California Policy and Politics Friday

Democrat Xavier Becerra advances to general election in race for California governor -- Democrat Xavier Becerra has advanced to the general election for California governor after pitching himself as an experienced choice to lead the nation’s most populous state. Sophie Austin Associated Press Ben Paviour in the Sacramento Bee$ Jeanne Kuang Calmatters Nicole Nixon in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 6/5/26

Feds pursuing ‘multiple’ election fraud investigations, top prosecutor says -- President Trump alleged in his own social media post Wednesday that Democrats in California were ‘cheating’ in the primary election, and that there was an investigation underway in Essayli’s office. Democratic officials firmly rejected Trump’s claims of cheating. Kevin Rector and Iris Kwok in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 6/5/26

Trump announces new coal export terminal in Oakland -- Trump is invoking the Defense Production Act, a Cold War-era emergency law, to pour nearly $700 million into coal plants and a new Oakland export terminal he calls vital to national security. Hayley Smith in the Los Angeles Times$ Kate Talerico in the San Francisco Chronicle$ Shomik Mukherjee in the East Bay Times -- 6/5/26

More airlines suspend LAX routes due to high fuel costs -- American Airlines is joining the list of airlines suspending flights to and from Los Angeles International Airport this summer. Lily Wright in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 6/5/26

The World Cup was supposed to be a Bay Area bonanza. Why does it feel like a flop? -- Local ticket sales are slow, and prices continue to drop in an attempt to stimulate demand. Hotel rooms and short-term rental properties remain vacant along the Peninsula. Rachel Swan in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 6/5/26

Latest data show Californian conundrum: high growth but high unemployment -- UCLA forecasters see income and output continuing to outpace the U.S., even as entertainment, tech and manufacturing sectors shed jobs while the healthcare and social services sectors quietly add workers. Queenie Wong in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 6/5/26

 

‘Like Two Cats Circling’: Kamala Harris and Gavin Newsom Weigh a 2028 Showdown -- They claim to be friends, but many expect a gloves-off brawl should the two California Democrats decide to run for president. Tarini Parti and Eliza Collins in the Wall Street Journal$ -- 6/5/26

Why Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass Has to Fight for Her Job -- Karen Bass will likely be the first incumbent mayor of Los Angeles since 2005 to have to fight for her job in a runoff. It’s a sign that, despite a rebound from the depths of the pandemic, voters remain dissatisfied with life in the nation’s second most populous city. Jill Cowan in the New York Times$ -- 6/5/26

The top-two primary was supposed to change California politics. Did it flop? -- California voters approved a top-two primary election designed to encourage moderation. But in most races, it ends in a conventional Democrat vs. Republican. Some are ready to scrap the top two. Ben Christopher and Jeanne Kuang Calmatters -- 6/5/26

Why tech found rare success in California’s down-ballot races -- California Leads, fueled by $10 million from Meta and Google, and Grow California, a venture of crypto executive Chris Larsen and investor Tim Draper, look likely to send 11 of the 12 candidates they supported to the November general election. Christine Mui and Tyler Katzenberger Politico -- 6/5/26

Bay Area official debunks viral claim about a Virginia voter being mailed a California ballot -- Despite his claim that he’s “twice” contacted the state over the past 10 years, election office records reviewed by the Chronicle show he never had any correspondence with the office at all or filled out the necessary forms to de-register as a Contra Costa voter. It’s also important to note the ballot was sent to a Lafayette, Calif. address — not a Virginia address. Sara DiNatale in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 6/5/26

Spencer Pratt claims L.A.’s homeless will move to Seattle if he’s elected. That city’s mayor responds -- Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson pushed back against a claim by Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt that if he’s elected, L.A.’s homeless population would move to Seattle to take advantage of that city’s drug laws. Salvador Hernandez in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 6/5/26

 

Bombshell report alleges years of harassment against immigrant vendors in Riverside -- A city-commissioned investigation alleges two Riverside code enforcement supervisors led a years-long campaign against street vendors. The report says senior managers ignored repeated internal warnings and appeared to retaliate against a whistleblower. Alex Wigglesworth in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 6/5/26

Orange County health officials walk back claim that there was ‘no leak’ in chemical tank crisis -- Orange County health officials are walking back a claim that no vapor or fumes were released during a chemical tank crisis at a Garden Grove aerospace company two weeks ago, but state officials maintain that any leak did not pose a major health risk to the public. Rong-Gong Lin II and Tony Briscoe in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 6/5/26

Amazon data center rises in Gilroy. Residents say they were left in the dark -- A massive Amazon data center already being built on Gilroy’s eastern edge has become a flashpoint over how much say residents get before Silicon Valley’s next wave of tech infrastructure arrives in their backyards. Luis Melecio-Zambrano in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 6/5/26

 

O.C. immigration attorneys suspended for filing briefs filled with AI-hallucinated errors -- Attorneys Mike Singh Sethi and William Rounds, both part of Sethi Law Group in Orange County, were fined $2,500 each and suspended from practicing in the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals for six months, according to an opinion from the court issued Wednesday. A request for comment from the firm was not immediately answered. Grace Toohey in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 6/5/26

