California Policy and Politics Friday

Trump is attacking California’s ability to protect its coastline. The consequences are ‘chilling’ -- For months, the Trump administration has sought to open the California coast to a radically industrialized future: large-scale desalination plants, floating nuclear reactors, more rocket launches and expanded offshore oil drilling along the state’s most iconic beaches. Rosanna Xia in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/7/26

Another offshore wind developer exits California in $1.22-billion deal with Trump administration -- German energy giant RWE said it will abandon offshore wind leases off New York, Louisiana and California’s Humboldt coast under a $1.22-billion deal with the Trump administration, deepening setbacks for U.S. clean energy. The agreement, the fifth and largest such buyout this year, is part of $2.7 billion in payouts steering companies away from offshore wind and into fossil fuel projects. Hayley Smith in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/7/26

Trump energy chief lied to Congress about canceled clean energy funds, lawmakers allege -- Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San José) and Rep. Gabe Amo (D-R.I.) say Wright testified falsely during a June 10 hearing before the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology when he stated that the Energy Department did not target states for funding cuts based on their politics. All 16 states that lost money, including California, did not vote for President Trump in the 2024 election. Hayley Smith in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/7/26

 

China-Free Batteries Made From Salt Are Finally Here -- Sodium-ion batteries have almost none of the problems that lithium-ion ones do, and could be cheap enough to make fossil-fuel dependence a thing of the past. In July, Peak announced the planned selection of a 183,000-square-foot facility to house its “gigafactory” for battery packs in Sacramento, Calif. Christopher Mims, Poppy Lynch in the Wall Street Journal$ -- 8/7/26

Data Center

How Amazon Built a Data Center in a California Town Without Anyone Noticing -- Company and Gilroy, Calif., spent years quietly negotiating $2 billion project that few residents knew about until work began. Zusha Elinson, Jason Henry in the Wall Street Journal$ -- 8/7/26

Data center proposed near San Jose creek, tech company sites -- A two-story 152,700-square-foot data center could be built on a 10.1-acre site in South San Jose, according to public records. The request extends a surge of proposals to develop advanced computing hubs in the Bay Area’s largest city. George Avalos in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 8/7/26

 

Mayor says LAPD should stop using Flock devices; concerned data is used for deportations -- L.A. Mayor Karen Bass issued a statement Thursday that said surveillance company Flock Safety has “lost the trust of Angelenos” because it shares data with the Trump administration. Libor Jany in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/7/26

Newsom blasts FCC decision to eliminate TV station ownership cap -- Gov. Gavin Newsom criticized the Federal Communications Commission Thursday after the agency voted to loosen longstanding limits on television station ownership, arguing the move would accelerate media consolidation and threaten the independence of local news. Naomi Taxay in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 8/7/26

Scott Wiener takes on fights other lawmakers avoid. Violent threats often follow -- The political climb of state Sen. Scott Wiener, now running to replace Nancy Pelosi as San Francisco’s representative in Congress, has been shaped in part by his willingness to take on issues seen as radioactive by some on the left and easily savaged by many on the right. Case in point: HIV transmission. Sophia Bollag in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 8/7/26

Nancy Pelosi slams Scott Wiener over campaign chatbot -- Rep. Nancy Pelosi and allies blasted state Sen. Scott Wiener on Thursday as he campaigns for the former House speaker’s seat, calling his use of an AI chatbot to imitate his rival “sexist.” Chase DiFeliciantonio and Dustin Gardiner Politico -- 8/7/26

Insurance commissioner candidates split key endorsements -- State Sen. Ben Allen and former San Francisco Supervisor Jane Kim have split major party and labor endorsements, setting up a razor-thin contest for California’s next insurance commissioner. Laurence Darmiento in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/7/26

Health Care

Catalina Island’s only hospital fights for its future amid dire financial outlook -- Like other L.A. County hospitals, it’s facing financial headwinds from inflation, low government reimbursement rates for Medi-Cal patients and the uninsured, and looming Medicaid changes approved by Congress last year under HR1. Connor Sheets, Allen J. Schaben in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/7/26

Medicaid cuts stand to hit everyone (yes, even you). Here’s why -- Medi-Cal cuts will strain hospitals already operating at a loss. The fallout: fewer services and higher costs for the privately insured too. Kristen Hwang Calmatters -- 8/7/26

Workplace

US employers unexpectedly cut 23,000 jobs amid strain from the Iran war, unemployment dips to 4.1% -- The June jobs numbers from the Labor Department Friday marked a sharp setback for the American labor market and for President Donald Trump less than three months before his Republican party seeks to keep full control of Congress in the midterm election. Paul Wiseman Associated Press Matt Grossman in the Wall Street Journal$ Lauren Kaori Gurley in the Washington Post$ Lydia DePillis in the New York Times$ -- 8/7/26

Court blocks CHP from firing officer caught in LA overtime scandal -- The California Highway Patrol lost an effort to fire one of the officers it caught billing the state for overtime hours they didn’t work at a Los Angeles station. Nigel Duara Calmatters -- 8/7/26

