California Policy and Politics Thursday

Newsom bows to ‘hierarchy of needs’ in detente with Trump -- Gov. Gavin Newsom’s more than 90-minute meeting with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office Wednesday once again displayed the governor’s willingness to cede his leadership of the resistance — at least for now. Dustin Gardiner and Blake Jones Politico Taryn Luna and Faith E. Pinho in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 2/6/25

Judge temporarily blocks Trump’s exit plan for federal employees -- He also instructed the Trump administration to swiftly notify workers of the order freezing implementation of the “deferred resignation” program — which excuses workers from the administration’s return-to-office mandate and allows them to maintain their pay and benefits through Sept. 30. Nick Niedzwiadek Politico -- 2/6/25

 

Trump dumped these farmers’ water. They’d rather not talk about it. -- California farmers — some of President Donald Trump’s staunchest supporters in the deep blue state — are sticking with him, even after he wasted their water. Camille von Kaenel and Annie Snider Politico -- 2/6/25

As Trump orders trans sports ban, California says its rules protecting athletes remain in place -- Leaders of scholastic sports say they will continue to follow state law ensuring trans student athletes can participate with teams corresponding with their gender identity. Bob Egelko, Molly Burke in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 2/6/25

San Jose State responds to Trump’s order banning transgender women from women’s sports -- In response to Trump’s order, San Jose State issued a statement, saying it “maintains an unwavering commitment to the wellness, safety and privacy of our students, faculty and staff and to fostering a supportive and caring environment for all.” Christian Babcock in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 2/6/25

California schools, NCAA diverge in responses to Trump ban on trans athletes -- The order could impel athletic governing bodies to update their policies to comply with the order, but reaction among some of the institutions potentially affected did not suggest they were about to. Marisa Ingemi in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 2/6/25

California AG warns L.A. hospital: Withholding transgender care could violate state law -- The L.A. hospital said it has paused the initiation of hormonal therapy for “gender affirming care patients” under the age of 19, as well as any gender-affirming surgeries for minors. The move by Children’s Hospital Los Angeles followed an executive order by President Trump that targets the use of puberty blockers, hormones and other “gender affirming care” for transgender youth. Emily Alpert Reyes in the Los Angeles Times$ Andrew Sheeler in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 2/6/25

America Is Abandoning DEI. The NFL Remains All-In -- Everyone from the federal government to Fortune 500 companies is dialing back their diversity efforts. But America’s most popular sport is standing its ground. Andrew Beaton in the Wall Street Journal$ -- 2/6/25

 

‘I’m here because I’m angry.’ Hundreds protest Trump & Elon Musk at California Capitol -- Hundreds turned out at noon Wednesday at the California state Capitol to protest President Donald Trump and Elon Musk — Trump’s adviser, mega MAGA donor, “special employee” and head of the Department of Government Efficiency, or “DOGE,” set up to root out wasteful spending. Jenavieve Hatch in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 2/6/25

Trump says he’ll investigate California’s high-speed rail; authority calls comments ‘noise’ -- “Ignore the noise. We’re busy building,” the post said, highlighting the project’s environmental clearance for construction between Los Angeles and San Francisco, construction in the Central Valley and more than 14,000 jobs the project has provided. Colleen Shalby in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 2/6/25

 

Silicon Valley Congressman Khanna accuses Elon Musk of violating Constitution, gets insulted by Musk -- Democratic Silicon Valley Rep. Ro Khanna on Wednesday accused Elon Musk of violating the U.S. Constitution as he carries out his mandate from Republican President Donald Trump to overhaul the federal government. Musk, the world’s richest man, responded with a crude insult. Ethan Baron in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 2/6/25

Here’s how Trump’s tariffs on China will affect your finances in California -- In 2023, California imported more than $120.5 billion in Chinese goods, according to the California Chamber of Commerce. These are the largest import categories and some examples of what they include: Jessica Roy in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 2/6/25

 

