Here are the morning’s top stories on Thursday, May 15, 2025…

Across California, families have had to fight, sometimes for years, just to learn what happened to their loved ones in police custody. Darryl Mefferd wasn’t under arrest when he died after an encounter with Vallejo police in 2016. Local officials ruled his death was an accidental drug overdose and for years, that’s where the story ended. But new records and never before seen body camera footage are challenging that version of events.
Facing a massive $12 billion dollar budget deficit, Governor Gavin Newsom unveiled his revised budget on Wednesday. It includes scaling back safety-net health insurance for undocumented immigrants, cutting coverage for weight loss drugs like Ozempic and reducing home health services. But the governor also wants to fast-track a contentious project lawmakers have debated in California for over half a century.

Video Shows Death Vallejo Police Concealed For Years

In 2016, Darryl Mefferd encountered Vallejo police officer Jeremy Callinan in the Sutter Solano Medical Center parking lot. He slipped his arms out of a baggy black jacket and waved them around, saying something about epilepsy and operations and people recording him. Callinan told Mefferd to calm down and squeezed his hands behind his back, locking them together with handcuffs.

What happened next in leading to Mefferd’s death is now coming into more detail, thanks to new records and never seen body camera footage. Open Vallejo spoke with forensic experts who said they believe Mefferd’s death was likely a homicide.

In November, the Solano County District Attorney’s Office released to Open Vallejo more than 40 minutes of footage from Callinan’s body-worn camera and in-car camera from the night of the incident, as well as hours of surveillance footage from the scene; more than three hours of audio recordings, including dispatch communications and interviews with Callinan, witnesses, and Mefferd’s family members; and a 577-page binder of investigative reports and autopsy records. The Fairfield Police Department, Solano County Sheriff’s Office, and California Department of Justice have also released records from the Mefferd case in the months since Open Vallejo first uncovered the fatal incident in an investigation published last June, in which three experts said they would have ruled the death a homicide. That story was based on the public records available at the time, interviews with family members, and a confidential source with knowledge of the investigation who was not authorized to speak publicly about it.

The city of Vallejo has yet to release any records from the Mefferd case.

Governor Newsom Unveils Budget Gap, Aims to Cap Undocumented Health Care

California’s fiscal outlook has taken a turn for the worse, Gov. Gavin Newsom said as he unveiled an updated 2025–26 state budget plan on Wednesday with a projected $11.9 billion shortfall.

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The governor said President Donald Trump’s tariffs and market volatility, combined with rising state health care costs, have derailed what appeared to be a relatively healthy budget just a few months ago. In response, he is proposing cuts that include scaling back the state’s offer of health insurance to low-income undocumented immigrants.

Under the governor’s plan, Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program for Californians with low incomes or disabilities, will stop enrolling new undocumented adults beginning on Jan. 1. Californians without legal status currently on the program will maintain coverage, but beginning in 2027, enrollees older than 18 will be charged a $100 monthly premium. “We believe that people should have some skin in the game as it relates to contributions,” Newsom said. The changes will save the state an estimated $5.4 billion by 2028–29, but advocates for immigrants are already warning that they will result in hundreds of thousands of Californians losing health care coverage.

Newsom has also pledged to continue pushing back against the president’s agenda in court. California has already filed more than a dozen lawsuits against this Trump administration, including one last month targeting the tariffs.

Newsom Pushes to Fast-Track $20 Billion Delta Tunnel for California Water

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s revised budget proposal announced Wednesday includes a push to fast-track a contentious tunnel project that could deliver more water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to farms and cities throughout the state.

The Delta Conveyance Project has been through many iterations and decades of debate by California lawmakers, going from a proposed canal to two tunnels and now a single tunnel.

Newsom wants the Legislature to adopt his plan to accelerate the $20 billion, 45-mile-long tunnel through the delta by passing bills to simplify permitting, confirm that the Department of Water Resources has the authority to issue bonds to cover the project’s cost, prevent unnecessary litigation delays and support construction.

The governor believes the tunnel is imperative for adapting the state for a hotter and drier climate that could result in 10% less water by the 2040s. But some lawmakers and environmental groups vehemently oppose the idea, saying it will harm fish species, the environment and local economies.

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Vallejo Police Hid Details Of In Custody Death