California Policy and Politics Thursday

8 dead in Tahoe avalanche; victims include moms of Sugar Bowl youth team skiers -- Eight of the nine people reported missing after a massive avalanche roughly the size of a football field struck a guided backcountry ski group near Lake Tahoe were confirmed dead Wednesday, Nevada County authorities said, making the incident one of the deadliest U.S. avalanches in decades. The ninth person was presumed to have died. Aidin Vaziri, Matthias Gafni in the San Francisco Chronicle$ Jack Dolan and Andrea Flores in the Los Angeles Times$ Stephen Hobbs and Andrew Graham in the Sacramento Bee$ --2/19/26

Satellite Feature on iPhone Allowed Skiers to Seek Help After Avalanche -- The six survivors of Tuesday’s avalanche near Lake Tahoe communicated with emergency responders using the Emergency SOS feature on the iPhone and an emergency beacon, said Don O’Keefe, the law enforcement chief for California’s Office of Emergency Services. Kalley Huang in the New York Times$ --2/19/26

Key question in deadly Tahoe avalanche: Why did skiers leave shelter in blizzard conditions? -- With nine people feared dead northwest of Lake Tahoe in California’s deadliest avalanche in decades, authorities and experts are seeking to understand what led a group of backcountry skiers, including four professional guides, to venture into the snow and away from shelter amid blizzard conditions. Megan Fan Munce in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 2/19/26

 

Mark Zuckerberg Grilled on Usage Goals and Underage Users at California Trial -- In sworn testimony, Zuckerberg said Meta’s growth targets reflect an aim to give users something useful, not addict them, and that the company doesn’t seek to attract children as users. Meghan Bobrowsky in the Wall Street Journal$ Sonja Sharp in the Los Angeles Times$ Eli Tan in the New York Times$ --2/19/26

Furious with Trump, California Democrats plot election strategy in San Francisco -- In a pivotal election year that will serve as a referendum on the second Trump administration, California Democrats face pressure from activists on the left to abandon “radical civility” and instead back candidates who will push back hard against the GOP. Maya C. Miller and Jeanne Kuang Calmatters -- 2/19/26

Bernie Sanders kicks off billionaires tax campaign with choice words for the ‘oligarchs’ -- Populist Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday formally kicked off the campaign to place a billionaires tax on the November ballot, framing the proposal as something larger than a debate about economic and tax policy as he appeared at a storied Los Angeles venue. Seema Mehta in the Los Angeles Times$ Nigel Duara Calmatters Daniel Miller Politico -- 2/19/26

Billionaires Spielberg, Zuckerberg eyeing East Coast, stirring concerns about California’s wealth-tax proposal -- Filmmaker Steven Spielberg moved to New York and Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg is considering Florida property amid a proposed 5% wealth tax on California billionaires’ assets. The union-backed measure seeks to raise $100 billion for healthcare but faces opposition from those who say it will drive wealthy residents away. Seema Mehta in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 2/19/26

Tom Steyer wants a special election to hike corporate taxes in 2027 -- Tom Steyer is telling union leaders in California that he’d back a special election to raise corporate taxes in his first year as governor, as he tries to solidify his claim to the progressive lane in a crowded Democratic field. Melanie Mason Politico --2/19/26

GOP lawmaker proposes measure to block key element of proposed California wealth tax -- Rep. Kevin Kiley says the proposed wealth tax would drive away California’s leading job creators. His proposal would bar states from taxing the assets of former residents retroactively. Ana Ceballos in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 2/19/26

New poll: Republican candidate surges to a lead in California governor’s race -- In the first independent poll since San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan joined the governor’s race, Republican former Fox News host Steve Hilton has surged to the lead of a crowded field, followed by Democrat U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell, with many voters still undecided as to who should succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom. Grace Hase in the San Jose Mercury$ --2/19/26

Los Angeles-area state lawmakers call for Wasserman to step aside -- Ten lawmakers on the state’s legislative Olympics committees told Politico he should step down as chair of LA28. Nicole Norman Politico --2/19/26

Walters: Jesse Jackson had a complicated relationship with fellow political personage Jerry Brown -- The death of Rev. Jesse Jackson this week has sparked a flurry of remembrances about his decades-long career as a civil rights champion and political figure. Dan Walters Calmatters -- 2/19/26

