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The first test in the race to replace Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California is a year away, but the top three contenders are already furiously raising money, crisscrossing the state and amassing endorsements in what could become one of the most expensive statewide contests in recent memory. Reps. Barbara Lee , Katie Porter and Adam Schiff have been hitting the campaign trail hard, shoring up support and introducing themselves to new voters since Mrs. Feinstein announced in February that she would retire at the end of her term. The trio are some of the biggest names in Democratic politics but the field appears wide open, with no candidate drawing more than a quarter of the vote in an early poll.

☆ California Gov. Newsom Updates Plan to Combat State’s Homelessness Problem
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Christine Mai-Duc | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

California Gov. Gavin Newsom rankled big-city mayors and other local leaders last year when he temporarily froze state funding for their homelessness programs and demanded they set more ambitious goals for moving people off the streets. Many have now risen to that challenge, Mr. Newsom said Thursday, and can unlock $1 billion more in state funds for efforts aimed at moving people into housing and preventing others from landing on the streets.

☆ March Madness, Vasectomies Are an Unlikely Pairing Filling Urology Offices
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-12 | by ( Christine Mai-Duc | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

March is a special time for college basketball fans, who kick back on the couch for days to watch the two-week NCAA tournament known as March Madness. It also has become a shining moment for some urologists, who see the games as a perfect time to peddle vasectomies.

☆ California Mass Transit Hopes for Bailout in Already Tight Budget
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Christine Mai-Duc | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

San Francisco’s Bay Area Rapid Transit, or BART, is more reliant on passenger fares than most California transit systems, leaving it particularly vulnerable. Public transit agencies across California are asking the state for a bailout, saying they face a looming fiscal crisis due to lagging ridership that could otherwise force them to cut service, lay off employees or shut down some lines and stations. Since the start of the pandemic, some $69 billion in federal emergency funding has kept buses, trains and subways across the country running. But most of California’s transit agencies say they expect that funding to run out within two years. Meanwhile, ridership numbers remain well below prepandemic levels as many high-income workers continue to work from home at least some of the time.

☆ What is a microaggression? 15 things people think are fine to say at work — but are actually racist, sexist, or offensive.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Marguerite Ward | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Microaggressions are indirect or subtle expressions of racism, sexism, ageism, or ableism. A number of Black workers report facing less discrimination and fewer microaggressions working from home than when they're at the office. Some women of color say remote work has helped them in the same way, too. From telling a new female worker that she "looks like a student" to asking a Black colleague about her natural hair, microaggressions can make a workplace feel uncomfortable, unsafe, and toxic. Since microaggressions are subtle, it's often hard to know if you're committing one or if you're on the receiving end.

☆ Ukrainians Survey Damage After Barrage of Russian Missiles Hit Kyiv
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Motive Sought in Monterey Park Shooting as Families Mourn Victims Investigators continue to search for a motive in a mass shooting that killed 11 people celebrating the Lunar New Year at a dance ballroom in Monterey Park, Calif. Meanwhile, victims are being remembered by grieving families. WSJ’s Christine Mai-Duc reports on the community in mourning. Photo: Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images

MONTEREY PARK, Calif.—An eleventh person shot last weekend at a dance ballroom in Monterey Park, Calif. died Monday, officials said, as authorities continued to investigate why a 72-year-old man carried out the attack on a roomful of people celebrating the Lunar New Year. Law-enforcement officials named Huu Can Tran as the gunman. Tran took his own life Sunday morning after officers surrounded his vehicle in a shopping-plaza parking lot in Torrance, Calif., about 30 miles from where the shooting took place.

☆ California’s Newsom Proposes Budget Cuts as State Faces $22.5 Billion Deficit
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Christine Mai-Duc | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

California Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed a leaner budget Tuesday that would cut spending on climate change and transportation programs in response to a projected $22.5 billion budget shortfall. The $297 billion spending plan released Tuesday represents an $11 billion decrease from the current year’s budget. It comes just months after the Democrat signed a record-busting $308 billion budget, buoyed by a more than $100 billion surplus. Mr. Newsom said that the whiplash demonstrates the effects of California’s progressive tax system on state revenues, which rely heavily on personal income taxes, particularly from the ultrawealthy.

☆ California Faces $22.5 Billion Deficit
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Christine Mai-Duc | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is leading a state that relies heavily on personal income taxes. California is facing an estimated $22.5 billion budget shortfall in the coming fiscal year, according to a spending plan released Tuesday by Gov. Gavin Newsom . The proposal includes $297 billion in spending, an $11 billion decrease from the current year.

California Rep. Katie Porter , a favorite of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, said she would run for Senate in 2024, the first big name to enter what is expected to be a hotly contested race to succeed longtime Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein . Ms. Porter, 49 years old, is one of just a handful of progressive members who represent battleground districts. A law professor who had no previous electoral experience, Ms. Porter was one of seven California Democrats who flipped GOP-held districts in 2018, riding an anti-President Donald Trump wave that handed her party the House majority. She narrowly won reelection in 2022.

