House committee launches investigation into California’s high-speed rail project
LA Times, COLLEEN SHALBY: "A bipartisan congressional committee is investigating whether California’s High-Speed Rail Authority knowingly misrepresented ridership projections and financial outlooks, as alleged by the Trump administration, to secure federal funding.
In a letter sent to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Tuesday, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform chair James Comer (R-Ky.) requested a staff briefing and all communications and records about federal funding for the high-speed rail project and any analysis over the train’s viability."
California Democrats poised to call special election to approve new congressional maps
The Chronicle, SOPHIA BOLLAG/SARA DINATALE: "California lawmakers plan to vote Thursday to authorize a Nov. 4 special election to redraw congressional districts that benefit Democrats, putting the Golden State at the forefront of a nationwide redistricting fight.
Democratic lawmakers will vote on three bills to enact their plan: a proposed Constitutional amendment to adopt new maps favoring Democrats, a bill with the maps themselves and another bill to call a special election for voters to decide whether to adopt the maps."
What about Texas? California Republicans pressed for answers in redistricting fight
CALMatters, JEANNE KUANG/MAYA C. MILLER: "California Republicans have a simple rebuttal when Democrats blame Texas for starting the congressional gerrymandering arms race: two wrongs don’t make a right.
That means they have to acknowledge both wrongs — a move that puts them at odds with their party leader, President Donald Trump, who wants the GOP to redraw congressional districts in red states to bolster its chances of retaining a majority in Congress next fall."
Obama applauds Newsom’s California redistricting plan as ‘responsible’ as Texas GOP pushes new maps
AP, MEG KINARD: "Former President Barack Obama has waded into states’ efforts at rare mid-decade redistricting efforts, saying he agrees with California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s response to alter his state’s congressional maps, in the way of Texas redistricting efforts promoted by President Donald Trump aimed at shoring up Republicans’ position in next year’s elections.
“I believe that Gov. Newsom’s approach is a responsible approach. He said this is going to be responsible. We’re not going to try to completely maximize it,” Obama said at a Tuesday fundraiser on Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, according to excerpts obtained by The Associated Press. “We’re only going to do it if and when Texas and/or other Republican states begin to pull these maneuvers. Otherwise, this doesn’t go into effect."
California Supreme Court issues decision on Republican redistricting challenge
SacBee, STEPHEN HOBBS: "The California Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected an attempt by Republican legislators to delay Democrats from gerrymandering the state’s congressional districts.
The justices said the emergency petition, filed earlier this week, “failed to meet their burden of establishing a basis for relief at this time under” the California Constitution."
Gerrymandering has captured the nation’s attention. That’s a win for Newsom
LAT, ANITA CHABRIA: "Happy Thursday. Your usual host, D.C. Bureau Chief Michael Wilner, is off today. So you’re once again stuck with me, California Columnist Anita Chabria.
I’m reporting from Columbus, Ohio. Although it’s 2,300 miles from Sacramento, you wouldn’t know it from the national news, where Gov. Gavin Newsom’s push to gerrymander the Golden State’s election maps is dominating the conversation, even in the Midwest."
Why many voters in deep-red Northern California are fuming about Newsom’s maps
LA Times, JESSICA GARRISON: "When the talk turned to politics at the OK Corral bar in this historic stagecoach town on Tuesday night, retired nurse Ovie Hays, 77, spoke for most of the room when she summed up her view of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s redistricting plan.
“I don’t want Democrats around,” she said. “They have gone too far in controlling us. We won’t have a say in anything.”
‘Moral conflict’ drives Democratic doubts about Gavin Newsom’s redistricting plan
CALMatters, JEANNE KUANG: "As Republicans lambasted California lawmakers for rushing through their effort to gerrymander the state’s congressional map, Democrats are facing a quieter angst in their own party.
To counter what they call President Donald Trump’s undemocratic power grab for Republican seats in Texas, they’re asking voters to temporarily ditch California’s nonpartisan map-drawing process — touted as a national gold standard for fair elections and good governance — in favor of a politico-drawn map to tilt seats in Democrats’ favor."