Amazon renews its downtown S.F. office lease after closing an AI lab in the city -- Amazon is sending mixed signals about its San Francisco office footprint, shuttering its AI lab in the city last month while renewing a big downtown lease that some real estate insiders had expected the company to potentially relinquish. Laura Waxmann in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 8/7/26

Salesforce plans fourth round of San Francisco layoffs in under a year -- Salesforce plans to eliminate approximately dozens of jobs at its San Francisco headquarters, marking the company’s fourth round of local layoffs in roughly 11 months. Aidin Vaziri in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 8/7/26

Walters: Pension boosts for California police, firefighters could spur increases for other workers -- It may be just a coincidence, but when California’s public employee pension system touted very high earnings on its investments last month, it was a political windfall for unions seeking to increase retirement benefits. Dan Walters Calmatters -- 8/7/26

Marketplace

Beautiful downtown Burbank isn’t a punchline. The city is booming while downtown L.A. struggles -- Burbank is betting big on housing, nerd culture and free parking to revive its downtown scene. Roger Vincent in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/7/26

California craft liquor delivery is about go away thanks to big money lobbying -- California craft liquor deliveries could end Jan. 1. Distillers say powerful alcohol companies, the wine industry and Teamsters killed a possible extension of deliveries. Ryan Sabalow Calmatters -- 8/7/26

Housing

L.A. has more than 20,000 vacant lots. They could help solve the city’s housing crisis -- A new initiative seeks to model a solution for affordable homeownership: building multifamily complexes on L.A.’s 20,000 small, vacant, privately owned lots. Grace Toohey in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/7/26

UC

UC seeks congressional help as Trump administration slows research grants -- Citing a steep reduction in federal research grants to the University of California under the Trump administration, UC President James Milliken is asking California’s congressional delegation for help in freeing up the stalled science funds. Nanette Asimov in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 8/7/26

COVID

COVID levels are rising fast in the Bay Area as schools reopen -- As Bay Area students return to classrooms, COVID-19 is climbing sharply in the region’s wastewater — and the summer increase may not have peaked. Virus concentrations in July were 136% higher than in June, according to WastewaterSCAN, and nearly 54% of monitored Bay Area sites are now in the “high” category. Aidin Vaziri in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 8/7/26

Head Start

Head Start overhaul could scale back education for the most vulnerable young children -- The Trump administration’s proposal to largely relinquish federal control of Head Start is the latest in a string of attempts to alter the program, which has been a target of conservative thinkers calling for its elimination. Kate Sequeira in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/7/26

AI

The Latest Scary-Sounding AI Milestone: A Brand-New Virus -- Artificial-intelligence systems have been displaying some eye-opening new abilities in recent weeks: breaking out of their enclosures, hacking other companies, lying to people. And now, for the first time, an AI model has created a new virus. A whole family of them, in fact. Georgia Wells and Alex Janin in the Wall Street Journal$ Carl Zimmer in the New York Times$ -- 8/7/26

OpenAI’s doughnut-shaped AI speaker could be your next smartphone replacement -- A highly anticipated new device from OpenAI will have a unique look, complete with moving parts that help give it personality, and likely cost more than $300, according to people familiar with the matter. Mark Gurman Bloomberg via in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/7/26

Meta

Meta Ordered to Pay $567 Million in New Mexico Child Safety Case -- The penalty, imposed by a state judge, is on top of a $375 million fine ordered by a jury that found Meta misled users about the safety of its platforms. Eli Tan in the New York Times$ -- 8/7/26

Also

Toxic underground fires are spreading at California landfills -- Three years ago, environmental regulators discovered garbage burning deep inside the Chiquita Canyon Landfill in the Santa Clarita Valley. Few imagined the calamity that would follow. Tony Briscoe in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 8/7/26

POTUS 47

U.S. Intel Finds Putin Could Test NATO’s Resolve With Limited Incursion -- New U.S. intelligence reports say Russian President Vladimir Putin could try to launch a limited assault on a NATO ally in coming years. The U.S. changed its past assessment that Putin likely wouldn’t provoke NATO during the Ukraine war. The assessment comes as U.S. officials warn of a shortfall in critical munitions degraded by weapons transfers to Ukraine and the conflict with Iran. Lara Seligman and Yoko Kubota in the Wall Street Journal$ -- 8/7/26

Appeals court rules Trump must get approval from Congress on ballroom, ordering halt to construction -- An appeals court has ruled that President Donald Trump must seek approval from Congress to build his proposed White House ballroom, saying construction must stop. Associated Press Dan Diamond and Jonathan Edwards in the Washington Post$ Zach Montague and Mattathias Schwartz in the New York Times$ -- 8/7/26

Why you shouldn’t be surprised if Democrats don’t flip the House -- Democrats are ahead in polls, and voters typically punish the party that controls the White House during midterms. But Republicans have several paths to maintaining power. Praveena Somasundaram in the Washington Post$ -- 8/7/26