California Policy and Politics Thursday

Trump, without proof, claims ‘cheating’ in California vote, says federal probe underway -- To the surprise of few, President Trump has once again claimed without evidence that Democrats are somehow cheating to win California’s primary elections — writing on social media late Wednesday that federal prosecutors in Los Angeles are investigating the matter. Kevin Rector in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 6/4/26

Federal judge orders immigrant detention center to allow San Diego County health inspection -- A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the Otay Mesa Detention Center to allow San Diego County health inspectors access to the 1,400-bed facility, siding with local officials over the federal government in an ongoing legal feud. Wendy Fry Calmatters -- 6/4/26

5 things to know about the Trump administration’s new green card policy -- If the goal was to confuse everyone, the mission was accomplished. Just before Memorial Day, the Trump administration issued a sweeping new policy directive that took aim at legal immigration. It would have required most temporary visa holders and humanitarian parolees living in the U.S. to return to their home countries to await their green cards. Wendy Fry Calmatters -- 6/4/26

Immigrant-founded startups are worth $5 trillion. Will Trump’s visa policies threaten the next boom? -- Alex Gallego grew up in a small mountain city in Colombia at the height of armed conflict in the 1980s and 90s. When he immigrated to Stamford, Connecticut, aged 14, in 2001, on a green card sponsored by his father, he didn’t speak a word of English. Today he’s the CEO and founder of a billion-dollar startup, Redpanda Data, one of many immigrant startup founders in the Bay Area. Ko Lyn Cheang in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 6/4/26

 

California voters had their first chance to be heard on data centers. They didn’t hold back -- California’s first-ever anti-data center ballot measure is shaping up to be an absolute shellacking for the tech industry — part of a wave of opposition rising across the country, as communities and lawmakers grapple with the frenzied push to build AI infrastructure. Noah Baustin Politico -- 6/4/26

 

Democrats redrew this California congressional district, but they could lose it anyway -- Democrats woke up Wednesday to find none of their five candidates seeking to oust Rep. Kevin Kiley from his House seat is currently positioned to advance from the primary. Alexei Koseff in the San Francisco Chronicle$ Andrew Graham and Mathew Miranda in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 6/4/26

Desmond, von Wilpert claim victory in pivotal North County congressional race -- The open 48th Congressional District, redrawn to favor Democrats, could be key to both parties’ hopes of controlling Congress. Lucas Robinson in the San Diego Union Tribune Ben Fox Politico -- 6/4/26

Election denier likely loses job in Shasta County. But voters back hand-counting ballots -- Shasta County voters appear to have ousted a controversial elections chief who promotes conspiracy theories about voter fraud, even as they approved a ballot measure that would require hand-counting ballots and voter ID, conflicting with California election law. Ryan Sabalow Calmatters -- 6/4/26

Does Tom Steyer still have a path to the November runoff? -- As California continues to count mail ballots over the coming days, political analysts predict late-counted ballots from Democratic voters could swing in favor of billionaire philanthropist Tom Steyer, who trailed in third on election night. But whether it will be enough to propel the progressive Democrat into the November runoff by making up a several hundred thousand vote gap remains to be seen. Grace Hase in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 6/4/26

 

Bay Area voters rejected new taxes Tuesday. Can transit funding survive in November? -- Bay Area voters made one thing resoundingly clear during Tuesday’s election: They do not like new taxes. This does not bode well for BART and Muni in November. Rachel Swan in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 6/4/26

BART’s fare gates were built to stop evasion. Now they’ll sell ads -- Planners had in fact realized, back when BART was choosing a fare gate design in 2019, that plexiglass panels could be a perfect ad canvas. That was well before the pandemic and subsequent rise of remote work that tanked ridership and sent Bay Area transit operators into a death spiral. Rachel Swan in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 6/4/26

 

Two Democrats lead California insurance commissioner primary -- Progressive former San Francisco city supervisor Jane Kim and state Sen. Ben Allen of Santa Monica took the lead early Tuesday night. Republican insurance agent Stacy Korsgaden was in third place. Megan Fan Munce in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 6/4/26

Democrats could be locked out with Ken Calvert, Young Kim leading in 40th Congressional District -- Democrats were in danger Wednesday, June 3, of being locked out of a Southern California congressional race as two GOP incumbents, who waged a vitriolic campaign for the seat in the primary, were on track to continue their rancor into November. Jeff Horseman in the Orange County Register$ -- 6/4/26

San Diego voters rejecting measure that would heavily tax second homes -- A highly divisive measure that would impose a hefty tax on the owners of second homes that lack a full-time resident was failing to garner majority support from San Diego voters as of Wednesday morning. Lori Weisberg in the San Diego Union Tribune -- 6/4/26

Billionaires go bust in California: Wealthy candidates and donors had a rough night -- What can $200 million buy you? Perhaps not the California governor’s office. Alexei Koseff in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 6/4/26

Arellano: One thing was clear on election night: Angelenos want change -- A huge, waning moon glimmered over Los Angeles on election night, a metaphor for a trend that emerged in early returns. The city’s political establishment seemed to be on the retreat in favor of populist insurgents from both the left and the right. Gustavo Arellano in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 6/4/26

Lopez: Bass clears first hurdle, but if Pratt holds off Raman, the mayoral race could be a holy war -- We could be in for one of the more remarkable electoral adventures in city history. I don’t recall ever hearing a nun or a priest drop God’s name as often as Pratt does. Steve Lopez in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 6/4/26

