California Policy and Politics Friday

Spencer Pratt appears to concede election in aggressive video threatening Bass and Raman -- In a three-minute video, Pratt said that the “campaign portion of my mission to save Los Angeles is coming to a close.” The video has the first extended comments Pratt has made publicly since AP declared Karen Bass and Nithya Raman would be in the Nov. 3 runoff for mayor. Noah Goldberg in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 6/12/26

SpaceX’s IPO delivers a windfall for California tech titans, workers — and could juice state coffers -- SpaceX shares surged as much as 30% on Friday, reaching over $2.25 trillion in market capitalization and making Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire. Though it’s now headquartered in Texas, SpaceX still has many ties to California and the Bay Area. Roland Li in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 6/12/26

 

California Democrats threaten to block Newsom priorities over imperiled climate deal -- Gov. Gavin Newsom endorsed new carbon market rules that could drastically shrink the state’s funding for climate projects, threatening the spending deal he struck with legislators last year. Senate Democrats aren’t having it. Alejandro Lazo and Yue Stella Yu Calmatters Stephen Hobbs and Andrew Graham in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 6/12/26

Poll shows Becerra with big early advantage over Hilton in California governor’s race -- Republican Steve Hilton advanced this week to California’s November governor’s race, but the first public look at his matchup with Democrat Xavier Becerra shows the former political commentator starting the general election at a steep disadvantage. John Woolfolk in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 6/12/26

Primary election results show Prop 50 is boosting Democrats in California races -- Months after California Democrats redrew congressional boundaries through Proposition 50 to win more House seats, the state’s primary election has offered an early verdict. The strategy is paying off. Mathew Miranda in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 6/12/26

Gavin Newsom’s race to block a billionaire tax -- Gavin Newsom and powerful Democratic-aligned groups are racing to kill a proposed wealth tax on California billionaires, including going to extraordinary lengths to isolate the union leader championing one of the nation’s most controversial ballot measures. Jeremy B. White Politico -- 6/12/26

Hunter Biden defends Graham Platner on Newsom podcast -- Hunter Biden thinks Graham Platner is getting a raw deal. Jeremy B. White Politico Lia Russell in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 6/12/26

Bass carried more Latino neighborhoods than Raman and Pratt combined, precinct data show -- Karen Bass carried 35 Latino-majority neighborhoods in the June 2 election, compared to seven for Nithya Raman and just one for Spencer Pratt. Bass and Raman both courted the Latino vote, with Bass carrying 46% more precincts this year than in the 2022 mayoral primary. Noah Goldberg, Melissa Gomez and Sandhya Kambhampati in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 6/12/26

LA Dems are nursing a post-Spencer Pratt hangover -- Democrats are bracing for a bruising race between Nithya Raman and Karen Bass. Daniel Miller and Melanie Mason Politico -- 6/12/26

Unfounded claims of homeless voter fraud roil L.A. We went to Skid Row for answers -- After Spencer Pratt fell out of the L.A. mayor’s race, unfounded claims that homeless Angelenos’ ballots were used to rig the race have spread widely on social media. The Times interviewed election experts — and 20 residents on Skid Row who said they had not heard of anyone offering money to vote for a specific candidate. Andrew Khouri and Alene Tchekmedyian in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 6/12/26

Warning of cuts to medical services, L.A. health officials ask state for emergency funds -- The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services has joined a chorus of California hospitals and health systems lobbying the state for a $500-million emergency payment to public hospitals bracing for massive financial losses. Corinne Purtill in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 6/12/26

Officials warn a California ballot proposal changing voting thresholds on local tax initiatives could cost San Jose millions -- San Jose officials warn a statewide initiative could void the city’s Measure E property transfer tax, threatening a critical funding source for housing and homelessness. Ryan Macasero in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 6/12/26

Walters: California has a top-ranked economy. It’s also one of the nation’s most unequal -- California’s next governor — most likely former Attorney General Xavier Becerra — will inherit a raft of knotty, unresolved issues. Dan Walters Calmatters -- 6/12/26

 

In Cesar Chavez’s Labor Union, Women Often Worked in Fear -- Many of the women who helped lead the fight for Latino civil rights say they were quietly waging their own battles with harassment, misogyny and sexual assault inside the powerful United Farm Workers union. Sarah Hurtes and Manny Fernandez in the New York Times$ -- 6/12/26

ICE

A year after ICE swept L.A., fewer raids but harsher rules squeeze immigrants nationwide -- A year after launching immigration raids across Los Angeles, the Trump administration has shifted to a quieter strategy: using rules and red tape to push immigrants to leave the country. The tactics employed by the administration target not just undocumented immigrants, but those who are in the country legally. Andrea Castillo in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 6/12/26