San Francisco’s New Mayor Is Rich. Is That a Good Thing? -- Daniel Lurie’s supporters say his wealth means he owes no one any favors. But skeptics say the rich already have too much say. Heather Knight in the New York Times$ -- 2/6/25

Nancy Pelosi faces primary challenge from former AOC aide -- Another chapter in a generational battle over the future of the Democratic Party appears to be taking shape in San Francisco in a fight for the seat now held by former House speaker Nancy Pelosi. Ali Bianco Politico -- 2/6/25

Post Fire

Power Company Finds Irregularities in Equipment Where Eaton Fire Started -- Southern California Edison said video evidence had led it to look more broadly at whether its equipment might have been the cause of the deadly blaze. Ivan Penn in the New York Times$ -- 2/6/25

L.A. City Council committee rejects rent freeze, advances eviction protection proposal -- A key Los Angeles City Council committee on Wednesday rejected an effort to freeze rents citywide, but advanced a series of eviction protections for people economically affected by recent fires. Andrew Khouri in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 2/6/25

Behind the arson arrests during the firestorm: Cases reveal L.A.’s burning problem -- Authorities say an uptick in arson arrests was likely the result of increased public attention to common smaller fires, which are dangerous during extreme weather conditions. Several cases appear to involve fires set intentionally or accidentally by people experiencing homelessness or suffering from mental illness. James Queally, Clara Harter and Richard Winton in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 2/6/25

After brutal fire season, California lawmakers call for seasonal firefighters to be employed year-round -- A bipartisan group of California lawmakers this week announced legislation that would transition about 3,000 seasonal firefighters who work for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to year-round employees. Grace Toohey in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 2/6/25

Red Cross will move 250 Eaton fire evacuees from Pasadena Convention Center to a new site -- The exact timing and location of the move remain unclear, but the Red Cross said Wednesday that it would continue to shelter evacuees until they could be placed in more permanent housing. Nathan Solis in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 2/6/25

Backup power and full water tanks should be required in face of wildfire, lawmaker says -- It’s been more than seven years since fire hydrants in southern Ventura County rapidly ran dry as the Thomas fire exploded — something Assemblymember Steve Bennett hoped he would never see repeated. Grace Toohey in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 2/6/25

Should arsonist get death penalty if people die in wildfire? California Supreme Court to decide -- Raymond Lee Oyler, sentenced to death for starting a 2006 Southern California blaze that killed five firefighters, didn’t shoot or stab his victims, or kill them personally with his bare hands. So should he be put to death? Sharon Bernstein in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 2/6/25

 

Newton: After the fires, the mandate for Karen Bass remains the same: House the people of Los Angeles -- Any student of California history knows the story of the 1906 earthquake. San Francisco was torn apart by the quake itself, then ravaged by the fire that followed. California’s great city, a hub of the Gold Rush, was reduced to smoking rubble. Jim Newton CalMatters -- 2/6/25

Walters: Trump targets California’s troubled bullet train project. It may deserve a mercy killing -- Talk about timing. President Donald Trump denounced California’s bullet train for the project’s delays and rising costs on Tuesday, and said his administration would investigate how billions of federal and state dollars have been spent. Dan Walters CalMatters -- 2/6/25

Housing

L.A. fires fuel opposition to new Bay Area housing development -- In January, as fires in Los Angeles burned thousands of homes in Pacific Palisades and Altadena, they also threatened residences more than 300 miles away that haven’t even been built yet. Sophia Bollag in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 2/6/25

Climate

California’s surge in EV sales has stalled — so what happens to its landmark mandate? -- About a quarter — 25.3% — of all new cars registered in California in 2024 were electric cars, compared with 25% in 2023. The flat sales follow several years of rapid growth, and sales are still far below the state’s 35% target. Alejandro Lazo CalMatters -- 2/6/25

Border

San Clemente to ask border patrol to install and monitor cameras on beach 24/7 -- San Clemente leaders are working with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to add cameras along the city’s beach and pier with the aim of apprehending people trying to enter the country illegally. Jasmine Mendez in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 2/6/25

