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"content": "\u003cp>As Caltrans workers cleared the last remnants of an encampment from beneath a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a> overpass on Tuesday, Candice Dixon wondered if she would soon be asked to leave.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There, workers were for the latest operation of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2025/08/29/governor-newsom-convenes-statewide-task-force-to-prioritize-and-dismantle-homeless-encampments-and-accelerate-care/\">new task force\u003c/a>, which brings together California’s departments of transportation, law enforcement, health and housing, among others, to remove homeless encampments across California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The State Action for Facilitation on Encampments — or, SAFE — Task Force had just finished clearing the area where Cesar Chavez Street meets Highway 101, marking the seventh such operation along the freeway in the city since the start of the month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re going to come tell us to move,” the 44-year-old predicted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She and another friend have, for the past three months, been living in an alcove on the opposite side of the freeway. Fenced in between Cesar Chavez Street, an onramp and a pedestrian crossing, the area is difficult to reach, which had been part of the appeal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, as she considered how long she would be able to stay, she weighed her options. “Everywhere you go, or you put up a tent somewhere, you’ve got to be mindful that you know they’re going to come,” Dixon said. “It’s just finding somewhere to stay, that’s the hard part.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12056156\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12056156\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250916-SAFE-TASKFORCE-MD-07-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250916-SAFE-TASKFORCE-MD-07-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250916-SAFE-TASKFORCE-MD-07-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250916-SAFE-TASKFORCE-MD-07-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Candice Dixon (left) and Joshua Hoffart sit near the 101 Freeway in San Francisco on Sept. 16, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Dixon had grown accustomed to moving. Under former \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11999056/sf-promises-to-make-life-uncomfortable-for-people-sleeping-outside\">mayor London Breed\u003c/a>, and then Breed’s successor, Daniel Lurie, the city has been cracking down on encampments \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12051236/an-unhoused-san-francisco-resident-navigates-a-new-era-of-street-enforcement\">over the past year\u003c/a>, threatening arrest to those who refuse offers of shelter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In May, Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12039730/newsom-pushes-cities-ban-homeless-encampments-across-california\">urged cities\u003c/a> to make it illegal for people to camp outside for more than three nights in a row. And last summer, he \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11997352/newsom-orders-state-agencies-to-dismantle-homeless-encampments-across-california\">directed state agencies\u003c/a> to clear encampments on state land. The new task force, announced in August, marked his latest effort to reduce unsheltered homelessness by clearing encampments and directing people into services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Tuesday, California Secretary of Transportation Toks Omishakin described it as an “all of government” approach.[aside postID=news_12054274 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/NewsomHousingCM1.jpg']“We’re taking the comprehensive steps that we need to take, not just clearing encampments,” he said, but rather, “a wraparound approach to addressing this issue that is likely one of the biggest challenges in front of the state.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since July 2021, Caltrans has removed more than 18,000 encampments along the state rights-of-way, filling nearly 12,000 garbage trucks with unhoused people’s discarded belongings. But Omishakin said the SAFE Taskforce would take a new approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rather than being primarily led by Caltrans and the California Highway Patrol, Omishakin said leaders from the state’s department of health and housing were also at the table. “All the key agencies are at the table every single day,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The task force will focus first on the state’s 10 largest cities, Omishakin said. Already, the state had secured agreements to allow workers onto city property with San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego and was working on another with San José.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s part of a larger effort to address homelessness across California that Omishakin said is beginning to pay dividends. At \u003ca href=\"https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2024-AHAR-Part-1.pdf\">last count\u003c/a>, more than 187,000 people were homeless on a given night in California, according to federal data, but the rate of growth has been slowing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12056153\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12056153\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250916-SAFE-TASKFORCE-MD-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250916-SAFE-TASKFORCE-MD-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250916-SAFE-TASKFORCE-MD-02-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250916-SAFE-TASKFORCE-MD-02-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">California Secretary of Transportation Toks Omishakin addresses the press from beside the 101 Freeway in San Francisco on Sept. 16, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The number of people sleeping outside was nearly unchanged from 2023 to 2024, Omishakin noted, compared to a nearly 7% increase nationwide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The operation underway Tuesday sought to address the needs of 18 people, said Jay Wierenga, a spokesperson for the state’s Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency. Of those, 12 agreed to speak with task force staff, he said; five were already in shelter, seven were offered shelter, and one accepted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Wierenga said outreach would continue: “We don’t just stop. This is a continuing effort every day — not only with the state departments — but also the city and the counties that we are working with very closely.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before they leave, Omishakin said workers will also install large boulders to make it harder for people to reenter the site. The goal, he said, is to ensure that they aren’t “playing that game of whack-a-mole.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12056152\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12056152\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250916-SAFE-TASKFORCE-MD-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250916-SAFE-TASKFORCE-MD-01-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250916-SAFE-TASKFORCE-MD-01-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250916-SAFE-TASKFORCE-MD-01-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Andre Brown (left) and Alton Perdew sit together under the 101 Freeway in San Francisco on Sept. 16, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We clear it, and they come right back,” Omishakin explained. “That’s why this strategy that we’re deploying now is even more important than ever.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dixon has been offered services before — and accepted them. The shelters didn’t always work out well for her, though, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They steal your stuff. They just do you wrong in there, you know?” she said. “They don’t give us the proper care that we need.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, after being homeless for 18 years and faced with the prospect of moving yet again, Dixon said she’s willing to give shelters another shot. If she’s told to leave, she might ask for help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12056157\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12056157\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250916-SAFE-TASKFORCE-MD-08-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250916-SAFE-TASKFORCE-MD-08-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250916-SAFE-TASKFORCE-MD-08-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250916-SAFE-TASKFORCE-MD-08-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Candice Dixon (left) and Joshua Hoffart sit near the 101 Freeway in San Francisco on Sept. 16, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I was never raised like this to be homeless,” she said. “I always had a house to go to. So, it was kind of like adapting to this life, but I’ve been adapting to it for a while now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maybe outreach workers would help her with the paperwork she needs to complete to get on the list for housing, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dixon thought about what that might look like. “My own place with my bathroom and shower, where I don’t have to worry about people stealing my stuff,” she said. “That would definitely be good.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re going to come tell us to move,” the 44-year-old predicted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She and another friend have, for the past three months, been living in an alcove on the opposite side of the freeway. Fenced in between Cesar Chavez Street, an onramp and a pedestrian crossing, the area is difficult to reach, which had been part of the appeal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, as she considered how long she would be able to stay, she weighed her options. “Everywhere you go, or you put up a tent somewhere, you’ve got to be mindful that you know they’re going to come,” Dixon said. “It’s just finding somewhere to stay, that’s the hard part.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12056156\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12056156\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250916-SAFE-TASKFORCE-MD-07-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250916-SAFE-TASKFORCE-MD-07-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250916-SAFE-TASKFORCE-MD-07-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250916-SAFE-TASKFORCE-MD-07-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Candice Dixon (left) and Joshua Hoffart sit near the 101 Freeway in San Francisco on Sept. 16, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Dixon had grown accustomed to moving. Under former \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11999056/sf-promises-to-make-life-uncomfortable-for-people-sleeping-outside\">mayor London Breed\u003c/a>, and then Breed’s successor, Daniel Lurie, the city has been cracking down on encampments \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12051236/an-unhoused-san-francisco-resident-navigates-a-new-era-of-street-enforcement\">over the past year\u003c/a>, threatening arrest to those who refuse offers of shelter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In May, Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12039730/newsom-pushes-cities-ban-homeless-encampments-across-california\">urged cities\u003c/a> to make it illegal for people to camp outside for more than three nights in a row. And last summer, he \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11997352/newsom-orders-state-agencies-to-dismantle-homeless-encampments-across-california\">directed state agencies\u003c/a> to clear encampments on state land. The new task force, announced in August, marked his latest effort to reduce unsheltered homelessness by clearing encampments and directing people into services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Tuesday, California Secretary of Transportation Toks Omishakin described it as an “all of government” approach.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“We’re taking the comprehensive steps that we need to take, not just clearing encampments,” he said, but rather, “a wraparound approach to addressing this issue that is likely one of the biggest challenges in front of the state.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since July 2021, Caltrans has removed more than 18,000 encampments along the state rights-of-way, filling nearly 12,000 garbage trucks with unhoused people’s discarded belongings. But Omishakin said the SAFE Taskforce would take a new approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rather than being primarily led by Caltrans and the California Highway Patrol, Omishakin said leaders from the state’s department of health and housing were also at the table. “All the key agencies are at the table every single day,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The task force will focus first on the state’s 10 largest cities, Omishakin said. Already, the state had secured agreements to allow workers onto city property with San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego and was working on another with San José.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s part of a larger effort to address homelessness across California that Omishakin said is beginning to pay dividends. At \u003ca href=\"https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2024-AHAR-Part-1.pdf\">last count\u003c/a>, more than 187,000 people were homeless on a given night in California, according to federal data, but the rate of growth has been slowing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12056153\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12056153\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250916-SAFE-TASKFORCE-MD-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250916-SAFE-TASKFORCE-MD-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250916-SAFE-TASKFORCE-MD-02-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250916-SAFE-TASKFORCE-MD-02-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">California Secretary of Transportation Toks Omishakin addresses the press from beside the 101 Freeway in San Francisco on Sept. 16, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The number of people sleeping outside was nearly unchanged from 2023 to 2024, Omishakin noted, compared to a nearly 7% increase nationwide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The operation underway Tuesday sought to address the needs of 18 people, said Jay Wierenga, a spokesperson for the state’s Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency. Of those, 12 agreed to speak with task force staff, he said; five were already in shelter, seven were offered shelter, and one accepted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Wierenga said outreach would continue: “We don’t just stop. This is a continuing effort every day — not only with the state departments — but also the city and the counties that we are working with very closely.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before they leave, Omishakin said workers will also install large boulders to make it harder for people to reenter the site. The goal, he said, is to ensure that they aren’t “playing that game of whack-a-mole.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12056152\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12056152\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250916-SAFE-TASKFORCE-MD-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250916-SAFE-TASKFORCE-MD-01-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250916-SAFE-TASKFORCE-MD-01-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250916-SAFE-TASKFORCE-MD-01-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Andre Brown (left) and Alton Perdew sit together under the 101 Freeway in San Francisco on Sept. 16, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We clear it, and they come right back,” Omishakin explained. “That’s why this strategy that we’re deploying now is even more important than ever.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dixon has been offered services before — and accepted them. The shelters didn’t always work out well for her, though, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They steal your stuff. They just do you wrong in there, you know?” she said. “They don’t give us the proper care that we need.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, after being homeless for 18 years and faced with the prospect of moving yet again, Dixon said she’s willing to give shelters another shot. If she’s told to leave, she might ask for help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12056157\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12056157\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250916-SAFE-TASKFORCE-MD-08-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250916-SAFE-TASKFORCE-MD-08-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250916-SAFE-TASKFORCE-MD-08-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250916-SAFE-TASKFORCE-MD-08-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Candice Dixon (left) and Joshua Hoffart sit near the 101 Freeway in San Francisco on Sept. 16, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I was never raised like this to be homeless,” she said. “I always had a house to go to. So, it was kind of like adapting to this life, but I’ve been adapting to it for a while now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maybe outreach workers would help her with the paperwork she needs to complete to get on the list for housing, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dixon thought about what that might look like. “My own place with my bathroom and shower, where I don’t have to worry about people stealing my stuff,” she said. “That would definitely be good.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "delta-tunnel-plans-echo-californias-troubled-history-of-trying-to-control-water",
"title": "Delta Tunnel Plans Echo California’s Troubled History of Trying to Control Water",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is part of California Voices, a commentary forum aiming to broaden our understanding of the state and spotlight Californians directly impacted by policy or its absence. Learn more \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/category/commentary/\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most mornings, I walk my dog at \u003ca href=\"https://www.cityofpasadena.net/parks-and-rec/parks/hahamongna-watershed-park/\">Hahamongna Watershed Park\u003c/a> in Pasadena, pausing by the reservoir to watch grebes and ducks glide across the water. It’s a quiet routine, but since the \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/wildfires/2025/07/sce-eaton-fire-compensation-fund/\">fire tore\u003c/a> through Eaton Canyon in January, the silence feels louder, like this place has something to say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As an urban planner, I’ve spent years working on land use and \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/category/environment/water/\">water policy\u003c/a>. When I walk through my Altadena neighborhood, I don’t see a freak disaster. I see a moment of reckoning, in a much older story about the quest to control nature and consequences that echo across generations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Californians struggle to recover from compounding climate disasters, Gov. Gavin Newsom is \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/water/2025/05/california-lawmakers-governor-plan-to-streamline-delta-tunnel/\">moving to fast-track the Delta Conveyance Project\u003c/a>, presenting lawmakers with a familiar choice. But before committing billions to yet another major water project, we must confront some hard lessons from our past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eaton Canyon is named after Judge Benjamin Eaton, an Anglo-American settler who built Pasadena’s first water infrastructure in the 1860s. Eaton engineered irrigation ditches to support settler agriculture and real estate development by diverting water away from Hahamongna, a place named “Flowing Waters, Fruitful Valley” by the original Tongva inhabitants. His intervention added to a harmful pattern that began with the Spanish mission system, when the violent colonization of Hahamongna Village disrupted sacred community relationships with land and water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12021030\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1100px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-24.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12021030\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-24.jpg\" alt=\"Fire and flame with smoke rising on a distant wooded mountain with the sea in the foreground.\" width=\"1100\" height=\"733\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-24.jpg 1100w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-24-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-24-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-24-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1100px) 100vw, 1100px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Smoke from the Palisades Fire is seen from Point Dume while it burns homes along the Pacific Coast Highway amid the devastating fires in Los Angeles in January 2025. \u003ccite>(Apu Gomes/Getty Images North America)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Eaton’s son, Frederick, later expanded his father’s ambitions on a larger scale. As mayor of Los Angeles in the early 1900s, Frederick Eaton partnered with William Mulholland to develop the L.A. Aqueduct, a massive conveyance system that redirects water from Mono Lake and Owens Valley — called Payahuunadü by the Native residents — to fuel Los Angeles’ growth 220 miles south.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was one of the most significant and destructive water transfers in U.S. history, devastating the ecosystems and homelands of the Nüümü, Newe, and Kootzaduka’a people. Owens Lake, which is also called Patsiata, was once full of life. After it dried out, \u003ca href=\"https://www.pacific.edu/about-pacific/reynolds-gallery/exhibitions/drought-dust-flood\">it became the largest source of dust pollution\u003c/a> in the country, exposing nearby residents to toxins that increased cancer risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The consequences were not limited to the Eastern Sierra. Angelenos suffered, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The aqueduct committed Los Angeles to a model of extraction that has persisted for more than a century. Today we’re often told L.A. is a desert, obscuring the truth that the rivers, wetlands and groundwater that shaped this region didn’t disappear — they were buried, paved and drained.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead of investing in local solutions like stormwater capture, recycled water and fire stewardship, Los Angeles prioritized importing water, urban sprawl, and fire suppression practices throughout the 20th century, leaving it increasingly vulnerable to disaster.[aside postID=science_1998445 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2025/09/Delta-2000x1334.jpg']The result: L.A.’s stormwater rushes to the ocean through concrete channels, bypassing the thirsty soil beneath our feet. Fire-adapted chaparral, once tended through Indigenous cultural burns, goes misunderstood and mismanaged. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/wildfires/2025/01/dry-danger-zone-california-fires-climate-change/\">Fire always finds its fuel\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This legacy didn’t spark the Eaton Fire, but it seeded conditions that allowed it to spread and devastate. Eventually the truth catches up to us. The land remembers what we try to forget.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, policymakers rely on public amnesia. The governor’s latest push to secure legislative approval for the Delta Conveyance before the session ends in September risks repeating history. The success of this water diversion megaproject hinges on the same myth of control, the illusion that humans stand apart from the very ecosystems that sustain us, that futile attempts at domination can shield us from the fragile, uncomfortable reality of our interdependence with nature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A tragedy like the Eaton Fire reminds us that true leadership begins with humility, with the courage to take a hard look at ourselves and admit that we’re in a relationship with living systems, not in charge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If destruction can be built one choice at a time, so can repair.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Payahuunadü, the Owens Valley Indian Water Commission continues to fight for water justice and the right to care for Owens Lake once again. Here in Los Angeles, tribal governments and Indigenous-led groups, such as the Tataviam Land Conservancy and Sacred Places Institute, work to restore ancestral lands, revitalize native plants and uplift traditional ecological knowledge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across the region, grassroots groups are repairing relationships to water and soil, planting native trees, removing asphalt and transforming concrete schoolyards into living landscapes. Local agencies are getting serious about solutions we’ve long ignored: stormwater capture, recycled water, groundwater recharge and conservation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Eaton Fire is the latest chapter in the long Eaton story. A name once celebrated for taming water now symbolizes a fire that reveals the limits of our control.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The irony invites a deeper question: what does accountability look like when harm is inherited but the consequences are still unfolding? The control we seek may already reside within us — in our ability to exercise restraint, respect limits and stay in relationship with things we don’t fully understand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like those before us, we face complex trade-offs. But unlike them, we have the benefit of hindsight and the opportunity, if we’re willing, to choose another way. Will we take it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Devon Provo is an urban planner and senior policy manager at Accelerate Resilience L.A. She lives in Altadena.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This commentary was originally published by \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/\">CalMatters\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/subscribe-to-calmatters/\">Sign up\u003c/a> for their newsletters.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/commentary/2025/08/delta-water-tunnel-project-california/\">originally published on CalMatters\u003c/a> and was republished under the \u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/\">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives\u003c/a> license.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is part of California Voices, a commentary forum aiming to broaden our understanding of the state and spotlight Californians directly impacted by policy or its absence. Learn more \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/category/commentary/\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most mornings, I walk my dog at \u003ca href=\"https://www.cityofpasadena.net/parks-and-rec/parks/hahamongna-watershed-park/\">Hahamongna Watershed Park\u003c/a> in Pasadena, pausing by the reservoir to watch grebes and ducks glide across the water. It’s a quiet routine, but since the \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/wildfires/2025/07/sce-eaton-fire-compensation-fund/\">fire tore\u003c/a> through Eaton Canyon in January, the silence feels louder, like this place has something to say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As an urban planner, I’ve spent years working on land use and \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/category/environment/water/\">water policy\u003c/a>. When I walk through my Altadena neighborhood, I don’t see a freak disaster. I see a moment of reckoning, in a much older story about the quest to control nature and consequences that echo across generations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Californians struggle to recover from compounding climate disasters, Gov. Gavin Newsom is \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/water/2025/05/california-lawmakers-governor-plan-to-streamline-delta-tunnel/\">moving to fast-track the Delta Conveyance Project\u003c/a>, presenting lawmakers with a familiar choice. But before committing billions to yet another major water project, we must confront some hard lessons from our past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eaton Canyon is named after Judge Benjamin Eaton, an Anglo-American settler who built Pasadena’s first water infrastructure in the 1860s. Eaton engineered irrigation ditches to support settler agriculture and real estate development by diverting water away from Hahamongna, a place named “Flowing Waters, Fruitful Valley” by the original Tongva inhabitants. His intervention added to a harmful pattern that began with the Spanish mission system, when the violent colonization of Hahamongna Village disrupted sacred community relationships with land and water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12021030\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1100px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-24.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12021030\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-24.jpg\" alt=\"Fire and flame with smoke rising on a distant wooded mountain with the sea in the foreground.\" width=\"1100\" height=\"733\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-24.jpg 1100w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-24-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-24-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-24-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1100px) 100vw, 1100px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Smoke from the Palisades Fire is seen from Point Dume while it burns homes along the Pacific Coast Highway amid the devastating fires in Los Angeles in January 2025. \u003ccite>(Apu Gomes/Getty Images North America)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Eaton’s son, Frederick, later expanded his father’s ambitions on a larger scale. As mayor of Los Angeles in the early 1900s, Frederick Eaton partnered with William Mulholland to develop the L.A. Aqueduct, a massive conveyance system that redirects water from Mono Lake and Owens Valley — called Payahuunadü by the Native residents — to fuel Los Angeles’ growth 220 miles south.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was one of the most significant and destructive water transfers in U.S. history, devastating the ecosystems and homelands of the Nüümü, Newe, and Kootzaduka’a people. Owens Lake, which is also called Patsiata, was once full of life. After it dried out, \u003ca href=\"https://www.pacific.edu/about-pacific/reynolds-gallery/exhibitions/drought-dust-flood\">it became the largest source of dust pollution\u003c/a> in the country, exposing nearby residents to toxins that increased cancer risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The consequences were not limited to the Eastern Sierra. Angelenos suffered, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The aqueduct committed Los Angeles to a model of extraction that has persisted for more than a century. Today we’re often told L.A. is a desert, obscuring the truth that the rivers, wetlands and groundwater that shaped this region didn’t disappear — they were buried, paved and drained.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead of investing in local solutions like stormwater capture, recycled water and fire stewardship, Los Angeles prioritized importing water, urban sprawl, and fire suppression practices throughout the 20th century, leaving it increasingly vulnerable to disaster.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The result: L.A.’s stormwater rushes to the ocean through concrete channels, bypassing the thirsty soil beneath our feet. Fire-adapted chaparral, once tended through Indigenous cultural burns, goes misunderstood and mismanaged. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/wildfires/2025/01/dry-danger-zone-california-fires-climate-change/\">Fire always finds its fuel\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This legacy didn’t spark the Eaton Fire, but it seeded conditions that allowed it to spread and devastate. Eventually the truth catches up to us. The land remembers what we try to forget.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, policymakers rely on public amnesia. The governor’s latest push to secure legislative approval for the Delta Conveyance before the session ends in September risks repeating history. The success of this water diversion megaproject hinges on the same myth of control, the illusion that humans stand apart from the very ecosystems that sustain us, that futile attempts at domination can shield us from the fragile, uncomfortable reality of our interdependence with nature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A tragedy like the Eaton Fire reminds us that true leadership begins with humility, with the courage to take a hard look at ourselves and admit that we’re in a relationship with living systems, not in charge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If destruction can be built one choice at a time, so can repair.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Payahuunadü, the Owens Valley Indian Water Commission continues to fight for water justice and the right to care for Owens Lake once again. Here in Los Angeles, tribal governments and Indigenous-led groups, such as the Tataviam Land Conservancy and Sacred Places Institute, work to restore ancestral lands, revitalize native plants and uplift traditional ecological knowledge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across the region, grassroots groups are repairing relationships to water and soil, planting native trees, removing asphalt and transforming concrete schoolyards into living landscapes. Local agencies are getting serious about solutions we’ve long ignored: stormwater capture, recycled water, groundwater recharge and conservation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Eaton Fire is the latest chapter in the long Eaton story. A name once celebrated for taming water now symbolizes a fire that reveals the limits of our control.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The irony invites a deeper question: what does accountability look like when harm is inherited but the consequences are still unfolding? The control we seek may already reside within us — in our ability to exercise restraint, respect limits and stay in relationship with things we don’t fully understand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like those before us, we face complex trade-offs. But unlike them, we have the benefit of hindsight and the opportunity, if we’re willing, to choose another way. Will we take it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Devon Provo is an urban planner and senior policy manager at Accelerate Resilience L.A. She lives in Altadena.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This commentary was originally published by \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/\">CalMatters\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/subscribe-to-calmatters/\">Sign up\u003c/a> for their newsletters.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/commentary/2025/08/delta-water-tunnel-project-california/\">originally published on CalMatters\u003c/a> and was republished under the \u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/\">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives\u003c/a> license.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "how-google-organized-opposition-to-a-california-privacy-proposal",
"title": "How Google Organized Opposition to a California Privacy Proposal",
