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California Policy and Politics Tuesday

Big Sur’s Timber Fire closes Highway 1, forces evacuations at Ventana, Nepenthe and Post Ranch Inn -- A fire that started Saturday night in steep, rugged terrain in Big Sur quadrupled in size Monday, prompting the evacuations of residents and visitors from luxury resorts including the Ventana Big Sur hotel and Post Ranch Inn, along with the Nepenthe restaurant and other popular tourist attractions. Paul Rogers, Sean Tubo in the San Jose Mercury$ Clara Harter in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/11/26

Californians Criticize Federal Efforts to Control the State’s Coast -- Environmentalists and others warned at a hearing on Monday that the Trump administration’s attempt to strip power from California’s coastal protection agency would endanger the shoreline. Livia Albeck-Ripka in the New York Times$ -- 8/11/26

 

Race to replace Pelosi enters the AI group chat -- The episode underscores how California candidates in both parties are rushing to the bleeding edge of generative AI, from cinematic deepfake-style attack ads to meme-ready political satire. Iris Kwok in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/11/26

Garofoli: How the Middle East became an issue in East Bay House race for Swalwell seat -- Improbably, the typically sleepy Tri-Valley just became a hotbed of American politics. Joe Garofoli in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 8/11/26

California Supreme Court says cities can’t add extra hurdles to tax refunds -- California cities can’t require taxpayers to navigate extra local procedures before seeking a tax refund in court, the California Supreme Court ruled Monday in a long-running lawsuit involving Marathon Petroleum, which operates the state’s largest refinery. Alejandro Lazo Calmatters -- 8/11/26

Walters: Is California’s slow road to high-speed rail worth chipping in $1 billion a year? -- California journalist Joe Mathews rode Morocco’s high-speed train recently and penned a fully justified and blistering comparison between what the North African nation achieved quickly and relatively inexpensively and California’s laughingstock bullet train project. Dan Walters Calmatters -- 8/11/26

Workplace

Spotify to label ‘AI personas’ and exclude AI music from personal recommendations -- In its latest effort to protect human creators from the flood of synthetic music, Spotify will soon require AI-generated identities to carry an “AI Persona” label while barring their tracks from users’ algorithmic mixes. Cerys Davies in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/11/26

Oil

An Oil Refiner That Fled California Is Back—With a Giant Pipeline From Texas -- California lost two big oil refineries in the past year, as well as much of the Asian fuel supplies that landed on its coast. Now, a pipeline from Texas is planned to help fill the gap—one that Gov. Gavin Newsom has embraced as the state faces the highest pump prices in the country. Collin Eaton in the Wall Street Journal$ -- 8/11/26

Housing

Almost nowhere in California is building enough, according to the state. Here’s why -- Every eight years, state housing regulators give cities and counties across California an especially dreaded homework assignment: Make a plan for a bunch of new homes. Ben Christopher Calmatters -- 8/11/26

Homeless

An accounting glitch caused nearly half of L.A.’s increase in the homeless count -- The revelation deepens scrutiny of L.A.’s homelessness bureaucracy, fueling calls at City Hall to strip funding from LAHSA and create a city-run homelessness agency. Doug Smith and David Zahniser in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/11/26

Health Care

California sets aside $250 million for public hospitals. Bay Area officials say it falls far short -- Faced with federal cuts that slashed billions annually from public healthcare, state legislators touted $250 million Monday in funding to help salvage California’s public hospital system. But Santa Clara County expects only $20 million to $30 million from this funding against a projected $1 billion loss, while other counties continue to grapple with the fallout from the cuts. Luis Melecio-Zambrano in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 8/11/26

Environment

Toxic site near South L.A. homes finally faces state cleanup order -- After decades of disputes that stalled enforcement, the current owner has agreed to extensive testing and a cleanup plan. The process could be costly and take years. Kori McNair in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/11/26

Education

Oakland school board rushed a parcel tax vote. Then the district missed the ballot deadline -- The Oakland school board decided in a hastily called meeting last week to put a parcel tax measure on the November ballot, but in an as yet unexplained twist, district officials didn’t submit the paperwork to Alameda County election officials by Friday’s deadline. Jill Tucker in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 8/11/26