Workplace

Video game giant Ubisoft cuts more jobs in San Francisco -- Video game company Ubisoft plans to permanently lay off 93 workers at its San Francisco office, according to a state filing. Aidin Vaziri in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 6/12/26

ServiceNow, Salesforce, other tech firms reveal more Bay Area job cuts -- Several tech firms disclosed plans to chop hundreds of jobs in the Bay Area in fresh disclosures that show the pace of layoffs this year is running ahead of last year’s totals. George Avalos in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 6/12/26

As Paramount chases $111-billion Warner Bros. acquisition, David Ellison sheds his theater chain -- The Ellison family-controlled Harbor Lights Entertainment has sold its Showcase Cinemas theater chain to a major European cinema group in a $30-million deal. Cerys Davies in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 6/12/26

AI

AI is cutting hours of office work, but also creating a new kind of busywork -- A new survey of individuals using AI found it made them more productive, saving each roughly 11 hours per week. But at the same time, the workers on average have to spend more than six hours “botsitting,” checking the AI output, fixing mistakes and rerunning the prompt. Nilesh Christopher in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 6/12/26

Housing

Mayor Lurie drops plan meant to kick-start housing in favor of taxing foreclosed real estate -- Mayor Daniel Lurie and Supervisor Bilal Mahmood are dropping a controversial proposal that would have cut transfer taxes on high-end real estate transactions and instead will focus on a previously planned part of the plan that would tax foreclosures. J.K. Dineen in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 6/12/26

Street

Pasadena police officer shoots colleague during ‘horseplay’ in department parking lot, chief says -- A Pasadena police officer shot and wounded a colleague in the shoulder inside the department’s parking garage last September during an incident the police chief described as “unsafe, out-of-policy horseplay.” Richard Winton in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 6/12/26

Also

Tide sweeps 2 sleeping beachgoers into ocean near Santa Cruz -- Two sleeping beachgoers were rescued from the water near Bonny Doon Beach after they were swept out by the tide, authorities said. Aidin Vaziri in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 6/12/26

Massive Tracy warehouse fire could take four days to put out, chief says -- The fire destroyed the 1 million-square-foot facility and sent embers downwind that started several smaller fires in the area and threatened a nearby FedEx facility. Aldo Toledo, Lucy Hodgman, Megan Fan Munce in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 6/12/26

S.F. to see highest-ever summer high tide, flooding — and the forecast just got worse -- The highest summer tide on record is predicted in San Francisco Bay this weekend — a direct consequence of global warming and a surging El Niño — prompting the National Weather Service to tell residents to expect coastal flooding that’s unusual for this time of year. Anthony Edwards in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 6/12/26

Would you like gummies with that? Drive-thru marijuana proposal moves forward -- In certain parts of the U.S., you can buy a surprising number of things other than food from a drive-thru window: Guns in Texas, weddings in Nevada and margaritas in Florida, to name a few. Lynn La Calmatters -- 6/12/26

POTUS 47

Trump’s Iran Deal Still Has to Get Past the Revolutionary Guard -- Iran’s hard-line security officials are more concerned with denying the U.S. a victory than with ending the war. Summer Said, Benoit Faucon and Jared Malsin in the Wall Street Journal$ -- 6/12/26

Trump’s missile diplomacy strategy backfires -- Four months into the war — with oil held hostage in the Strait of Hormuz and Tehran refusing to make key concessions on its nuclear program — the president upped the ante with two days of back-and forth air strikes with the country. He threatened to take “total control” of Iran’s oil industry on Thursday and then canceled the scheduled attacks — all before lunch ended in Washington. Paul McLeary, Nahal Toosi and Jack Detsch Politico -- 6/12/26

How Senate Democrats are planning to push back on potential election interference -- Senate Democrats are war-gaming legal maneuvers and messaging strategies to thwart potential efforts by President Donald Trump or foreign actors to influence the results of the midterms. Lisa Kashinsky Politico -- 6/12/26

Trump and Allies Are Working on Plan to ‘Expunge’ Impeachments -- President Trump and his allies have discussed pushing lawmakers to pass a resolution aimed at voiding his first-term impeachments, according to people familiar with the matter. Annie Linskey, Olivia Beavers and Natalie Andrews in the Wall Street Journal$ -- 6/12/26

Justice Dept. Pushes Limits of Its Power Over State Elections -- Speaking to a conservative radio host on Monday, the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles made an unusually pointed prediction that cast doubt on the results of California’s primary races, even as votes were still being counted. Devlin Barrett in the New York Times$ -- 6/12/26

Postal Service Seeks to Block Mail Ballots in States Resisting Trump Demands -- The U.S. Postal Service has proposed a new rule that would allow it to refuse to deliver mail ballots in states that don’t turn over voter rolls to the federal government. Adam Sella and Nick Corasaniti in the New York Times$ -- 6/12/26