Rough & Tumble ®
A Snapshot of California Public Policy and Politics
     
 
 
 
 

California Policy and Politics Tuesday

About 55,000 L.A. County workers go on strike, disrupting services -- Leaders of SEIU Local 721 said the two-day strike started at 7 p.m. Monday, sparked by what they characterized as a failure by the county to fairly negotiate a new contract. Rebecca Ellis in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/29/25

100 days in, here’s how California has fared under Trump -- It is no surprise that California was President Donald Trump’s biggest foil during the first 100 days of his second term. California’s Democratic-dominated politics and what Trump derides as “woke” policies made the state a natural target for the president to aim his executive orders and sharpest barbs. Joe Garofoli, Bob Egelko in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 4/29/25

California tourism from Canada and Mexico declines amid Trump tension -- Visit California, the state tourism board, cited fears around cross-border travel, the Trump administration’s tariffs and other political tensions, and the relative strength of the dollar compared to foreign currencies as obstacles. Roland Li in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 4/29/25

Trump cuts millions in California crime prevention grants: ‘This was a sledgehammer’ -- Dozens of California violence prevention and victim service programs, including ones to protect survivors of domestic violence and end sexual abuse in jails and prisons, are facing devastating cuts after the Trump administration abruptly pulled funding from them. Cayla Mihalovich CalMatters -- 4/29/25

Fresno abruptly loses federal grant credited for big drop in city’s gun violence -- A gun violence reduction program credited for making a noticeable impact in Fresno has suddenly lost its federal grant funding. Melissa Montalvo in the Fresno Bee$ -- 4/29/25

New Trump order seeks to name and shame sanctuary cities. Can he go any further? -- Less than a week after a federal judge blocked President Donald Trump’s attempt to withhold billions of dollars in federal funds from sanctuary cities and states, he signed a new order Monday promising to terminate funds for governments that decline to assist with federal immigration enforcement. Bob Egelko, Sophia Bollag in the San Francisco Chronicle$ Jenny Jarvie and Andrea Castillo in the Los Angeles Times$ Michelle Hackman and Tarini Parti in the Wall Street Journal -- 4/29/25

California has sued Trump 15 times in his first 100 days. Where do those cases stand? -- California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta says he is defending Californians and American democracy by suing a lawless Trump administration. Trump administration officials have accused California leaders of wasting taxpayer dollars to block an agenda Americans voted for. Kevin Rector in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/29/25

Edison told the government that Calderon was an ‘executive.’ Now it claims she wasn’t -- Southern California Edison has repeatedly insisted that its former government affairs manager, state Assemblywoman Lisa Calderon (D-Whittier), was never an executive with the company. But that’s not what Edison told the federal government. Melody Petersen in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/29/25

Thousands of California prisoners falsely tested positive for opioids. Did it cost them their freedom? -- Thousands of inmates wrongly tested positive for opiate use inside California state prisons last year because of a laboratory mistake, and civil rights attorneys now worry many of them could be denied parole and a chance at freedom because of it. Salvador Hernandez in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/29/25

Newsom moves to set emergency staffing rules in psychiatric hospitals following Chronicle investigation -- Gov. Gavin Newsom is moving to impose minimum staffing requirements in California’s psychiatric hospitals in response to a Chronicle investigative series that spotlighted rampant abuse and neglect tied to understaffing in many of the locked facilities. Cynthia Dizikes in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 4/29/25

Walters: One faction scores win in Capitol’s perpetual ‘tort wars’ while another battleground looms -- One of the state Capitol’s perpetual conflicts, dubbed “tort wars,” pits personal injury attorneys and their allies, such as labor unions, against business groups and their insurers over laws governing which activities can be subjected to damage-seeking lawsuits. Dan Walters CalMatters -- 4/29/25

Palisades Fire

Two California judges file suit against LADWP, saying utility failed to prepare, respond to fire -- The two federal district judges from California lost homes in the Palisades fire in January. The judges join hundreds of other homeowners who blame the LA DWP for failing to respond and prepare for the wildfire. Grace Toohey in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/29/25