Lawyers at L.A. firm involved in $4-billion sex abuse settlement face State Bar charges -- The State Bar of California has charged three attorneys at Downtown LA Law Group with signing up clients in states where they were not licensed to practice. The firm was already under investigation by the state bar and the L.A. County district attorney’s office over allegations they paid clients to file sex abuse lawsuits. The firm has denied all wrongdoing. Rebecca Ellis in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 6/5/26

Housing

California wanted to punish ICE-linked companies. Affordable housing could be the victim -- California lawmakers seeking to punish companies linked to immigrant detention centers may be colliding with another state priority: affordable housing. Laura Waxmann in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 6/5/26

Are Californians ready to give up their cars? A San Jose apartment tower put that to the test -- A San Jose apartment tower’s struggles with limited parking are testing California’s push to build more housing with fewer spaces for cars, exposing tensions between lower development costs, climate goals and residents who still depend on driving. Julia Prodis Sulek in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 6/5/26

LA28

LA28 chair Casey Wasserman says he will not resign over Epstein fallout -- Casey Wasserman, says he will not resign from his role as chairman of the Los Angeles Olympic organizing committee despite his past ties to Ghislaine Maxwell. Wasserman’s email exchanges with Maxwell were revealed when some of the Epstein files were released in February. Thuc Nhi Nguyen in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 6/5/26

Also

They Shut the Golden Gate Bridge for 4 Hours. Now They Face Up to 15 Years in Prison -- The protesters were arrested and their vehicles towed after about four hours. Traffic moved on, but the protesters’ lives did not. The seven who chained themselves together are now in a multiweek criminal trial in San Francisco Superior Court, where they could face up to 14 or 15 years in state prison. Heather Knight in the New York Times$ -- 6/5/26

It’s official: Clint Eastwood, 96, has retired, his son says -- When Clint Eastwood released his last movie, “Juror No. 2,” in 2024, the longtime Carmel-by-the-Sea resident, four-time Oscar winner and mainstay of American cinema skipped the premiere, raising speculation that he was finally ready to retire. After all, he was 94. Martha Ross in the Orange County Register$ -- 6/5/26

Mule deer become first animals to use California’s first wildlife crossing -- Three mule deer have become the first animals to cross California’s inaugural wildlife overpass. The crossing spans a deadly stretch of State Route 97 in Siskiyou County where dozens of animals have been killed. Alex Wigglesworth in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 6/5/26

In a First, Scientists Precisely Edit Human Embryo Genes -- Scientists at Columbia University have edited the DNA of early human embryos with unprecedented accuracy, an achievement that could open the way to babies engineered with particular characteristics. Carl Zimmer in the New York Times$ -- 6/5/26

Walters: California’s population is stagnating as immigration and birth rates decline -- California’s population exploded during and immediately after World War II, from 6.9 million in 1940 to 19.9 million in 1970, thanks to waves of migrants from other states drawn to California’s surging economy and the famous postwar baby boom. Dan Walters Calmatters -- 6/5/26

POTUS 47

Employers added 172,000 jobs last month as US job market shows resilience despite Iran war -- The Labor Department reported Friday that job growth was down slightly last month from a revised 179,000 in April. The unemployment rate stayed at a low 4.3% Paul Wiseman Associated Press Harriet Torry in the Wall Street Journal$ -- 6/5/26

Oil industry warns Trump administration of price spikes within weeks -- The oil industry is warning the Trump administration that a Hormuz-sized hole in the world’s petroleum market is steadily draining inventories to levels that are likely to send global energy prices surging in the next several weeks, according to four executives. Ben Lefebvre and James Bikales Politico -- 6/5/26

Ballroom donors won $50B in contracts after giving to Trump project, watchdog group finds -- More than half of the publicly identified donors to President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom project have won new or expanded federal contracts worth more than $50 billion during the past six months, according to a report released Thursday by a government watchdog group. Jonathan Edwards in the Washington Post$ -- 6/5/26

Jan. 6 Rioter Is Hired to Work in Sensitive Pentagon Office -- It was not clear who hired Elias Irizarry, who pleaded guilty to various offenses at the Capitol and was later pardoned by President Trump. Helene Cooper and Alan Feuer in the New York Times$ -- 6/5/26

How Trump’s Proposed Arch Could Complicate D.C.’s Congested Airspace -- The mammoth triumphal arch President Trump wants to build would sit under one of the most complex sections of the national airspace — directly in the paths of flights in and out of Ronald Reagan National Airport and just a few miles from the site of a catastrophic midair collision last year. Anushka Patil, Marco Hernandez, Junho Lee and Karoun Demirjian in the New York Times$ -- 6/5/26

Trump eyes his next DC renovation: The Lincoln Memorial -- Trump told reporters at the White House on Thursday he wants to build a promenade that would allow pedestrians to easily walk from the rear of the monument to the east bank of the Potomac River. “They want to call it the Trump Promenade,” he said. “It’s a beautiful project, and it’s gonna take the Lincoln Memorial right down to the Potomac.” Aaron Pellish Politico Luke Broadwater in the New York Times$ -- 6/5/26

Trump dumps remaining Freedom 250 performers, declares himself the headliner -- After days of artists fleeing Freedom 250’s planned concert series, Trump said Thursday, June 4, that the troubled semiquincentennial event would be replaced by what he called “the Greatest Rally, EVER,” featuring himself, Lee Greenwood, tenor Christopher Macchio and military ensembles. Aidin Vaziri in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 6/5/26