AI

Sloppy AI use gets two California lawyers suspended for six months, fined -- A federal appeals court fined two Southern California lawyers $2,500 each and suspended them from practice in the court for six months Wednesday after finding that they used artificial intelligence to cite nonexistent cases to the court and then claimed they hadn’t knowingly done so. Bob Egelko in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 6/4/26

Housing

A California housing bill would raise wages to $28. Why do some unions hate it? -- When is a minimum wage hike of more than $11 per hour actually a pay cut? Ben Christopher Calmatters -- 6/4/26

CalFresh change

CalFresh eligibility is changing. Here’s what you need to know -- Some Californians will now have to clear an additional hurdle to maintain their eligibility for food assistance, courtesy of Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Karen Garcia in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 6/4/26

Street

Get-a-Waymo: How a burglar used a robotaxi to flee the scene in a first-of-its kind S.F. case -- The getaway car was parked just outside the Marina yoga studio, idling in the January night air as the burglar made his move. Megan Cassidy in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 6/4/26

An LAPD gang? Internal report says police unit had ‘rampant culture of misconduct’ -- The LAPD internal investigation leveled a troubling allegation: Officers in a specialized unit tasked with combating street gangs had themselves behaved like a gang. Libor Jany in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 6/4/26

Also

In a first, California Supreme Court reverses a death sentence under new racial justice law -- The California Supreme Court this week reversed the death sentence of a Los Angeles Bloods gang member convicted of killing a rival Crip in the early 1990s because a prosecutor compared him to a dangerous animal, the first time a death sentence has been overturned under the 2020 Racial Justice Act. Nigel Duara Calmatters -- 6/4/26

Walters: Medi-Cal cuts, tax increases loom as Capitol lawmakers dicker over the budget -- The primary election has come and gone. Votes are still being counted and the eventual results in close contests might not be known for weeks. However, it’s back to work for those already in office, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, and the biggest issue on their agenda is writing a budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year. Dan Walters Calmatters -- 6/4/26

Barabak: Youth, money, gender and other takeaways from California’s crazy gubernatorial primary -- After all the buildup, fear and uncertainty, the most wide-open and unpredictable California gubernatorial primary in decades appears to have ended in the most consistent and predictable of ways. California has never elected a female governor. That won’t change in November. Mark Z. Barabak in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 6/4/26

Why Google wants to release 32 million mosquitoes in California -- Google is seeking permission from federal regulators to release up to 32 million sterile mosquitoes in California — a pest control technique meant to quell the spread of an invasive mosquito species that’s been expanding to many parts of the state, including the Bay Area. Catherine Ho in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 6/4/26

POTUS 47

Video shows Pentagon counterterrorism hire clambering into Capitol on Jan. 6 -- A recent appointee to a sensitive counterterrorism job in the Defense Department was filmed for more than five minutes during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot as he moved through restricted grounds and climbed through a broken window, holding a metal pole, to enter the U.S. Capitol, according to a Washington Post analysis. Joyce Sohyun Lee, Andrew Ba Tran and Salvador Rizzo in the Washington Post$ -- 6/4/26

Iran vote caps Trump’s congressional losing streak -- House Republicans for the first time failed to block an effort to halt the Iran war, the latest sign that members of the president’s own party are willing to buck him on key aspects of his agenda. Connor O'Brien and Leo Shane III Politico Terell Wright, Lindsay Wise and Olivia Beavers in the Wall Street Journal$ Robert Jimison and Megan Mineiro in the New York Times$ Theodoric Meyer and Mariana Alfaro in the Washington Post$ -- 6/4/26

Republicans Begin to Test the Limits of Trump’s Power by Flexing Their Own -- The president’s unilateral and retributive style of governing is starting to hit a wall in both chambers of Congress. Katie Rogers in the New York Times$ -- 6/4/26

Trump says he doesn’t know whether the $1.8 billion payout fund is dead -- President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he was not sure whether a proposed $1.8 billion fund for people claiming political persecution was dead, a departure from acting attorney general Todd Blanche’s more definitive assurance of the fund’s demise a day earlier. Cat Zakrzewski in the Washington Post$ -- 6/4/26

Fight to Kill ‘Anti-Weaponization’ Fund Risks GOP Blowup in Senate -- GOP senators headed toward an intraparty showdown over the Trump administration’s $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund, as some Republicans sought guarantees in law that it was truly dead. Siobhan Hughes, Lindsay Wise and Richard Rubin in the Wall Street Journal$ -- 6/4/26

Americans’ national parks passes will pay for Trump’s July 4 plans, documents show -- The Trump administration is diverting at least $90 million from entry fees to national parks such as Yellowstone and Yosemite to D.C. to fund a $1.6 million fireworks display — more than five times as much as what is usually spent on the Fourth of July pyrotechnics display — and $76 million to repair fountains including the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, according to internal agency documents reviewed by The Washington Post. Jake Spring, Dan Diamond and Naema Ahmed in the Washington Post$ -- 6/4/26

The Kennedy Who Says She Left the White House Over Concerns About CIA Spending -- Amaryllis Fox Kennedy says in an interview that there wasn’t enough oversight of the intelligence community’s use of taxpayer funds. Philip Wegmann in the Wall Street Journal$ -- 6/4/26