California Policy and Politics Tuesday

Federal judge in S.F. blocks Trump plan to deport 350,000 Venezuelans -- The Trump administration’s plan to remove legal protections from 350,000 Venezuelans living in the United States and deport them was blocked Monday by a federal judge in San Francisco, who said it appears to have been illegal, dangerous and motivated by prejudice. Bob Egelko in the San Francisco Chronicle$ Sabrina Rodriguez and Maria Sacchetti in the Washington Post$ Jazmine Ulloa in the New York Times$ -- 4/1/25

Trump’s Department of Energy targets California and other blue states for budget cuts, according to internal documents -- The Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle environmental protections and roll back nationwide progress toward clean energy disproportionately target California and other blue states, internal documents show. Hayley Smith in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/1/25

California farmers fear tariff trade war losses in billions, uneven bail outs -- As a potential trade war looms, a coalition of California agricultural organizations is urging the state’s Congressional delegation to protect them from becoming another casualty in the battle over tariffs. Robert Rodriguez in the Fresno Bee$ -- 4/1/25

State Farm seeks 39% rate hike for 430,000 Californians who have extra liability insurance -- The company is seeking to raise rates by 39% for the California Personal Liability Umbrella Program, which provides additional coverage for legal liabilities like steep attorney’s fees from a car accident or damages from a defamation lawsuit. Maliya Ellis in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 4/1/25

The California Insurance Safety-Net System That Lost a Million-Dollar Check -- Customers of the state-chartered Fair Plan face problems including canceled policies, refusals to treat toxins from smoke and dire customer service. Jean Eaglesham and Nicole Friedman in the Wall Street Journal$ -- 4/1/25

Newsom says sharing his beliefs on trans athletes wasn’t “some grand design” -- Gov. Gavin Newsom said his comments about transgender athletes competing in women’s sports were unplanned in his podcast with conservative personality Charlie Kirk last month. The Democratic governor of California said he’d been struggling with the issue for some time. Taryn Luna in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/1/25

Democracy in the dark: How California lawmakers are trying to shield themselves from public view -- State lawmakers have introduced at least a dozen proposals that would make it harder to confront local officials at public meetings, shield more information from the public and relax rules on financial reports. Sameea Kamal and Yue Stella Yu CalMatters -- 4/1/25

California to spend $239 million to turn San Quentin into Scandinavian-style rehab center -- California officials have envisioned a host of sweeping changes for San Quentin State Prison as they attempt to remake the facility into a Scandinavian-style rehabilitation center complete with a farmers market, a podcast production studio and a self-service grocery store. Nora Mishanec in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 4/1/25

Parents sue S.F.’s largest drug treatment provider after their son died in rehab -- The parents of Justin Cartwright, a man who was featured in the Chronicle after fatally overdosing inside San Francisco’s largest addiction treatment program, have sued the operator, HealthRight 360, alleging that it failed to ensure their son’s safety. Maggie Angst in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 4/1/25

Anti-abortion March for Life demonstrators rally at California Capitol -- Hundreds gathered outside the state Capitol on Monday afternoon for the California March for Life, an annual event advocating for an end to abortion. Kate Wolffe in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 4/1/25

Wildfire

World’s oldest trees threatened by Silver fire in Inyo and Mono counties. Blaze is still 0% contained -- The Silver fire in Inyo and Mono counties continued to burn Monday morning, scorching 1,250 acres, spurring evacuations and threatening some of the oldest living organisms in the world. Summer Lin and Clara Harter in the Los Angeles Times$ Nora Mishanec, Kate Galbraith in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 4/1/25

Workplace

Health worker strike at UCSF this week will affect some appointments, shuttles -- As many as thousands of unionized University of California health care and technical workers are poised to join in a one-day strike Tuesday across all UC campuses and medical centers, including UCSF Parnassus. Catherine Ho in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 4/1/25

S.F. unions to Mayor Lurie: Make tech companies ‘pay their fair share’ -- High-ranking leaders from SEIU Local 1021 and IFPTE Local 21, which collectively represent a majority of the City Hall workforce, released a statement Monday that said Lurie can balance the budget partly by spending less on outside contractors and also making sure that “wealthy tech companies pay their fair share in taxes.” J.D. Morris in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 4/1/25

This bill aims to help firefighters with cancer. Getting it passed is just the beginning -- As firefighters battled the catastrophic blazes in Los Angeles County in January, California’s U.S. senators, Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla, both Democrats, signed on to legislation with a simple aim: provide federal assistance to first responders diagnosed with service-related cancer. Mark Kreidler KFF Health News in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/1/25

Develop

California officials are lobbying for a new Trump windfall: Funds to create shipyards -- President Trump isn’t expected to issue his much-anticipated executive order calling for the revival of the U.S. shipbuilding industry until later this week — an initiative that could be paid for with heavy penalties levied on the China-flagged vessels that dominate cargo shipping. J.K. Dineen in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 4/1/25

Water

One of California’s biggest reservoirs is about to expand — if it can clear a major hurdle -- A coalition of water agencies, from Silicon Valley to Fresno, has agreed to partner with the federal government to raise the 382-foot-tall dam at San Luis Reservoir, the giant holding pool that looms as a small sea along Highway 152 in the hills between Gilroy and Los Banos. Kurtis Alexander in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 4/1/25

Cannabis

Popular California cannabis company moves to sell its assets -- Gold Flora, a Southern California-based cannabis company that operates 16 dispensaries statewide, is seeking to sell its assets through a receivership, the latest sign of distress in the weed industry. Caroline Petrow-Cohen in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/1/25