H5N1

Deadly version of H5N1 bird flu spills over into Nevada dairy cattle -- A new version of the H5N1 bird flu virus has been detected in milk samples collected from dairy herds in Nevada. The strain, known as D1.1, had so far been associated only with migrating birds and poultry. D1.1 is the strain that killed a person in Louisiana and severely sickened a teenager in Canada. Susanne Rust in the Los Angeles Times$ Lena H. Sun in the Washington Post$ -- 2/6/25

Workplace

Google ends hiring targets tied to diversity -- Google is the latest tech company rethinking how it approaches diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace as businesses face more political pressure from President Trump to roll back these initiatives. Queenie Wong in the Los Angeles Times$ Julian Mark and Gerrit De Vynck in the Washington Post$ -- 2/6/25

Workday chops 600-plus Bay Area jobs, one-third of worldwide total -- Workday will chop more than 600 jobs in the East Bay — roughly one-third of its worldwide layoff plans — a wrenching cutback spurred by a push to scout for AI opportunities. George Avalos in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 2/6/25

Street

Witness says he killed for the Aryan Brotherhood, divulges secrets of L.A.’s underworld -- James Field, 37, testified he killed three men in a two-week span on the orders of the Aryan Brotherhood. The ongoing federal trial of three alleged Aryan Brotherhood members has revealed the prison gang’s influence on the streets of Los Angeles County. Matthew Ormseth in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 2/6/25

L.A. County hit with record number of lawsuits amid flood of child sex abuse claims -- Los Angeles County was hit with a record number of lawsuits last year, with spending on outside attorneys ballooning to defend against a deluge of child sex abuse claims. Keri Blakinger and Rebecca Ellis in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 2/6/25

5 Europeans, in the country illegally, stole funds meant for low-income L.A. families, U.S. says -- All five men are in the United States without authorization and are accused of collectively possessing more than 160 counterfeit EBT cards at the time of their arrests, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The men are Marcel Musat, 53, of Romania; Ionut Calciu, 31, of Romania; Florian Serban, 51, of Romania; Wesley David Adrian Dimoua-Moua, 36, of France; and Hichem Mohamed El Mabrouk, 35, of France. Clara Harter in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 2/6/25

California’s Prop. 36 promised to get tough on crime. Republicans demand funding for it -- California’s Republican lawmakers are calling on their Democratic colleagues to put money behind Proposition 36 — last year’s tough-on-crime ballot measure that passed overwhelmingly. So far, Democratic lawmakers haven’t indicated whether they will. Kate Wolffe in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 2/6/25

Dennis Richmond

Legendary KTVU anchor Dennis Richmond dies at 81 -- Richmond had a calm, no-nonsense demeanor and a rich baritone delivery. Over time, he became one of the Bay Area’s most trusted anchors and was regularly named the market’s most popular anchor in various viewer polls. KTVU’s late-night newscast topped the ratings for years after Richmond took over. Rick Hurd in the San Jose Mercury$ Aidin Vaziri in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 2/6/25

POTUS 47

Musk’s DOGE agents access sensitive personnel data, alarming security officials -- The highly restricted data includes personally identifiable information for millions of federal employees maintained by the Office of Personnel Management. Isaac Stanley-Becker, Greg Miller, Hannah Natanson and Joseph Menn in the Washington Post$ -- 2/6/25

Judge Approves Limits on Sharing Treasury Data After Musk Allies Move In -- Restrictions will remain in place for now while labor unions pursue lawsuit over access to payments information. Jan Wolfe in the Wall Street Journal$ -- 2/6/25

Tariffs Could Lead to Higher Insurance Prices for U.S. Consumers, Businesses -- Insurers are warning that tariffs could make their costs shoot up, especially those connected with auto insurance. Richard Vanderford in the Wall Street Journal$ -- 2/6/25

