California Policy and Politics Tuesday

OpenAI to buy iPhone designer Jony Ive’s startup for $6.5 billion. Here’s what it means for S.F. -- OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and famed Apple designer Jony Ive have joined forces to build the “iPhone of AI,” with OpenAI agreeing to buy Ive’s new startup Io for $6.5 billion. The purchase would be OpenAI’s biggest deal ever, uniting two of the most prominent names in tech and giving San Francisco another economic win in the nascent industry. Roland Li, Laura Waxmann in the San Francisco Chronicle$ Keach Hagey and Berber Jin in the Wall Street Journal Mike Isaac and Cade Metz in the New York Times$ Gerrit De Vynck in the Washington Post$ -- 5/21/25

Pentagon Says It Has Taken Possession of 747 From Qatar -- Decision to accept a donated commercial aircraft, which Trump has said will serve as Air Force One, has raised security and ethics questions. Nancy A. Youssef, Lindsay Wise and Andrew Tangel in the Wall Street Journal -- 5/21/25

California FEMA earthquake retrofit grants canceled, imperiling critical work, Schiff says -- The Trump administration has canceled $33 million worth of federal funds meant to help pay for earthquake retrofits in California — sparking “grave concern” and a call to reconsider from one of the state’s highest elected officials. Rong-Gong Lin II in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 5/21/25

State Farm increases California home insurance rate hike request to 30% -- A week after securing approval to raise home insurance rates by an average of 17%, State Farm General revealed plans to ask regulators for an additional 11% increase, as well as considerably higher rates for condo owners and renters. Megan Fan Munce in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 5/20/25

Latino legislative caucus decries Newsom’s proposed Medi-Cal cuts -- One of the strongest voting blocs in Sacramento denounced Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed budget, which included cuts to immigrants’ access to Medi-Cal. Sandra McDonald in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 5/20/25

Landmark Los Angeles federal courthouse slated for quick sale by agency -- The federal government is offering real estate investors an unusual opportunity — the chance to buy a historic courthouse and office building in the heart of downtown Los Angeles. Roger Vincent in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 5/20/25

Garofoli: Gavin Newsom needs to focus on current job -- Newsom has spent so much time talking about national issues that voters think he’s more focused on running for his next office, even when he isn’t. Joe Garofoli in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 5/20/25

California watchdog finds for-profit psychiatric hospital abused patients -- The state’s watchdog agency for people with disabilities has found that a for-profit psychiatric hospital in Southern California abused patients for years by excessively and improperly strapping them down and drugging them in violation of federal and state regulations. Cynthia Dizikes, Joaquin Palomino in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 5/20/25

Palm Springs bombing investigation turns to the explosives: How were they sourced and built? -- The suspect in Saturday’s bombing at a Palm Springs fertility clinic was a rocket hobbyist with radical views and an extraordinary amount of high-range explosives that appear to have been used with precision in his attack, law enforcement sources and blast experts told The Times. Melody Gutierrez, Libor Jany, Paige St. John, Richard Winton and Jenny Jarvie in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 5/20/25

S.F. DA launches criminal probe into nonprofit that misspent millions -- City prosecutors have launched a criminal investigation into the nonprofit San Francisco Parks Alliance, a prominent fundraiser for the city’s open spaces that admitted last week to misspending at least $3.8 million, the Chronicle has learned. Michael Barba in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 5/20/25

Orange County DA ‘knew his office was in trouble,’ lawyer for ex-prosecutor says -- Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer forced out a high-level prosecutor who was trying to protect lower-level colleagues who had suffered serial sexual harassment by another supervisor with close ties to Spitzer, an attorney for the former prosecutor told jurors on Monday, May 19, at the outset of a high-profile civil trial. Sean Emery in the Orange County Register$ -- 5/20/25

Cops racking up overtime and earning over $400,000 -- The highest-paid city employee in 2023 — the most recent year with complete compensation data — was a cop who worked upwards of 3,000 hours of overtime and earned over $430,000 in total compensation. By comparison, the mayor earned $234,000 that year. The chief of police earned $310,000. Scott Rodd, Elaine Alfaro KPBS -- 5/19/25