LAUSD budget crisis remains severe, fiscal experts say, as district works to calm fears -- As LAUSD schools reopen, district leaders seek to calm fears over a looming budget crisis and thousands of future job cuts. County and state officials have backed off immediate intervention after finding LAUSD technically compliant with a budget deadline. Howard Blume in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/11/26

State rejects Sac City appeal, warns it may take direct oversight of SCUSD in future -- California’s state superintendent on Monday rejected an appeal by the Sacramento City Unified School District, while warning the Sacramento County Office of Education that the state could intervene if the county makes decisions that worsen the district’s financial problems. Chaewon Chung in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 8/11/26

This top Bay Area school district is limiting APs to curb student stress. Will it work? -- The move makes the city a test case in the region. But it raises the question of whether any rule can change a student’s mindset and cut stress when college admissions remain fierce. Sarah Ravani in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 8/11/26

Health education bill sent to Newsom’s desk after unanimous vote in Legislature -- Senate Bill 1133, the Ready to Learn, Ready for Health Act, would require the Instructional Quality Commission to consider including “evidence-based preventative health instruction” in California public school curricula. Sofia Williams in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 8/11/26

AI

Newsom to California agencies: Better prepare for artificial intelligence attacks -- The announcement comes a few weeks after leading companies OpenAI and Anthropic said that their models had hacked into other organizations on their own, which the Governor’s Office mentioned as part of the announcement. Stephen Hobbs in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 8/11/26

AI labs want to slow down risky model testing. It may be too late -- Some in the industry fear that pausing or pacing tests on advanced AI models would allow China to pull ahead at a critical moment in the technology’s development. Maggie Miller and Dana Nickel Politico -- 8/11/26

Robots That Walk and Talk Are Coming to Car Factories -- Now, most major automakers are betting that robots designed to resemble human beings, known as humanoids, will usher in a new wave of automation and efficiency. Equipped with artificial intelligence, they are expected to move around and do tasks now done by humans without any modifications to factories or heavy equipment. Jack Ewing in the New York Times$ -- 8/11/26

Street

A typo by San Francisco police led to a violent arrest of an innocent driver, officials say -- San Francisco officers smashed a driver’s window, dragged him to the pavement and pepper-sprayed his face after mistyping a license plate and wrongly flagging his car as stolen. Salvador Hernandez in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 8/11/26

POTUS 47

Contradicting public statements, Trump took secret flight from Turkey amid Iranian threat -- An Iranian assassination threat against President Donald Trump prompted an extraordinary operation last month in which he flew secretly from Turkey on an alternate military aircraft while the White House said he was aboard Air Force One, The Washington Post has learned. Dan Lamothe, John Hudson, Andrew Ba Tran and Joyce Sohyun Lee in the Washington Post$ Maggie Haberman, Eric Schmitt and Zolan Kanno-Youngs in the New York Times$ -- 8/11/26

Trump Wants to Move On From the Middle East. It’s Not Letting Him -- President Trump is eager to declare success in Iran and Gaza, but he is struggling to impose his will in either conflict. Anton Troianovski in the New York Times$ -- 8/11/26

 

California Policy and Politics Monday

El Niño could bring highest sea levels ever recorded to the California coast -- It’s the latest effect forecast for what’s expected to be an historically strong event, one forecasters warn could also lash Southern California with powerful rain and broil both land and sea with punishing heat waves. Rong-Gong Lin II in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/10/26

Part of California suddenly sank — and it’s irreversible -- The Sacramento Valley, which helps drive California’s nation-leading agricultural economy, has seen so much groundwater pumping that the valley floor has recently sunk by as much as a foot and a half in a year, new research shows. Kurtis Alexander in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 8/10/26

An oil field became California’s first carbon vault. Who’s responsible if something goes wrong? -- California’s first commercial carbon-storage project is operating even though the state has yet to adopt rules required by law, 19 months after a key deadline. The oil company could collect billions in public incentives, while environmentalists and oil companies argue about how far the rules should go. Alejandro Lazo Calmatters -- 8/10/26

 

Judge blocks MAGA voter restrictions in conservative California county -- Shasta County’s Measure B, a voter-supported local initiative to enact extreme restrictions on who can vote and how votes are counted, was paused Friday by a local judge’s issuance of a preliminary injunction. Raheem Hosseini in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 8/10/26