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"headTitle": "How Google Organized Opposition to a California Privacy Proposal | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was originally published by \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/\">CalMatters\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/subscribe-to-calmatters/\">Sign up\u003c/a> for their newsletters.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In April, Rhode Island resident Navah Hopkins received a plea for her help to defeat legislation thousands of miles away in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ask came from Google, maker of the world’s most used web browser, Chrome. The tech giant sent a message to an email list that Hopkins and other small business owners were subscribed to. Google’s request: To sign a petition opposing \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab566\">Assembly Bill 566\u003c/a>, which would require browsers to provide users with a way to automatically tell websites not to share their personal information with third parties. The measure is sponsored by the California Privacy Protection Agency, which enforces state regulations on such sharing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In its email to Hopkins, Google claimed that the legislation would “hurt your ability to use online ads to reach customers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was intentionally misleading people that by this bill passing, they were going to lose out on all of these tools within Google (to advertise),” she told CalMatters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The outreach was particularly noteworthy because Google had not itself taken a public position on the bill. The tech giant was so quiet about its opposition that Assemblymember \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/legislators/josh-lowenthal-164206\">Josh Lowenthal\u003c/a>, the author of AB 566, did not know about Google’s email push until a CalMatters reporter asked. Lowenthal also said his office did not receive small business owners’ signatures or outreach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Google’s name wasn’t on the petition either; instead, the document was officially from the “Connected Commerce Council,” which the tech giant backs financially.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12036476\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/GettyImages-2166671481.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12036476\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/GettyImages-2166671481.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"706\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/GettyImages-2166671481.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/GettyImages-2166671481-800x552.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/GettyImages-2166671481-1020x703.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/GettyImages-2166671481-160x110.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Google logo is displayed in front of company headquarters during the Made By Google event on August 13, 2024 in Mountain View, California. Google announced new Pixel phones, watches and AI features at the event. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The largely behind-the-scenes campaign offers a glimpse into how the tech giant is working to preserve its grip on the online advertising market and how it attempts, without being seen, to shape policies in a state with one of the nation’s strictest privacy protection laws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Recruiting small businesses to represent the policy interests of a tech giant isn’t new. Last year, Google successfully blocked \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202320240ab3048\">a similar bill\u003c/a> — ultimately vetoed by Gov. Gavin Newsom — by adopting the same tactic, reaching out to small businesses via email lists, according to a message obtained by CalMatters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s no telling how effective Google’s lobbying on the measure has been this year, or how many people it successfully mobilized. Experts warn that the strategy could backfire if the people it reaches out to, like the small business owners, aren’t buying what the company is selling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But before the browser bill reached its final floor vote, Lowenthal amended it to delay the effective date until 2027 and to add liability protections for browser companies like Google.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12054490 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/ChatGPTGetty-1020x680.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked who advocated for that language, Lowenthal said he’d taken input from “colleagues and stakeholders” to shape up the “strongest possible bill.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With any bill that’s been vetoed before, it takes some give-and-take to get it across the finish line,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill cleared the Legislature and headed to the governor’s desk Thursday after this story was published.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Google did not respond to multiple requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Google ranked among the \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/data/2025/04/california-lobbying-spending-2024/\">most active lobbyists in California\u003c/a> last year, spending more to influence the opinions of elected officials \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/capitol/2024/11/google-lobbying-california/\">than it had in the previous 20 years combined\u003c/a>. The lobbying was aimed at battling AI regulation, local news funding requirements, and a prior version of the browser bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, it has disclosed pouring nearly $700,000 into lobbying state leaders on bills including AB 566. Google has also increased lobbying spending in many \u003ca href=\"https://www.openmarketsinstitute.org/publications/google-refines-50-state-lobby-strategy-austin-ahlman\">other statehouses\u003c/a>, according to the Open Markets Institute. With inaction in Congress, states have led the way in tech regulation in recent years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s hard to trace Google’s full influence when the company does not publicly share its position on bills like AB 566, instead paying groups like the California Chamber of Commerce and Connected Commerce Council to influence legislators on its behalf.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/082125_CA-Legislature_FG_CM_37-1024x682.jpg\" alt=\"A person, with white hair and wearing a gray suit, stands in front of a podium with a microphone on it while they speak.\">\u003cfigcaption>Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal at the dais during an Assembly floor session at the state Capitol in Sacramento on Aug. 21, 2025. \u003cem>(Fred Greaves for CalMatters)\u003c/em>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Google registered to lobby 17 bills this year that sought to do things like place \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab56\">warning labels on social media\u003c/a> or protect people from \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260sb503\">algorithms that make health care decisions\u003c/a>, but the company only publicly stated its position on one bill that sought to require\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab1043\"> online age verification\u003c/a>, according to\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/\"> state filings and Digital Democracy\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Google’s lobbying tactics, while not illegal, demonstrate the sway money has over policies, said Sean McMorris, the transparency, ethics, and accountability program manager at California Common Cause.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This type of activity … exemplifies the skewed playing field that we have to play on,” he said. “It’s important to report on and to point out these strategies and loopholes that money can afford you the privilege to engage in, and the public has every right to scrutinize whether that is just or not.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If Google really believes this bill shouldn’t become a law, its lobbyists should show up to testify at a public hearing, not behave in shadowy ways that undercut democracy, said Brandon Forester, an organizer for MediaJustice, a nonprofit that has been critical of the influence of of Big Tech companies and internet service providers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12001241\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/GETTYIMAGES-1411232503-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12001241\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/GETTYIMAGES-1411232503-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/GETTYIMAGES-1411232503-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/GETTYIMAGES-1411232503-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/GETTYIMAGES-1411232503-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/GETTYIMAGES-1411232503-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/GETTYIMAGES-1411232503-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/GETTYIMAGES-1411232503-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Google’s Bay View campus in Mountain View on June 16, 2022. \u003ccite>(Zhang Yi/VCG via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“None of us wants to enter a surveillance marketplace every time that we go on the internet,” he said. “Part of the reason they need to do the shadow lobbying is because the things that they want to do to achieve their infinite growth model is not good for the public.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>AB 566 is not the only threat Google faces to its grip on how people surf the web. A \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2025-09-02/google-chrome-decision\">judge ruled\u003c/a> last month that the company may no longer enter into exclusive distribution deals for Chrome or Google search. And Chrome faces new competition from a \u003ca href=\"https://www.platformer.news/ai-web-browsers-openai-perplexity-opera/?ref=platformer-newsletter\">number of AI-powered browsers entering the market\u003c/a>, reportedly to \u003ca href=\"https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/openai-release-web-browser-challenge-google-chrome-2025-07-09/\">soon include\u003c/a> one from ChatGPT maker OpenAI.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Onerous mandate or consumer convenience?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Under a 2018 state law, California businesses \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/technology/2025/08/companies-make-it-hard-to-delete-personal-data/\">must provide customers\u003c/a> with a way to forbid the sharing or sale of their personal information to businesses. AB 566 seeks to streamline that process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Browsers such as DuckDuckGo, Brave, and Firefox already have privacy features that, once enabled, \u003ca href=\"https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/global-privacy-control\">automatically send an opt-out signal\u003c/a> to each website the user goes to.[aside postID=forum_2010101911184 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/43/2025/09/GettyImages-2204906139-2000x1335.jpg']The California Chamber of Commerce opposes AB 566, arguing it represents an onerous mandate. The measure lacks clarity, regulates browsers that aren’t “consumer-facing” and is hard to implement, the trade association argued in a letter to lawmakers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Browsers and devices already compete to offer clear, effective privacy controls,” Ronak Dalami, a lobbyist for the chamber, told lawmakers in July.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A similar bill the Legislature passed last year would have required both web browsers and mobile operating systems to offer ways to automatically prohibit the sharing of a user’s personal information, but Gov. Gavin Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/AB-3048-Veto-Message.pdf\">vetoed\u003c/a> the bill because no major mobile operating system includes such an option.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To ensure the ongoing usability of mobile devices, it’s best if design questions are first addressed by developers, rather than by regulators,” Newsom said \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/AB-3048-Veto-Message.pdf\">in a veto message\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bianca Blomquist, California director of nonprofit Small Business Majority, which represents 85,000 small businesses nationwide, was among the business owners who received an email last year from Google, on a mailing list of businesses that participated in the company’s training program, Grow with Google. The letter argued that allowing people to easily stop companies from sharing their personal information would make it more expensive for small businesses to sell their products.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Blomquist was skeptical. And while Newsom’s veto message spoke of design risks, she said that most people she talks to “are more concerned about their data being shared than they are too many buttons flashing on a screen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To Blomquist, the email is clear evidence that Google was “leveraging” the data it collected from partners for advocacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we find is that small business owners … and partner organizations oftentimes sign on to support or oppose legislation without having an understanding of what it does.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Connected Commerce Council\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The petition Google circulated this year was authored by \u003ca href=\"https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/30/connected-commerce-council-amazon-google-lobbying-00021801\">Connected Commerce Council\u003c/a>, or 3C, a lobbying group that in 2022 \u003ca href=\"https://connectedcouncil.org/statement-from-the-connected-commerce-council-on-behalf-of-15000-small-business-members-criticizing-the-senate-judiciarys-passage-of-the-american-innovation-and-choice-online-act/\">claimed to represent 15,000 small businesses\u003c/a> but lists Google and Amazon as \u003ca href=\"https://connectedcouncil.org/partners/\">funders and partners\u003c/a>. In 2022, Google and Amazon mobilized their users to fight anti-trust bills in Congress by encouraging them to sign a model online petition the council drafted. That year, the nonprofit published and later removed a membership directory of 5,000 small businesses, many of which told Politico \u003ca href=\"https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/30/connected-commerce-council-amazon-google-lobbying-00021801\">they were not members of the organization\u003c/a>.[aside postID=news_12049301 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/CAT-%E2%80%94-OG-of-Tech.png']This spring, the group sent a letter to California state lawmakers, arguing that the requirements proposed in AB 566 would cause small businesses to lose out on customer data and make their websites more expensive to operate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Implementing a sweeping experiment that would jeopardize small businesses’ success, limit Californians’ access to relevant products and services, and potentially disrupt access to free web content, is not a sensible way forward,” wrote Rob Retzlaff, executive director of the group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a virtual press conference last month, the organization put forward two California online business owners who oppose the legislation. The owners argued that the browser feature mandated in the bill could inadvertently drive away customers, would block them from sending targeted ads to users who opt out of having their personal information shared, and would make it impossible for customers who opted out to opt back in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If they opt out of one thing — maybe they just didn’t want … my weekly emails about moms connecting, but they want to have discounts — how are we going to segment that?” said Michelle Mak, owner of baby product store Mewl Baby.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Google did not report paying the commerce council any money to lobby on its behalf to the California secretary of state. But Google reported paying the California Chamber of Commerce, the face of its opposition, almost $100,000 to lobby this year. It also reported paying TechNet, which also registered its opposition, $2,500.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Connected Commerce Council spokesperson Jennifer Hodgkins declined to answer a list of questions from CalMatters, instead providing a statement pointing to the organization’s letters to the Legislature, press releases and statements from small business owners featured in its press conference.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Small business owners are deeply concerned about the impact AB 566 will have on their ability to advertise online, find new customers, and grow,” Hodgkins said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12052593\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/CA-state-capitol.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12052593\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/CA-state-capitol.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/CA-state-capitol.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/CA-state-capitol-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/CA-state-capitol-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The State Capitol of California in Sacramento, May 6, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQE)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>John Myers, a spokesperson for the California Chamber of Commerce, declined to answer a CalMatters question about the payments it received from Google.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But McMorris of Common Cause said Google’s payments to the chamber for lobbying should be “closely scrutinized.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If it’s not for (AB566), then what was it for?” he said. “That’s where the law gets murky, and you have these wink and nod relationships where both sides know how to play the game without explicitly saying, ‘This is how we are going to play the game.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Mobilizing users a unique tactic\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>It tracks that Google turned to small business owners to protect the company’s business model, said Jeremy Mack, director of the\u003ca href=\"http://phoenixprojectnow.com/\"> Phoenix Project\u003c/a>, a group that tries to draw attention to San Francisco Bay Area front organizations secretly funded by tech billionaires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mack said the practice is reminiscent of how Uber and Lyft mobilized people who use ride-hailing apps to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2024/07/prop-22-california-gig-work-law-upheld/\">support Proposition 22\u003c/a> and keep gig workers from being defined as employees instead of contractors, and tactics embraced by apartment landlords and realtor groups.[aside postID=news_12052617 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/GETTYIMAGES-2228237489-KQED.jpg']“It’s not surprising that Google would do this, but it’s definitely good to be able to flag this for people and put it on their radar,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike other industries seeking to influence policy, tech companies can mobilize users through their online platforms, said Austin Ahlman, a researcher who tracks Google lobbying efforts in state capitals for the Open Markets Institute. It’s part of a long pattern of tech companies using small businesses that rely on their platforms to preempt regulation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meta also has a history of recruiting small businesses to represent its interests, and Google and Meta threatened or prevented people in \u003ca href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/feb/18/time-to-reactivate-myspace-the-day-australia-woke-up-to-a-facebook-news-blackout\">Australia\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/how-the-google-news-blackout-was-avoided-1.7045601\">Canada\u003c/a>, and \u003ca href=\"https://blog.google/products/news/california-journalism-preservation-act-puts-news-ecosystem-at-risk/\">California\u003c/a> from seeing the news to oppose a demand that the companies pay to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2025/05/google-california-local-news/\">link to news websites\u003c/a>. An earlier, prominent instance of tech companies using their platforms to influence legislation came around the Stop Online Piracy Act and the PROTECT IP Act when major companies, including Google, organized to shut down their websites for a day in September 2012 to oppose those laws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mack thinks mobilizing users has been devastatingly effective, but companies probably do it sparingly because if they do it too often people will be more aware of how much control large tech companies have over people’s information.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’d call it anti-democratic, but I wouldn’t call it desperate, because, frankly, it mostly works,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Powerful companies typically combine traditional lobbying and strategies used by civil society organizations when regulatory pressures threaten their core business model, according to a \u003ca href=\"https://academic.oup.com/ser/article/21/4/1917/7202313\">2023 research paper\u003c/a> about corporate lobbying campaigns. Those tactics were historically associated with the fossil fuel, pharmaceutical and tobacco industries, but tech companies have innovated on and rejuvenated the lobbying form. They can do so more effectively because they can tap into user data and their platforms give them unmediated communication with customers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Companies typically recruit users to advance their policy initiatives when they sense a threat to their business and no longer believe conventional lobbying will be sufficient, said UCLA sociology professor Edward Walker, who studies how companies mobilize customers to speak out about legislation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it only works if users are motivated to speak out, such as when video game players fought efforts to regulate in-game violence, or when for-profit college students opposed a push by the Obama administration to keep them from receiving federal student aid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s important to know that these kinds of grassroots lobbying strategies, or user mobilization strategies, are a double-edged sword. It’s not a given that they’re always going to work in your favor,” he said. “If you do this in a scattershot way, you really increase the risk it’s going to backfire on you.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>For the record\u003c/strong>: An earlier version of this post misstated Uber and Lyft’s position on Prop. 22.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2025/09/google-lobbying/\">originally published on CalMatters\u003c/a> and was republished under the \u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/\">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives\u003c/a> license.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was originally published by \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/\">CalMatters\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/subscribe-to-calmatters/\">Sign up\u003c/a> for their newsletters.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In April, Rhode Island resident Navah Hopkins received a plea for her help to defeat legislation thousands of miles away in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ask came from Google, maker of the world’s most used web browser, Chrome. The tech giant sent a message to an email list that Hopkins and other small business owners were subscribed to. Google’s request: To sign a petition opposing \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab566\">Assembly Bill 566\u003c/a>, which would require browsers to provide users with a way to automatically tell websites not to share their personal information with third parties. The measure is sponsored by the California Privacy Protection Agency, which enforces state regulations on such sharing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In its email to Hopkins, Google claimed that the legislation would “hurt your ability to use online ads to reach customers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was intentionally misleading people that by this bill passing, they were going to lose out on all of these tools within Google (to advertise),” she told CalMatters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The outreach was particularly noteworthy because Google had not itself taken a public position on the bill. The tech giant was so quiet about its opposition that Assemblymember \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/legislators/josh-lowenthal-164206\">Josh Lowenthal\u003c/a>, the author of AB 566, did not know about Google’s email push until a CalMatters reporter asked. Lowenthal also said his office did not receive small business owners’ signatures or outreach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Google’s name wasn’t on the petition either; instead, the document was officially from the “Connected Commerce Council,” which the tech giant backs financially.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12036476\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/GettyImages-2166671481.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12036476\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/GettyImages-2166671481.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"706\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/GettyImages-2166671481.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/GettyImages-2166671481-800x552.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/GettyImages-2166671481-1020x703.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/GettyImages-2166671481-160x110.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Google logo is displayed in front of company headquarters during the Made By Google event on August 13, 2024 in Mountain View, California. Google announced new Pixel phones, watches and AI features at the event. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The largely behind-the-scenes campaign offers a glimpse into how the tech giant is working to preserve its grip on the online advertising market and how it attempts, without being seen, to shape policies in a state with one of the nation’s strictest privacy protection laws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Recruiting small businesses to represent the policy interests of a tech giant isn’t new. Last year, Google successfully blocked \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202320240ab3048\">a similar bill\u003c/a> — ultimately vetoed by Gov. Gavin Newsom — by adopting the same tactic, reaching out to small businesses via email lists, according to a message obtained by CalMatters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s no telling how effective Google’s lobbying on the measure has been this year, or how many people it successfully mobilized. Experts warn that the strategy could backfire if the people it reaches out to, like the small business owners, aren’t buying what the company is selling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But before the browser bill reached its final floor vote, Lowenthal amended it to delay the effective date until 2027 and to add liability protections for browser companies like Google.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked who advocated for that language, Lowenthal said he’d taken input from “colleagues and stakeholders” to shape up the “strongest possible bill.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With any bill that’s been vetoed before, it takes some give-and-take to get it across the finish line,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill cleared the Legislature and headed to the governor’s desk Thursday after this story was published.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Google did not respond to multiple requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Google ranked among the \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/data/2025/04/california-lobbying-spending-2024/\">most active lobbyists in California\u003c/a> last year, spending more to influence the opinions of elected officials \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/capitol/2024/11/google-lobbying-california/\">than it had in the previous 20 years combined\u003c/a>. The lobbying was aimed at battling AI regulation, local news funding requirements, and a prior version of the browser bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, it has disclosed pouring nearly $700,000 into lobbying state leaders on bills including AB 566. Google has also increased lobbying spending in many \u003ca href=\"https://www.openmarketsinstitute.org/publications/google-refines-50-state-lobby-strategy-austin-ahlman\">other statehouses\u003c/a>, according to the Open Markets Institute. With inaction in Congress, states have led the way in tech regulation in recent years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s hard to trace Google’s full influence when the company does not publicly share its position on bills like AB 566, instead paying groups like the California Chamber of Commerce and Connected Commerce Council to influence legislators on its behalf.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/082125_CA-Legislature_FG_CM_37-1024x682.jpg\" alt=\"A person, with white hair and wearing a gray suit, stands in front of a podium with a microphone on it while they speak.\">\u003cfigcaption>Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal at the dais during an Assembly floor session at the state Capitol in Sacramento on Aug. 21, 2025. \u003cem>(Fred Greaves for CalMatters)\u003c/em>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Google registered to lobby 17 bills this year that sought to do things like place \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab56\">warning labels on social media\u003c/a> or protect people from \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260sb503\">algorithms that make health care decisions\u003c/a>, but the company only publicly stated its position on one bill that sought to require\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab1043\"> online age verification\u003c/a>, according to\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/\"> state filings and Digital Democracy\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Google’s lobbying tactics, while not illegal, demonstrate the sway money has over policies, said Sean McMorris, the transparency, ethics, and accountability program manager at California Common Cause.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This type of activity … exemplifies the skewed playing field that we have to play on,” he said. “It’s important to report on and to point out these strategies and loopholes that money can afford you the privilege to engage in, and the public has every right to scrutinize whether that is just or not.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If Google really believes this bill shouldn’t become a law, its lobbyists should show up to testify at a public hearing, not behave in shadowy ways that undercut democracy, said Brandon Forester, an organizer for MediaJustice, a nonprofit that has been critical of the influence of of Big Tech companies and internet service providers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12001241\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/GETTYIMAGES-1411232503-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12001241\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/GETTYIMAGES-1411232503-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/GETTYIMAGES-1411232503-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/GETTYIMAGES-1411232503-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/GETTYIMAGES-1411232503-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/GETTYIMAGES-1411232503-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/GETTYIMAGES-1411232503-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/GETTYIMAGES-1411232503-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Google’s Bay View campus in Mountain View on June 16, 2022. \u003ccite>(Zhang Yi/VCG via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“None of us wants to enter a surveillance marketplace every time that we go on the internet,” he said. “Part of the reason they need to do the shadow lobbying is because the things that they want to do to achieve their infinite growth model is not good for the public.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>AB 566 is not the only threat Google faces to its grip on how people surf the web. A \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2025-09-02/google-chrome-decision\">judge ruled\u003c/a> last month that the company may no longer enter into exclusive distribution deals for Chrome or Google search. And Chrome faces new competition from a \u003ca href=\"https://www.platformer.news/ai-web-browsers-openai-perplexity-opera/?ref=platformer-newsletter\">number of AI-powered browsers entering the market\u003c/a>, reportedly to \u003ca href=\"https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/openai-release-web-browser-challenge-google-chrome-2025-07-09/\">soon include\u003c/a> one from ChatGPT maker OpenAI.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Onerous mandate or consumer convenience?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Under a 2018 state law, California businesses \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/technology/2025/08/companies-make-it-hard-to-delete-personal-data/\">must provide customers\u003c/a> with a way to forbid the sharing or sale of their personal information to businesses. AB 566 seeks to streamline that process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Browsers such as DuckDuckGo, Brave, and Firefox already have privacy features that, once enabled, \u003ca href=\"https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/global-privacy-control\">automatically send an opt-out signal\u003c/a> to each website the user goes to.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The California Chamber of Commerce opposes AB 566, arguing it represents an onerous mandate. The measure lacks clarity, regulates browsers that aren’t “consumer-facing” and is hard to implement, the trade association argued in a letter to lawmakers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Browsers and devices already compete to offer clear, effective privacy controls,” Ronak Dalami, a lobbyist for the chamber, told lawmakers in July.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A similar bill the Legislature passed last year would have required both web browsers and mobile operating systems to offer ways to automatically prohibit the sharing of a user’s personal information, but Gov. Gavin Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/AB-3048-Veto-Message.pdf\">vetoed\u003c/a> the bill because no major mobile operating system includes such an option.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To ensure the ongoing usability of mobile devices, it’s best if design questions are first addressed by developers, rather than by regulators,” Newsom said \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/AB-3048-Veto-Message.pdf\">in a veto message\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bianca Blomquist, California director of nonprofit Small Business Majority, which represents 85,000 small businesses nationwide, was among the business owners who received an email last year from Google, on a mailing list of businesses that participated in the company’s training program, Grow with Google. The letter argued that allowing people to easily stop companies from sharing their personal information would make it more expensive for small businesses to sell their products.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Blomquist was skeptical. And while Newsom’s veto message spoke of design risks, she said that most people she talks to “are more concerned about their data being shared than they are too many buttons flashing on a screen.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To Blomquist, the email is clear evidence that Google was “leveraging” the data it collected from partners for advocacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we find is that small business owners … and partner organizations oftentimes sign on to support or oppose legislation without having an understanding of what it does.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Connected Commerce Council\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The petition Google circulated this year was authored by \u003ca href=\"https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/30/connected-commerce-council-amazon-google-lobbying-00021801\">Connected Commerce Council\u003c/a>, or 3C, a lobbying group that in 2022 \u003ca href=\"https://connectedcouncil.org/statement-from-the-connected-commerce-council-on-behalf-of-15000-small-business-members-criticizing-the-senate-judiciarys-passage-of-the-american-innovation-and-choice-online-act/\">claimed to represent 15,000 small businesses\u003c/a> but lists Google and Amazon as \u003ca href=\"https://connectedcouncil.org/partners/\">funders and partners\u003c/a>. In 2022, Google and Amazon mobilized their users to fight anti-trust bills in Congress by encouraging them to sign a model online petition the council drafted. That year, the nonprofit published and later removed a membership directory of 5,000 small businesses, many of which told Politico \u003ca href=\"https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/30/connected-commerce-council-amazon-google-lobbying-00021801\">they were not members of the organization\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>This spring, the group sent a letter to California state lawmakers, arguing that the requirements proposed in AB 566 would cause small businesses to lose out on customer data and make their websites more expensive to operate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Implementing a sweeping experiment that would jeopardize small businesses’ success, limit Californians’ access to relevant products and services, and potentially disrupt access to free web content, is not a sensible way forward,” wrote Rob Retzlaff, executive director of the group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a virtual press conference last month, the organization put forward two California online business owners who oppose the legislation. The owners argued that the browser feature mandated in the bill could inadvertently drive away customers, would block them from sending targeted ads to users who opt out of having their personal information shared, and would make it impossible for customers who opted out to opt back in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If they opt out of one thing — maybe they just didn’t want … my weekly emails about moms connecting, but they want to have discounts — how are we going to segment that?” said Michelle Mak, owner of baby product store Mewl Baby.