Flames will appear above Pacific Palisades again, this time to see what caused January’s deadly fire -- Sources familiar with the investigation say much of the focus has been on whether an eight-acre blaze sparked by fireworks a week earlier that firefighters thought they had extinguished in the same area had reignited. Richard Winton in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/29/25

Quake Risk

Northern California faces risk from terrifying Pacific Northwest earthquake fault -- The Cascadia Subduction Zone, a major fault that runs offshore from Northern California to British Columbia, is best known for putting the coast in danger of large earthquakes and tsunamis. A new study sounds another alarm: A big earthquake on the fault could cause land along the coast to sink permanently, increasing its long-term exposure to flooding. Tara Duggan in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 4/29/25

Education

California school districts spend millions on policing, with little scrutiny -- Many California school districts pay cities and counties millions of dollars a year to put law enforcement officers on campuses, moving tax dollars allocated for education to policing with little oversight by elected school boards, an EdSource investigation found. Thomas Peele and Daniel J. Willis EdSource -- 4/29/25

Street

A Boulder Creek man predicted his death on Facebook and named his murder suspect -- Late month, about a week before his 45th birthday, Boulder Creek resident Sean Pfeffer logged into Facebook to post a status that would be the last one he ever wrote. Annie Vainshtein in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 4/29/25

Also

Emergency landslide, erosion repairs halt trains through San Clemente for several weeks -- The construction work will affect service on Metrolink as well as Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner. Grace Toohey in the Los Angeles Times$ Phil Diehl in the San Diego Union Tribune -- 4/29/25

POTUS 47

Trump Floats Improbable Income-Tax Cut Tied to Tariffs -- President Trump keeps suggesting that tariffs can replace income taxes for most Americans. One big problem: The math doesn’t work. Richard Rubin in the Wall Street Journal -- 4/29/25

Civil rights lawyers leave en masse as Justice Dept. mission shifts -- The new head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division is dramatically reshaping the office to propel President Donald Trump’s social agenda, prompting the departure of about half of the division’s lawyers in recent weeks, according to people familiar with the situation and public statements from top officials. Perry Stein and Jeremy Roebuck in the Washington Post$ Devlin Barrett in the New York Times$ -- 4/29/25

All Authors Working on Flagship U.S. Climate Report Are Dismissed -- The Trump administration has dismissed the hundreds of scientists and experts who had been compiling the federal government’s flagship report on how global warming is affecting the country. The move puts the future of the report, which is required by Congress and is known as the National Climate Assessment, into serious jeopardy, experts said. Brad Plumer and Rebecca Dzombak in the New York Times$ -- 4/29/25

Why Trump’s Economic Disruption Will Be Hard to Reverse -- The president’s turnover of the economic order has unleashed changes that could prove lasting, because other countries will adjust. Patricia Cohen in the New York Times$ -- 4/29/25

Unions, local governments sue to block Trump administration’s workforce cuts -- A coalition that also includes non-profits argued in a lawsuit that the U.S. DOGE Service’s federal workforce cuts and reorganization plans are unconstitutional. Lauren Kaori Gurley in the Washington Post$ -- 4/29/25

Most take Trump’s Canada, Greenland and third-term ideas seriously — and oppose them, poll finds -- President Donald Trump has proposed taking over Canada and Greenland, imprisoning U.S. citizens overseas and serving an unconstitutional third term. Most Americans say they think he’s serious about each proposal. And most -- including many Republicans -- oppose each one, according to a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll. Scott Clement in the Washington Post$ -- 4/29/25

 


California Policy and Politics Monday

Kamala Harris plans scathing critique of Trump in first major speech since leaving office -- The speech, which is expected to be her most extensive remarks since losing the presidential election in November and leaving office in January, comes as Harris has been weighing whether to enter the 2026 California governor’s race to replace termed-out Gov. Gavin Newsom. Seema Mehta in the Los Angeles Times$ Elena Schneider Politico -- 4/28/25

