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