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Google did not report paying the commerce council any money to lobby on its behalf to the California secretary of state. But Google reported paying the California Chamber of Commerce, the face of its opposition, almost $100,000 to lobby this year. It also reported paying TechNet, which also registered its opposition, $2,500.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Connected Commerce Council spokesperson Jennifer Hodgkins declined to answer a list of questions from CalMatters, instead providing a statement pointing to the organization’s letters to the Legislature, press releases and statements from small business owners featured in its press conference.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Small business owners are deeply concerned about the impact AB 566 will have on their ability to advertise online, find new customers, and grow,” Hodgkins said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12052593\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/CA-state-capitol.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12052593\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/CA-state-capitol.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/CA-state-capitol.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/CA-state-capitol-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/CA-state-capitol-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The State Capitol of California in Sacramento, May 6, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQE)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>John Myers, a spokesperson for the California Chamber of Commerce, declined to answer a CalMatters question about the payments it received from Google.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But McMorris of Common Cause said Google’s payments to the chamber for lobbying should be “closely scrutinized.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If it’s not for (AB566), then what was it for?” he said. “That’s where the law gets murky, and you have these wink and nod relationships where both sides know how to play the game without explicitly saying, ‘This is how we are going to play the game.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Mobilizing users a unique tactic\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>It tracks that Google turned to small business owners to protect the company’s business model, said Jeremy Mack, director of the\u003ca href=\"http://phoenixprojectnow.com/\"> Phoenix Project\u003c/a>, a group that tries to draw attention to San Francisco Bay Area front organizations secretly funded by tech billionaires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mack said the practice is reminiscent of how Uber and Lyft mobilized people who use ride-hailing apps to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2024/07/prop-22-california-gig-work-law-upheld/\">support Proposition 22\u003c/a> and keep gig workers from being defined as employees instead of contractors, and tactics embraced by apartment landlords and realtor groups.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“It’s not surprising that Google would do this, but it’s definitely good to be able to flag this for people and put it on their radar,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike other industries seeking to influence policy, tech companies can mobilize users through their online platforms, said Austin Ahlman, a researcher who tracks Google lobbying efforts in state capitals for the Open Markets Institute. It’s part of a long pattern of tech companies using small businesses that rely on their platforms to preempt regulation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meta also has a history of recruiting small businesses to represent its interests, and Google and Meta threatened or prevented people in \u003ca href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/feb/18/time-to-reactivate-myspace-the-day-australia-woke-up-to-a-facebook-news-blackout\">Australia\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/how-the-google-news-blackout-was-avoided-1.7045601\">Canada\u003c/a>, and \u003ca href=\"https://blog.google/products/news/california-journalism-preservation-act-puts-news-ecosystem-at-risk/\">California\u003c/a> from seeing the news to oppose a demand that the companies pay to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2025/05/google-california-local-news/\">link to news websites\u003c/a>. An earlier, prominent instance of tech companies using their platforms to influence legislation came around the Stop Online Piracy Act and the PROTECT IP Act when major companies, including Google, organized to shut down their websites for a day in September 2012 to oppose those laws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mack thinks mobilizing users has been devastatingly effective, but companies probably do it sparingly because if they do it too often people will be more aware of how much control large tech companies have over people’s information.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’d call it anti-democratic, but I wouldn’t call it desperate, because, frankly, it mostly works,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Powerful companies typically combine traditional lobbying and strategies used by civil society organizations when regulatory pressures threaten their core business model, according to a \u003ca href=\"https://academic.oup.com/ser/article/21/4/1917/7202313\">2023 research paper\u003c/a> about corporate lobbying campaigns. Those tactics were historically associated with the fossil fuel, pharmaceutical and tobacco industries, but tech companies have innovated on and rejuvenated the lobbying form. They can do so more effectively because they can tap into user data and their platforms give them unmediated communication with customers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Companies typically recruit users to advance their policy initiatives when they sense a threat to their business and no longer believe conventional lobbying will be sufficient, said UCLA sociology professor Edward Walker, who studies how companies mobilize customers to speak out about legislation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it only works if users are motivated to speak out, such as when video game players fought efforts to regulate in-game violence, or when for-profit college students opposed a push by the Obama administration to keep them from receiving federal student aid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s important to know that these kinds of grassroots lobbying strategies, or user mobilization strategies, are a double-edged sword. It’s not a given that they’re always going to work in your favor,” he said. “If you do this in a scattershot way, you really increase the risk it’s going to backfire on you.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>For the record\u003c/strong>: An earlier version of this post misstated Uber and Lyft’s position on Prop. 22.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2025/09/google-lobbying/\">originally published on CalMatters\u003c/a> and was republished under the \u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/\">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives\u003c/a> license.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "California Extends Cap-and-Trade Program Aimed at Advancing State Climate Goals",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated 1 p.m., Saturday\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California will extend a key climate program under a bill state lawmakers passed Saturday, sending the measure to Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has championed it as a crucial tool to respond to the Trump administration’s environmental rollbacks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Democrat-dominated Legislature voted to reauthorize the state’s \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/climate-business-environment-pollution-california-air-resources-board-21d34adf68b5d612fbc37c3f10a13fef\">cap-and-trade program\u003c/a>, which is set to expire after 2030. Then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, signed a law authorizing the program in 2006, and it launched in 2013.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The program sets a declining limit on total planet-warming emissions in the state from major polluters. Companies must reduce their emissions, buy allowances from the state or other businesses, or fund projects aimed at offsetting their emissions. Money the state receives from the sales funds climate-change mitigation, affordable housing and transportation projects, as well as utility bill credits for Californians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom, a Democrat, and legislative leaders, who said months ago they would prioritize reauthorizing the program, almost ran out of time to introduce the proposal before the statehouse wraps for the year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“After months of hard work with the Legislature, we have agreed to historic reforms that will save money on your electric bills, stabilize gas supply, and slash toxic air pollution — all while fast-tracking California’s transition to a clean, green job-creating economy,” Newsom said after striking the deal this week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proposal would reauthorize the program through 2045, better align the declining cap on emissions with the state’s climate targets and potentially boost carbon-removal projects. It would also change the name to “cap and invest” to emphasize its funding of climate programs.[aside postID=news_12055786 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/250509-BeniciaRefinery-30-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg']The Legislature will vote on another bill committing annual funding from the program’s revenues. It includes $1 billion for the state’s \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/california-high-speed-rail-funding-federal-trump-efaabea020967ec42338c47bac863f4e\">long-delayed high-speed rail project\u003c/a>, $800 million for an affordable housing program, $250 million for community air protection programs and $1 billion for the Legislature to decide on annually.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The votes come as officials contend with balancing the state’s ambitious climate goals and the cost of living. California has some of the highest utility and \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/california-gas-prices-gavin-newsom-oil-profits-penalty-price-gouging-c13eeb714b903c753882752c435dbe63\">gas prices\u003c/a> in the country. Officials face increased pressure to \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/oil-gas-newsom-profits-prices-california-435d63922284a93130c40bac9558f093\">stabilize the cost and supply\u003c/a> of fuel amid the \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/california-refinery-oil-phillips-66-shut-down-bbea1826c0d5d472273f97ad86b870f8\">planned closures\u003c/a> of two oil refineries that make up roughly 18% of the state’s refining capacity, according to energy regulators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Proponents of the extension say it will give companies certainty over the program’s future. The state lost out on $3.6 billion in revenues over the past year and a half, largely due to uncertainty, according to a report from Clean and Prosperous California, a group of economists and lawyers supporting the program. Some environmentalists say the Trump administration’s attacks on climate programs, including the state’s first-in-the-nation \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/technology-california-air-resources-board-climate-and-environment-dc75c11280f85a8ab134cf392497be68\">ban on the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035\u003c/a>, added urgency to the reauthorization effort.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cap and trade is an important cost-effective tool for curbing carbon emissions, said Katelyn Roedner Sutter, the California state director for the Environmental Defense Fund.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Supporting this program and making this commitment into the future is extremely important — now more than ever,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But environmental justice advocates opposing the proposal say it doesn’t go far enough and lacks strong air quality protections for low-income Californians and communities of color more likely to live near major polluters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This really continues to allow big oil to reduce their emissions on paper instead of in real life,” said Asha Sharma, state policy manager at the Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>GOP lawmakers criticized the program, saying it would make living in California more expensive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Cap and trade has become cap and tax,” said James Gallagher, the Assembly Republican minority leader. “It’s going to raise everybody’s costs.”[aside postID=news_12053867 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/230921-VALERO-BENICIA-REFINERY-MD-01_qed.jpg']Cap and trade has increased gas costs by about 26 cents per gallon, according to a February report from the Independent Emissions Market Advisory Committee, a group of experts that analyzes the program. It has played “a very small role” in increasing electricity prices because the state’s grid isn’t very carbon intensive, the report says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawmakers and lobbyists criticized the governor and legislative leaders for rushing the deal through with little public input.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ben Golombek, executive vice president of the California Chamber of Commerce, said at a hearing this week that the Legislature should have taken more time “to do this right.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Democratic state Sen. Caroline Menjivar said it shouldn’t be par for the course for lawmakers to jam through bills without the opportunity for amendments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re expected to vote on it,” she said of Democrats. “If not, you’re seen to not be part of the team or not want to be a team player.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Menjivar ultimately voted to advance the bill out of committee.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 class=\"mb-0 pb-2 ap-font-bold\">Energy affordability and fuel supply\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The cap-and-trade bills are part of a sweeping package aimed at advancing the state’s energy transition and lowering costs for Californians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the bills would speed up permitting for oil production in Kern County, which proponents have hailed as a necessary response to planned refinery closures and critics have blasted as a threat to air quality.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another would increase requirements for air monitoring in areas overburdened by pollution and codify a bureau within the Justice Department created in 2018 to protect communities from environmental injustices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state could refill a fund that covers the cost of wildfire damage when utility equipment sparks a blaze. The bill would set up public financing to build electric utility projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawmakers will also vote on a measure allowing the state’s grid operator to partner with a regional group to manage power markets in western states. The bill aims to improve grid reliability. It would save ratepayers money because California would sell power to other states when it generates more than it needs and buy cheaper energy from out of state when necessary, the governor’s office said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated 1 p.m., Saturday\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California will extend a key climate program under a bill state lawmakers passed Saturday, sending the measure to Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has championed it as a crucial tool to respond to the Trump administration’s environmental rollbacks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Democrat-dominated Legislature voted to reauthorize the state’s \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/climate-business-environment-pollution-california-air-resources-board-21d34adf68b5d612fbc37c3f10a13fef\">cap-and-trade program\u003c/a>, which is set to expire after 2030. Then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, signed a law authorizing the program in 2006, and it launched in 2013.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The program sets a declining limit on total planet-warming emissions in the state from major polluters. Companies must reduce their emissions, buy allowances from the state or other businesses, or fund projects aimed at offsetting their emissions. Money the state receives from the sales funds climate-change mitigation, affordable housing and transportation projects, as well as utility bill credits for Californians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom, a Democrat, and legislative leaders, who said months ago they would prioritize reauthorizing the program, almost ran out of time to introduce the proposal before the statehouse wraps for the year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“After months of hard work with the Legislature, we have agreed to historic reforms that will save money on your electric bills, stabilize gas supply, and slash toxic air pollution — all while fast-tracking California’s transition to a clean, green job-creating economy,” Newsom said after striking the deal this week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proposal would reauthorize the program through 2045, better align the declining cap on emissions with the state’s climate targets and potentially boost carbon-removal projects. It would also change the name to “cap and invest” to emphasize its funding of climate programs.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The Legislature will vote on another bill committing annual funding from the program’s revenues. It includes $1 billion for the state’s \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/california-high-speed-rail-funding-federal-trump-efaabea020967ec42338c47bac863f4e\">long-delayed high-speed rail project\u003c/a>, $800 million for an affordable housing program, $250 million for community air protection programs and $1 billion for the Legislature to decide on annually.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The votes come as officials contend with balancing the state’s ambitious climate goals and the cost of living. California has some of the highest utility and \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/california-gas-prices-gavin-newsom-oil-profits-penalty-price-gouging-c13eeb714b903c753882752c435dbe63\">gas prices\u003c/a> in the country. Officials face increased pressure to \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/oil-gas-newsom-profits-prices-california-435d63922284a93130c40bac9558f093\">stabilize the cost and supply\u003c/a> of fuel amid the \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/california-refinery-oil-phillips-66-shut-down-bbea1826c0d5d472273f97ad86b870f8\">planned closures\u003c/a> of two oil refineries that make up roughly 18% of the state’s refining capacity, according to energy regulators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Proponents of the extension say it will give companies certainty over the program’s future. The state lost out on $3.6 billion in revenues over the past year and a half, largely due to uncertainty, according to a report from Clean and Prosperous California, a group of economists and lawyers supporting the program. Some environmentalists say the Trump administration’s attacks on climate programs, including the state’s first-in-the-nation \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/technology-california-air-resources-board-climate-and-environment-dc75c11280f85a8ab134cf392497be68\">ban on the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035\u003c/a>, added urgency to the reauthorization effort.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cap and trade is an important cost-effective tool for curbing carbon emissions, said Katelyn Roedner Sutter, the California state director for the Environmental Defense Fund.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Supporting this program and making this commitment into the future is extremely important — now more than ever,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But environmental justice advocates opposing the proposal say it doesn’t go far enough and lacks strong air quality protections for low-income Californians and communities of color more likely to live near major polluters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This really continues to allow big oil to reduce their emissions on paper instead of in real life,” said Asha Sharma, state policy manager at the Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>GOP lawmakers criticized the program, saying it would make living in California more expensive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Cap and trade has become cap and tax,” said James Gallagher, the Assembly Republican minority leader. “It’s going to raise everybody’s costs.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Cap and trade has increased gas costs by about 26 cents per gallon, according to a February report from the Independent Emissions Market Advisory Committee, a group of experts that analyzes the program. It has played “a very small role” in increasing electricity prices because the state’s grid isn’t very carbon intensive, the report says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawmakers and lobbyists criticized the governor and legislative leaders for rushing the deal through with little public input.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ben Golombek, executive vice president of the California Chamber of Commerce, said at a hearing this week that the Legislature should have taken more time “to do this right.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Democratic state Sen. Caroline Menjivar said it shouldn’t be par for the course for lawmakers to jam through bills without the opportunity for amendments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re expected to vote on it,” she said of Democrats. “If not, you’re seen to not be part of the team or not want to be a team player.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Menjivar ultimately voted to advance the bill out of committee.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 class=\"mb-0 pb-2 ap-font-bold\">Energy affordability and fuel supply\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The cap-and-trade bills are part of a sweeping package aimed at advancing the state’s energy transition and lowering costs for Californians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the bills would speed up permitting for oil production in Kern County, which proponents have hailed as a necessary response to planned refinery closures and critics have blasted as a threat to air quality.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another would increase requirements for air monitoring in areas overburdened by pollution and codify a bureau within the Justice Department created in 2018 to protect communities from environmental injustices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state could refill a fund that covers the cost of wildfire damage when utility equipment sparks a blaze. The bill would set up public financing to build electric utility projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawmakers will also vote on a measure allowing the state’s grid operator to partner with a regional group to manage power markets in western states. The bill aims to improve grid reliability. It would save ratepayers money because California would sell power to other states when it generates more than it needs and buy cheaper energy from out of state when necessary, the governor’s office said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>[This column was reported for Political Breakdown, a bimonthly newsletter offering analysis and context on Bay Area and California political news. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/newsletters/political-breakdown\">Click here to subscribe\u003c/a>.]\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Well before \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12054886/john-burton-architect-of-california-democratic-machine-dies-at-92\">John Burton died on Sunday\u003c/a>, an event marking the release of his memoir, \u003ca href=\"https://politics-prose.com/book/9798881809089?srsltid=AfmBOor1H3GOn268Vqjuo7VMyDymf48kEBZVeC9THd3CoEw_ahfojRj4\">\u003cem>I Yell Because I Care\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, was planned for Tuesday night. His death transformed a literary evening at the California Museum, a block from the Capitol, into a celebration of Burton’s life and legacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even with the end-of-session crush looming, attendance was essentially de rigueur for members following in Burton’s footsteps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really impossible to be here at this event and not feel the weight of loss of not having our friend, Mr. John Burton, with us,” Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas told the crowd. “He was family to all of us in public service. His presence, his voice, his heart filled every single room he entered.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The son of a farmworker and the first Assembly speaker from the Salinas Valley, Rivas praised Burton’s insistence on standing up for the little guy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“John was unapologetic. He was relentless. But he always used his power to fight for those with the least amount of power: Foster youth, farm workers, the poor, the overlooked, the voiceless,” Rivas said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Willie Brown, who was first elected to the state Assembly in 1964 along with Burton, was there to remember the friend he met in 1951.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“John Burton, in the world of politics, meant a lot. But in the world of friendship, he meant even more,” Brown said. “He was a very, very difficult friend to satisfy, sometimes almost impossible, but for all the right reasons.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12055433\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12055433\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_152-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_152-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_152-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_152-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown (center left) walks down O Street in downtown Sacramento toward the California Museum to attend a reception launching the late John Burton’s memoir, “I Yell Because I Care,” on Sept. 9, 2025. \u003ccite>(Louis Bryant III for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At 91, Brown has attended many funerals of his contemporaries. The former Assembly speaker joked about his longevity as he walked into the event.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have, for a long time, wanted to make sure that I’d be around to say goodbye to everybody I ever met. And so far, I’m reaching that goal,” he said. “From the group of people whom I started with in 1964, when there were 10 of us, there’s one.” That would be him.[aside postID=news_12055315 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/GettyImages-1415221422_qed.jpg']Burton’s daughter, Kimiko, remembered her father’s relentless focus on helping those who needed it most.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For him, it was helping the downtrodden and the underdog. He really felt an obligation to help people who didn’t have a voice, who don’t have lobbyists,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There was an expectation that Gov. Gavin Newsom would speak. He arrived but did not enter the courtyard where the program was underway. Instead, he was spotted just outside, talking quietly with Kimiko Burton.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Afterward, I asked her what he said. “I love you,” she said, choking back tears.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our fathers were friends when we were children, and so when I had anticipated that my dad would be here, I texted Gavin and I said, ‘My dad wants you here not because you’re the governor but because you’re Billy’s son,’” she said, referring to Newsom’s late father, former Judge Bill Newsom. “We were just telling stories about when we were young and when our dads were younger.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12055435\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12055435\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_686-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_686-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_686-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_686-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The memoir of the late John Burton displayed at the California Museum in Sacramento on Sept. 9, 2025. \u003ccite>(Louis Bryant III for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Burton name has long carried weight in California politics. I arrived in California in 1981, and it wasn’t long before Burton caught my attention. In 1982, Burton, then one of the city’s congressional representatives, announced he would not seek re-election, choosing instead to come home and deal with his addiction to cocaine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The following year, his older brother, Phil, a high-octane powerbroker in Washington, died suddenly of a heart attack. His widow, Sala Burton, replaced him in Congress. On her deathbed in 1987, Sala urged a young Nancy Pelosi to run for her seat in Congress to keep the Burton legacy alive. The rest, as they say, is history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The “Burton machine” wielded outsize influence on who represented San Francisco in both Washington, D.C. and Sacramento. Led by Phil, the Burtons mastered the art of gerrymandering — drawing districts to maximize the number of Democrats elected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12055437\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12055437\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_1000-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_1000-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_1000-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_1000-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas delivers remarks during the reception for the late John Burton’s memoir, “I Yell Because I Care,” at the California Museum in Sacramento on Sept. 9, 2025. \u003ccite>(Louis Bryant III for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At a time when critics say Democrats have lost touch with working-class and non-college-educated voters, Burton spent his entire career laser-focused on those who needed government’s help most.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2017, as he was stepping down as chair of the state Democratic Party, I asked Burton how he wanted to be remembered. After a long pause, he said:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That when I left Sacramento, poor people and blind, disabled and women on what they used to call welfare, had more money than they had when I came in,” Burton said, adding, “I just tried to do the best I could for people. If you’re in a position of power or influence, you take care of those who ain’t got it, who don’t have the power. They don’t have anybody but you or somebody fighting for them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another event celebrating Burton’s memoir is scheduled for Sept. 17 at 5:30 p.m. at Bimbo’s 365 Club in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>[This column was reported for Political Breakdown, a bimonthly newsletter offering analysis and context on Bay Area and California political news. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/newsletters/political-breakdown\">Click here to subscribe\u003c/a>.]\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Well before \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12054886/john-burton-architect-of-california-democratic-machine-dies-at-92\">John Burton died on Sunday\u003c/a>, an event marking the release of his memoir, \u003ca href=\"https://politics-prose.com/book/9798881809089?srsltid=AfmBOor1H3GOn268Vqjuo7VMyDymf48kEBZVeC9THd3CoEw_ahfojRj4\">\u003cem>I Yell Because I Care\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, was planned for Tuesday night. His death transformed a literary evening at the California Museum, a block from the Capitol, into a celebration of Burton’s life and legacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even with the end-of-session crush looming, attendance was essentially de rigueur for members following in Burton’s footsteps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really impossible to be here at this event and not feel the weight of loss of not having our friend, Mr. John Burton, with us,” Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas told the crowd. “He was family to all of us in public service. His presence, his voice, his heart filled every single room he entered.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The son of a farmworker and the first Assembly speaker from the Salinas Valley, Rivas praised Burton’s insistence on standing up for the little guy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“John was unapologetic. He was relentless. But he always used his power to fight for those with the least amount of power: Foster youth, farm workers, the poor, the overlooked, the voiceless,” Rivas said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Willie Brown, who was first elected to the state Assembly in 1964 along with Burton, was there to remember the friend he met in 1951.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“John Burton, in the world of politics, meant a lot. But in the world of friendship, he meant even more,” Brown said. “He was a very, very difficult friend to satisfy, sometimes almost impossible, but for all the right reasons.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12055433\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12055433\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_152-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_152-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_152-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_152-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown (center left) walks down O Street in downtown Sacramento toward the California Museum to attend a reception launching the late John Burton’s memoir, “I Yell Because I Care,” on Sept. 9, 2025. \u003ccite>(Louis Bryant III for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At 91, Brown has attended many funerals of his contemporaries. The former Assembly speaker joked about his longevity as he walked into the event.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have, for a long time, wanted to make sure that I’d be around to say goodbye to everybody I ever met. And so far, I’m reaching that goal,” he said. “From the group of people whom I started with in 1964, when there were 10 of us, there’s one.” That would be him.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Burton’s daughter, Kimiko, remembered her father’s relentless focus on helping those who needed it most.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For him, it was helping the downtrodden and the underdog. He really felt an obligation to help people who didn’t have a voice, who don’t have lobbyists,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There was an expectation that Gov. Gavin Newsom would speak. He arrived but did not enter the courtyard where the program was underway. Instead, he was spotted just outside, talking quietly with Kimiko Burton.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Afterward, I asked her what he said. “I love you,” she said, choking back tears.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our fathers were friends when we were children, and so when I had anticipated that my dad would be here, I texted Gavin and I said, ‘My dad wants you here not because you’re the governor but because you’re Billy’s son,’” she said, referring to Newsom’s late father, former Judge Bill Newsom. “We were just telling stories about when we were young and when our dads were younger.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12055435\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12055435\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_686-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_686-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_686-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_686-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The memoir of the late John Burton displayed at the California Museum in Sacramento on Sept. 9, 2025. \u003ccite>(Louis Bryant III for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Burton name has long carried weight in California politics. I arrived in California in 1981, and it wasn’t long before Burton caught my attention. In 1982, Burton, then one of the city’s congressional representatives, announced he would not seek re-election, choosing instead to come home and deal with his addiction to cocaine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The following year, his older brother, Phil, a high-octane powerbroker in Washington, died suddenly of a heart attack. His widow, Sala Burton, replaced him in Congress. On her deathbed in 1987, Sala urged a young Nancy Pelosi to run for her seat in Congress to keep the Burton legacy alive. The rest, as they say, is history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The “Burton machine” wielded outsize influence on who represented San Francisco in both Washington, D.C. and Sacramento. Led by Phil, the Burtons mastered the art of gerrymandering — drawing districts to maximize the number of Democrats elected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12055437\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12055437\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_1000-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_1000-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_1000-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/09092025_LBR3_JOHNBURTONMEMOIR_1000-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas delivers remarks during the reception for the late John Burton’s memoir, “I Yell Because I Care,” at the California Museum in Sacramento on Sept. 9, 2025. \u003ccite>(Louis Bryant III for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At a time when critics say Democrats have lost touch with working-class and non-college-educated voters, Burton spent his entire career laser-focused on those who needed government’s help most.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2017, as he was stepping down as chair of the state Democratic Party, I asked Burton how he wanted to be remembered. After a long pause, he said:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That when I left Sacramento, poor people and blind, disabled and women on what they used to call welfare, had more money than they had when I came in,” Burton said, adding, “I just tried to do the best I could for people. If you’re in a position of power or influence, you take care of those who ain’t got it, who don’t have the power. They don’t have anybody but you or somebody fighting for them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another event celebrating Burton’s memoir is scheduled for Sept. 17 at 5:30 p.m. at Bimbo’s 365 Club in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "fight-or-fix-mahan-gives-rare-rebuke-of-newsoms-combative-tactics",
