seismic changes to U.S. immigration policy, have convinced many would-be buyers that now is not the time to be making 30-year commitments."
LAPD failed to disclose officer domestic violence allegations to state, hearing reveals
LAT, LIBOR JANY: "The Los Angeles Police Department took more than a year to begin fully disclosing domestic abuse allegations against officers after the state passed a law that mandates reporting and can trigger permanent bans from police work in California.
The revelation came out through testimony at an administrative hearing last month for a rookie LAPD officer who was fired after the department alleged she committed time card fraud and physically assaulted her former romantic partner, a fellow cop."
How bad are SFO flight cancellations and delays? See data by airline and route
Chronicle, HANNAH ZAKHARENKO/DANIELLE ECHEVERRIA: "The prolonged federal government shutdown has led to substantial delays at San Francisco International Airport this week. The Chronicle is tracking just how bad the situations is at SFO using data from the flight tracking company FlightAware.
The data below show the number of overall cancellations and delays coming into and out of the airport, as well as which airlines, destinations and origins are seeing the most issues."
Here’s how many flights have been canceled out of Southern California airports since Friday
LAT, NOAH GOLDBERG: "The government shutdown has led to numerous flight cancellations and delays coming into and out of Southern California airports over the weekend.
Roughly 217 flights out of SoCal airports were canceled since Friday, when the Federal Aviation Administration’s flight reductions began, according to flight tracker FlightAware. Los Angeles International Airport, the region’s busiest airport, suffered the highest number of delays and cancellations in the area."
