California Policy and Politics Friday

California officials refused to give up sensitive voter data. Now the DOJ is suing for it -- The information — which includes voters’ names, addresses, party registration and the last four digits of their Social Security numbers — is necessary to determine whether the state is making “a reasonable effort to remove the names of ineligible voters from the official lists,” Justice Department lawyers said in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. Bob Egelko in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 09/25/25

Trump’s bid to scrap EPA climate finding may hit CA car emissions, experts warn -- The Trump administration’s latest attempt to roll back environmental protections targets what is widely considered the legal foundation for regulating carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases. Experts warn that undoing it could weaken national climate policy, with ripple effects felt in California. Chaewon Chung in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 09/25/25

California dumps its Trump-battered electric truck rule -- Gov. Gavin Newsom spent Climate Week positioning California as the foil to the Trump administration’s assault on electric vehicles, but the scope of the damage was in full view Thursday as air regulators put the final nail in the coffin for the state’s electric truck sales mandates. Alex Nieves Politico -- 09/25/25

Detained immigrants protest over conditions inside newly opened California City ICE facility -- Detained immigrants at the newly opened detention center in California City (Kern County) described the facility’s conditions as inhumane, saying many people do not have access to adequate medical care, clean drinking water or unclogged toilets, according to detainees and immigration attorneys. Jessica Flores in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 09/25/25

79-year-old Van Nuys car wash owner, a U.S. citizen, files $50M claim over immigration raid, injuries -- Shouhed, who is 79 years old, went outside to see agents, who he says did not provide warrants, raiding his business. He asked them what he could do to help them, offering to get the papers many of his workers keep with them, when he was “slammed” into the ground by agents, who sat on his back, one with a knee on Shouhed’s neck, and pinned his arms behind his back, his lawyer said. Sierra van der Brug in the LA Daily News -- 09/25/25

Daniel Lurie hires new adviser to push S.F.’s huge bureaucracy to deliver results -- Mayor Daniel Lurie is expanding his circle of advisers by hiring a new senior official tasked with keeping the vast San Francisco government bureaucracy focused on setting and achieving clear goals to help execute the mayor’s agenda. J.D. Morris in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 09/25/25

Garofoli: To win on Prop 50 and beyond, California Democrats need these two groups -- Proposition 50, the Nov. 4 ballot measure that asks voters to allow California to redraw its congressional districts to increase the likelihood of producing five more Democrats in Congress and check President Donald Trump’s power, is not resonating yet with two key elements of the Democratic base: people of color and young voters. Joe Garofoli in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 09/25/25

Celebrities sign letter pressuring California Gov. Gavin Newsom to regulate AI -- A host of who’s who in Hollywood is the latest group to pressure Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign a bill that would regulate artificial intelligence, according to a letter exclusively obtained by The Sacramento Bee. Lia Russell in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 09/25/25

Workplace

Big CA farm loses disability rights case, faces trial over damages -- A federal judge in Sacramento ruled Monday that Grimmway Farms, the world’s largest carrot grower, engaged in systemic disability discrimination against hundreds of its employees by forcing them onto unpaid leave instead of providing accommodations that would have allowed them to keep working. Cathie Anderson in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 09/25/25

Homeless

To Get People Off the Street, He Pays for a One-Way Ticket Home -- For years, John Alle complained to Los Angeles officials about homelessness. Now, fed up, he’s trying to make a dent in the problem on his own. Eli Saslow, Erin Schaff in the New York Times$ -- 09/25/25

Climate

‘Hidden costs’ of climate emergency are worsening California’s affordability crisis – report -- The climate emergency is significantly increasing costs for California households in the form of rising utility bills, lost wages and growing healthcare expenses, worsening the state’s affordability crisis, according to a sweeping new report. Dani Anguiano The Guardian -- 09/25/25

Street

California shrank prisons with sentencing changes. A new study shows how that’s working -- California over the past dozen years enacted a series of criminal justice laws that were meant to give more people an opportunity to be resentenced and thin out the state’s severely overcrowded prisons. This week a state agency released the most-comprehensive look yet at how those changes are playing out among formerly incarcerated people. Cayla Mihalovich Calmatters -- 09/25/25

Also

Sara Jane Moore, who tried to kill President Gerald Ford in San Francisco, dies at 95 -- Moore, who had been a psychiatric patient at the time, pleaded guilty to the attempted assassination and served a 32-year federal prison sentence, which had originally been a life sentence. It remains unclear how Moore died. She was 95. Aldo Toledo in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 09/25/25

POTUS 47

Trump to Slap New Tariffs on Pharma, Big Trucks -- President Trump announced many new tariffs Thursday, including a large one on drugs from pharmaceutical companies that aren’t building plants in the U.S. Joseph Pisani, Peter Loftus and Liz Essley Whyte in the Wall Street Journal$ Andrew Jeong in the Washington Post$ -- 09/25/25

The TV Boss Who Kicked Kimmel Off His Stations and Started a Firestorm -- Nexstar’s Perry Sook has taken aim at ‘the unbridled and ubiquitous reach of Big Tech and Big Media’; Kimmel remains blocked from the company’s ABC stations. Joe Flint in the Wall Street Journal$ -- 09/25/25

James Comey Indicted on False Statement Charges -- A federal grand jury in Virginia indicted former FBI director James Comey on Thursday on charges of making false statements and obstruction, days after President Trump demanded the prosecution and ousted the U.S. attorney who determined there was insufficient evidence to bring the case. Sadie Gurman and Lydia Wheeler in the Wall Street Journal$ Salvador Rizzo, Jeremy Roebuck and Perry Stein in the Washington Post$ -- 09/25/25

Trump Gets the Retribution He Sought, and Shatters Norms in the Process -- A prosecutor’s drive to indict James Comey trampled over the Justice Department’s long tradition of keeping a distance from politics and the White House, and raised the prospect of more arbitrary charges. Alan Feuer, Jonah E. Bromwich and Maggie Haberman in the New York Times$ -- 09/25/25

Fed Independence Reaches Its Moment of Truth as Supreme Court Weighs Cook’s Fate -- High court to decide whether Trump can remove board member, which former officials see as threat to central bank independence. Nick Timiraos in the Wall Street Journal$ -- 09/25/25

Auto Industry Is Flashing a Warning Sign on U.S. Economy -- The auto industry is flashing warning lights on the state of the U.S. economy. Automakers’ profits are getting squeezed by tariffs. A subprime auto lender recently collapsed, and some car retailers are warning that consumers are pulling back. Christopher Otts in the Wall Street Journal$ -- 09/25/25

President Trump’s Approval Rating: Latest Polls -- President Trump’s approval ratings have ticked down slightly over the last few weeks as polls from Quinnipiac University and Reuters/Ipsos have shown some small growth in disapproval of his job performance. Ruth Igielnik in the New York Times$ -- 09/25/25