L.A. may land a new congressional seat. Is it already reserved?
LAT, JULIA WICK: "As Gov. Gavin Newsom’s push to redraw California’s congressional maps plays out at the state Capitol and on the national stage, a quieter but no less bloody scramble is simultaneously underway.
Newsom’s plan — a bid to counter President Trump’s drive for more GOP House seats with his own California show of force — still needs to be approved by the state Legislature before voters decide its fate in November."
California Rep. Young Kim’s newest challenger: An Orange County immigration lawyer
CALMatters, MAYA C. MILLER: "Democrats since 2020 have dreamed of ousting Republican Rep. Young Kim from her Orange County seat, only to watch their candidates get trounced by near double digits.
But that hasn’t deterred Lisa Ramirez, an immigration attorney, best known for helping free a detained migrant father of three U.S. Marine sons, from jumping into the race for 2026."
Plan for California’s largest reservoir in decades gets big funding boost
The Chronicle, KURTIS ALEXANDER: "The effort to build California’s largest new reservoir in decades received a welcome commitment of cash on Wednesday — nearly $220 million — which will help keep the project on track to break ground as soon as next year.
Planned for 70 miles northwest of Sacramento, the proposed Sites Reservoir won the bulk of the funding because plans to expand the Los Vaqueros Reservoir in Contra Costa County fell through, freeing up money in the state’s 2014 water bond. The remainder of the money for Sites came from last year’s state climate bond."
California has a fallback plan for Trump’s clean car attacks. Does it go far enough?
CALMatters, ALEJANDRO LAZO/ALEJANDRA REYES-VELARDE: "California regulators, responding to the Trump Administration’s attacks on the state’s climate policy, propose to fight back in part by asking lawmakers to backfill electric vehicle incentives, recommending more private investment, and beginning to write clean car rules — again.
“Clean air efforts are under siege, putting the health of every American at risk,” said Air Resources Board chairperson Liane Randolph. “California is continuing to fight back and will not give up on cleaner air and better public health. We have a legal and moral obligation.”"
AB 306: abundance agenda misfire (OP-ED)
Capitol Weekly, JENNA TATUM: "The ongoing housing affordability crisis is as dire as the climate crisis. Smart, forward-looking policies must address both, and – at the very least – not worsen one in furthering the other. Unfortunately, California lawmakers did just that.
This summer, AB 306 – a bill that bars any changes to California’s residential building standards until 2031 – was folded into budget trailer bill AB 130 and enacted into law, along with other policies meant to boost California’s housing supply. On its face, the goal of AB 306 is to make new home construction faster and cheaper by freezing changes to statewide building codes and preventing local governments from enacting more stringent “reach codes.”"
The Trump administration was barred from profiling Latinos. California says the practice continues
The Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: "Barred by a federal judge from seizing immigrants in the Los Angeles area based on how they look and talk and the places they’re working, like Home Depot stores and car washes, the Trump administration has spent the six weeks since the ruling doing just that, according to immigrants, their supporters and California’s attorney general.
The administration, which wants the Supreme Court to overturn the order, insists it has reluctantly complied."
READ MORE -- Salvadoran man arrested while trying to self-deport from California. His punishment? Deportation -- LAT, CLARA HARTER
This is the only California university facing a huge bill under new Trump-era endowment tax
The Chronicle, NANETTE ASIMOV: "New federal rules single out just one California university — Stanford — for a massive tax bill that will grow to more than $1 billion over the rest of the decade, rather than the $175 million the school would have otherwise paid.
The higher tax rates are part of the national spending bill President Donald Trump signed into law in July and target private university endowments — the cushions of cash that colleges rely on to spin off funding for everything from student scholarships to infrastructure projects."
Stern bill shows struggle to find agreement in genocide education
Capitol Weekly, ACSAH LEMMA: "In the eighth grade, Senator Henry Stern (D-Los Angeles) found Nazi political propaganda tucked into his school newspaper. With his help, his social sciences teacher at the time was able to bring some Holocaust survivors to their class and teach his fellow students the meaning and history behind certain symbols.