‘Chaos created by uncertainty.’ Tariffs hit a company that lights Hollywood — and Congress -- President Trump’s new trade policies, including a 145% tariff on Chinese goods, will affect every imported piece of the company’s energy-efficient lights, most of which are assembled in Pasadena from parts made in Asia. That includes the light-emitting diodes, the circuit boards and the durable metal housing that protects the lights in news vans and on film sets. Laura J. Nelson in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/28/25

 

50 years after the fall of Saigon, Vietnam tweaks the story of its victory -- The official designation is “The Liberation of the South and National Reunification Day,” but it’s known by many other names. Vietnamese who are aligned with the ruling Communist Party here often refer to it as Liberation Day or Victory Day, while those who resettled in the U.S. still use terms such as Black April or National Day of Resentment. Stephanie Yang in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/28/25

From refugees to power brokers: How Little Saigon became a political force -- Over five decades, OC’s Vietnamese American community has gone from registering voters outside supermarkets to electing one of its own to Congress — reshaping U.S. politics along the way. Hanna Kang and Kaitlyn Schallhorn in the Orange County Register$ -- 4/28/25

The things they’ll carry: San Jose’s Vietnamese on their next 50 years -- Saigon lives on in the half-century legacy of the refugee community that built and flavored Silicon Valley. Jia H. Jung in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 4/28/25

 

Skelton: What’s really going on in the debate over voter ID requirements? -- Between President Trump’s questionable dictates and a proposed 2026 ballot measure, Californians will be hearing a lot about voter ID requirements over the next year. State voters will need to sift through an onslaught of falsehoods, political theatrics and simplistic arguments as they search for truth, an unfortunate reality in this Orwellian era. George Skelton in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/28/25

Smolens: Restrictive election laws aren’t about fraud -- Research on voter ID laws is mixed, but studies tend to show a disproportionate negative impact on people of color, other minorities Michael Smolens in the San Diego Union Tribune -- 4/28/25

 

Bay Area nonprofits are ‘holding their breath’ following national AmeriCorps cuts -- Bay Area nonprofits have started planning for a potential future without AmeriCorps volunteers after the Department of Government Efficiency announced cuts to some of the national service organization’s staffing and programs last week. News about grants for next year is also delayed. Caelyn Pender in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 4/28/25

Trump supporters look for disaffected Democrats in West Hollywood and Beverly Hills -- Supporters of President Trump and counter-protesters converged in West Hollywood and Beverly Hills on Sunday in a small but raucous confrontation that included a performance from a pro-Trump punk rock icon and remarks from a disgraced ex-congressman. Lila Seidman and Seema Mehta in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/28/25

Workplace

Bay Area tech workers thought their jobs were safe. Then the ‘golden handcuffs’ came off -- The tech industry, once seen as a relatively stable place to grow a career, continues to be hit by job cuts in 2025. Tech companies including Meta, Block, Autodesk and others are among businesses that have slashed their workforce. Queenie Wong in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/28/25

Can $1,000 a month help more students land nursing careers? An L.A. pilot effort says yes -- L.A. Community College District is giving hundreds of low-income students $1,000 a month in unrestricted income in hopes of keeping them enrolled and helping deliver a more diverse and multilingual healthcare workforce. Rebecca Plevin, Christina House in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/28/25

Meta guts virtual reality division amid mounting losses and fading hype -- Meta Platforms has laid off more than 100 employees from its Reality Labs division, the company’s unit dedicated to developing virtual and augmented reality technologies for its Quest headsets. Aidin Vaziri in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 4/28/25

LAFD’s DEI bureau drew the right’s ire. It’s now on the chopping block -- The Bureau of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, created in November 2022, was supposed to spearhead recruitment of underrepresented groups, including women, who were less than 4% of firefighters at the time. Noah Goldberg in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/28/25

Healthcare

California’s primary care shortage persists despite ambitious moves to close gap -- Despite increasing residency programs, student debt forgiveness, and tuition-free medical school, California is unlikely to meet patient demand, observers say. Bernard J. Wolfson and Vanessa G. Sánchez KFF Health News in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/28/25