"title": "Fight or Fix? Mahan Gives Rare Rebuke of Newsom’s Combative Tactics",
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"headTitle": "Fight or Fix? Mahan Gives Rare Rebuke of Newsom’s Combative Tactics | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>San José Mayor Matt Mahan’s public rebuke of Gov. Gavin Newsom for his combative, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12054858/newsom-trump-and-how-trolling-got-co-opted-by-the-powerful\">Trump-trolling\u003c/a> social media strategy has exposed a key fault line between California Democrats as they navigate Trump’s second term.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Should the party’s leaders \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12054630/in-picking-a-fight-with-trump-newsom-gambles-on-his-own-political-future\">focus on fighting\u003c/a> President Donald Trump and his attempts to undermine the state’s values, rules and institutions? Or should they tune out the White House and prioritize fixing pressing issues such as affordability and public safety? The choice to fight or fix could not only divide California’s current crop of Democratic leaders but also animate \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12054200/top-challengers-for-californias-gubernatorial-race\">future campaigns\u003c/a> for governor in 2026 and the presidency in 2028.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Democrats have to be really clear-eyed about where restraint is necessary and where we need leaders who are willing to sharpen their knives to confront Trump and his administration head-on,” Democratic strategist Trishala Vinnakota said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom has won praise from Democrats across the country for standing up to Trump — through lawsuits, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12053249/california-approves-redistricting-plan-now-its-up-to-voters\">campaign to redraw\u003c/a> California’s congressional districts and viral social media posts imitating the president. Mahan, like fellow Democratic mayor Daniel Lurie in San Francisco, has doubled down on a pragmatic approach centered on reducing street homelessness and crime — and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12023569/lurie-tiptoes-around-trump-as-sf-leaders-challenge-executive-orders\">avoiding partisan clashes over national issues\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Mahan went further recently, becoming one of the few Democrats to criticize Newsom’s social media approach. In an op-ed in the \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://sfstandard.com/opinion/2025/08/30/matt-mahan-gavin-newsom-trump-social/\">San Francisco Standard\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, Mahan took issue with a \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/govpressoffice/status/1958226910661767657?s=46\">post on social media platform X\u003c/a> from Newsom’s office that mocked Bed, Bath & Beyond after the retailer’s executive chairman criticized California. In an interview with KQED, Mahan called the online battles a “sugar high” that leaves voters hungry for improvements on kitchen-table issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12031248\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12031248\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250312-MATT-MAHAN-ON-PB-MD-04-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250312-MATT-MAHAN-ON-PB-MD-04-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250312-MATT-MAHAN-ON-PB-MD-04-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250312-MATT-MAHAN-ON-PB-MD-04-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250312-MATT-MAHAN-ON-PB-MD-04-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250312-MATT-MAHAN-ON-PB-MD-04-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250312-MATT-MAHAN-ON-PB-MD-04-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">San José Mayor Matt Mahan is interviewed for Political Breakdown at the KQED offices in San Francisco on March 13, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I think if Democrats believe that we’re going to retake the White House through internet memes and trolling, we’ve got another thing coming,” Mahan told KQED. “People want to know what concrete actions we are going to take that will improve their lives, particularly by making their lives safer and more affordable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Newsom spokesperson Tara Gallegos said, “There is no tension between good policy and effective communications strategies, including social media that speaks to the moment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’d ask Mayor Matt to spend his time less focused on the governor’s social media and his efforts to defend democracy, and instead focus on San José,” Gallegos said. “In the meantime, the governor will continue fighting for California.”[aside postID=news_12043418 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250529-SJARRESTSHELTERVOTE-22-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg']Throughout the summer, Newsom has escalated his political, legal and rhetorical fight against Trump and the Republican Party.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California has filed dozens of lawsuits against the administration and recently won a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12054322/judge-rules-trump-violated-law-by-sending-troops-to-los-angeles\">lower court decision\u003c/a> against Trump’s use of the National Guard in Los Angeles. Newsom has championed a November ballot measure, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12053140/california-lawmakers-pass-redistricting-plan-now-it-heads-to-voters\">Proposition 50\u003c/a>, to redraw congressional lines to benefit Democrats, a direct response to Republican gerrymandering in Texas. And his office has posted a daily barrage of all-caps posts and AI-generated memes on X that parody Trump’s posts on Truth Social.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom’s actions appear to have fulfilled a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12050346/will-newsoms-maps-bring-the-fight-democrats-desire\">desire\u003c/a> among Democratic voters for a more confrontational response to Trump. An \u003ca href=\"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9f06d6p8\">August survey\u003c/a> from the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies found Newsom’s approval rating has increased among California voters, who also approve of his role as a leading critic of Trump. And the governor has surged to the top of the 2028 Democratic primary field in recent polls from \u003ca href=\"https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/article/poll-gavin-newsom-leads-2028-democratic-primary-field-edges-out-trump-in-head-to-head-matchup-180307176.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAABOoeUxwleIU0-E0DFPvoOrp1peJWO1U1tsq4PnZ_loLGY4Ew0vRveRL2mq756aFhWVQ_e7wDgPS7Q_0-iQvd6vdLYNcgknsU4K1GsWTZbFGetBFLiK6NFPXlPVB2f2kZR32tX9UqrcFzFAqdJMY_OiekqmS9VMdK9Xp7Bo0D2kD\">Yahoo/YouGov\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://emersoncollegepolling.com/august-2025-national/\">Emerson College\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A former mayor who long argued that “localism is determinative” in realizing policy goals, Newsom said that his thinking on the political center of gravity shifted during the 2021 recall campaign. National conservative media outlets amplified the effort to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11888259/newsom-prevails-in-california-recall-election-holds-onto-job-as-governor\">remove him\u003c/a> from office, and Newsom beat back the recall by painting it as a Trump-led takeover of the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I came into that recall campaign still arguing that ‘all politics is local,’ I still had a romantic notion of that,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtQql1L7ZII\">Newsom said\u003c/a> last month at POLITICO’s California Policy Summit. “I didn’t fully appreciate how nationalized our politics had become. In so many ways, that shape-shifted a lot of what we’re doing and who I am today.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12052449\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12052449\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/GavinNewsomSpeechGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/GavinNewsomSpeechGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/GavinNewsomSpeechGetty-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/GavinNewsomSpeechGetty-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gov. Gavin Newsom departs after speaking about the “Election Rigging Response Act” at a press conference at the Democracy Center, Japanese American National Museum on Aug. 14, 2025, in Los Angeles, California. Newsom spoke about a possible California referendum on redistricting to counter the legislative effort to add five Republican House seats in the state of Texas. \u003ccite>(Mario Tama/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The notion that all politics are no longer local is what Mahan called “the respectful, philosophic disagreement that the governor and I have.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is certainly true that we are now in a national media environment and that our national politics and the polarization that we’re seeing nationally has trickled down to the local level,” Mahan said. “While that is true and while one’s poll numbers can certainly be boosted in a blue state like California by trolling Trump all day online, I have to question where that leaves us as a country, and I think that ultimately the way to save our democracy is to make our government work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Next year’s race for governor could be framed by voters’ preference for a fighter or a fixer. When \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101910873/california-governors-race-shifts-as-harris-kounalakis-say-theyre-not-running\">\u003cem>KQED Forum\u003c/em>\u003c/a> asked listeners last month what they wanted in the next leader of the state, most responses split neatly along those lines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Whoever succeeds in the CA Governors race will need to use the term ‘California Republic’ to express the sanctuary of democracy we are, and wield power at the level Governor Newsom has hinted at, but even more, to establish California as the bulwark against anti-democratic authoritarianism,” Michael Kowalczyk wrote. “Next California Governor requirement in this era: Newsom-and-then-some.”[aside postID=news_12053249 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/Redistricting-Battle_CalMatters_jpg.jpg']Anthony Sacco said that approach was not appealing to him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t want a ‘fighter’ for governor,” he wrote. “As Gavin Newsom’s conduct demonstrates, too often being a ‘fighter’ means seeking media coverage only for the purpose of advancing their political careers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To be sure, Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11993611/newsom-to-quadruple-chp-deployment-in-oakland-ramping-up-states-policing-role\">has deployed\u003c/a> California Highway Patrol officers to reduce street crime and signed a landmark reform of the state’s environmental law in June to spur more housing production. Likewise, the city of San José has joined lawsuits against the Trump administration, and Mahan has \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/07/18/opinion-deporting-the-parents-of-young-citizens-kills-their-dreams-and-our-future/\">openly criticized\u003c/a> the president’s deportation policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Mahan’s tenure as mayor has been defined by centrist pragmatism. He cruised to re-election last year by touting a focus on reducing unsheltered homelessness and crime and cleaning the streets of the state’s third-largest city. While Mahan has sparred often with local progressives (and Newsom, during last year’s campaign over tough-on-crime \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12012656/proposition-36-californias-newest-tough-on-crime-measure-appears-headed-for-victory\">Proposition 36\u003c/a>), he has largely avoided partisan fights and rarely comments on headlines from Washington.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His platform of “common-sense” politics was echoed by Daniel Lurie, who won San Francisco’s mayoral race in 2024 and has received \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12049764/voters-approve-of-mayor-lurie-but-what-about-his-social-media\">approval ratings\u003c/a> over 70% months in the job. Lurie, too, has steered clear of talking about Trump and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12048631/san-francisco-mayor-daniel-lurie-is-all-over-instagram-is-he-saying-enough\">instead\u003c/a> has trumpeted business openings and economic recovery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vinnakota, who ran mayoral campaigns for Lurie in San Francisco and Loren Taylor in Oakland, said the limits of a mayor’s power, the nonpartisan nature of their role and the consequences of incurring Trump’s wrath can partially explain why Lurie and Mahan have not adopted Newsom’s strategy of confrontation with the president.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Mayors are incentivized to be more pragmatic, even cautious, like Lurie and Mahan have been in their rhetoric,” Vinnakota said. “But the challenge for these mayors is that pragmatism in this moment, for a lot of Democrats, can look like appeasement.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12036986\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12036986\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-BARBARA-LEE-PRESSER-MD-04-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-BARBARA-LEE-PRESSER-MD-04-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-BARBARA-LEE-PRESSER-MD-04-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-BARBARA-LEE-PRESSER-MD-04-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-BARBARA-LEE-PRESSER-MD-04-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-BARBARA-LEE-PRESSER-MD-04-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-BARBARA-LEE-PRESSER-MD-04-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oakland Mayor-elect Barbara Lee holds a press conference in Oakland on April 21, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But in Oakland, newly elected Mayor Barbara Lee has \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12055131/oakland-officials-are-preparing-for-trumps-possible-national-guard-deployment\">charted\u003c/a> a slightly different path. While Lee has focused much of her early work on homelessness and blight, she held a press conference last month to respond to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12052249/amid-trumps-dc-takeover-oakland-and-other-very-bad-cities-push-back-on-threats\">Trump’s bashing\u003c/a> of Oakland as he hinted at deploying National Guard troops to cities beyond Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Right now we have to maintain our unified posture and make sure we protect everybody — safe, secure — keep the peace, and push back and resist what is taking place,” Lee told \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101911163/ask-your-mayor-oaklands-barbara-lee\">KQED Forum\u003c/a> this week. “We have to continue, though, at the same time, work on making our city better.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The November election will bring new tests for the Democratic pragmatists and pugilists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom is building his Proposition 50 campaign to mirror his successful anti-recall effort, with the hope that Democratic voters will prioritize breaking GOP control in the House of Representatives over keeping independently-drawn congressional lines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12035111\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12035111\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250408-SanJoseSpecialElection-17-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250408-SanJoseSpecialElection-17-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250408-SanJoseSpecialElection-17-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250408-SanJoseSpecialElection-17-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250408-SanJoseSpecialElection-17-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250408-SanJoseSpecialElection-17-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250408-SanJoseSpecialElection-17-BL-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mayor Matt Mahan speaks with a reporter during an election night party for Matthew Quevedo, San José Council District 3 candidate, in San José on April 8, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, in Mahan’s backyard, Santa Clara County voters will decide on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12051250/santa-clara-county-voters-could-pay-more-sales-tax-due-to-trump-cuts\">Measure A\u003c/a>, a sales tax increase that supporters are billing as an opportunity to push back against Trump for his social safety net cuts that will slice $500 million from the county budget next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mahan said he’ll vote for Proposition 50 but won’t campaign for it. He is undecided on Measure A, explaining his support would be contingent on the county promising to fund more of his priorities — including supportive services for people in homeless shelters and inpatient treatment facilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Asked about the anti-Trump messaging likely to propel the two November measures, Mahan said he understood “the cathartic value of pushing back against an administration that is making certain policy decisions that fly in the face of what I think are pretty dominant values in California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At the same time … we need to get beyond the performative and the symbolic and what may feel cathartic to the thing that I actually hear every day from residents, which is ‘I want government to make my life better,’” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Newsom’s popularity has surged as he has battled with President Donald Trump. But San José Mayor says ‘trolling Trump’ won’t be key to success for Democrats.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>San José Mayor Matt Mahan’s public rebuke of Gov. Gavin Newsom for his combative, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12054858/newsom-trump-and-how-trolling-got-co-opted-by-the-powerful\">Trump-trolling\u003c/a> social media strategy has exposed a key fault line between California Democrats as they navigate Trump’s second term.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Should the party’s leaders \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12054630/in-picking-a-fight-with-trump-newsom-gambles-on-his-own-political-future\">focus on fighting\u003c/a> President Donald Trump and his attempts to undermine the state’s values, rules and institutions? Or should they tune out the White House and prioritize fixing pressing issues such as affordability and public safety? The choice to fight or fix could not only divide California’s current crop of Democratic leaders but also animate \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12054200/top-challengers-for-californias-gubernatorial-race\">future campaigns\u003c/a> for governor in 2026 and the presidency in 2028.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Democrats have to be really clear-eyed about where restraint is necessary and where we need leaders who are willing to sharpen their knives to confront Trump and his administration head-on,” Democratic strategist Trishala Vinnakota said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom has won praise from Democrats across the country for standing up to Trump — through lawsuits, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12053249/california-approves-redistricting-plan-now-its-up-to-voters\">campaign to redraw\u003c/a> California’s congressional districts and viral social media posts imitating the president. Mahan, like fellow Democratic mayor Daniel Lurie in San Francisco, has doubled down on a pragmatic approach centered on reducing street homelessness and crime — and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12023569/lurie-tiptoes-around-trump-as-sf-leaders-challenge-executive-orders\">avoiding partisan clashes over national issues\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Mahan went further recently, becoming one of the few Democrats to criticize Newsom’s social media approach. In an op-ed in the \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://sfstandard.com/opinion/2025/08/30/matt-mahan-gavin-newsom-trump-social/\">San Francisco Standard\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, Mahan took issue with a \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/govpressoffice/status/1958226910661767657?s=46\">post on social media platform X\u003c/a> from Newsom’s office that mocked Bed, Bath & Beyond after the retailer’s executive chairman criticized California. In an interview with KQED, Mahan called the online battles a “sugar high” that leaves voters hungry for improvements on kitchen-table issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12031248\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12031248\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250312-MATT-MAHAN-ON-PB-MD-04-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250312-MATT-MAHAN-ON-PB-MD-04-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250312-MATT-MAHAN-ON-PB-MD-04-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250312-MATT-MAHAN-ON-PB-MD-04-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250312-MATT-MAHAN-ON-PB-MD-04-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250312-MATT-MAHAN-ON-PB-MD-04-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/250312-MATT-MAHAN-ON-PB-MD-04-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">San José Mayor Matt Mahan is interviewed for Political Breakdown at the KQED offices in San Francisco on March 13, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I think if Democrats believe that we’re going to retake the White House through internet memes and trolling, we’ve got another thing coming,” Mahan told KQED. “People want to know what concrete actions we are going to take that will improve their lives, particularly by making their lives safer and more affordable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Newsom spokesperson Tara Gallegos said, “There is no tension between good policy and effective communications strategies, including social media that speaks to the moment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’d ask Mayor Matt to spend his time less focused on the governor’s social media and his efforts to defend democracy, and instead focus on San José,” Gallegos said. “In the meantime, the governor will continue fighting for California.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Throughout the summer, Newsom has escalated his political, legal and rhetorical fight against Trump and the Republican Party.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California has filed dozens of lawsuits against the administration and recently won a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12054322/judge-rules-trump-violated-law-by-sending-troops-to-los-angeles\">lower court decision\u003c/a> against Trump’s use of the National Guard in Los Angeles. Newsom has championed a November ballot measure, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12053140/california-lawmakers-pass-redistricting-plan-now-it-heads-to-voters\">Proposition 50\u003c/a>, to redraw congressional lines to benefit Democrats, a direct response to Republican gerrymandering in Texas. And his office has posted a daily barrage of all-caps posts and AI-generated memes on X that parody Trump’s posts on Truth Social.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom’s actions appear to have fulfilled a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12050346/will-newsoms-maps-bring-the-fight-democrats-desire\">desire\u003c/a> among Democratic voters for a more confrontational response to Trump. An \u003ca href=\"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9f06d6p8\">August survey\u003c/a> from the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies found Newsom’s approval rating has increased among California voters, who also approve of his role as a leading critic of Trump. And the governor has surged to the top of the 2028 Democratic primary field in recent polls from \u003ca href=\"https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/article/poll-gavin-newsom-leads-2028-democratic-primary-field-edges-out-trump-in-head-to-head-matchup-180307176.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAABOoeUxwleIU0-E0DFPvoOrp1peJWO1U1tsq4PnZ_loLGY4Ew0vRveRL2mq756aFhWVQ_e7wDgPS7Q_0-iQvd6vdLYNcgknsU4K1GsWTZbFGetBFLiK6NFPXlPVB2f2kZR32tX9UqrcFzFAqdJMY_OiekqmS9VMdK9Xp7Bo0D2kD\">Yahoo/YouGov\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://emersoncollegepolling.com/august-2025-national/\">Emerson College\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A former mayor who long argued that “localism is determinative” in realizing policy goals, Newsom said that his thinking on the political center of gravity shifted during the 2021 recall campaign. National conservative media outlets amplified the effort to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11888259/newsom-prevails-in-california-recall-election-holds-onto-job-as-governor\">remove him\u003c/a> from office, and Newsom beat back the recall by painting it as a Trump-led takeover of the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I came into that recall campaign still arguing that ‘all politics is local,’ I still had a romantic notion of that,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtQql1L7ZII\">Newsom said\u003c/a> last month at POLITICO’s California Policy Summit. “I didn’t fully appreciate how nationalized our politics had become. In so many ways, that shape-shifted a lot of what we’re doing and who I am today.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12052449\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12052449\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/GavinNewsomSpeechGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/GavinNewsomSpeechGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/GavinNewsomSpeechGetty-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/GavinNewsomSpeechGetty-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gov. Gavin Newsom departs after speaking about the “Election Rigging Response Act” at a press conference at the Democracy Center, Japanese American National Museum on Aug. 14, 2025, in Los Angeles, California. Newsom spoke about a possible California referendum on redistricting to counter the legislative effort to add five Republican House seats in the state of Texas. \u003ccite>(Mario Tama/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The notion that all politics are no longer local is what Mahan called “the respectful, philosophic disagreement that the governor and I have.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is certainly true that we are now in a national media environment and that our national politics and the polarization that we’re seeing nationally has trickled down to the local level,” Mahan said. “While that is true and while one’s poll numbers can certainly be boosted in a blue state like California by trolling Trump all day online, I have to question where that leaves us as a country, and I think that ultimately the way to save our democracy is to make our government work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Next year’s race for governor could be framed by voters’ preference for a fighter or a fixer. When \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101910873/california-governors-race-shifts-as-harris-kounalakis-say-theyre-not-running\">\u003cem>KQED Forum\u003c/em>\u003c/a> asked listeners last month what they wanted in the next leader of the state, most responses split neatly along those lines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Whoever succeeds in the CA Governors race will need to use the term ‘California Republic’ to express the sanctuary of democracy we are, and wield power at the level Governor Newsom has hinted at, but even more, to establish California as the bulwark against anti-democratic authoritarianism,” Michael Kowalczyk wrote. “Next California Governor requirement in this era: Newsom-and-then-some.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Anthony Sacco said that approach was not appealing to him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t want a ‘fighter’ for governor,” he wrote. “As Gavin Newsom’s conduct demonstrates, too often being a ‘fighter’ means seeking media coverage only for the purpose of advancing their political careers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To be sure, Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11993611/newsom-to-quadruple-chp-deployment-in-oakland-ramping-up-states-policing-role\">has deployed\u003c/a> California Highway Patrol officers to reduce street crime and signed a landmark reform of the state’s environmental law in June to spur more housing production. Likewise, the city of San José has joined lawsuits against the Trump administration, and Mahan has \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/07/18/opinion-deporting-the-parents-of-young-citizens-kills-their-dreams-and-our-future/\">openly criticized\u003c/a> the president’s deportation policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Mahan’s tenure as mayor has been defined by centrist pragmatism. He cruised to re-election last year by touting a focus on reducing unsheltered homelessness and crime and cleaning the streets of the state’s third-largest city. While Mahan has sparred often with local progressives (and Newsom, during last year’s campaign over tough-on-crime \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12012656/proposition-36-californias-newest-tough-on-crime-measure-appears-headed-for-victory\">Proposition 36\u003c/a>), he has largely avoided partisan fights and rarely comments on headlines from Washington.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His platform of “common-sense” politics was echoed by Daniel Lurie, who won San Francisco’s mayoral race in 2024 and has received \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12049764/voters-approve-of-mayor-lurie-but-what-about-his-social-media\">approval ratings\u003c/a> over 70% months in the job. Lurie, too, has steered clear of talking about Trump and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12048631/san-francisco-mayor-daniel-lurie-is-all-over-instagram-is-he-saying-enough\">instead\u003c/a> has trumpeted business openings and economic recovery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vinnakota, who ran mayoral campaigns for Lurie in San Francisco and Loren Taylor in Oakland, said the limits of a mayor’s power, the nonpartisan nature of their role and the consequences of incurring Trump’s wrath can partially explain why Lurie and Mahan have not adopted Newsom’s strategy of confrontation with the president.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Mayors are incentivized to be more pragmatic, even cautious, like Lurie and Mahan have been in their rhetoric,” Vinnakota said. “But the challenge for these mayors is that pragmatism in this moment, for a lot of Democrats, can look like appeasement.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12036986\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12036986\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-BARBARA-LEE-PRESSER-MD-04-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-BARBARA-LEE-PRESSER-MD-04-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-BARBARA-LEE-PRESSER-MD-04-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-BARBARA-LEE-PRESSER-MD-04-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-BARBARA-LEE-PRESSER-MD-04-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-BARBARA-LEE-PRESSER-MD-04-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250421-BARBARA-LEE-PRESSER-MD-04-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oakland Mayor-elect Barbara Lee holds a press conference in Oakland on April 21, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But in Oakland, newly elected Mayor Barbara Lee has \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12055131/oakland-officials-are-preparing-for-trumps-possible-national-guard-deployment\">charted\u003c/a> a slightly different path. While Lee has focused much of her early work on homelessness and blight, she held a press conference last month to respond to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12052249/amid-trumps-dc-takeover-oakland-and-other-very-bad-cities-push-back-on-threats\">Trump’s bashing\u003c/a> of Oakland as he hinted at deploying National Guard troops to cities beyond Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Right now we have to maintain our unified posture and make sure we protect everybody — safe, secure — keep the peace, and push back and resist what is taking place,” Lee told \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101911163/ask-your-mayor-oaklands-barbara-lee\">KQED Forum\u003c/a> this week. “We have to continue, though, at the same time, work on making our city better.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The November election will bring new tests for the Democratic pragmatists and pugilists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom is building his Proposition 50 campaign to mirror his successful anti-recall effort, with the hope that Democratic voters will prioritize breaking GOP control in the House of Representatives over keeping independently-drawn congressional lines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12035111\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12035111\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250408-SanJoseSpecialElection-17-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250408-SanJoseSpecialElection-17-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250408-SanJoseSpecialElection-17-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250408-SanJoseSpecialElection-17-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250408-SanJoseSpecialElection-17-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250408-SanJoseSpecialElection-17-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250408-SanJoseSpecialElection-17-BL-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mayor Matt Mahan speaks with a reporter during an election night party for Matthew Quevedo, San José Council District 3 candidate, in San José on April 8, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, in Mahan’s backyard, Santa Clara County voters will decide on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12051250/santa-clara-county-voters-could-pay-more-sales-tax-due-to-trump-cuts\">Measure A\u003c/a>, a sales tax increase that supporters are billing as an opportunity to push back against Trump for his social safety net cuts that will slice $500 million from the county budget next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mahan said he’ll vote for Proposition 50 but won’t campaign for it. He is undecided on Measure A, explaining his support would be contingent on the county promising to fund more of his priorities — including supportive services for people in homeless shelters and inpatient treatment facilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Asked about the anti-Trump messaging likely to propel the two November measures, Mahan said he understood “the cathartic value of pushing back against an administration that is making certain policy decisions that fly in the face of what I think are pretty dominant values in California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At the same time … we need to get beyond the performative and the symbolic and what may feel cathartic to the thing that I actually hear every day from residents, which is ‘I want government to make my life better,’” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "trumps-tectonic-shift-on-homelessness-could-have-dire-impacts-in-california",