ICE

California congressional leaders urge Kristi Noem not to reopen Dublin prison as ICE facility -- The Federal Correctional Institution Dublin closed in 2024 following a sexual abuse scandal, but rumors have swirled since U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reportedly visited last February that the facility could reopen to serve President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign. Alexei Koseff in the San Francisco Chronicle$ --2/19/26

Workplace

California wine giant Gallo closing facility, laying off workers at four other locations -- Gallo, the largest U.S. wine company, is closing a Napa Valley production facility and has planned layoffs at four other California wineries and tasting rooms, resulting in the loss of 93 jobs. Jess Lander in the San Francisco Chronicle$ --2/19/26

Los Angeles Is the Next Target in California’s Teacher Strike-Threat Campaign -- Last week’s teacher strike in San Francisco was an early test of a statewide union push that is raising tensions in school districts across California. The next big target: Los Angeles. Douglas Belkin and Scott Calvert in the Wall Street Journal$ --2/19/26

Two retailers are returning to Union Square — in the same locations where they closed -- AT&T and the RealReal were two of the dozens of retailers who shuttered stores near San Francisco’s Union Square in the wake of the pandemic. But now both companies are reopening in the same locations they previously closed in 2023. Roland Li in the San Francisco Chronicle$ --2/19/26

Wildfire

L.A. fire victims say state regulators ignored complaints about State Farm -- More than a dozen homeowners and their representatives told The Times that the state insurance department did little to resolve a wide range of complaints in State Farm’s handling of their claims. Paige St. John in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 2/19/26

County prosecutors probing whether Edison should be criminally prosecuted for Eaton fire -- The company’s chief executive has said that a leading theory of the fire’s cause is that a century-old transmission line in Eaton Canyon somehow reenergized and sparked the blaze. If prosecutors decided to pursue criminal charges, it would not be the first time a California utility was prosecuted for starting a deadly wildfire. Melody Petersen in the Los Angeles Times$ --2/19/26

Homeless

Citing fire risk, L.A. city may get more power to remove hillside homeless encampments -- Los Angeles city officials may be empowered to remove homeless encampments from hillside areas at severe risk of fire, even without the property owner’s permission, under a proposal that the City Council moved forward on Tuesday. Noah Goldberg in the Los Angeles Times$ --2/19/26

Moltbook

A Social Network for A.I. Bots Only. No Humans Allowed -- Last Wednesday, Matt Schlicht, a technologist living in a small town just south of Los Angeles, launched a new social network called Moltbook. Cade Metz in the New York Times$ --2/19/26

What Do A.I. Chatbots Discuss Among Themselves? We Sent One to Find Out -- We interviewed our bot about what it learned on Moltbook, the A.I.-only social network. Eve Washington in the New York Times$ --2/19/26

POTUS 47

Senators decry surge in deaths at ICE detention facilities, citing poor medical care -- At Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities across the country, detainees go without medicine for serious health conditions, endure miscarriages while shackled and are dying in record numbers, a group of U.S. senators said. Gavin J. Quinton in the Los Angeles Times$ --2/19/26

Trump is funding climate projects in red states but canceling them in California, lawsuit charges -- The Trump administration is withholding billions of dollars in federal funds for energy-saving programs in blue states while funding similar projects in red states, California and other Democratic-led states charged in a lawsuit Wednesday. Bob Egelko in the San Francisco Chronicle$ --2/19/26

Fed Minutes Reveal Little Appetite for Rate Cuts -- Federal Reserve officials signaled little appetite for reducing interest rates at their meeting last month, with most indicating they wanted to see further progress on inflation before considering any more cuts—a process that could take months. Nick Timiraos in the Wall Street Journal$ --2/19/26

Administration Targets Noncitizen Voting, Despite Finding It Rare -- Homeland security officials, at the direction of the White House, are intensifying efforts to investigate voting by noncitizens in pursuit of President Trump’s baseless claims that illegal voting by undocumented immigrants is a rampant and insidious threat. Glenn Thrush, Devlin Barrett, Alan Feuer, Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Hamed Aleaziz in the New York Times$ --2/19/26