Judge to hear federal worker union lawsuit with buyout offer set to expire tonight --Three unions that represent more than 800,000 federal workers, meanwhile filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking a temporary restraining order to halt the deadline, calling the offer an “arbitrary, unlawful, short-fused ultimatum,” and a federal judge scheduled a hearing Thursday to consider whether to take urgent action. Olivia George in the Washington Post$ -- 2/6/25

How Elon Musk’s deputies took over the government’s most basic functions -- Elon Musk’s allies are turning a once-obscure federal IT unit into the linchpin of their sweeping campaign to tear down the federal bureaucracy, sparking fears of improper overreach and chaos among tech employees in the government. Cat Zakrzewski and Faiz Siddiqui in the Washington Post$ -- 2/6/25

DOGE broadens sweep of federal agencies, gains access to health payment systems -- Associates of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency have spread out across the federal government in recent days, alarming many career employees. Dan Diamond, Lauren Kaori Gurley, Lena H. Sun, Hannah Knowles and Emily Davies in the Washington Post$ -- 2/6/25

Inside Trump’s Hastily Written Proposal to ‘Own’ Gaza -- Although the president had been talking about the idea for weeks, there had been no meetings on the subject, and senior members of his government were taken by surprise. Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman in the New York Times$ -- 2/6/25

White House tries to soften Trump’s mass displacement proposal for Gaza -- Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday that President Trump has not committed to sending troops to war-torn Gaza, and that he will not spend U.S. funds rebuilding it. Trump’s comments suggesting otherwise the previous day inflamed the region. Michael Birnbaum and Matt Viser in the Washington Post$ -- 2/6/25

How Trump’s Sweeping Expulsions Have Thrown the FBI Into Chaos -- Firings at the Justice Department and FBI herald revenge—and a broad shift from white-collar and national-security cases to illegal immigration and street crime. Sadie Gurman, C. Ryan Barber and Aruna Viswanatha in the Wall Street Journal$ -- 2/6/25

Trump policies sow chaos, confusion across scientific community -- Scientists knew change was coming under President Donald Trump, but they were not remotely prepared for the chaos, confusion and fear incited by executive orders that have destabilized the world’s largest engine for innovation and discovery. Joel Achenbach and Carolyn Y. Johnson in the Washington Post$ -- 2/6/25

U.S. Blindsides Panama, Saying American Government Ships Will Get Free Canal Passage -- The Panama Canal Authority said late Wednesday that no such adjustment had been made to tolls or transit rights for U.S. government ships. Vera Bergengruen and Costas Paris in the Wall Street Journal$ -- 2/6/25

Steve Bannon on Trump’s ‘Outside the Universe’ Thinking -- In a wide-ranging conversation with Wall Street Journal reporter Maggie Severns, he discusses what he calls Elon Musk’s “break things and do it fast” strategy, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s role in merging the MAGA and MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) movements, and his populist views on taxes and federal spending. The item is in the Wall Street Journal$ -- 2/6/25

Trump to Place at Least 100 EPA Environmental-Justice Workers on Leave -- Move would unwind Biden administration program to aid poor communities recovering from environmental risks. Scott Patterson, Shalini Ramachandran and Lindsay Ellis in the Wall Street Journal$ -- 2/6/25

White House Orders C.I.A. to Send an Unclassified Email With Names of Some Employees -- The White House ordered the C.I.A. to send an unclassified email listing all employees hired by the spy agency over the last two years to comply with an executive order to shrink the federal work force, in a move that former officials say risked the list leaking to adversaries. David E. Sanger and Julian E. Barnes in the New York Times$ -- 2/6/25

List: Examples of Trump’s Actions That Are Defying Legal Limits -- Already some of Mr. Trump's moves have prompted legal challenges, though the administration may be betting on rulings in its favor with a Republican-appointed Supreme Court supermajority. Here are some examples of the administration’s defiance of statutes. Charlie Savage and Lazaro Gamio in the New York Times$ -- 2/6/25