Altadena

Fear and anxiety reign as burglary soars in post-fire Altadena: ‘Trauma on top of the trauma’ -- Residential burglaries are up about 450% in the Altadena area compared with last year as thieves target homes that survived the Eaton fire, according to law enforcement data. Clara Harter in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/28/25

After the Eaton fire, Altadena dirt was sent to Tujunga. Then came the backlash -- Residents in the rugged enclave of Tujunga became suspicious in January after dirt-filled trucks began inundating their neighborhood streets, dumping their loads on nearby county-owned property. Dakota Smith in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/28/25

Housing

Home sales drag across U.S., while Bay Area is nation’s hottest market -- Sales decreased 5.9% from last year across the U.S. Meanwhile, in the Bay Area, home sales were up 6.5%, driven by an increase in inventory. Kate Talerico in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 4/28/25

The Bay Area’s real estate market is flashing a key warning signal -- More homes are for sale in the Bay Area. But buyers aren’t biting. Christian Leonard in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 4/28/25

Education

DOGE cuts hit San Jose State, UC Berkeley, UC San Francisco. Researcher says: ‘I don’t know that they understood what I was doing’ -- Feds ban funding for research dubbed DEI and improved access for disabled people. Ethan Baron in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 4/28/25

Street

They called for urgent help with a mentally ill loved one. Why California police refused -- Police agencies — under scrutiny and worried about their own liability — increasingly won’t respond to someone in a mental health crisis unless that person is committing a crime. So who will transport people in psychosis to get help? And who will keep those around them safe? Lee Romney CalMatters -- 4/28/25

POTUS 47

Public sours on Musk’s role, is skeptical that government is cutting waste -- Thirty-five percent of Americans approve of the way Musk is handling his job in the Trump administration, while 57 percent disapprove, a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll shows. Emily Guskin and Scott Clement in the Washington Post$ -- 4/28/25

Trump-aligned club for the ultra rich launches in Washington -- The referral requirements and prohibitive pricing is meant to ensure the C-suite crowd can mingle with Trump advisers and cabinet members without the prying eyes of the press and wanna-be insiders. The price tag won’t be a problem for Trump’s cabinet — given it’s by far the wealthiest in history. The club already has a waitlist. Dasha Burns Politico -- 4/28/25

America Inc. Slashes Spending as Tariff Uncertainty Swirls -- CEOs are pausing travel, delaying construction projects and slowing hiring in response to tariffs and cloudy economic forecasts; a bid to ‘control the controllables’ Chip Cutter in the Wall Street Journal -- 4/28/25

Tariffs on Chinese-made machinery drive up costs for U.S. manufacturers -- The U.S. economy depends on Chinese tools needed to make everything from cars to electronics in American factories. Katrina Northrop in the Washington Post$ -- 4/28/25

Your Home Without China -- Many common household goods are imported from China. They could soon become more expensive or hard to find. Pablo Robles, Agnes Chang and Lazaro Gamio in the New York Times$ -- 4/28/25

Democrats seize on a new issue to use against the GOP: Social Security -- Democrats, after weeks of struggling to find a message that resonates with ordinary Americans while President Donald Trump dominates the news, are beginning to settle on one: the allegation that Trump and his allies are crippling Social Security. Naftali Bendavid in the Washington Post$ -- 4/28/25

Pritzker Thunders Against ‘Do Nothing’ Democrats as He Stokes 2028 Talk -- Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois strode into a ballroom filled with top New Hampshire Democrats on Sunday and by the end of his nearly 30-minute speech had them ready to storm the political barricades against President Trump. Lisa Lerer and Reid J. Epstein in the New York Times$ Maeve Reston in the Washington Post$ -- 4/28/25

Trump says Columbus Day will now just be Columbus Day -- President Donald Trump made clear Sunday that he would not follow his predecessor’s practice of recognizing Indigenous Peoples Day alongside Columbus Day in October, accusing Democrats of denigrating the explorer’s legacy as he pressed his campaign to restore what he argues are traditional American icons. Nicholas Riccardi Associated Press -- 4/28/25