That formative instance was just one of many he had growing up Jewish in California, he says, one that inspired his genocide education bill, Senate Bill 472, first introduced in February of this year and scheduled for a hearing today in the Assembly Appropriations Committee."
U.S. Department of Education prohibits work-study funds for voter outreach
EdSource, STAFF: "Federal Work-Study funds may no longer be used to support voter registration and assistance jobs, the U.S. Department of Education said Tuesday.
In an Aug. 19 Dear Colleague letter, the department said regulations prohibit using Federal Work-Study programs to fund jobs “involving partisan or nonpartisan voter registration, voter assistance at a polling place or through a voter hotline, or serving as a poll worker.”"
DOE: Office for Civil Rights staff to return to work after mass layoffs
EdSource, EMMA GALLEGOS: "Laid-off federal staffers of the Office for Civil Rights will begin to return to work next month, the U.S. Department of Education told a federal judge this week.
Last week, a federal judge in Massachusetts said the department had not complied with his order to reinstate staff. To comply, Steven Schaefer, deputy assistant secretary for policy in the Office for Civil Rights, shared a schedule for returning remaining staffers to active duty in a court affidavit."
Trump administration removes guidance for teaching English learners
EdSource, ZAIDEE STAVELY: "The U.S. Department of Education has rescinded guidance for schools to help students learning English as a second language, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.
The guidance, first sent out in 2015, laid out how to identify students learning English and how to help them learn the language while also helping them understand the content of their classes. This move signals that the Trump administration does not plan to enforce federal law, which requires that schools help students learn English and understand academic content, as determined by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1974 in the case Lau v. Nichols."
California heat wave: These cities could see record-breaking temperatures
The Chronicle, GREG PORTER: "Nearly three-quarters of California is under an extreme heat warning or heat advisory as a late-summer heat wave peaks over the next two days. Temperatures could top 110 degrees Thursday in parts of the state, with much of the Central Valley near 105. Weak onshore flow means the heat will press unusually close to the coast, especially in Southern and Central California.
The heat wave will test daily temperature records from Los Angeles to Sacramento, strain overnight cooling, and increase health risks as humidity rises. After a relatively cool early summer, Thursday and Friday may bring the hottest conditions of the year for millions of Californians."
READ MORE -- Heat wave expected to bring near record temps in SoCal: ‘Get outdoor activities done as early in the morning as possible’ -- LAT, JOSEPH SERNA/GRACE TOOHEY
Private land used for logging is more prone to severe fire than public lands. A new study shows why
LAT, NOAH HAGGERTY: "In the Sierra Nevada, private lands used for logging are more likely to experience high-severity fire that devastates forest ecosystems compared to public lands like National Forests.
It’s a fact that’s been known for years — but what exactly causes this discrepancy has remained elusive."
California cities lack unified response on homeless encampments
CALMatters, MARISA KENDALL: "Clearing an encampment is one of the most complicated and fraught tasks any California city can take on when responding to homelessness.
How they handle that challenge varies widely."
Most L.A. city employee layoffs averted by deals with unions
LAT, DAVID ZAHNISER/NOAH GOLDBERG: "Nearly 300 Los Angeles city employees were saved from being laid off after two major unions signed off on cost-cutting measures.
The Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents more than 8,700 rank-and-file officers, agreed to create a voluntary program in which its members can take days off in exchange for some of the overtime hours they previously worked."
‘Nobody wants to call LAPD anymore’: Outrage follows killing of man with replica gun
LA Times, LIBOR JANY: "Activists and family members of a man shot and killed by LAPD officers in Boyle Heights flooded a Police Commission meeting Tuesday to denounce the department’s handling of the incident.
Police officials said Jeremy Flores, 26, was shot last month as he sat in a van holding what turned out to be an Airsoft rifle, which shoots plastic pellets."
L.A. touts results of using unarmed civilians instead of cops for some emergencies
LAT, LIBOR JANY: "When Angelenos face a situation that requires calling 911 — such as encountering a person in the throes of a mental health crisis — the first responders are usually firefighters or armed police officers.
But a new report suggests a third option holds promise for the future."
