California Policy and Politics Friday

Norte fire burns homes in South Orange County -- A fast-moving fire in south Orange County has burned multiple homes in the San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano areas, as fierce Santa Ana winds fueled fire danger from Malibu to Camp Pendleton. Clara Harter, Richard Winton and Ruben Vives in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 10/16/26

Hack exposes data on millions of California students -- The names, addresses, demographic information and disability status of all 7 million students enrolled in California public schools over the past three school years were exposed in the breach, the CDE said. Eric He and Tyler Katzenberger Politico -- 10/16/26

Surge in ICE raids is aimed at discouraging voter turnout, immigration advocates say -- Amid reports of a surge in federal immigration raids, Los Angeles leaders and immigration advocates said Friday that the efforts appear aimed at discouraging turnout in the midterm elections, and urged voters not to be intimidated. Melissa Gomez in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 10/16/26

 

Election lawyers say they’ve never seen anything like the DOJ’s lawsuit against California -- “Desperate.” “Illegal.” “Publicity stunt.” Election law experts struggled to find worthy adjectives to describe a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit that seeks to preemptively set aside about 20,000 California ballots the federal government claims were mailed to “likely noncitizens.” Raheem Hosseini, Bob Egelko in the San Francisco Chronicle$ Hannah Wiley, Sophia Bollag in the San Francisco Chronicle$ Devlin Barrett and Laurel Rosenhall in the New York Times$ -- 10/16/26

How Claims of Widespread Noncitizen Voting Fall Apart -- While President Trump has claimed that noncitizens voted en masse and even tipped the scales in recent elections, research from partisan and nonpartisan groups alike has shown that instances of noncitizen voting are so rare that they have never been significant enough to change the outcome of an election. Amy Schoenfeld Walker, Jeremy White and Seamus Hughes in the New York Times$ -- 10/16/26

California files its 100th lawsuit against Trump, this time over ICE at courthouses -- California leaders want immigration agents to stay away from courthouses. They worry enforcement will prevent people from testifying in criminal trials. Nigel Duara Calmatters -- 10/16/26

California sues to block closure of Bay Area’s only National Archives facility -- The lawsuit argues that moving records out of the communities they document would make them harder to access, especially because fewer than 4% of National Archives records nationwide have been digitized. Some materials are too fragile to digitize, the state says. Aldo Toledo in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 10/16/26

A California proposition to fund medical research is creating strange alliances on both sides -- Proposition 38 would authorize the state to borrow $8.4 billion in general obligation bonds for immunology and immunotherapy research, presented as a way of backfilling some of the widespread cuts to federal research funding by President Donald Trump. Kathryn Palmer in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 10/16/26

SoCal woman who registered dog to vote must pay for billboards with her picture on them -- Laura Lee Yourex, 64, was charged in September 2025 with five felonies after posting a photo to social media showing her dog posing with a ballot while wearing an “I voted sticker,” Kimberly Edds, a spokesperson for the Orange County district attorney’s office, wrote in a statement. Terry Castleman in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 10/16/26

 

California diesel prices hit another record -- California diesel prices set another record on Thursday, reaching an average of $8.45 per gallon — a 4-cent jump from the day before, and up 24 cents from a month ago. Kate Galbraith in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 10/16/26

How this Saturday’s ‘No Kings Day’ protests will be different -- Saturday’s demonstrations will be different, focusing instead on voter-participation drives. Candidate endorsements, party promotions and active campaigning will be prohibited. Summer Lin in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 10/16/26

 

Garofoli: Two of California’s most powerful politicians still haven’t weighed in on Prop 40 -- Two of California’s most powerful and prominent politicians — former Vice President Kamala Harris and Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi — have yet to weigh in on the most divisive ballot measure before California voters: Proposition 40, likely for the same reason that Gov. Gavin Newsom opposes the measure. Joe Garofoli in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 10/16/26

Daniel Lurie is asking S.F. voters for more power. Will they say yes in November? -- He’s pushing a parcel tax that would extend a financial lifeline to Muni. He’s backing one ballot measure that would fund affordable housing while opposing another that seeks to earmark certain tax proceeds for affordable homes. J.D. Morris in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 10/16/26

‘The valley has been left behind’: how one of California’s poorest areas became its toughest political battleground -- Rising costs and threatened healthcare benefits are testing voters’ loyalty to Trump as Democrat Randy Villegas challenges David Valadao Andrew Gumbel in The Guardian -- 10/16/26