Education

California to pay for learning disabled students to attend religious schools -- California law since 1993 has allowed children with learning disabilities to attend private schools at state expense, but only if the schools are non-religious. That is apparently about to change under a court settlement Monday between state education officials and a group of Orthodox Jewish parents. Bob Egelko in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 5/20/25

Street

Judge, prosecutor spar over plan to give lenient deal to L.A. deputy after conviction -- A judge grilled a prosecutor over a plan to give L.A. County Sheriff’s Deputy Trevor Kirk a no-jail plea deal, despite his felony conviction in an excessive force case. James Queally, Brittny Mejia and Connor Sheets in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 5/20/25

Also

The Coyotes of San Francisco -- After a long absence from the city, the animals have become ubiquitous again. Some residents find them delightful, but others view them with disdain. Heather Knight, Loren Elliott, Loren Elliott in the New York Times$ -- 5/20/25

POTUS 47

Trump calls for ‘major investigation’ into Springsteen, Oprah and Beyoncé over Kamala Harris campaign ties -- In a flurry of early morning posts on Truth Social on Monday, May 19, the president accused Harris of orchestrating a scheme to disguise payments to entertainers as production expenses, a claim that targeted stars Bruce Springsteen, Beyoncé, Oprah Winfrey and Bono. Aidin Vaziri in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 5/20/25

Supreme Court allows Trump to revoke immigration protections for 350,000 Venezuelans -- The Supreme Court has cleared the way for the Trump administration to immediately end immigration protections that had allowed roughly 350,000 Venezuelans living in the U.S. to receive work permits and temporarily avoid deportation. Josh Gerstein Politico Justin Jouvenal, Sabrina Rodriguez and Arelis R. Hernández in the Washington Post$ Abbie VanSickle and Adam Liptak in the New York Times$ -- 5/20/25

Trump administration to pay nearly $5M to settle suit over Ashli Babbitt’s fatal shooting in Capitol -- The officer who shot her was cleared of wrongdoing by the U.S. Attorney’s office for the District of Columbia, which concluded that he acted in self-defense and in the defense of members of Congress. Eric Tucker and Michael Kunzelman Associated Press Alan Feuer, Devlin Barrett and Glenn Thrush in the New York Times$ -- 5/20/25

Debt cloud suddenly hangs over megabill talks -- Republicans knew they’d have to overcome fierce internal divisions, thorny policy trade-offs and rock-solid Democratic resistance to pass their massive domestic policy bill. They didn’t count on a Wall Street backlash, too. Benjamin Guggenheim, Sam Sutton and Meredith Lee Hill Politico -- 5/20/25

Jamie Dimon Says Tariffs Might Inflict More Economic Pain Than Investors Realize --JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said Monday he didn’t think the full impact of tariffs had passed through to the broader economy and warned that the stock market could slump as companies reckoned with the new costs for goods and supplies. Alexander Saeedy in the Wall Street Journal$ -- 5/20/25

Trump Berates Companies for Warning About Tariff Price Increases -- The president recently attacked Walmart, saying it should “eat” the costs rather than pass them on to customers. Tony Romm in the New York Times$ -- 5/20/25

America’s Fiscal Situation Threatens the Good Mood on Wall Street -- Investors sold U.S. government bonds and the dollar on Monday, after Moody’s Ratings late last week stripped the U.S. of its last triple-A credit rating, citing large budget deficits and rising interest costs. Sam Goldfarb and Hannah Erin Lang in the Wall Street Journal$ -- 5/20/25

Qatar Had No Luck Selling a Luxury Jet. Then Trump Set His Sights On It -- Officials in the Pentagon and President Trump’s White House assumed the plan would involve buying the plane. How did it morph into a proposed gift by Qatar? Eric Lipton, Maggie Haberman, Adam Rasgon and Eric Schmitt in the New York Times$ -- 5/20/25