Homeless

$44M to fight San Diego homelessness in limbo as Trump targets undocumented immigrants -- Tens of millions of dollars that local service organizations are counting on to fight homelessness remain frozen as the federal government changes the rules governing that money to restrict support for undocumented immigrants. Blake Nelson in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 4/1/25

L.A. homeless agency posted solid numbers last year. Now it’s under fire from all sides -- The L.A. County Board of Supervisors is looking to pull hundreds of millions of dollars out of LAHSA, a move that unnerves some at L.A. City Hall. David Zahniser, Rebecca Ellis in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/1/25

How schools can help students facing homelessness get to class -- Two organizations teamed up to combat the high rate of chronic absences among homeless students. Betty Márquez Rosales EdSource -- 4/1/25

Environment

‘Inbox from hell’: Environmental groups outraged after EPA says polluters can email for exemptions -- Environmental groups were outraged this week after the Environmental Protection Agency, acting under orders from President Trump, invited coal plants and other industrial polluters to seek to bypass key provisions of the Clean Air Act that limit hazardous emissions by sending an email. Hayley Smith in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/1/25

First layers of soil to be laid on 101 Freeway wildlife crossing, the world’s largest -- The wildlife crossing designed to help mountain lions, deer, bobcats and other creatures safely travel over the 101 Freeway between the Simi Hills and the Santa Monica Mountains will reach a major milestone on Monday, as workers lay the first layers of soil on the overpass. Seema Mehta in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/1/25

Education

Trump administration targets California sex ed program -- California must submit its sex education curriculums to the Trump administration by Tuesday for an unusual “medical accuracy review” that some LGBTQ advocates fear is a move by the administration to find new ways to limit gender-affirming care. Molly Gibbs in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 4/1/25

Inside a $17 billion maintenance backlog plaguing California’s universities -- Infrastructure issues at California’s public universities are hindering students and faculty’s ability to learn and work on campus. Lawmakers and system leaders are hoping more state support can help them bring down the $17 billion price tag to fix their academic buildings. Victoria Mejicanos, Matthew Reagan and Mercy Sosa CalMatters -- 4/1/25

Santa Monica offices get unexpected tenants: Children from five fire-ravaged schools -- Five schools displaced by the Palisades fire have — or will soon — reopen in Santa Monica. In all, they are taking more than 200,000 square feet of office space. Daniel Miller and Roger Vincent in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/1/25

How the Mexican Mafia’s ‘Pomona Mike’ made L.A.’s federal jail his fiefdom -- Michael Lerma profited from an ‘empire’ of gang members and drug dealers in his hometown of Pomona, prosecutors said at a recent trial. Lerma took control of the drug trade within a federal jail in downtown Los Angeles and ordered the murder of an inmate who owed money, a jury found. Matthew Ormseth in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 4/1/25

POTUS 47

U.S. Stocks Post Worst Quarter Since 2022 on Threat of Trade War -- Worries about tariffs and the economy sent the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite to their worst quarters since 2022, a setback that is pushing some investors overseas. Karen Langley in the Wall Street Journal$ -- 4/1/25

Trump hints that Musk and DOGE may be coming to the end of the road -- President Donald Trump hinted Monday that his close ally Musk may have to go back to running his companies full time and that the tumultuous mission of DOGE will have been accomplished after firing tens of thousands of government employees. Gregory Svirnovskiy Politico -- 4/1/25

GOP senators line up with Democrats to oppose Trump’s Canada tariffs -- Republicans could be poised to deal a symbolic blow to President Donald Trump’s trade policy, with several GOP senators indicating they planned to join Democrats in a Tuesday vote to block blanket tariffs on Canada. Lisa Kashinsky, Jordain Carney and Meredith Lee Hill Politico -- 4/1/25

Major layoffs begin at health agencies that track disease and regulate food -- Hundreds of federal health workers, including doctors in senior leadership positions, began hearing early Tuesday morning that they are losing their jobs, part of a vast restructuring that will winnow down the agencies charged with regulating food and drugs, protecting Americans from disease and researching new treatments and cures. Sheryl Gay Stolberg, Christina Jewett and Apoorva Mandavilli in the New York Times$ -- 4/1/25

Trump administration to shutter San Francisco HHS office amid sweeping health agency layoffs -- The U.S. Health and Human Services Department’s San Francisco regional office will be shuttered this spring amid a broad culling of jobs at federal health agencies. Shira Stein in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 4/1/25

Can Trump run for a third term? The 22nd Amendment flatly prevents it -- Trump suggested he has “methods” for seeking a third presidential term. Constitutional law scholars are skeptical. Leo Sands in the Washington Post$ -- 4/1/25

The Strategy Behind Trump’s Repeated Musings About a Third Term -- President Trump’s comments deflect attention from other controversies. And they freeze potential successors who might steal the spotlight from a lame duck. Tyler Pager in the New York Times$ -- 4/1/25

What to know about the Wisconsin Supreme Court race — and Musk’s involvement -- Elon Musk has given out $1 million prizes ahead of Tuesday’s vote, as the most expensive judicial race in U.S. history becomes a proxy war over President Donald Trump’s agenda. Niha Masih in the Washington Post$ -- 4/1/25

No Toilet Paper and No Privacy: Returning to the Office, Federal Workers Walk Into Chaos -- President Trump has described his new in-office requirement as a way to ensure workers are doing their jobs. He sees potentially leading more employees to quit as an added benefit. Eileen Sullivan in the New York Times$ -- 4/1/25