"title": "Trump’s ‘Tectonic Shift’ on Homelessness Is Sending Shockwaves Across California",
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"headTitle": "Trump’s ‘Tectonic Shift’ on Homelessness Is Sending Shockwaves Across California | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Wearing a fistful of army rings, Bill Wade pulled his green beret from a shelf crammed with military memorabilia. As he held it in his hands, he read the U.S. Army Special Forces motto on the patch: De Oppresso Liber, in his words, “Hero of the Oppressed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wade’s time in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/vietnam\">Vietnam\u003c/a> is a source of pride, but more than half a century later, the 74-year-old still carries its scars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a teenager, the army provided him with an escape from an abusive foster father. Later, it gave him structure and purpose. But his 12 years of service also left him with PTSD, a shattered jaw that still aches and a jar of his own teeth, which fell out over the years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For over a decade, Wade lived in his truck, doing stints as a bouncer and renting rooms when he could. “It was a weird life,” he said, “a terrible life back then.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, six years ago, he landed a small studio apartment in Fremont that he shares with his cat, Libby.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Having a place to live hasn’t relieved his pain, physical or emotional, but it’s put him in a better place to tend those wounds. “Now I have a place to come home to,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wade’s path from years of instability to this small sanctuary reflects the philosophy guiding California’s homelessness policy, which prioritizes getting people into permanent housing with as few barriers as possible. Or, as Alex Visotzky of the National Alliance to End Homelessness puts it, “The very simple idea that the immediate solution to someone being homeless is a home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12053757\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12053757\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01757_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01757_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01757_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01757_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">William Wade, a formerly homeless veteran housed through the HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program, shows his dog tags at his Laguna Commons apartment in Fremont on Aug. 20, 2025. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This approach, known as Housing First, has shaped the federal response to homelessness for two decades, and California doubled down in 2016 by \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=WIC§ionNum=8255.\">requiring state-funded programs\u003c/a> to follow its principles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now the Trump administration is trying to scrap it. In late July, the president \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12049734/newsoms-office-blasts-trumps-homelessness-order-as-a-harmful-imitation\">issued an executive order\u003c/a> directing federal agencies to stop funding Housing First programs, calling them a failure and turning a California mandate into a liability.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The order is the culmination of a backlash that’s been brewing for years — both in California and across the country — as the number of people on the streets keeps ticking up even as the spending on homelessness grows.[aside postID=news_12049734 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/241203-FresnoCampingBan-25-BL_qed.jpg']The debate over Housing First hinges on a clash over both causes and solutions. Is homelessness the result of rampant drug use and untreated mental illness, or of deeper structural forces like sky-high rents, poverty and racism? Should housing be used as a reward for sobriety and treatment, or provided first, as the foundation for recovery? And, perhaps more fundamentally, should housing be a human right?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The pendulum is swinging back,” said Paul Webster, a California-based fellow with the Cicero Institute, the Texas-based think tank leading the ideological charge against Housing First. “We have to balance the provision of housing with some kind of way to help people get better.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What the federal pullback will mean in California isn’t clear. Local officials are awaiting guidance on whether and how they’ll be able to tap federal dollars. Jonathan Russell, who runs homelessness services for Alameda County, where Wade lives, called it a “tectonic shift” that has left local agencies caught between contradictory policies. “There’s a lot of unknowns,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, the county’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.hud.gov/sites/dfiles/CPD/documents/CoC/CoC-2024-CA_Press.pdf\">main federal homelessness-related grant\u003c/a> totaled $56 million, and nearly 80% of that went to permanent housing. If that funding doesn’t come through this year and he can’t find a way to make it up, Russell said, as many as 1,400 people in Alameda County alone could lose their rental assistance.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Million-dollar Murray\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Wade spent years in and out of homelessness before a fellow vet suggested he turn to the VA for help. He started seeing a psychiatrist and secured a housing voucher through a federal program that specializes in helping homeless veterans. But he still hadn’t found an apartment that would accept it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That changed after a lucky encounter with a DMV worker. He was applying for a new driver’s license with a veteran designation when the woman behind the counter asked for his address. “I don’t live nowhere,” he recalls telling her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12053756\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12053756\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01683_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01683_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01683_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01683_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A family photo of William Wade, his ex-wife, and their now deceased child sits on a shelf in Wade’s Laguna Commons apartment in Fremont on Aug. 20, 2025. William Wade is a formerly homeless veteran housed through the HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Her son happened to be a veteran who’d been in the same position, and she connected Wade with staff at an apartment building in Fremont for people exiting homelessness. Within weeks, Wade said he was able to move into his own studio there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was fantastic,” he said. “I couldn’t believe it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When proponents of Housing First point to the approach’s success, they often highlight the very program that helped Wade get into housing. Launched in 2008 under the George W. Bush Administration, the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing, or HUD-VASH, offers participants housing vouchers with few strings attached.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Participants put about a third of their income toward rent, and the rest is covered by the voucher. Case managers help connect the veterans with optional services like health care, mental health treatment and substance use counseling.[aside postID=news_12051236 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250626-GRANTSPASSDECISIONANNI-03-BL-KQED.jpg']The program is credited with helping contribute to a \u003ca href=\"https://news.va.gov/137562/veteran-homelessness-reaches-record-low-2023/\">55% drop in homelessness\u003c/a> among veterans nationwide since 2010, even as overall homelessness \u003ca href=\"https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2024-AHAR-Part-1.pdf\">climbed over 20%\u003c/a> during that time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was the story of another veteran that first brought Housing First into the mainstream. Murray Barr was an ex-marine who drank himself to death on the streets of Reno, Nevada. In a 2006 \u003ca href=\"https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/02/13/million-dollar-murray\">\u003cem>New Yorker \u003c/em>article\u003c/a>\u003cem>, \u003c/em>Malcolm Gladwell used Barr’s repeated ER visits and rehab stays to illustrate the high cost of homelessness and to make the case for a more economical approach: permanent supportive housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around the country, journalists, politicians and nonprofits seized on the “Million-Dollar Murray” narrative, galvanizing support for the Housing First strategy with its cost-saving logic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gladwell first heard Barr’s story not from a liberal academic or housing advocate, but from Philip Mangano, who Bush appointed to lead the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness in 2002.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His idea was radical: Take the most difficult cases, the nation’s Murray Barrs, and hand them the keys to an apartment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before Mangano ushered in the era of Housing First, the typical approach to getting people off the streets was intuitive, not guided by research, according to University of Southern California professor Benjamin Henwood, who studies homelessness policy. In hindsight, it can be seen as a “treatment first” or “housing readiness” strategy that operated like a reward system, providing housing to those who could meet a series of requirements as they graduated from shelter to temporary to more permanent placements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12053760\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12053760\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02019_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02019_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02019_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02019_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A laundry room is featured at the Laguna Commons supportive housing in Fremont on Aug. 20, 2025. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Folks had to prove all along the way … that they were ready for housing,” said Vivian Wan, the CEO of Abode Services, which operates the building where Wade lives. “If they did well and followed all the rules and were good tenants in transitional housing, then they got the golden ticket to permanent supportive housing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Success required staying sober, getting mental healthcare, drug treatment, making curfew or meeting with a case manager. As a result, chronically unhoused people with substance use or mental health issues often flunked out of programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around the country, people started experimenting with a different approach that prioritized housing. New York City-based psychologist Sam Tsemberis was the first to rigorously study the model and coin the term: Housing First.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the early ’90s, Tsemberis launched a program that targeted people who’d failed out of previous programs and placed them in apartments with no requirement to get clean or enter treatment and no time limit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These were typically very significantly impaired people,” Wan said. “Folks who were really very vulnerable had acute mental health needs across the board.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After five years, \u003ca href=\"https://psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ps.51.4.487\">88% of the participants were still housed\u003c/a>, compared to 47% of residents in the city’s residential treatment system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other research showed promising results, too. “The people who you gave housing to actually stayed in that housing, and they stopped going to the emergency room, and they stopped getting arrested, whereas the other folks continue to cycle through all these other institutions,” Henwood said. “That’s what got the attention of the Bush Administration.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The intent, Mangano told Gladwell, was to invest in solutions “that actually end homelessness.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Evolution and backlash\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Over time, as Housing First became the country’s homelessness policy north star, the term evolved into a catch-all, blurring what it actually entails.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It sort of lost a bit of its meaning along the way,” Henwood said. “And I think part of that made it an easy target for where we are today.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across the country, there are now \u003ca href=\"https://files.hudexchange.info/reports/published/CoC_HIC_NatlTerrDC_2024.pdf\">some 400,000 units\u003c/a> of permanent supportive housing nationwide, up 32% in the \u003ca href=\"https://files.hudexchange.info/reports/published/CoC_HIC_NatlTerrDC_2014.pdf\">last decade\u003c/a>. In California, the number rose 73% to \u003ca href=\"https://files.hudexchange.info/reports/published/CoC_HIC_NatlTerrDC_2024.pdf\">around 79,000\u003c/a>. While some programs hew to Tsemberis’ model, with its clear set of standards, many more employ the approach loosely. Today, it’s shorthand for simply providing housing with few preconditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12053763\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12053763\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02179_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02179_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02179_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02179_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Laguna Commons supportive housing stands on 41152 Fremont Blvd., in Fremont, on Aug. 20, 2025. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And as permanent supportive housing has become the primary tool for ending homelessness, critics see its limitations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Wade imagines he’ll live in his studio apartment for the rest of his life, the evidence shows permanent supportive housing doesn’t work for everybody. About one in five people will struggle to keep their apartments, Henwood said, noting it’s difficult to predict who that will be. People with serious mental health or drug issues might stay housed, while others who appear stable get evicted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stephen Eide, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, argues that while certain Housing First programs might be successful, the results don’t often hold up at scale. “At the city level, the evidence was never very compelling,” he said. “That’s a big problem because when the public was told, ‘We know how to end homelessness,’ they were really thinking about at the city level.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his view, Housing First has promised too much and delivered too little, making it ripe for attacks. “This is a problem that the advocates created because they were so grandiose in their claims about what Housing First was going to do,” he said.[aside postID=news_12039730 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080924-ENCAMPMENT-SWEEP-MD-01-KQED-1020x680.jpg']By the late 2010s, right-leaning think tanks like his were waging an ideological war on Housing First. They’ve argued the model is ineffective and doesn’t address what they believe are often the root causes of homelessness — drug addiction and mental illness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those arguments have now found purchase at the highest levels of government. The Cicero Institute pushed many of the ideas in President Trump’s recent executive order, including banning public camping, predicating housing on treatment and forcibly institutionalizing people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The spigot’s been supporting this housing-centric approach,” Cicero’s Webster said of the billions in federal money invested. “And what are the results that we’ve seen? We’ve seen homelessness go up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Defenders of Housing First liken that logic to handing out too few life jackets and then, when those without jackets drown, blaming the devices. The problem isn’t too much spending in their view, but too little.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Bay Area alone, the nonprofit All Home \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11991834/slashing-bay-area-homelessness-would-cost-9-5-billion-report-says\">estimates it would cost $9.5 billion\u003c/a> over five years on top of current spending to cut homelessness by just three-quarters. And despite the expansion of permanent supportive housing, they point to a system dogged by scarcity. In California, where more than \u003ca href=\"https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2024-AHAR-Part-1.pdf\">187,000 people experience homelessness\u003c/a> on any given night, people can wait years for a spot to open. In the meantime, their condition deteriorates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12053761\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12053761\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02034_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02034_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02034_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02034_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A bike room is featured at the Laguna Commons supportive housing in Fremont on Aug. 20, 2025. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We know the longer folks are outside and the longer folks don’t have stable housing, the more their needs can get more complex, more difficult to overcome,” Russell said. And research shows that Housing First programs aren’t good at addressing those complex needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For those whose needs are less complex, Housing First may indeed get them off the street, but the “Million-Dollar Murray” cost-savings argument breaks down. Research finds that it only holds up for the small subset of unhoused people who cycle between emergency rooms and jails. But for many others who don’t fit that criterion, it may not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That doesn’t hold true once you’re working with families who live in their cars and don’t go to ERs and don’t use all these other emergency services,” Henwood said. “If you give them an apartment and a social worker or a mental health worker, that just costs money.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The answer, Russell and Henwood say, is not to throw out Housing First, but to expand the types of offerings that are available to better meet people’s needs. “The real need is actually to diversify the housing types across the continuum,” Russell said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On that point, Eide and Webster agree. They argue that some people might need more mental health support than housing providers can offer. Others might need sober living facilities so they don’t relapse. And still others might not need much more than a temporary roof over their heads.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Rethinking housing first in California\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Beneath all these arguments is a more fundamental disagreement about the nature of housing in this country. For Visotzky of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, solving homelessness means asking big questions that get at the true cause: “Are we doing enough to house poor people in this country? Is our housing market working for the poorest people?” And blaming Housing First is a distraction from the answer — in his view, a resounding no.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s an idea echoed on the \u003ca href=\"https://www.pathwayshousingfirst.org/\">homepage\u003c/a> for Tsemberis’s preeminent Housing First training program, which declares, “Housing is a Human Right.” To critics like Webster, such statements are evidence that the model isn’t just a failed policy but a Trojan Horse for socialism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12053759\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12053759\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01990_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01990_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01990_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01990_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A community space for children at the Laguna Commons supportive housing in Fremont on Aug. 20, 2025. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The ultimate choice is, do we want to have a conversation about restructuring our entire housing system, such that housing is no longer considered a commodity but a public good?” Webster said. “I’m not interested in that conversation; I don’t think this executive order is interested in the conversation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Pete Kasperowicz, press secretary for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, said he has no reason to believe the recent executive order will impact the HUD-VASH program that Wade is in. “Past administrations may have labeled HUD-VASH as a ‘Housing First’ program,” he said in a statement, “but we don’t view it that way.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Asked whether HUD-VASH has begun or would begin requiring treatment as a condition of enrollment in the program, which Trump’s executive order explicitly demands, Kasperowicz declined to respond.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, efforts to \u003ca href=\"https://legiscan.com/CA/text/ACA10/id/2729557\">enshrine housing as a human right\u003c/a> into the state constitution and build social housing \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB309\">haven’t gotten\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB387\">much traction\u003c/a>. But policymakers are reconsidering their approach to homelessness, including Housing First.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California Gov. Gavin Newsom and many local leaders have already \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12039730/newsom-pushes-cities-ban-homeless-encampments-across-california\">leaned into enforcement\u003c/a>, backing \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11997352/newsom-orders-state-agencies-to-dismantle-homeless-encampments-across-california\">encampment clearings\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12007175/care-court-was-supposed-to-help-those-hardest-to-treat-heres-how-its-going\">expanded\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11963961/newsom-signs-law-expanding-conservatorships-for-those-experiencing-severe-mental-illness-substance-abuse\">conservatorships\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eide, of the Manhattan Institute, sees the state’s shift as part of a larger national turn away from Housing First. “A lot of people, whether they want to say they’re aligned with the president or not, are moving in the same general direction as a lot of the ideas in this executive order,” he said, referring to Trump’s call for tougher enforcement and more treatment mandates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Assemblymember Matt Haney of San Francisco is among the Democrats pressing for changes. “Where California’s approach to Housing First has fallen short is that it’s been in some ways inflexible in recognizing that some people do need options,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB255\">introduced a bill\u003c/a> that would allow state funding to be used for drug-free recovery housing. He said California’s 2016 Housing First law was written to prevent providers from imposing conditions like drug tests just to get a bed for the night. But in practice, he argued, it has blocked funding for residents who actually want drug-free environments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Unfortunately, right now, we force everyone into environments where drug use is explicitly allowed,” Haney said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whatever its pitfalls, Wade is proof of what Housing First can do: keep someone with deep wounds housed and connected to care. Advocates warn discarding the model could unravel that fragile progress for thousands like him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12053758\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12053758\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01827_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01827_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01827_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01827_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">William Wade, a formerly homeless veteran housed through the HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program, pets his cat Libby as he looks out the window at his Laguna Commons apartment in Fremont on Aug. 20, 2025. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When he was living in his truck, Wade was fighting a deep depression. He was divorced, and his only child had died in her 20s of a brain tumor. “Throughout those years, I was contemplating suicide and got pretty close,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, Wade volunteers as a security guard for a nearby church, and he’s made a couple of friends in the building. Still, he struggles. “Sometimes I get down and out,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Housing has not swept away his depression, but he’s less alone. His VA case worker regularly calls to check up on him and make sure he’s seeing his doctor and taking medication. He’s enrolled in an anger management class and goes on group outings to the movies or to eat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On his favorite field trip, they visited stables, and Wade met a horse named Country Candy. He beamed as he recounted brushing her chest. “We had a ball,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"title": "Trump’s ‘Tectonic Shift’ on Homelessness Is Sending Shockwaves Across California | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Wearing a fistful of army rings, Bill Wade pulled his green beret from a shelf crammed with military memorabilia. As he held it in his hands, he read the U.S. Army Special Forces motto on the patch: De Oppresso Liber, in his words, “Hero of the Oppressed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wade’s time in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/vietnam\">Vietnam\u003c/a> is a source of pride, but more than half a century later, the 74-year-old still carries its scars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a teenager, the army provided him with an escape from an abusive foster father. Later, it gave him structure and purpose. But his 12 years of service also left him with PTSD, a shattered jaw that still aches and a jar of his own teeth, which fell out over the years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For over a decade, Wade lived in his truck, doing stints as a bouncer and renting rooms when he could. “It was a weird life,” he said, “a terrible life back then.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, six years ago, he landed a small studio apartment in Fremont that he shares with his cat, Libby.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Having a place to live hasn’t relieved his pain, physical or emotional, but it’s put him in a better place to tend those wounds. “Now I have a place to come home to,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wade’s path from years of instability to this small sanctuary reflects the philosophy guiding California’s homelessness policy, which prioritizes getting people into permanent housing with as few barriers as possible. Or, as Alex Visotzky of the National Alliance to End Homelessness puts it, “The very simple idea that the immediate solution to someone being homeless is a home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12053757\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12053757\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01757_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01757_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01757_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01757_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">William Wade, a formerly homeless veteran housed through the HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program, shows his dog tags at his Laguna Commons apartment in Fremont on Aug. 20, 2025. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This approach, known as Housing First, has shaped the federal response to homelessness for two decades, and California doubled down in 2016 by \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=WIC§ionNum=8255.\">requiring state-funded programs\u003c/a> to follow its principles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now the Trump administration is trying to scrap it. In late July, the president \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12049734/newsoms-office-blasts-trumps-homelessness-order-as-a-harmful-imitation\">issued an executive order\u003c/a> directing federal agencies to stop funding Housing First programs, calling them a failure and turning a California mandate into a liability.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The order is the culmination of a backlash that’s been brewing for years — both in California and across the country — as the number of people on the streets keeps ticking up even as the spending on homelessness grows.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The debate over Housing First hinges on a clash over both causes and solutions. Is homelessness the result of rampant drug use and untreated mental illness, or of deeper structural forces like sky-high rents, poverty and racism? Should housing be used as a reward for sobriety and treatment, or provided first, as the foundation for recovery? And, perhaps more fundamentally, should housing be a human right?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The pendulum is swinging back,” said Paul Webster, a California-based fellow with the Cicero Institute, the Texas-based think tank leading the ideological charge against Housing First. “We have to balance the provision of housing with some kind of way to help people get better.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What the federal pullback will mean in California isn’t clear. Local officials are awaiting guidance on whether and how they’ll be able to tap federal dollars. Jonathan Russell, who runs homelessness services for Alameda County, where Wade lives, called it a “tectonic shift” that has left local agencies caught between contradictory policies. “There’s a lot of unknowns,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, the county’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.hud.gov/sites/dfiles/CPD/documents/CoC/CoC-2024-CA_Press.pdf\">main federal homelessness-related grant\u003c/a> totaled $56 million, and nearly 80% of that went to permanent housing. If that funding doesn’t come through this year and he can’t find a way to make it up, Russell said, as many as 1,400 people in Alameda County alone could lose their rental assistance.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Million-dollar Murray\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Wade spent years in and out of homelessness before a fellow vet suggested he turn to the VA for help. He started seeing a psychiatrist and secured a housing voucher through a federal program that specializes in helping homeless veterans. But he still hadn’t found an apartment that would accept it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That changed after a lucky encounter with a DMV worker. He was applying for a new driver’s license with a veteran designation when the woman behind the counter asked for his address. “I don’t live nowhere,” he recalls telling her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12053756\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12053756\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01683_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01683_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01683_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01683_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A family photo of William Wade, his ex-wife, and their now deceased child sits on a shelf in Wade’s Laguna Commons apartment in Fremont on Aug. 20, 2025. William Wade is a formerly homeless veteran housed through the HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Her son happened to be a veteran who’d been in the same position, and she connected Wade with staff at an apartment building in Fremont for people exiting homelessness. Within weeks, Wade said he was able to move into his own studio there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was fantastic,” he said. “I couldn’t believe it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When proponents of Housing First point to the approach’s success, they often highlight the very program that helped Wade get into housing. Launched in 2008 under the George W. Bush Administration, the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing, or HUD-VASH, offers participants housing vouchers with few strings attached.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Participants put about a third of their income toward rent, and the rest is covered by the voucher. Case managers help connect the veterans with optional services like health care, mental health treatment and substance use counseling.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The program is credited with helping contribute to a \u003ca href=\"https://news.va.gov/137562/veteran-homelessness-reaches-record-low-2023/\">55% drop in homelessness\u003c/a> among veterans nationwide since 2010, even as overall homelessness \u003ca href=\"https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2024-AHAR-Part-1.pdf\">climbed over 20%\u003c/a> during that time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was the story of another veteran that first brought Housing First into the mainstream. Murray Barr was an ex-marine who drank himself to death on the streets of Reno, Nevada. In a 2006 \u003ca href=\"https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/02/13/million-dollar-murray\">\u003cem>New Yorker \u003c/em>article\u003c/a>\u003cem>, \u003c/em>Malcolm Gladwell used Barr’s repeated ER visits and rehab stays to illustrate the high cost of homelessness and to make the case for a more economical approach: permanent supportive housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around the country, journalists, politicians and nonprofits seized on the “Million-Dollar Murray” narrative, galvanizing support for the Housing First strategy with its cost-saving logic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gladwell first heard Barr’s story not from a liberal academic or housing advocate, but from Philip Mangano, who Bush appointed to lead the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness in 2002.