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California Policy and Politics Thursday

Dreamforce commits to S.F. for three more years in major economic boost for city -- The city’s biggest conference, the 45,000-person Dreamforce took over Moscone Center and the surrounding area this week, creating one of downtown’s busiest times of the year. Roland Li in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/19/24

Cisco to lay off hundreds of Bay Area employees in second round of cuts this year -- Cisco Systems has finally revealed the extent of its second round of mass layoffs this year, revealing the impact on its workforce in the Bay Area. Aidin Vaziri in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/19/24

Statewide poll shows runaway support for Prop. 36 measure to toughen theft, drug crime penalties -- PPIC findings show ballot initiative borne out of frustration with property crime, fentanyl dealing has 71% support from likely voters. Robert Salonga in the San Jose Mercury$ Emily Schultheis Politico -- 9/19/24

6 myths about California crime as voters weigh ballot measure on drugs, retail theft -- Worries about retail theft and fentanyl deaths shaped a November ballot measure that would toughen some criminal penalties. Here are the facts about California crime trends. Nigel Duara CalMatters -- 9/19/24

Skelton: California voters are fed up with crime and, apparently, inaction by Democrats -- Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democratic legislative leaders vehemently oppose an anti-retail theft measure on the November ballot. But they’re being ignored by California voters who support the proposal overwhelmingly. George Skelton in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/19/24

Walters: Californians back measure to crack down on crime despite Newsom’s opposition -- California voters will begin marking their mail-in ballots for the Nov. 5 election in just a few days and how they vote may reflect their somewhat sour outlooks, particularly rising concerns about crime, a pre-election poll suggests. Dan Walters CalMatters -- 9/19/24

Newton: Imagine if Los Angeles fully activated the voting power of its Latino majority -- How liberal is Los Angeles? Even at first glance, the answer is: very. Jim Newton CalMatters -- 9/19/24

California law banning election deepfakes draws conservative challenge hours after being signed -- Hours after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation banning “deepfake” political ads, which use artificial intelligence to impersonate a candidate and misrepresent the candidate’s views, the laws were challenged by a conservative producer whose videos purport to show Vice President Kamala Harris describing herself as “the ultimate diversity hire.” Bob Egelko in the San Francisco Chronicle$ Lara Korte Politico -- 9/19/24

What’s on the November ballot in California? -- While the Golden State’s Democratic leanings in the presidential contest are well known, California is home to several swing districts that make the state critical this year in determining which party controls the U.S. House of Representatives. Seema Mehta in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/19/24

A Democrat in a key House race is running on his law career. It could be a liability -- Derek Tran, a Democrat running for one of the most competitive House seats in the country, has touted his career as a trial lawyer to portray himself as a champion of underdogs. But some of his former clients could become a political liability, including one man who was fired after displaying a noose in his office. Melanie Mason Politico -- 9/19/24

Huntington Beach sues to block state law on trans student privacy -- Huntington Beach, saying parents have a ‘right to know,’ seeks to block a state law shielding teachers from having to disclose students’ gender identity. Hannah Fry in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/19/24

A California city banned new homeless shelters. Now it’s doubling down on its crackdown on the poor -- Newsom chastised Norwalk, a city of 103,000 residents located 15 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles, for passing an emergency measure that takes an extreme approach to homelessness: It bans new homeless shelters, temporary housing, supportive housing and single-room occupancy hotels. Sara Libby in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/19/24

Ads for Prop 33, Prop 34 underscore confusing messages facing California voters -- Campaign advertisements with conflicting — and sometimes misleading — messages about two California ballot measures are flooding news channels and sports broadcasts as voters prepare to weigh in on the proposals in November. Molly Burke in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/19/24

Will Gov. Newsom’s gasoline storage plan really prevent price spikes at the pump? -- If you drive a car or pickup truck in California, you care about the price of gasoline — especially if it spikes toward $7 a gallon, as it did in September 2022. Russ Mitchell in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/19/24

Workplace

Bay Area tech layoffs: Online learning giant to cut 280 employees, rehire in ‘lower-cost’ regions -- Udemy, the world’s largest online learning marketplace, announced plans to lay off 280 employees, representing approximately 20% of its global workforce. The company said it intends to rehire about half of these positions in locations with lower operational costs. Aidin Vaziri in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/19/24