Republicans are spending millions to oust a Democrat who won by 187 votes. Should he worry? -- Rep. Adam Gray, a Democrat from Merced, won the closest House race in 2024 by just 187 votes. Now the GOP, which is hungry for a win in California, is spending millions to try and oust him. Maya C. Miller Calmatters -- 10/16/26

Big Tech and Big Business are spending millions to block progressives on the California ballot -- With less than three weeks until Election Day, outside groups are pouring millions of dollars into two types of state legislative races: purple districts featuring a Democrat and a Republican, and safely Democratic districts featuring Democrats of different ideological stripes. Kate Wolffe Calmatters -- 10/16/26

Walters: New California laws arise from latest legislative skirmishes in endless ‘tort wars’ -- The state Capitol is an arena where lobbyists for thousands of interest groups battle over issues that mostly involve money — very often big money. Dan Walters Calmatters -- 10/16/26

Bass and Raman trade accusations over ICE — and former LAPD chief Daryl Gates -- Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has launched a new line of attack against City Councilmember Nithya Raman, accusing her opponent of romanticizing the era of former police chief Daryl F. Gates. David Zahniser in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 10/16/26

Medi-Cal

California falls short on Medi-Cal fraud, state report says -- The state has not investigated 26,000 of its 28,000 highest-risk Medi-Cal providers, the report says. Health officials dispute it. Jocelyn Wiener Calmatters -- 10/16/26

Housing

There’s a $11.25 billion housing bond on the ballot this November. Here’s what you should know -- Supporters say California desperately needs money to fund housing construction and make a dent in its homelessness and affordability crisis. Critics say bond financing isn’t the way to do it. Marisa Kendall Calmatters -- 10/16/26

Bass vs. Raman: Who can make housing more affordable? -- Mayor Karen Bass points to fast-tracked affordable housing, while challenger Nithya Raman has championed strong tenant protections. YIMBY groups back Raman; construction and trade groups favor Bass. Jack Flemming in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 10/16/26

Homeless

S.F. to overhaul its shelter policy. Will it get more people off the streets? -- San Francisco plans to set new limits on how long homeless people can stay in most city shelters, a move that critics worry could push some back to the streets. Ethan Varian in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 10/16/26

Wildfire

Mortgage lenders probed over how they handled L.A. wildfire insurance payouts -- California regulators on Thursday ordered the state’s licensed mortgage lenders and servicers to provide data on how they have handled the release of home insurance proceeds after complaints by January 2025 fire victims that their money was improperly withheld. Laurence Darmiento in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 10/16/26

Education

Why new limits on bachelor’s degrees worry some California community colleges -- Some community college leaders say caps on bachelor's degrees will keep them from responding to local workforce needs. Michael Burke EdSource -- 10/16/26

Also

S.F. leaders slam ‘gross’ AI video game where players shoot ‘zombies’ in the Tenderloin -- San Francisco leaders condemned a new zombie shooter game that turns a digital version of the Tenderloin into a shooting gallery, with targets that critics say resemble homeless residents and people with addiction. Laura Waxmann, Roland Li in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 10/16/26

Vincent Thomas Bridge to close for 16 months, raising fears of traffic and pollution -- The 63-year-old bridge connecting San Pedro to Terminal Island is undergoing construction to replace its aging deck. Caroline Petrow-Cohen in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 10/16/26

Risking arrest, he paints illicit crosswalks across L.A. ‘We can’t wait any longer’ -- At an intersection in Hyde Park that, days earlier, had been the scene of chaos — a young girl on the ground, a car with a teenage boy on the windshield, a mother screaming — Jonathan Hale led his band of rebels. They were armed with paint rollers. Andrew J. Campa, Etienne Laurent in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 10/16/26

POTUS 47

Trump’s Attacks on Voting Raise Fears He Will Try to Challenge Midterm Results -- Just weeks away from the midterm elections, Mr. Trump’s longstanding attacks on the integrity of voting systems are crystallizing into what many election officials and Democrats fear is an attempt to lay the groundwork to challenge the results in November. Zolan Kanno-Youngs in the New York Times$ -- 10/16/26

The Immigration Crackdown Is Making It Much Harder to Build Houses -- The summer surge in federal immigration raids is hitting the housing market, pushing up labor costs and freezing projects. Nicholas G. Miller in the Wall Street Journal$ -- 10/16/26

Trump officials scrutinized Omar in 2019. They didn’t find citizenship issues -- The earlier review of Omar’s immigration records looked at many of the same issues being investigated now. Ted Hesson, Jeremy Roebuck, Perry Stein and Salvador Rizzo in the Washington Post$ -- 10/16/26