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His idea was radical: Take the most difficult cases, the nation’s Murray Barrs, and hand them the keys to an apartment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before Mangano ushered in the era of Housing First, the typical approach to getting people off the streets was intuitive, not guided by research, according to University of Southern California professor Benjamin Henwood, who studies homelessness policy. In hindsight, it can be seen as a “treatment first” or “housing readiness” strategy that operated like a reward system, providing housing to those who could meet a series of requirements as they graduated from shelter to temporary to more permanent placements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12053760\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12053760\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02019_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02019_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02019_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02019_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A laundry room is featured at the Laguna Commons supportive housing in Fremont on Aug. 20, 2025. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Folks had to prove all along the way … that they were ready for housing,” said Vivian Wan, the CEO of Abode Services, which operates the building where Wade lives. “If they did well and followed all the rules and were good tenants in transitional housing, then they got the golden ticket to permanent supportive housing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Success required staying sober, getting mental healthcare, drug treatment, making curfew or meeting with a case manager. As a result, chronically unhoused people with substance use or mental health issues often flunked out of programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around the country, people started experimenting with a different approach that prioritized housing. New York City-based psychologist Sam Tsemberis was the first to rigorously study the model and coin the term: Housing First.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the early ’90s, Tsemberis launched a program that targeted people who’d failed out of previous programs and placed them in apartments with no requirement to get clean or enter treatment and no time limit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These were typically very significantly impaired people,” Wan said. “Folks who were really very vulnerable had acute mental health needs across the board.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After five years, \u003ca href=\"https://psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ps.51.4.487\">88% of the participants were still housed\u003c/a>, compared to 47% of residents in the city’s residential treatment system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other research showed promising results, too. “The people who you gave housing to actually stayed in that housing, and they stopped going to the emergency room, and they stopped getting arrested, whereas the other folks continue to cycle through all these other institutions,” Henwood said. “That’s what got the attention of the Bush Administration.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The intent, Mangano told Gladwell, was to invest in solutions “that actually end homelessness.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Evolution and backlash\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Over time, as Housing First became the country’s homelessness policy north star, the term evolved into a catch-all, blurring what it actually entails.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It sort of lost a bit of its meaning along the way,” Henwood said. “And I think part of that made it an easy target for where we are today.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across the country, there are now \u003ca href=\"https://files.hudexchange.info/reports/published/CoC_HIC_NatlTerrDC_2024.pdf\">some 400,000 units\u003c/a> of permanent supportive housing nationwide, up 32% in the \u003ca href=\"https://files.hudexchange.info/reports/published/CoC_HIC_NatlTerrDC_2014.pdf\">last decade\u003c/a>. In California, the number rose 73% to \u003ca href=\"https://files.hudexchange.info/reports/published/CoC_HIC_NatlTerrDC_2024.pdf\">around 79,000\u003c/a>. While some programs hew to Tsemberis’ model, with its clear set of standards, many more employ the approach loosely. Today, it’s shorthand for simply providing housing with few preconditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12053763\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12053763\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02179_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02179_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02179_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02179_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Laguna Commons supportive housing stands on 41152 Fremont Blvd., in Fremont, on Aug. 20, 2025. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And as permanent supportive housing has become the primary tool for ending homelessness, critics see its limitations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Wade imagines he’ll live in his studio apartment for the rest of his life, the evidence shows permanent supportive housing doesn’t work for everybody. About one in five people will struggle to keep their apartments, Henwood said, noting it’s difficult to predict who that will be. People with serious mental health or drug issues might stay housed, while others who appear stable get evicted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stephen Eide, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, argues that while certain Housing First programs might be successful, the results don’t often hold up at scale. “At the city level, the evidence was never very compelling,” he said. “That’s a big problem because when the public was told, ‘We know how to end homelessness,’ they were really thinking about at the city level.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his view, Housing First has promised too much and delivered too little, making it ripe for attacks. “This is a problem that the advocates created because they were so grandiose in their claims about what Housing First was going to do,” he said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>By the late 2010s, right-leaning think tanks like his were waging an ideological war on Housing First. They’ve argued the model is ineffective and doesn’t address what they believe are often the root causes of homelessness — drug addiction and mental illness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those arguments have now found purchase at the highest levels of government. The Cicero Institute pushed many of the ideas in President Trump’s recent executive order, including banning public camping, predicating housing on treatment and forcibly institutionalizing people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The spigot’s been supporting this housing-centric approach,” Cicero’s Webster said of the billions in federal money invested. “And what are the results that we’ve seen? We’ve seen homelessness go up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Defenders of Housing First liken that logic to handing out too few life jackets and then, when those without jackets drown, blaming the devices. The problem isn’t too much spending in their view, but too little.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Bay Area alone, the nonprofit All Home \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11991834/slashing-bay-area-homelessness-would-cost-9-5-billion-report-says\">estimates it would cost $9.5 billion\u003c/a> over five years on top of current spending to cut homelessness by just three-quarters. And despite the expansion of permanent supportive housing, they point to a system dogged by scarcity. In California, where more than \u003ca href=\"https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2024-AHAR-Part-1.pdf\">187,000 people experience homelessness\u003c/a> on any given night, people can wait years for a spot to open. In the meantime, their condition deteriorates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12053761\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12053761\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02034_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02034_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02034_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_02034_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A bike room is featured at the Laguna Commons supportive housing in Fremont on Aug. 20, 2025. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We know the longer folks are outside and the longer folks don’t have stable housing, the more their needs can get more complex, more difficult to overcome,” Russell said. And research shows that Housing First programs aren’t good at addressing those complex needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For those whose needs are less complex, Housing First may indeed get them off the street, but the “Million-Dollar Murray” cost-savings argument breaks down. Research finds that it only holds up for the small subset of unhoused people who cycle between emergency rooms and jails. But for many others who don’t fit that criterion, it may not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That doesn’t hold true once you’re working with families who live in their cars and don’t go to ERs and don’t use all these other emergency services,” Henwood said. “If you give them an apartment and a social worker or a mental health worker, that just costs money.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The answer, Russell and Henwood say, is not to throw out Housing First, but to expand the types of offerings that are available to better meet people’s needs. “The real need is actually to diversify the housing types across the continuum,” Russell said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On that point, Eide and Webster agree. They argue that some people might need more mental health support than housing providers can offer. Others might need sober living facilities so they don’t relapse. And still others might not need much more than a temporary roof over their heads.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Rethinking housing first in California\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Beneath all these arguments is a more fundamental disagreement about the nature of housing in this country. For Visotzky of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, solving homelessness means asking big questions that get at the true cause: “Are we doing enough to house poor people in this country? Is our housing market working for the poorest people?” And blaming Housing First is a distraction from the answer — in his view, a resounding no.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s an idea echoed on the \u003ca href=\"https://www.pathwayshousingfirst.org/\">homepage\u003c/a> for Tsemberis’s preeminent Housing First training program, which declares, “Housing is a Human Right.” To critics like Webster, such statements are evidence that the model isn’t just a failed policy but a Trojan Horse for socialism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12053759\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12053759\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01990_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01990_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01990_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01990_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A community space for children at the Laguna Commons supportive housing in Fremont on Aug. 20, 2025. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The ultimate choice is, do we want to have a conversation about restructuring our entire housing system, such that housing is no longer considered a commodity but a public good?” Webster said. “I’m not interested in that conversation; I don’t think this executive order is interested in the conversation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Pete Kasperowicz, press secretary for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, said he has no reason to believe the recent executive order will impact the HUD-VASH program that Wade is in. “Past administrations may have labeled HUD-VASH as a ‘Housing First’ program,” he said in a statement, “but we don’t view it that way.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Asked whether HUD-VASH has begun or would begin requiring treatment as a condition of enrollment in the program, which Trump’s executive order explicitly demands, Kasperowicz declined to respond.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, efforts to \u003ca href=\"https://legiscan.com/CA/text/ACA10/id/2729557\">enshrine housing as a human right\u003c/a> into the state constitution and build social housing \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB309\">haven’t gotten\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB387\">much traction\u003c/a>. But policymakers are reconsidering their approach to homelessness, including Housing First.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California Gov. Gavin Newsom and many local leaders have already \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12039730/newsom-pushes-cities-ban-homeless-encampments-across-california\">leaned into enforcement\u003c/a>, backing \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11997352/newsom-orders-state-agencies-to-dismantle-homeless-encampments-across-california\">encampment clearings\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12007175/care-court-was-supposed-to-help-those-hardest-to-treat-heres-how-its-going\">expanded\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11963961/newsom-signs-law-expanding-conservatorships-for-those-experiencing-severe-mental-illness-substance-abuse\">conservatorships\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eide, of the Manhattan Institute, sees the state’s shift as part of a larger national turn away from Housing First. “A lot of people, whether they want to say they’re aligned with the president or not, are moving in the same general direction as a lot of the ideas in this executive order,” he said, referring to Trump’s call for tougher enforcement and more treatment mandates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Assemblymember Matt Haney of San Francisco is among the Democrats pressing for changes. “Where California’s approach to Housing First has fallen short is that it’s been in some ways inflexible in recognizing that some people do need options,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB255\">introduced a bill\u003c/a> that would allow state funding to be used for drug-free recovery housing. He said California’s 2016 Housing First law was written to prevent providers from imposing conditions like drug tests just to get a bed for the night. But in practice, he argued, it has blocked funding for residents who actually want drug-free environments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Unfortunately, right now, we force everyone into environments where drug use is explicitly allowed,” Haney said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whatever its pitfalls, Wade is proof of what Housing First can do: keep someone with deep wounds housed and connected to care. Advocates warn discarding the model could unravel that fragile progress for thousands like him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12053758\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12053758\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01827_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01827_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01827_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250820-HOUSINGFIRST_01827_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">William Wade, a formerly homeless veteran housed through the HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program, pets his cat Libby as he looks out the window at his Laguna Commons apartment in Fremont on Aug. 20, 2025. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When he was living in his truck, Wade was fighting a deep depression. He was divorced, and his only child had died in her 20s of a brain tumor. “Throughout those years, I was contemplating suicide and got pretty close,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, Wade volunteers as a security guard for a nearby church, and he’s made a couple of friends in the building. Still, he struggles. “Sometimes I get down and out,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Housing has not swept away his depression, but he’s less alone. His VA case worker regularly calls to check up on him and make sure he’s seeing his doctor and taking medication. He’s enrolled in an anger management class and goes on group outings to the movies or to eat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On his favorite field trip, they visited stables, and Wade met a horse named Country Candy. He beamed as he recounted brushing her chest. “We had a ball,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/public-transit\">Public transit\u003c/a> riders in the Bay Area are used to the occasional delay, but news that sorely needed state funding could be running late has sent advocates into emergency mode.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dressed as medical responders, activists carried mock transit vehicles on stretchers across San Francisco’s Civic Center Plaza on Monday to implore Gov. Gavin Newsom to deliver a promised $750 million loan. The money, meant to prevent looming service cuts at some of the Bay Area’s largest transit agencies, would bridge the gap until lawmakers can put a regional funding measure on the ballot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ This emergency loan would stave off imminent service cuts that would devastate working people, seniors, students, families and businesses,” said Carter Lavin, co-founder of the Transbay Coalition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rally came after state Sens. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, and Jesse Arreguín, D-Oakland, said \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12054992/newsom-will-not-provide-stopgap-loan-to-prevent-cuts-to-bay-area-transit-lawmakers-say\">Saturday \u003c/a>that the California Department of Finance informed them that it would not finalize the loan before Friday’s legislative deadline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This failure by the Department of Finance is unacceptable,” the senators wrote in a press release.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But by Monday, Newsom’s office sought to dispel the notion that the loan would not be delivered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12055197\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12055197\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/TransitFundingKQED2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/TransitFundingKQED2.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/TransitFundingKQED2-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/TransitFundingKQED2-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">State Sen. Scott Wiener addresses a rally at San Francisco Civic Center Plaza on Monday, Sept. 8, 2025. More than a hundred transit advocates and elected officials called for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration to sign off on a $750 million emergency loan for Bay Area transit agencies. \u003ccite>(Farida Jhabvala Romero/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We are working closely with all stakeholders on the parameters of a funding deal. Our shared goal is to agree on the terms of a deal by this fall,” the governor’s office said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom and state lawmakers agreed to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12043556/california-lawmakers-plan-would-help-bay-area-transit-avoid-fiscal-disaster-for-now\">the loan\u003c/a> earlier this summer, and it was included in the June budget passed by the Legislature. Since then, Wiener said he and others have been working with the Department of Finance to negotiate terms to implement the loan, and have submitted three different proposals to the department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They just kept saying no. But now they’ve said that this [latest] proposal is something that they can work with, which is great,” Wiener said. “ We’re working to take a strong step before we adjourn on Friday. We’ll keep working on it over the fall. This is really important, and we need to get it done.”[aside postID=news_12054754 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250905-bartoutage00435_TV_qed.jpg']Bay Area transit agencies like BART, Muni, AC Transit and Caltrain are staring down immense budget deficits beginning in fiscal year 2026–27, as one-time state and federal funding related to the pandemic is exhausted, and ridership numbers fail to rebound to pre-pandemic levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The loan is intended as a stopgap measure to prevent service cuts between now and 2027, when funding from the potential regional tax measure would kick in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That measure, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12039394/last-ditch-effort-fund-bay-area-transit-tries-pick-up-support\">SB 63\u003c/a>, would impose a 0.5% sales tax in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, and a 1% sales tax in San Francisco County to fund local transit agencies. If passed by lawmakers, the bill would need to be approved by voters on the November 2026 ballot and would provide funding for 14 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Advocates caution that without both the loan and the regional tax measure, Bay Area public transit service would wither.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>BART is facing a budget deficit of approximately $375 million in the 2027 fiscal year, the most severe of all the local transit agencies. Officials say that if SB 63 fails to pass, the agency could be forced to end weekend service, cut two lines entirely or end service at 9 p.m.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12055202\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12055202\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/TransitFundingKQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/TransitFundingKQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/TransitFundingKQED-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/TransitFundingKQED-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Activists and lawmakers are calling on Gov. Gavin Newsom to make good on a promised $750 million loan to prevent drastic service cuts to local transit next year. \u003ccite>(Farida Jhabvala Romero/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>BART has experienced \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12054754/bart-outage-shuts-down-entire-system-for-2nd-time-in-months\">two \u003c/a>major systemwide outages this year, which snarled morning commutes and contributed to worse-than-usual traffic on Bay Area roads. Supporters of public transit warn this \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12039472/bart-shuts-down-entire-train-service-due-to-computer-networking-problem\">could be a regular occurrence\u003c/a> if both the loan and the regional sales tax measure fail to materialize.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ The Bay Area does not run without buses and trains. We saw this last week when, for just a couple hours, [BART] was down,” Assemblymember Matt Haney, D-San Francisco, said. “It brought the Bay nearly to gridlock. People couldn’t get to work, they couldn’t get to school.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiener said the loan is needed by next spring, but he stressed that time is of the essence in getting it secured.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Whether the loan gets finalized now or in a couple months, it doesn’t matter, but it needs to get finalized soon,” Wiener said. “ The transit agencies need to have confidence that the money is coming.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said he is “more optimistic now than I was a few days ago,” but “it’s still not guaranteed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/fjhabvala\">Farida Jhabvala Romero\u003c/a> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/public-transit\">Public transit\u003c/a> riders in the Bay Area are used to the occasional delay, but news that sorely needed state funding could be running late has sent advocates into emergency mode.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dressed as medical responders, activists carried mock transit vehicles on stretchers across San Francisco’s Civic Center Plaza on Monday to implore Gov. Gavin Newsom to deliver a promised $750 million loan. The money, meant to prevent looming service cuts at some of the Bay Area’s largest transit agencies, would bridge the gap until lawmakers can put a regional funding measure on the ballot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ This emergency loan would stave off imminent service cuts that would devastate working people, seniors, students, families and businesses,” said Carter Lavin, co-founder of the Transbay Coalition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rally came after state Sens. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, and Jesse Arreguín, D-Oakland, said \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12054992/newsom-will-not-provide-stopgap-loan-to-prevent-cuts-to-bay-area-transit-lawmakers-say\">Saturday \u003c/a>that the California Department of Finance informed them that it would not finalize the loan before Friday’s legislative deadline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This failure by the Department of Finance is unacceptable,” the senators wrote in a press release.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But by Monday, Newsom’s office sought to dispel the notion that the loan would not be delivered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12055197\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12055197\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/TransitFundingKQED2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/TransitFundingKQED2.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/TransitFundingKQED2-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/TransitFundingKQED2-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">State Sen. Scott Wiener addresses a rally at San Francisco Civic Center Plaza on Monday, Sept. 8, 2025. More than a hundred transit advocates and elected officials called for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration to sign off on a $750 million emergency loan for Bay Area transit agencies. \u003ccite>(Farida Jhabvala Romero/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We are working closely with all stakeholders on the parameters of a funding deal. Our shared goal is to agree on the terms of a deal by this fall,” the governor’s office said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom and state lawmakers agreed to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12043556/california-lawmakers-plan-would-help-bay-area-transit-avoid-fiscal-disaster-for-now\">the loan\u003c/a> earlier this summer, and it was included in the June budget passed by the Legislature. Since then, Wiener said he and others have been working with the Department of Finance to negotiate terms to implement the loan, and have submitted three different proposals to the department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They just kept saying no. But now they’ve said that this [latest] proposal is something that they can work with, which is great,” Wiener said. “ We’re working to take a strong step before we adjourn on Friday. We’ll keep working on it over the fall. This is really important, and we need to get it done.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Bay Area transit agencies like BART, Muni, AC Transit and Caltrain are staring down immense budget deficits beginning in fiscal year 2026–27, as one-time state and federal funding related to the pandemic is exhausted, and ridership numbers fail to rebound to pre-pandemic levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The loan is intended as a stopgap measure to prevent service cuts between now and 2027, when funding from the potential regional tax measure would kick in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That measure, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12039394/last-ditch-effort-fund-bay-area-transit-tries-pick-up-support\">SB 63\u003c/a>, would impose a 0.5% sales tax in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, and a 1% sales tax in San Francisco County to fund local transit agencies. If passed by lawmakers, the bill would need to be approved by voters on the November 2026 ballot and would provide funding for 14 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Advocates caution that without both the loan and the regional tax measure, Bay Area public transit service would wither.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>BART is facing a budget deficit of approximately $375 million in the 2027 fiscal year, the most severe of all the local transit agencies. Officials say that if SB 63 fails to pass, the agency could be forced to end weekend service, cut two lines entirely or end service at 9 p.m.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12055202\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12055202\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/TransitFundingKQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/TransitFundingKQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/TransitFundingKQED-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/TransitFundingKQED-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Activists and lawmakers are calling on Gov. Gavin Newsom to make good on a promised $750 million loan to prevent drastic service cuts to local transit next year. \u003ccite>(Farida Jhabvala Romero/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>BART has experienced \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12054754/bart-outage-shuts-down-entire-system-for-2nd-time-in-months\">two \u003c/a>major systemwide outages this year, which snarled morning commutes and contributed to worse-than-usual traffic on Bay Area roads. Supporters of public transit warn this \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12039472/bart-shuts-down-entire-train-service-due-to-computer-networking-problem\">could be a regular occurrence\u003c/a> if both the loan and the regional sales tax measure fail to materialize.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ The Bay Area does not run without buses and trains. We saw this last week when, for just a couple hours, [BART] was down,” Assemblymember Matt Haney, D-San Francisco, said. “It brought the Bay nearly to gridlock. People couldn’t get to work, they couldn’t get to school.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiener said the loan is needed by next spring, but he stressed that time is of the essence in getting it secured.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Whether the loan gets finalized now or in a couple months, it doesn’t matter, but it needs to get finalized soon,” Wiener said. “ The transit agencies need to have confidence that the money is coming.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said he is “more optimistic now than I was a few days ago,” but “it’s still not guaranteed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/fjhabvala\">Farida Jhabvala Romero\u003c/a> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated, 1:30 p.m. Sunday\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office has signaled it will not provide stopgap funding for Bay Area transit agencies facing budget shortfalls before next week’s legislative deadline, according to lawmakers, raising concerns about steep service cuts to BART and other Bay Area public transportation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State Sens. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, and Jesse Arreguín, D-Oakland, who have been negotiating the terms of a $750 million loan with the governor’s office, released a joint statement on Saturday responding to what they called the Department of Finance’s “decision to stop [the] Bay Area transit funding agreement.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Governor’s Department of Finance informed lawmakers it will not be finalizing a critical bridge loan to prevent serious service cuts to BART, Muni, AC Transit and other Bay Area public transit operators next year,” the senators said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiener clarified in a call to KQED that the department has not stopped the funding agreement entirely, but merely seeks to extend talks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Department of Finance has indicated that they want to keep working on it over the fall, potentially for action next January,” Wiener said. “And that’s a problem because if our transit systems don’t have confidence that the money and financial support are coming, they’re going to have to start making cuts to service and that would be terrible for the Bay Area.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Newsom’s Department of Finance pushed back on the idea that delaying the deal would lead to immediate service cuts, saying it was the department’s understanding that local transit agencies don’t need backfill funding until the middle of 2026 at the earliest. That, the department argued, still leaves time for the deal to be finalized next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom and state lawmakers agreed to the loan earlier this summer and have been working ever since to finalize its terms. The legislature faces a Sept. 12 deadline to pass bills during this session.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12043556 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/20241204-BART-JY-003_qed.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s essential that this loan happen,” Wiener and Arreguín wrote in the joint statement on Saturday. “The state needs to step up and ensure we don’t see debilitating service cuts at BART, Muni, Caltrain, AC Transit, and other operators.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The senators have been working to put a regional funding ballot measure before voters during the November 2026 election. But even if approved, that funding would not begin until 2027 — the state loan was meant to help bridge that gap.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Saturday afternoon interview, Wiener declined to comment on the specifics of his conversations with state officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s not a specific sticking point; this is about just having the will to get it done this coming week,” Wiener said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, a spokesperson for the Department of Finance said the department hasn’t had enough time to review the legislature’s latest proposal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Although their need for financial assistance in the 2026–27 budget year has been known for months, the Administration only received an outline of proposed loan terms from the Legislature two days ago — still short of a legislative proposal that is necessary to resolve this issue,” the spokesperson wrote. “We’re committed to developing solutions that will support riders and transit agencies alike in a timely manner.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>BART officials have warned of drastic cuts without the temporary funding, saying they face a $350 to $400 million annual deficit beginning in the 2027 fiscal year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Were we not able to secure the $750 million temporary loan, we could see two of BART’s five lines cancelled. We could see stations closed,” BART board of directors member Edward Wright told KQED on Friday. “We could see a dramatic reduction in our service hours and a dramatic reduction in service frequency.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiener and Arreguín pointed to a systemwide BART outage on Friday morning as an example of what residents might expect from a future with reduced services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even on a Friday, when fewer people commute to the office, BART service shutting down meant our roads were choked with bumper-to-bumper traffic throughout the day, children and working people lost access to school and work, and our air got more polluted,” the senators said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>BART’s current financial troubles mirror those of other local agencies. Officials say emergency funding implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic will run out next year, but ridership rates never fully recovered as many employers embraced remote work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For some transit agency officials, the larger concern is not the immediate potential cuts, but rather the cascading impacts down the road.