Tech Jobs Have Dried Up—and Aren’t Coming Back Soon -- Employment for software engineers has cooled as resources shift toward developing artificial intelligence. Katherine Bindley and Joseph Pisani in the Wall Street Journal$ -- 9/19/24

Meet the ‘Autocado’ and a robotic burrito bowl maker at these O.C. Chipotle locations -- Chipotle debuts “Autocado,” an avocado-peeling robot and an automated bowl assembly line. Cindy Carcamo in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/19/24

Housing

Will interest rate decline shake up California housing market? -- For many prospective homebuyers, the last two years have been brutal as high home prices and mortgage rates produced the most unaffordable housing market since the 2000s bubble. Andrew Khouri in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/19/24

Homeless

S.F. Mayor Breed wants to double goal for homeless shelter as she pushes to get people off the streets -- Mayor London Breed has directed city officials to double San Francisco’s shelter expansion goal, the latest big pronouncement about how she’s tackling the homeless crisis as she faces a tough reelection campaign. Maggie Angst in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/19/24

Insurance

California Mountain Towns Are Too Risky for Insurers, but Residents Want to Stay -- In the San Bernardino Mountains, another wildfire has forced residents to flee, the latest reminder that they must accept the risks of climate change if they want to remain. Soumya Karlamangla in the New York Times$ -- 9/19/24

Dengue

‘Unprecedented’ cluster of mosquito-borne dengue virus cases confirmed in Baldwin Park -- Two more cases of the mosquito-borne dengue virus are confirmed in Baldwin Park, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. Summer Lin in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/19/24

Kern River

‘It’s really sad’: River dries up abruptly in Bakersfield, leaving thousands of dead fish -- The collapse follows an appeals court ruling that cleared the way for city officials and water managers to reduce flows upstream, keeping some water behind a dam and sending other supplies to farms. Ian James in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/19/24

Education

UC police seek approval for more pepper balls, sponge rounds, launchers, drones -- UC police are asking for pepper balls, sponge rounds, launchers, drones and other weapons in their annual requests. UC says they are mostly for training. Teresa Watanabe in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/19/24

Street

Sheriff’s Department announces long-awaited policy banning deputy gangs -- The controversial tattooed groups and their alleged misconduct have plagued the nation’s largest sheriff’s department for decades, spurring oversight investigations, an FBI probe and a stream of lawsuits. Keri Blakinger in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/19/24

Man who took an ax to a fruit stand in a ‘reign of terror’ is ordered to pay vendors $2.8 million -- On Wednesday, a jury found Daniel McGuire guilty of assault, inflicting emotional distress and committing violent acts, among other offenses, against vendors Jonathan Alvarez and Tomas Leocadio — both of whom relied on their fruit stands as their sole source of income. Clara Harter in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/19/24

Top of the ticket

Harris holds slight lead over Trump in 2 battleground states, post-debate polls find -- New polling shows narrow leads for Kamala Harris in Michigan and Pennsylvania, and a tight race between her and Donald Trump in Wisconsin. Emmy Martin Politico -- 9/19/24

Harris Had Stronger Debate, Polls Find, but the Race Remains Deadlocked -- Kamala Harris overwhelmingly impressed voters in her debate with Donald J. Trump, a new set of polls from The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer and Siena College found, but she has failed so far to seize a decisive advantage in the presidential campaign. Shane Goldmacher and Ruth Igielnik in the New York Times$ -- 9/19/24

West Coast Teamsters break with national chapter in endorsing Harris -- The announcement came minutes after the national Teamsters declined to make a presidential endorsement. Alex Nieves Politico -- 9/19/24

Harris Will Give Abortion Speech in Georgia After Deaths of Two Women -- The vice president has said the stories of pregnant women who have been denied or have been unable to gain access to medical care show the consequences of former President Donald J. Trump’s actions. Lisa Lerer in the New York Times$ -- 9/19/24

Trump’s Derision of Haitians Goes Back Years -- Former President Donald J. Trump’s false comments about pet-eating Haitian immigrants are the latest in a pattern of attacks against people from the Caribbean nation. Michael D. Shear in the New York Times$ -- 9/19/24