Pelosi unleashes her political machine in fight to replace her -- The former speaker is mobilizing her political network to stop Scott Wiener, a prominent California state senator, from succeeding her. Dustin Gardiner Politico -- 8/10/26

Your guide to the California governor’s race: Xavier Becerra vs. Steve Hilton -- The two have similar origin stories as the sons of working-class immigrants — both even worked construction jobs to earn money as teenagers — but they have vastly different visions for California’s future. Nicole Nixon in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/10/26

As Barrera and Shaw compete to lead California schools, their school board histories offer hints of their plans -- The two school board presidents — one a longtime San Diego Unified leader, the other elected in Riverside County during the pandemic — offer diverging visions for public education. Jemma Stephenson in the San Diego Union Tribune -- 8/10/26

 

How California’s hospice industry spiraled out of control — and cost millions in fraud -- A quiet change in California law in 2018 unleashed a deluge of new hospices and spurred millions of dollars in Medicare fraud that state and federal authorities are still trying to unwind. Jason Henry in the Orange County Register$ -- 8/10/26

Bay Area city declares state of emergency over malicious cyberattack -- Suisun City declared a state of emergency Saturday after a cyberattack struck critical public safety operations, including its 911 dispatch system, according to city officials. Anna Bauman in the San Francisco Chronicle$ Stephen Battaglio in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/10/26

Marketplace

Is social media addiction real? Law and science collide in blockbuster federal suit -- Meta is facing its biggest court challenge yet over allegations its products harm kids. Attorneys for the company have argued that legal claims against it should fail because social media addiction has not been formally recognized by the medical community. California and three other states are leading a lawsuit that seeks more than $1 trillion in damages. Sonja Sharp in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/10/26

Workplace

Netflix says its doubling down on L.A. — even as it expands in New Jersey -- Netflix says Los Angeles remains its home base, with 47 productions shooting here in 2026 — even as it builds a $1-billion, 12-soundstage complex in New Jersey. Cerys Davies and Wendy Lee in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/10/26

Would you trust your boss with data about your brain? California moves to regulate neurotech -- Brain sensors are advancing, and California companies, lawmakers and unions are jockeying to shape how the resulting data can be used. Khari Johnson Calmatters -- 8/10/26

Housing

The Bruising Race to Rent in San Francisco Goes Into Overdrive -- San Francisco’s housing market was already a demolition derby for renters. The artificial-intelligence boom has pushed the bruising race for housing into overdrive—a lack of supply is colliding with sky-high AI salaries. Katherine Bindley and Will Parker in the Wall Street Journal$ -- 8/10/26

Street

If you don’t hear the siren, police are sure you’ll feel the Rumbler -- The Los Angeles Police department announced its intention to install the low frequency Rumbler siren into 20 black-and-white vehicles before a larger expansion gets underway. Andrew J. Campa in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/10/26

AI

A.I. Agents Are Taking Entire Online Courses for Cheating Students -- With simple commands — “log in and complete my quiz” — a student can unleash what is, essentially, an imitation of themselves. Agents can watch lecture videos, take tests, write papers and chat with classmates about reading assignments. Dana Goldstein and Alan Blinder in the New York Times$ -- 8/10/26

They said they would build AI safely. Then it went rogue -- Staff members at ChatGPT maker OpenAI didn’t notice for weeks after their AI systems made a chilling leap this spring. Instead of answering questions designed to test their cybersecurity capabilities, a group of AI models began colluding on how to cheat, the company said, setting up a secret internal message board where they swapped notes and ideas. Gerrit De Vynck in the Washington Post$ -- 8/10/26

POTUS 47

Iran, Holding Firm to Strait, Steers Trump Back to June Deal -- The Strait of Hormuz is Iran’s best leverage to get Washington to release Iran’s frozen assets, lift economic sanctions and end its naval blockade. Steven Erlanger in the New York Times$ -- 8/10/26

Iran Insists Strait Will Stay Closed Until U.S. Agrees to Demands --Iran said on Monday that any deal with Oman on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz would not lead to the waterway being fully reopened and that the route would remain closed until the United States agreed to demands including lifting a naval blockade. Aurelien Breeden in the New York Times$ -- 8/10/26