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The real fear is, aside from the degree to which that will provide an incredibly bad experience for people who rely on transit, it also could trigger what’s been referred to as a doom loop,” Wright said. “The worse our service becomes, the less people will want to ride it. The less people ride it, the less we’re gaining in fare revenue and the bigger our deficit grows.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Clarification: This story has been updated to reflect new comments from state Sen. Scott Wiener clarifying that state finance officials have not fully ended talks over the bridge loan, but instead want to extend negotiations beyond this legislative session. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated, 1:30 p.m. Sunday\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office has signaled it will not provide stopgap funding for Bay Area transit agencies facing budget shortfalls before next week’s legislative deadline, according to lawmakers, raising concerns about steep service cuts to BART and other Bay Area public transportation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State Sens. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, and Jesse Arreguín, D-Oakland, who have been negotiating the terms of a $750 million loan with the governor’s office, released a joint statement on Saturday responding to what they called the Department of Finance’s “decision to stop [the] Bay Area transit funding agreement.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Governor’s Department of Finance informed lawmakers it will not be finalizing a critical bridge loan to prevent serious service cuts to BART, Muni, AC Transit and other Bay Area public transit operators next year,” the senators said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiener clarified in a call to KQED that the department has not stopped the funding agreement entirely, but merely seeks to extend talks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Department of Finance has indicated that they want to keep working on it over the fall, potentially for action next January,” Wiener said. “And that’s a problem because if our transit systems don’t have confidence that the money and financial support are coming, they’re going to have to start making cuts to service and that would be terrible for the Bay Area.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Newsom’s Department of Finance pushed back on the idea that delaying the deal would lead to immediate service cuts, saying it was the department’s understanding that local transit agencies don’t need backfill funding until the middle of 2026 at the earliest. That, the department argued, still leaves time for the deal to be finalized next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom and state lawmakers agreed to the loan earlier this summer and have been working ever since to finalize its terms. The legislature faces a Sept. 12 deadline to pass bills during this session.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s essential that this loan happen,” Wiener and Arreguín wrote in the joint statement on Saturday. “The state needs to step up and ensure we don’t see debilitating service cuts at BART, Muni, Caltrain, AC Transit, and other operators.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The senators have been working to put a regional funding ballot measure before voters during the November 2026 election. But even if approved, that funding would not begin until 2027 — the state loan was meant to help bridge that gap.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Saturday afternoon interview, Wiener declined to comment on the specifics of his conversations with state officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s not a specific sticking point; this is about just having the will to get it done this coming week,” Wiener said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, a spokesperson for the Department of Finance said the department hasn’t had enough time to review the legislature’s latest proposal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Although their need for financial assistance in the 2026–27 budget year has been known for months, the Administration only received an outline of proposed loan terms from the Legislature two days ago — still short of a legislative proposal that is necessary to resolve this issue,” the spokesperson wrote. “We’re committed to developing solutions that will support riders and transit agencies alike in a timely manner.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>BART officials have warned of drastic cuts without the temporary funding, saying they face a $350 to $400 million annual deficit beginning in the 2027 fiscal year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Were we not able to secure the $750 million temporary loan, we could see two of BART’s five lines cancelled. We could see stations closed,” BART board of directors member Edward Wright told KQED on Friday. “We could see a dramatic reduction in our service hours and a dramatic reduction in service frequency.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiener and Arreguín pointed to a systemwide BART outage on Friday morning as an example of what residents might expect from a future with reduced services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even on a Friday, when fewer people commute to the office, BART service shutting down meant our roads were choked with bumper-to-bumper traffic throughout the day, children and working people lost access to school and work, and our air got more polluted,” the senators said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>BART’s current financial troubles mirror those of other local agencies. Officials say emergency funding implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic will run out next year, but ridership rates never fully recovered as many employers embraced remote work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For some transit agency officials, the larger concern is not the immediate potential cuts, but rather the cascading impacts down the road.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The real fear is, aside from the degree to which that will provide an incredibly bad experience for people who rely on transit, it also could trigger what’s been referred to as a doom loop,” Wright said. “The worse our service becomes, the less people will want to ride it. The less people ride it, the less we’re gaining in fare revenue and the bigger our deficit grows.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Clarification: This story has been updated to reflect new comments from state Sen. Scott Wiener clarifying that state finance officials have not fully ended talks over the bridge loan, but instead want to extend negotiations beyond this legislative session. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>He has compared senior White House officials to Voldemort, called the Speaker of the House Mike “Little Man” Johnson, and turned President Donald Trump’s signature catchphrase into “Make America Gavin Again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This summer, Gov. Gavin Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101911041/newsom-charges-ahead-with-redistricting-plan-prompting-republican-lawsuit\">has transformed\u003c/a> the way he talks \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/GovPressOffice\">on social media\u003c/a> about Republicans — by deliberately adopting Trump’s own style.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As X feeds become one more front \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12053140/california-lawmakers-pass-redistricting-plan-now-it-heads-to-voters\">in the battle between the White House and California Democrats\u003c/a>, who say they are now \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2025/08/14/governor-newsom-launches-statewide-response-to-trump-rigging-texas-elections/\">fighting “fire with fire,”\u003c/a> Newsom keeps relentlessly posting: taunting MAGA with run-on sentences in all-caps that brim with self-promotion, in stark contrast to \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/GovPressOffice/status/1828921061523763266\">his previous online style\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom’s online about-face came in the wake of Trump’s decision to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12043221/protesters-and-immigration-authorities-face-off-for-a-2nd-day-in-la-area-after-arrests\">send the National Guard into Los Angeles\u003c/a> in June, in response to protests against immigration enforcement operations. This move by the White House saw the swift \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2025/06/california-newsom-trump-national-guard/\">collapse\u003c/a> of \u003ca href=\"https://www.politico.com/news/2025/01/24/trump-newsom-la-visit-00200593\">the delicate peace\u003c/a> which had previously existed between the two men as Newsom sought federal funds to rebuild areas devastated by January’s California wildfires — a shift which was then supercharged by\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12052064/newsom-calls-for-special-election-to-redraw-californias-congressional-maps\"> gerrymandering efforts in Texas\u003c/a> directed by Trump and other Republican-led states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom has vigorously defended his posting style. “If you’ve got issues with what I’m putting out, you sure as hell should have concerns about what he’s putting out as president,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12053623/california-gop-sues-to-block-prop-50-a-democratic-led-redistricting-measure\">the governor said at an August press conference.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://x.com/GovPressOffice/status/1959802491849306461\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The governor’s office would only refer KQED to his \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/live/5XC6hH7qqT0?si=rAELbYpHgSgFUVO6&t=1082\">public comments\u003c/a> on \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/MeidasTouch/status/1956192543517106573\">the matter\u003c/a>, but noted that despite public interest in \u003cem>who\u003c/em> exactly was posting these tweets to his accounts, “the truth is this a reflection only of Gavin Newsom, his years of consumption of right-wing media, and now he’s using what he’s learned for good: holding a mirror to MAGA.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But posting deliberately outrageous, provocative and hyperbolic content to provoke someone is nothing new. It’s a tactic rooted in Internet culture — trolling, memes, and what’s often called “\u003ca href=\"https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shitpost\">shitposting\u003c/a>,” or posting absurd, low-quality content as humor. And it’s all now, somewhat unexpectedly, part of Newsom’s rhetorical arsenal.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>One nation under memes?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Watching Newsom spar online with Trump \u003ca href=\"https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/this-is-the-summer-of-gavin-newsom.html\">has undoubtedly delighted many Democrats\u003c/a> — who are looking for someone that can fire back against the president and \u003ca href=\"https://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios-communicators-7fb06710-8761-11f0-8353-efc6fcc93b51\">electrify the base\u003c/a> — while \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2025-08-22/fox-news-triggered-by-gov-gavin-newsom-trumpy-tweets\">infuriating conservative outlets like Fox News\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And it was startling for meme connoisseurs to see their medium being employed by the leader of the country’s most populous state. For Abe Woodliff, Vallejo-based writer, filmmaker and creator of meme account \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/realbayareamemes/\">realbayareamemes\u003c/a>, the trolling battle was downright disappointing.[aside postID=news_12054630 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/GavinNewsomAP.jpg']“Politics — at least where the public is involved — is now just one person trying to dunk on another person,” he said. A millennial raised on the Internet, who identifies as a Democratic Socialist, Woodliff uses his fluency in memes and shitposting to mock California politicians for what he sees as a contradiction between the values they publicly promote and the reality that many residents experience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can’t have this progressive utopia if no one can afford to live here, homelessness is rising and police brutality is out of control,” he said. “Memes became an outlet for my frustration with things here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Woodliff is \u003ca href=\"https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-communications/the-meme-ification-of-american-politics\">only one out of many content creators\u003c/a> who use rhetorical and visual styles unique to the Internet to criticize powerful individuals. Newsom’s new online persona, riffing off Trump’s own style, however, shows that those in power can also adopt this online language to advance \u003cem>their \u003c/em>objectives — regardless of their political party.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When something is manufactured like this, it loses its authenticity,” Woodliff said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mixing politics with trolling may help Democrats respond to Trump online, but this strategy could impact regular Internet users and voters, who must navigate an online reality — driven by algorithms that thrive on the inflammatory — where what is real, fake or shitpost gets muddled more each day.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Memes: A history of subversion online\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Thanks to artificial intelligence programs, even those with no graphic design experience can now make a meme in a few moments — even one meant to resemble reality (remember Pope Francis \u003ca href=\"https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pope-francis-puffer-jacket-fake-photos-deepfake-power-peril-of-ai/\">in a stylish puffer jacket\u003c/a>?).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But for the better part of the Internet’s existence, content poking fun at the powerful was decidedly unpolished.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://x.com/DubyaEraLeft/status/1876418473816912214\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Starting in the early 2000s, you could visit MySpace and chat rooms to see pixelated photos of then-president George W. Bush, \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/DubyaEraLeft/status/1886564683097751778\">pasted on top of a nuclear explosion\u003c/a> or holding a Dr. Seuss book above the caption “his most recent foreign policy briefing book.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Low-quality absurdist humor, albeit the kind that required rudimentary knowledge of photo editing software, became a medium for people all over the world to discuss actions out of their control — like the Bush administration’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2023/03/14/a-look-back-at-how-fear-and-false-beliefs-bolstered-u-s-public-support-for-war-in-iraq/\">decision to invade Iraq\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And for many, the caliber of the memes didn’t actually matter. “There’s a real value in speaking about politics in a vernacular language because a lot of people feel alienated from politics,” said Abigail De Kosnik, professor at UC Berkeley who studies performance and new media.[aside postID=news_12054700 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/GettyImages-2219434485-2000x1333.jpg']Memes found a home in the growing social media ecosystem of the 2010s, where regular people began to feel more comfortable expressing their opinions about the powerful with barbed humor and distinct vocabularies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>De Kosnik points to \u003ca href=\"https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/black-twitter-documentary-explores-its-history-and-cultural-impact\">“Black Twitter”\u003c/a> — the informal, but expansive community of Black commentators that developed on the platform now known as X in the late 2000s — as one online space that developed a universe of memes and humorous rhetoric, influenced by \u003ca href=\"https://www.britannica.com/topic/African-American-Vernacular-English\">African American Vernacular English\u003c/a>. “Black Twitter was a contentious, but also very funny space,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the 2012 killing of teenager Trayvon Martin, Black Twitter translated its comical critiques of power into the real world, De Kosnik said — as commentators \u003ca href=\"https://www.wired.com/story/black-twitter-oral-history-part-i-coming-together/\">swiftly mobilized in support of the Black Lives Matter movement\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This online language, she said, “now questioned: “What are we doing to protect people? What are we going to critique police violence?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>MAGA welcomes the trolls\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>But as spaces like Black Twitter grew, a parallel trolling ecosystem on the far right grew — with accounts promoting racist, sexist and homophobic views \u003ca href=\"https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/31/trolls-for-trump\">saturating social media\u003c/a> by the end of the 2010s. And that was due to the very algorithm these platforms run on, said UC Los Angeles professor Ramesh Srinivasan, who studies the connections between technology and democracy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What tends to go most viral on social media platforms is what is computationally predicted to grab attention,” he said. If someone posts something that insults certain groups and many users engage with that post — whether out of anger or agreement — the social media algorithm \u003ca href=\"https://theconversation.com/social-media-algorithms-warp-how-people-learn-from-each-other-research-shows-211172\">notices those high levels of activity\u003c/a> and will promote similar posts in the future. Trolling your opposition to an extreme, or “ragebaiting,” has become an effective strategy to dominate online conversations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://x.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1107981131012628481\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During his first White House run in 2016, Trump consumed entire news cycles by \u003ca href=\"https://www.vox.com/2016/5/16/11603854/donald-trump-twitter\">shitposting from his Twitter account\u003c/a>. But he wasn’t the only one trolling anyone who opposed the MAGA agenda.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Far-right trolls that \u003ca href=\"https://www.vice.com/en/article/trump-shitposters-twitter-bots/\">supported Trump’s campaign\u003c/a> were now bringing brought white supremacist views from platforms with no moderation, like 4chan, into the wider Internet. Pepe the Frog — a cartoon \u003ca href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/sep/14/pepe-the-frog-artist-supports-hillary-clinton\">created in 2005 on MySpace\u003c/a> by San Francisco artist Furie — became a recurring character in \u003ca href=\"https://www.isdglobal.org/explainers/memes-the-extreme-right-wing/\">deeply racist and misogynistic memes\u003c/a> that showed up on Instagram and Facebook. In October 2015, then-candidate Trump would \u003ca href=\"https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-37493165\">retweet an image of himself as Pepe\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When Trump started politicizing his shitposting during the Obama administration, I would say he was really riding this bigger wave of alt-right accounts combining this vernacular, informal language with political agendas,” UC Berkeley’s De Kosnik said. “The right wing appropriated those tactics very quickly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trolling strategies were employed by the far-right to attack those they thought had become \u003cem>too\u003c/em> powerful during the social justice movements of the 2010s, including women, minorities and the LGBTQ+ community. “The alt-right always has adopted this victim mentality,” De Kosnik added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The language of Internet culture that not long ago had been used to ridicule American presidents like Bush now helped get one elected.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Where does posting end and policy begin?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>As the 2016 campaign reached its final weeks, then-First Lady Michelle Obama encouraged Democrats to engage Trump with civility and respect, with the phrase: “\u003ca href=\"https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/07/25/remarks-first-lady-democratic-national-convention\">When they go low, we go high\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Almost 10 years later, now during a second Trump administration, Newsom’s team has learned that, “if you stay high, then it’s over,” De Kosnik said. In fact, Obama herself abandoned her old mantra by the time of the 2024 election, \u003ca href=\"https://www.politico.com/news/2024/08/21/michelle-obama-dnc-speech-chicago-2024-00175324\">bashing Trump to a national audience\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/1892295984928993698\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://x.com/GovPressOffice/status/1956196831261851887\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there are consequences when politicians online take up to ragebaiting to chase after the algorithm’s attention, Srinivasan said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If certain voices remain invisible and only the most dominant, provocative and divisive voices go viral, you can imagine how much that creates distrust in what is actually real,” Srinivasan said. “Democracy isn’t just about everybody having a vote — it’s also about dialogue.”[aside postID=news_12028570 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/02/Dean-Scream_web-1020x574.png']Big Tech companies will have to be part of any solution to address civil discourse online, he added, especially as politicians start posting more \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12021954/misinformation-about-the-la-fires-spreads-fast-heres-how-to-spot-it\">images and videos created by artificial intelligence\u003c/a>. “We need to not let AI go down the same path that social media went down,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Woodliff of realbayareamemes also worries that there could be a degrading effect on reality when figures like Trump and Newsom mix shitposting with AI.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s one thing for a humorous meme page like his to post intentionally absurd AI images, he said — but it makes it harder for voters to keep elected officials accountable if blurring the line between reality and AI-generated fiction is part of their political game.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Media literacy won’t even matter because eventually it will all look the same and everything will be so ridiculous we won’t be able to tell fact from fiction,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ultimately, for Woodliff, Newsom and Trump’s war of words online is still just that — words. What he really cares about, he said, is not how these politicians communicate online but how their rhetoric actually matches their policies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Until that happens, it’s just people trolling each other with big budgets,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "As the war of memes between Gavin Newsom and Donald Trump heats up, what happens when Internet humor — once a tool for Internet users to criticize the powerful — gets co-opted by those in power themselves?",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>He has compared senior White House officials to Voldemort, called the Speaker of the House Mike “Little Man” Johnson, and turned President Donald Trump’s signature catchphrase into “Make America Gavin Again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This summer, Gov. Gavin Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101911041/newsom-charges-ahead-with-redistricting-plan-prompting-republican-lawsuit\">has transformed\u003c/a> the way he talks \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/GovPressOffice\">on social media\u003c/a> about Republicans — by deliberately adopting Trump’s own style.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As X feeds become one more front \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12053140/california-lawmakers-pass-redistricting-plan-now-it-heads-to-voters\">in the battle between the White House and California Democrats\u003c/a>, who say they are now \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2025/08/14/governor-newsom-launches-statewide-response-to-trump-rigging-texas-elections/\">fighting “fire with fire,”\u003c/a> Newsom keeps relentlessly posting: taunting MAGA with run-on sentences in all-caps that brim with self-promotion, in stark contrast to \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/GovPressOffice/status/1828921061523763266\">his previous online style\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom’s online about-face came in the wake of Trump’s decision to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12043221/protesters-and-immigration-authorities-face-off-for-a-2nd-day-in-la-area-after-arrests\">send the National Guard into Los Angeles\u003c/a> in June, in response to protests against immigration enforcement operations. This move by the White House saw the swift \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2025/06/california-newsom-trump-national-guard/\">collapse\u003c/a> of \u003ca href=\"https://www.politico.com/news/2025/01/24/trump-newsom-la-visit-00200593\">the delicate peace\u003c/a> which had previously existed between the two men as Newsom sought federal funds to rebuild areas devastated by January’s California wildfires — a shift which was then supercharged by\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12052064/newsom-calls-for-special-election-to-redraw-californias-congressional-maps\"> gerrymandering efforts in Texas\u003c/a> directed by Trump and other Republican-led states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom has vigorously defended his posting style. “If you’ve got issues with what I’m putting out, you sure as hell should have concerns about what he’s putting out as president,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12053623/california-gop-sues-to-block-prop-50-a-democratic-led-redistricting-measure\">the governor said at an August press conference.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>The governor’s office would only refer KQED to his \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/live/5XC6hH7qqT0?si=rAELbYpHgSgFUVO6&t=1082\">public comments\u003c/a> on \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/MeidasTouch/status/1956192543517106573\">the matter\u003c/a>, but noted that despite public interest in \u003cem>who\u003c/em> exactly was posting these tweets to his accounts, “the truth is this a reflection only of Gavin Newsom, his years of consumption of right-wing media, and now he’s using what he’s learned for good: holding a mirror to MAGA.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But posting deliberately outrageous, provocative and hyperbolic content to provoke someone is nothing new. It’s a tactic rooted in Internet culture — trolling, memes, and what’s often called “\u003ca href=\"https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shitpost\">shitposting\u003c/a>,” or posting absurd, low-quality content as humor. And it’s all now, somewhat unexpectedly, part of Newsom’s rhetorical arsenal.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>One nation under memes?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Watching Newsom spar online with Trump \u003ca href=\"https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/this-is-the-summer-of-gavin-newsom.html\">has undoubtedly delighted many Democrats\u003c/a> — who are looking for someone that can fire back against the president and \u003ca href=\"https://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios-communicators-7fb06710-8761-11f0-8353-efc6fcc93b51\">electrify the base\u003c/a> — while \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2025-08-22/fox-news-triggered-by-gov-gavin-newsom-trumpy-tweets\">infuriating conservative outlets like Fox News\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And it was startling for meme connoisseurs to see their medium being employed by the leader of the country’s most populous state. For Abe Woodliff, Vallejo-based writer, filmmaker and creator of meme account \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/realbayareamemes/\">realbayareamemes\u003c/a>, the trolling battle was downright disappointing.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Politics — at least where the public is involved — is now just one person trying to dunk on another person,” he said. A millennial raised on the Internet, who identifies as a Democratic Socialist, Woodliff uses his fluency in memes and shitposting to mock California politicians for what he sees as a contradiction between the values they publicly promote and the reality that many residents experience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can’t have this progressive utopia if no one can afford to live here, homelessness is rising and police brutality is out of control,” he said. “Memes became an outlet for my frustration with things here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Woodliff is \u003ca href=\"https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-communications/the-meme-ification-of-american-politics\">only one out of many content creators\u003c/a> who use rhetorical and visual styles unique to the Internet to criticize powerful individuals. Newsom’s new online persona, riffing off Trump’s own style, however, shows that those in power can also adopt this online language to advance \u003cem>their \u003c/em>objectives — regardless of their political party.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When something is manufactured like this, it loses its authenticity,” Woodliff said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mixing politics with trolling may help Democrats respond to Trump online, but this strategy could impact regular Internet users and voters, who must navigate an online reality — driven by algorithms that thrive on the inflammatory — where what is real, fake or shitpost gets muddled more each day.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Memes: A history of subversion online\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Thanks to artificial intelligence programs, even those with no graphic design experience can now make a meme in a few moments — even one meant to resemble reality (remember Pope Francis \u003ca href=\"https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pope-francis-puffer-jacket-fake-photos-deepfake-power-peril-of-ai/\">in a stylish puffer jacket\u003c/a>?).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But for the better part of the Internet’s existence, content poking fun at the powerful was decidedly unpolished.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>Starting in the early 2000s, you could visit MySpace and chat rooms to see pixelated photos of then-president George W. Bush, \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/DubyaEraLeft/status/1886564683097751778\">pasted on top of a nuclear explosion\u003c/a> or holding a Dr. Seuss book above the caption “his most recent foreign policy briefing book.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Low-quality absurdist humor, albeit the kind that required rudimentary knowledge of photo editing software, became a medium for people all over the world to discuss actions out of their control — like the Bush administration’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2023/03/14/a-look-back-at-how-fear-and-false-beliefs-bolstered-u-s-public-support-for-war-in-iraq/\">decision to invade Iraq\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And for many, the caliber of the memes didn’t actually matter. “There’s a real value in speaking about politics in a vernacular language because a lot of people feel alienated from politics,” said Abigail De Kosnik, professor at UC Berkeley who studies performance and new media.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Memes found a home in the growing social media ecosystem of the 2010s, where regular people began to feel more comfortable expressing their opinions about the powerful with barbed humor and distinct vocabularies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>De Kosnik points to \u003ca href=\"https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/black-twitter-documentary-explores-its-history-and-cultural-impact\">“Black Twitter”\u003c/a> — the informal, but expansive community of Black commentators that developed on the platform now known as X in the late 2000s — as one online space that developed a universe of memes and humorous rhetoric, influenced by \u003ca href=\"https://www.britannica.com/topic/African-American-Vernacular-English\">African American Vernacular English\u003c/a>. “Black Twitter was a contentious, but also very funny space,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the 2012 killing of teenager Trayvon Martin, Black Twitter translated its comical critiques of power into the real world, De Kosnik said — as commentators \u003ca href=\"https://www.wired.com/story/black-twitter-oral-history-part-i-coming-together/\">swiftly mobilized in support of the Black Lives Matter movement\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This online language, she said, “now questioned: “What are we doing to protect people? What are we going to critique police violence?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>MAGA welcomes the trolls\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>But as spaces like Black Twitter grew, a parallel trolling ecosystem on the far right grew — with accounts promoting racist, sexist and homophobic views \u003ca href=\"https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/31/trolls-for-trump\">saturating social media\u003c/a> by the end of the 2010s. And that was due to the very algorithm these platforms run on, said UC Los Angeles professor Ramesh Srinivasan, who studies the connections between technology and democracy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What tends to go most viral on social media platforms is what is computationally predicted to grab attention,” he said. If someone posts something that insults certain groups and many users engage with that post — whether out of anger or agreement — the social media algorithm \u003ca href=\"https://theconversation.com/social-media-algorithms-warp-how-people-learn-from-each-other-research-shows-211172\">notices those high levels of activity\u003c/a> and will promote similar posts in the future. Trolling your opposition to an extreme, or “ragebaiting,” has become an effective strategy to dominate online conversations.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>During his first White House run in 2016, Trump consumed entire news cycles by \u003ca href=\"https://www.vox.com/2016/5/16/11603854/donald-trump-twitter\">shitposting from his Twitter account\u003c/a>. But he wasn’t the only one trolling anyone who opposed the MAGA agenda.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Far-right trolls that \u003ca href=\"https://www.vice.com/en/article/trump-shitposters-twitter-bots/\">supported Trump’s campaign\u003c/a> were now bringing brought white supremacist views from platforms with no moderation, like 4chan, into the wider Internet. Pepe the Frog — a cartoon \u003ca href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/sep/14/pepe-the-frog-artist-supports-hillary-clinton\">created in 2005 on MySpace\u003c/a> by San Francisco artist Furie — became a recurring character in \u003ca href=\"https://www.isdglobal.org/explainers/memes-the-extreme-right-wing/\">deeply racist and misogynistic memes\u003c/a> that showed up on Instagram and Facebook. In October 2015, then-candidate Trump would \u003ca href=\"https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-37493165\">retweet an image of himself as Pepe\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When Trump started politicizing his shitposting during the Obama administration, I would say he was really riding this bigger wave of alt-right accounts combining this vernacular, informal language with political agendas,” UC Berkeley’s De Kosnik said. “The right wing appropriated those tactics very quickly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trolling strategies were employed by the far-right to attack those they thought had become \u003cem>too\u003c/em> powerful during the social justice movements of the 2010s, including women, minorities and the LGBTQ+ community. “The alt-right always has adopted this victim mentality,” De Kosnik added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The language of Internet culture that not long ago had been used to ridicule American presidents like Bush now helped get one elected.