How JD Vance’s Combative Conservatism Is Shaping Trumpism 2.0 -- From attacks on “childless cat ladies” to claims of migrants devouring neighbors’ pets, Senator JD Vance is providing many Americans with their first glimpse of an ultra-online, aggressively combative generation of rabble-rousing conservatism. Michael C. Bender in the New York Times$ -- 9/19/24

Harris Warns of Mass Deportations and Detention Camps if Trump Is Elected -- Vice President Kamala Harris is trying to build support among Latino voters as polls show Americans trust former President Donald J. Trump over Democrats on the border. Zolan Kanno-Youngs in the New York Times$ -- 9/19/24

Vance Says He Will Keep Calling Haitians Legally in Springfield ‘Illegal’ -- The immigrants are mainly in the United States under temporary protected status, which the executive branch can grant to people whose home countries are in crisis. Maggie Astor in the New York Times$ -- 9/19/24

Vance Complains About Democrats Using ‘Fascist.’ Trump Uses It Often -- The Republican vice-presidential candidate blamed Democrats for political vitriol after Sunday’s apparent assassination attempt against Donald J. Trump. Neil Vigdor in the New York Times$ -- 9/19/24

JD Vance’s Scapegoating Theory Is Playing Out in Real Time -- The Republican vice-presidential nominee has written about scapegoating before. Now he’s putting ideas into practice in Springfield, Ohio. Ian Ward Politico -- 9/19/24

Day by day, how JD Vance tweeted misinformation about Springfield -- Despite his staff learning that the cat-eating story wasn’t true on the day of his first post, Vance doubled down and kept going. Glenn Kessler in the Washington Post$ -- 9/19/24

Donald Trump’s financial failures are stunning. ‘Lucky Loser’ has the receipts -- Susanne Craig and Russ Buettner’s book, which builds on their Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting, is much more than an excavation of the former president’s tax returns. Bethany McLean in the Washington Post$ -- 9/19/24

To Win Votes, Trump Floats an Array of Expensive Tax Cuts -- Whether he is speaking to retirees, corporate executives or tipped workers, former President Donald J. Trump has made a habit of promising tax cuts that could cost trillions. Andrew Duehren and Michael Gold in the New York Times$ -- 9/19/24

Barabak: This bellwether county picked 11 straight presidential winners. Here’s how it views Trump vs. Harris -- Like the rest of the nation, voters on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington appear evenly split between the two. Many in Clallam County — the last presidential bellwether county in America — can’t fathom how anyone thinks differently. Mark Z. Barabak in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/19/24

The blended, multiracial family behind Kamala Harris. It’s not so unusual -- More than 4 in 10 adults in the United States have at least one step relative. Jenny Jarvie in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/19/24

Here’s how rich each candidate is compared to the average American -- Trump, Harris, Vance and Walz span a wide range of financial circumstances. Here’s where they fit on the spectrum of American wealth. Rachel Lerman, Julie Zauzmer Weil, Emma Kumer and Clara Ence Morse in the Washington Post$ -- 9/19/24

Scarred by violence, lawmakers plan for possible ‘mass casualty’ event -- Imagine the unthinkable: a mass shooting of members of Congress that leaves a large swath of the country unrepresented and shifts the balance of political power in Washington. Amy Gardner and Jacqueline Alemany in the Washington Post$ -- 9/19/24

Also

‘Eh, Whatever.’ Angelenos Shrug at Recent Quakes, Decades After the Last ‘Big One.’ -- It has been a generation since Los Angeles had a major earthquake disaster. Even in an active seismic year, many residents say they refuse to become alarmist. Corina Knoll and Jill Cowan in the New York Times$ -- 9/19/24

Wealthy Bay Area town may become one of first to ban private pickleball courts -- While tensions have arisen in San Francisco over access to public courts and various neighbor complaints about them, including noise, the Ross Town Council at its Sept. 12 meeting focused on the potential for private courts to generate high-decibel disturbances. Sam Whiting in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/19/24

What you need to know about Earth’s new, temporary mini-moon -- Earth is about to get a new neighbor in the form of an asteroid. But this one won’t be making an impact. Jaweed Kaleem in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/19/24