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Where does posting end and policy begin?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>As the 2016 campaign reached its final weeks, then-First Lady Michelle Obama encouraged Democrats to engage Trump with civility and respect, with the phrase: “\u003ca href=\"https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/07/25/remarks-first-lady-democratic-national-convention\">When they go low, we go high\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Almost 10 years later, now during a second Trump administration, Newsom’s team has learned that, “if you stay high, then it’s over,” De Kosnik said. In fact, Obama herself abandoned her old mantra by the time of the 2024 election, \u003ca href=\"https://www.politico.com/news/2024/08/21/michelle-obama-dnc-speech-chicago-2024-00175324\">bashing Trump to a national audience\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>But there are consequences when politicians online take up to ragebaiting to chase after the algorithm’s attention, Srinivasan said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If certain voices remain invisible and only the most dominant, provocative and divisive voices go viral, you can imagine how much that creates distrust in what is actually real,” Srinivasan said. “Democracy isn’t just about everybody having a vote — it’s also about dialogue.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Big Tech companies will have to be part of any solution to address civil discourse online, he added, especially as politicians start posting more \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12021954/misinformation-about-the-la-fires-spreads-fast-heres-how-to-spot-it\">images and videos created by artificial intelligence\u003c/a>. “We need to not let AI go down the same path that social media went down,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Woodliff of realbayareamemes also worries that there could be a degrading effect on reality when figures like Trump and Newsom mix shitposting with AI.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s one thing for a humorous meme page like his to post intentionally absurd AI images, he said — but it makes it harder for voters to keep elected officials accountable if blurring the line between reality and AI-generated fiction is part of their political game.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Media literacy won’t even matter because eventually it will all look the same and everything will be so ridiculous we won’t be able to tell fact from fiction,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ultimately, for Woodliff, Newsom and Trump’s war of words online is still just that — words. What he really cares about, he said, is not how these politicians communicate online but how their rhetoric actually matches their policies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Until that happens, it’s just people trolling each other with big budgets,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>California Gov. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/gavin-newsom\">Gavin Newsom\u003c/a> has never been shy about picking a fight. But this moment could be make-or-break for the ambitious politician, as he takes on President Donald Trump not only on social media but at the ballot box.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a faceoff that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12051494/california-democrats-back-newsom-plan-to-redraw-congressional-maps-for-2026\">could determine the balance of power\u003c/a> in the U.S. House of Representatives next year and have longer repercussions for the governor’s own political ambitions — potentially a White House run of his own in 2028.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom has emerged as perhaps the nation’s most high-profile Democrat in recent months as he pushes back against the president’s move to redraw congressional districts in Republican-led states. In response, Newsom is asking California voters to pass \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12053249/california-approves-redistricting-plan-now-its-up-to-voters\">a redistricting plan\u003c/a> that could give Democrats five new seats — directly countering new Texas maps drawn to help Republicans flip five districts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We got here because the President of the United States is struggling,” Newsom said last month at a news conference where he signed the law putting the redistricting proposal before voters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[Trump] can’t win by playing by traditional sets of rules. He plays by no rules,” he added. “It’s not the rule of law, it’s the rule of Don. And we’re standing up to that. We’re responding to that. They fired the first shot in Texas. We wouldn’t be here, had Texas not done what they just did.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s hardly Newsom’s first time making national headlines by taking a high-stakes gamble.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11715425\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11715425\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/RS34584_GettyImages-81099350-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Gavin Newsom, then mayor of San Francisco, speaks during a news conference following a California Supreme Court decision to overturn the ban on same-sex marriage on May 15, 2008.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1359\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/RS34584_GettyImages-81099350-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/RS34584_GettyImages-81099350-qut-160x113.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/RS34584_GettyImages-81099350-qut-800x566.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/RS34584_GettyImages-81099350-qut-1020x722.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/RS34584_GettyImages-81099350-qut-1200x849.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gavin Newsom, then mayor of San Francisco, speaks during a news conference following a California Supreme Court decision to overturn the ban on same-sex marriage on May 15, 2008. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 2004, as San Francisco mayor, Newsom burst into the national consciousness when he threw open the doors of City Hall to same-sex couples and ordered city workers to begin marrying them, despite both state and federal bans on gay marriage. Republican political consultant Mike Madrid traces a straight path from that same sex marriage fight to this moment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The throughline that I think is pretty consistent with Gavin Newsom is he is a generational talent in the Democratic Party that has been able to do something that nobody else has done. And that is: He wins on cultural issues,” Madrid said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Madrid added that Democrats usually run from these fights, but “Gavin’s like, give me the sword, I’ll go out there. And he wins.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Newsom’s take-no-prisoners style toward Trump in recent months is a marked contrast from earlier this year, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12026230/after-years-of-attacks-newsom-tries-flattery-on-trump\">when he tried to make nice with Trump\u003c/a> as wildfires tore through Los Angeles. As those blazes burned, the governor met Trump on the airport tarmac and took him around L.A. to see the destruction, even as \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12021435/trumps-misinformation-la-fires-fuels-concerns-over-future-disaster-aid-california\">the president made false claims about the fires’ causes\u003c/a> and threatened to withhold disaster aid.[aside postID=news_12043766 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/GavinNewsom1AP-1020x680.jpg']That all changed in June, when Trump \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12043221/newsom-asks-trump-to-rescind-unlawful-deployment-of-troops-in-los-angeles\">sent armed military troops into L.A\u003c/a>. over Newsom’s objections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since then, Newsom and his staff have taken an increasingly aggressive — and cheeky — tone online. He’s not only confronting the president in the media and in court, but also mocking his social media posts with parodies that echo Trump’s own language, tone and style.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trump has long derided Newsom as a “terrible” governor and called him “Newscum.” Now, the governor is mimicking Trump, savaging the president in all-caps posts. He has recently suggested Trump has \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/GavinNewsom/status/1960387243505541553\">dementia\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/GavinNewsom/status/1961544715012378728\">called\u003c/a> him a \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/GavinNewsom/status/1962873063223202205\">loser\u003c/a> and ridiculed his \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/GavinNewsom/status/1960436979562373264\">hands\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They really learned, we cannot respond with facts and honesty and good information. We have to take the offense,” Madrid said. “And that’s what you saw to great effect during the ICE raids and continue to see it with sort of the quote-unquote trolling that’s going on now, where Gavin and his team are completely dominating the narrative.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Polls indicate Newsom’s stance is resonating. Since April, Newsom’s approval rating has jumped eight points to 51% in \u003ca href=\"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9f06d6p8\">UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies poll.\u003c/a> Fifty-nine percent of voters support his more vocal criticisms of Trump, and Democrats are far more enthusiastic about him running for president in 2028 than former Vice President Kamala Harris.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/GovPressOffice/status/1963693102348354047\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He’s seen as kind of a dynamic force against Donald Trump. Voters, especially Democrats, seem to think that’s a good idea,” said Mark DiCamillo, director of the poll.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the poll also found \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12053201/california-voters-divided-on-newsoms-plan-to-redraw-congressional-districts\">a tough fight ahead for Newsom with the redistricting ballot measure\u003c/a>, Proposition 50: It enjoyed 48% support in the poll, with 32 percent opposed and about one-fifth of voters still undecided.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, this isn’t uncharted territory for the governor, DiCamillo said, noting that he handily beat back an attempted recall in 2021 by making it a referendum on Trump and MAGA politics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This reminds me of when he got challenged on the recall election,” DiCamillo said. “He started running against Republicans and very successfully defeated the recall initiative; his job ratings went up … Now, he’s taking a very forceful, direct, combative approach to that and his job ratings are going up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12048349\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12048349\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/gettyimages-2225249524-scaled-e1757027321314.jpeg\" alt=\"President Trump speaks to the media as he departs the White House on July 15 for Pittsburgh.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">President Trump speaks to the media as he departs the White House on July 15, 2025, for Pittsburgh. \u003ccite>(Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>San Franciscan Ellek Linton, a 26-year-old voter who’s registered as an independent, is one of those on the left who is giving Newsom high marks for his willingness to take on Trump. Linton said watching the governor mock Trump on social media has been refreshing and entertaining, not just for him but for his Utah-based parents, who weren’t even familiar with the governor until recently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think in general his demeanor and his approach is really what we need, like that’s honestly, I believe the only way we’re ever going to beat Trump,” he said. “You got to go to that level.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Newsom’s task ahead is tougher than winning on social media: He must convince voters to support a ballot measure that will sideline the state’s independent redistricting commission, which was created at the ballot box just over a decade ago and remains popular in public polls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Linton said he will reluctantly support Newsom’s redistricting measure and its gerrymandered maps, even if it means adopting the tactics Trump and Texas are using.[aside postID=news_12054858 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/Newsom-Tweets_3.jpg']“I don’t think anybody agrees with gerrymandering, but at the same time, it’s kind of necessary,” he said. “If one side’s gonna cheat, we have to kind of cheat back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Republicans in California see Newsom’s move as a blatant power grab. On the Assembly floor last month, GOP leader James Gallagher said Trump was wrong to redistrict and warned that by following the president, Newsom is taking the country down a dangerous path.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Gavin is fighting fire with fire,” Gallagher said, calling the new maps a “Gavin-mander.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You move forward fighting fire with fire, what happens? You burn it all down,” he said. “And in this case, it affects our most fundamental American principle: representation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even some Democrats who have historically viewed Newsom with skepticism because of his perceived political ambitions are rallying around the governor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Former state Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, served alongside Newsom on the city’s Board of Supervisors more than two decades ago and was a progressive leader during his 14 years in Sacramento. Leno hasn’t always agreed with Newsom, but now has high praise for the governor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10777891\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10777891\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/12/MarkLeno.jpg\" alt=\"State Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) speaks at the Capitol in Sacramento on June 15, 2015.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1271\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/12/MarkLeno.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/12/MarkLeno-400x265.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/12/MarkLeno-800x530.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/12/MarkLeno-1440x953.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/12/MarkLeno-1180x781.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/12/MarkLeno-960x636.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">State Sen. Mark Leno. D-San Francisco, speaks at the Capitol in Sacramento on June 15, 2015. \u003ccite>(Max Whittaker/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“This is a serious moment in our nation’s history, more than serious; it cannot be overstated. And Gavin is stepping up to the plate, I appreciate it,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leno sees the redistricting fight — and whether Democrats can take back the House — as an existential moment for American democracy. It’s also a risky bet on which Newsom has seemingly staked his political reputation. If the ballot measure fails, it would not only be an embarrassment for the governor and Democrats, it could also help Republicans remain in control of the House and embolden Trump.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Do not think this is all about Gavin and all about Gavin’s aspirations. This is about the survival of our nation,” Leno said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The redistricting campaign is expected to be close and attract money from around the country. Those near Newsom say he’ll lean on the same playbook that helped him survive the recall: making the fight about Trump.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>California Gov. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/gavin-newsom\">Gavin Newsom\u003c/a> has never been shy about picking a fight. But this moment could be make-or-break for the ambitious politician, as he takes on President Donald Trump not only on social media but at the ballot box.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a faceoff that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12051494/california-democrats-back-newsom-plan-to-redraw-congressional-maps-for-2026\">could determine the balance of power\u003c/a> in the U.S. House of Representatives next year and have longer repercussions for the governor’s own political ambitions — potentially a White House run of his own in 2028.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom has emerged as perhaps the nation’s most high-profile Democrat in recent months as he pushes back against the president’s move to redraw congressional districts in Republican-led states. In response, Newsom is asking California voters to pass \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12053249/california-approves-redistricting-plan-now-its-up-to-voters\">a redistricting plan\u003c/a> that could give Democrats five new seats — directly countering new Texas maps drawn to help Republicans flip five districts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We got here because the President of the United States is struggling,” Newsom said last month at a news conference where he signed the law putting the redistricting proposal before voters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[Trump] can’t win by playing by traditional sets of rules. He plays by no rules,” he added. “It’s not the rule of law, it’s the rule of Don. And we’re standing up to that. We’re responding to that. They fired the first shot in Texas. We wouldn’t be here, had Texas not done what they just did.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s hardly Newsom’s first time making national headlines by taking a high-stakes gamble.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11715425\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11715425\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/RS34584_GettyImages-81099350-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Gavin Newsom, then mayor of San Francisco, speaks during a news conference following a California Supreme Court decision to overturn the ban on same-sex marriage on May 15, 2008.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1359\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/RS34584_GettyImages-81099350-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/RS34584_GettyImages-81099350-qut-160x113.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/RS34584_GettyImages-81099350-qut-800x566.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/RS34584_GettyImages-81099350-qut-1020x722.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/12/RS34584_GettyImages-81099350-qut-1200x849.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gavin Newsom, then mayor of San Francisco, speaks during a news conference following a California Supreme Court decision to overturn the ban on same-sex marriage on May 15, 2008. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 2004, as San Francisco mayor, Newsom burst into the national consciousness when he threw open the doors of City Hall to same-sex couples and ordered city workers to begin marrying them, despite both state and federal bans on gay marriage. Republican political consultant Mike Madrid traces a straight path from that same sex marriage fight to this moment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The throughline that I think is pretty consistent with Gavin Newsom is he is a generational talent in the Democratic Party that has been able to do something that nobody else has done. And that is: He wins on cultural issues,” Madrid said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Madrid added that Democrats usually run from these fights, but “Gavin’s like, give me the sword, I’ll go out there. And he wins.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Newsom’s take-no-prisoners style toward Trump in recent months is a marked contrast from earlier this year, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12026230/after-years-of-attacks-newsom-tries-flattery-on-trump\">when he tried to make nice with Trump\u003c/a> as wildfires tore through Los Angeles. As those blazes burned, the governor met Trump on the airport tarmac and took him around L.A. to see the destruction, even as \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12021435/trumps-misinformation-la-fires-fuels-concerns-over-future-disaster-aid-california\">the president made false claims about the fires’ causes\u003c/a> and threatened to withhold disaster aid.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>That all changed in June, when Trump \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12043221/newsom-asks-trump-to-rescind-unlawful-deployment-of-troops-in-los-angeles\">sent armed military troops into L.A\u003c/a>. over Newsom’s objections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since then, Newsom and his staff have taken an increasingly aggressive — and cheeky — tone online. He’s not only confronting the president in the media and in court, but also mocking his social media posts with parodies that echo Trump’s own language, tone and style.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trump has long derided Newsom as a “terrible” governor and called him “Newscum.” Now, the governor is mimicking Trump, savaging the president in all-caps posts. He has recently suggested Trump has \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/GavinNewsom/status/1960387243505541553\">dementia\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/GavinNewsom/status/1961544715012378728\">called\u003c/a> him a \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/GavinNewsom/status/1962873063223202205\">loser\u003c/a> and ridiculed his \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/GavinNewsom/status/1960436979562373264\">hands\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They really learned, we cannot respond with facts and honesty and good information. We have to take the offense,” Madrid said. “And that’s what you saw to great effect during the ICE raids and continue to see it with sort of the quote-unquote trolling that’s going on now, where Gavin and his team are completely dominating the narrative.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Polls indicate Newsom’s stance is resonating. Since April, Newsom’s approval rating has jumped eight points to 51% in \u003ca href=\"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9f06d6p8\">UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies poll.\u003c/a> Fifty-nine percent of voters support his more vocal criticisms of Trump, and Democrats are far more enthusiastic about him running for president in 2028 than former Vice President Kamala Harris.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>“He’s seen as kind of a dynamic force against Donald Trump. Voters, especially Democrats, seem to think that’s a good idea,” said Mark DiCamillo, director of the poll.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the poll also found \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12053201/california-voters-divided-on-newsoms-plan-to-redraw-congressional-districts\">a tough fight ahead for Newsom with the redistricting ballot measure\u003c/a>, Proposition 50: It enjoyed 48% support in the poll, with 32 percent opposed and about one-fifth of voters still undecided.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, this isn’t uncharted territory for the governor, DiCamillo said, noting that he handily beat back an attempted recall in 2021 by making it a referendum on Trump and MAGA politics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This reminds me of when he got challenged on the recall election,” DiCamillo said. “He started running against Republicans and very successfully defeated the recall initiative; his job ratings went up … Now, he’s taking a very forceful, direct, combative approach to that and his job ratings are going up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12048349\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12048349\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/gettyimages-2225249524-scaled-e1757027321314.jpeg\" alt=\"President Trump speaks to the media as he departs the White House on July 15 for Pittsburgh.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">President Trump speaks to the media as he departs the White House on July 15, 2025, for Pittsburgh. \u003ccite>(Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>San Franciscan Ellek Linton, a 26-year-old voter who’s registered as an independent, is one of those on the left who is giving Newsom high marks for his willingness to take on Trump. Linton said watching the governor mock Trump on social media has been refreshing and entertaining, not just for him but for his Utah-based parents, who weren’t even familiar with the governor until recently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think in general his demeanor and his approach is really what we need, like that’s honestly, I believe the only way we’re ever going to beat Trump,” he said. “You got to go to that level.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Newsom’s task ahead is tougher than winning on social media: He must convince voters to support a ballot measure that will sideline the state’s independent redistricting commission, which was created at the ballot box just over a decade ago and remains popular in public polls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Linton said he will reluctantly support Newsom’s redistricting measure and its gerrymandered maps, even if it means adopting the tactics Trump and Texas are using.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“I don’t think anybody agrees with gerrymandering, but at the same time, it’s kind of necessary,” he said. “If one side’s gonna cheat, we have to kind of cheat back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Republicans in California see Newsom’s move as a blatant power grab. On the Assembly floor last month, GOP leader James Gallagher said Trump was wrong to redistrict and warned that by following the president, Newsom is taking the country down a dangerous path.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Gavin is fighting fire with fire,” Gallagher said, calling the new maps a “Gavin-mander.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You move forward fighting fire with fire, what happens? You burn it all down,” he said. “And in this case, it affects our most fundamental American principle: representation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even some Democrats who have historically viewed Newsom with skepticism because of his perceived political ambitions are rallying around the governor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Former state Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, served alongside Newsom on the city’s Board of Supervisors more than two decades ago and was a progressive leader during his 14 years in Sacramento. Leno hasn’t always agreed with Newsom, but now has high praise for the governor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10777891\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10777891\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/12/MarkLeno.jpg\" alt=\"State Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) speaks at the Capitol in Sacramento on June 15, 2015.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1271\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/12/MarkLeno.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/12/MarkLeno-400x265.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/12/MarkLeno-800x530.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/12/MarkLeno-1440x953.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/12/MarkLeno-1180x781.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2015/12/MarkLeno-960x636.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">State Sen. Mark Leno. D-San Francisco, speaks at the Capitol in Sacramento on June 15, 2015. \u003ccite>(Max Whittaker/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“This is a serious moment in our nation’s history, more than serious; it cannot be overstated. And Gavin is stepping up to the plate, I appreciate it,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leno sees the redistricting fight — and whether Democrats can take back the House — as an existential moment for American democracy. It’s also a risky bet on which Newsom has seemingly staked his political reputation. If the ballot measure fails, it would not only be an embarrassment for the governor and Democrats, it could also help Republicans remain in control of the House and embolden Trump.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Do not think this is all about Gavin and all about Gavin’s aspirations. This is about the survival of our nation,” Leno said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The redistricting campaign is expected to be close and attract money from around the country. Those near Newsom say he’ll lean on the same playbook that helped him survive the recall: making the fight about Trump.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>President \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/donald-trump\">Donald Trump\u003c/a>’s deployment of military troops to Los Angeles has cost U.S. taxpayers at least $118 million, said Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has sued over the president’s move.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The figure, Newsom’s office said Thursday, is based on an estimate compiled by the California National Guard. The Trump administration has not responded to a public information request for documents and records itemizing the cost of the military deployment, Newsom’s office stated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The governor estimates that the June deployment of 4,000 National Guard soldiers and 700 U.S. Marines cost taxpayers $71 million in food, $37 million in payroll and another $9 million in other costs. Newsom called the deployment a “stunt” and a waste of resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The $118 million total is close to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.politico.com/news/2025/06/10/troops-deployed-to-la-will-cost-134m-pentagon-official-says-00396632\">$134 million estimate\u003c/a> provided to lawmakers by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth earlier this summer, as the troops were being deployed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12049917\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12049917\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/072525-Gavin-Newsom-Presser-AP-CM-01.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/072525-Gavin-Newsom-Presser-AP-CM-01.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/072525-Gavin-Newsom-Presser-AP-CM-01-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/072525-Gavin-Newsom-Presser-AP-CM-01-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gov. Gavin Newsom calls for a new way for California to redraw its congressional district maps during a news conference in Sacramento on July 25, 2025. \u003ccite>(Rich Pedroncelli/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Let us not forget what this political theater is costing us all — millions of taxpayer dollars down the drain, an atrophy to the readiness of guards members across the nation, and unnecessary hardships to the families supporting those troops,” Newsom said in a written statement. “Talk about waste, fraud, and abuse.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trump dispatched the troops to L.A. in June as protests broke out in response to immigration raids. The president claimed that those protests amounted to a rebellion and that he had the power to seize control of California’s National Guard, which Newsom usually oversees.[aside postID=news_12054322 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/NationalGuardLAAP.jpg']The state sued and this week won a favorable ruling from U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer, who ordered Trump to stop allowing the 300 National Guard troops still in L.A. to conduct policing of civilians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Breyer also ruled that the protests did not amount to a rebellion; the president has appealed, and the ruling remains on hold.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In announcing the costs, Newsom noted that fewer than one-fifth of the troops deployed to L.A. were actually utilized.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trump has also sent troops to Washington, D.C. under the guise of fighting crime and said he plans to also send military units to Democrat-led cities, including Chicago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom, who has accused the president of trying to create his own national police force, called on other states to “do the math themselves.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>President \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/donald-trump\">Donald Trump\u003c/a>’s deployment of military troops to Los Angeles has cost U.S. taxpayers at least $118 million, said Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has sued over the president’s move.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The figure, Newsom’s office said Thursday, is based on an estimate compiled by the California National Guard. The Trump administration has not responded to a public information request for documents and records itemizing the cost of the military deployment, Newsom’s office stated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The governor estimates that the June deployment of 4,000 National Guard soldiers and 700 U.S. Marines cost taxpayers $71 million in food, $37 million in payroll and another $9 million in other costs. Newsom called the deployment a “stunt” and a waste of resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The $118 million total is close to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.politico.com/news/2025/06/10/troops-deployed-to-la-will-cost-134m-pentagon-official-says-00396632\">$134 million estimate\u003c/a> provided to lawmakers by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth earlier this summer, as the troops were being deployed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12049917\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12049917\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/072525-Gavin-Newsom-Presser-AP-CM-01.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/072525-Gavin-Newsom-Presser-AP-CM-01.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/072525-Gavin-Newsom-Presser-AP-CM-01-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/072525-Gavin-Newsom-Presser-AP-CM-01-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gov. Gavin Newsom calls for a new way for California to redraw its congressional district maps during a news conference in Sacramento on July 25, 2025. \u003ccite>(Rich Pedroncelli/AP Photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Let us not forget what this political theater is costing us all — millions of taxpayer dollars down the drain, an atrophy to the readiness of guards members across the nation, and unnecessary hardships to the families supporting those troops,” Newsom said in a written statement. “Talk about waste, fraud, and abuse.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trump dispatched the troops to L.A. in June as protests broke out in response to immigration raids. The president claimed that those protests amounted to a rebellion and that he had the power to seize control of California’s National Guard, which Newsom usually oversees.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The state sued and this week won a favorable ruling from U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer, who ordered Trump to stop allowing the 300 National Guard troops still in L.A. to conduct policing of civilians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Breyer also ruled that the protests did not amount to a rebellion; the president has appealed, and the ruling remains on hold.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In announcing the costs, Newsom noted that fewer than one-fifth of the troops deployed to L.A. were actually utilized.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trump has also sent troops to Washington, D.C. under the guise of fighting crime and said he plans to also send military units to Democrat-led cities, including Chicago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom, who has accused the president of trying to create his own national police force, called on other states to “do the math themselves.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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