☆ California’s Torrential Rains Don’t Mean the Drought Is Over
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Christine Mai-Duc | Jim Carlton | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

One of the wettest two-week periods on record in California brought much-needed water to its reservoirs and snow to its mountains, but researchers and officials said it would take several more winter storms to make a dent in the drought that has sapped reservoirs, fallowed farmland and forced homeowners to let lawns turn brown. California has been drenched in the past few weeks by heavy rains and, at higher elevations, snow, caused by an atmospheric river, a flowing column of condensed water vapor in the atmosphere that produces significant levels of rain and snow. Swaths of the state received 15 or more inches of rain over the past two weeks, according to the National Weather Service.

☆ Hawaii Is Still Waiting for Big-Spending Japanese Tourists to Return
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-31 | by ( Christine Mai-Duc | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Tourism spending in Hawaii recovered to prepandemic levels this year, but state officials say they are counting on a return of Japanese tourists to stave off a downturn next year. Armando Dinong used to count on buses coming like clockwork every December to bring crowds of high-spending Japanese tourists to the Waikele Premium Outlets in Hawaii, where he manages a luxury luggage shop. “It would be like a tornado in the room,” Mr. Dinong says. “They were the No. 1 source for our sales.”

☆ Scott Peterson is denied a new trial in the death of his pregnant wife
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Minyvonne Burke | Minyvonne Burke Is A Senior Breaking News Reporter For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +1 min

Convicted murderer Scott Peterson was denied a new trial in the 2002 death of his pregnant wife, Laci Peterson, a judge has ruled. The decision comes more than a year after the California Supreme Court ordered Superior Court Judge Anne-Christine Massullo to consider whether juror misconduct denied Peterson a fair trial. Nice, who co-wrote a book about the case with other jurors, has denied that she was influenced by her personal experiences. His sentence was overturned by the California Supreme Court in 2020. Laci Peterson, 27, was eight months pregnant with their son, Conner, when she was killed in December 2002, five years after she and Peterson married.

☆ Harvey Weinstein Convicted of Three Sex Crimes in California
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Christine Mai-Duc | Erich Schwartzel | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Harvey Weinstein saw his Hollywood empire collapse after allegations of sexual harassment were publicized. LOS ANGELES—Disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein was convicted Monday of three counts of sexual assault and related crimes in Los Angeles and acquitted of another. The jury failed to reach a verdict on three other counts.

☆ Major Winter Storm Begins to Move Across U.S. Ahead of Holidays
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Ginger Adams Otis | Christine Mai-Duc | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/articles/major-winter-storm-begins-to-move-across-u-s-ahead-of-holidays-11670791134

☆ California Lawmakers to Consider Penalties on Oil Companies to Fight High Gas Prices
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Christine Mai-Duc | Benoît Morenne | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said his proposal’s main goal was to deter oil companies from setting artificially high prices. California legislators opened a special session Monday to explore the possibility of levying penalties on the oil industry for what Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has called price-gouging of consumers. Mr. Newsom declined to provide specific thresholds, saying the details were yet to be worked out with lawmakers.

☆ Kroger and Albertsons want to create a grocery empire. The last supermarket mega-merger backfired
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

With the FTC’s blessing, Haggen, a small supermarket chain in the Northwest with just 18 locations, bought 146 of the former Albertsons and Safeway stores, including the one where Martinez worked. In an weird twist, Albertsons bought back dozens of the same stores it previously sold to Haggen in bankruptcy court — at a lower price. Now she worries Kroger will divest Ralphs as part of its merger with Albertsons in a repeat of the Haggen 2015 deal. To address antitrust concerns that the merger will stifle competition in local markets where they overlap, Kroger and Albertsons plan to divest stores. In 2015, Haggen bought a Vons grocery store (owned by Safeway at the time) in Carpinteria as part of the Albertsons and Safeway divestitures.

☆ California’s Homelessness Problem Pits Gov. Gavin Newsom Against Mayors
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-27 | by ( Christine Mai-Duc | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

People lined up to partake in a free Thanksgiving meal Thursday provided by the Union Rescue Mission in the Skid Row district of downtown Los Angeles. California Gov. Gavin Newsom is facing off with local government officials, many of whom are fellow Democrats, over responsibility for the lack of progress combating homelessness in America’s most populous state. Mr. Newsom recently put a temporary freeze on $1 billion of state grants for city and county homelessness programs. He also rejected a slate of proposals from local officials outlining how they would spend the money, saying the measures would have reduced homelessness statewide by 2% between 2020 and 2024, which he deemed inadequate.

☆ Karen Bass Is Elected Mayor of Los Angeles, Defeating Rick Caruso
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Christine Mai-Duc | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Rep. Karen Bass, (D., Calif.) entered public office in 2004, when she was elected to the California state Assembly. Karen Bass has become the first woman elected mayor of Los Angeles, according to the Associated Press, as the California congresswoman defeated businessman Rick Caruso in a race that remained too close to call for more than a week. Mr. Caruso, a billionaire real estate developer, began election night with a lead in early results, but mail ballots that arrived later broke in favor of Ms. Bass, a Democrat..

☆ Why It Takes Longer to Know Election Results in Some States
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Chad Day | Christine Mai-Duc | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Why is it taking so long to know who won in the midterm elections? It’s a question on many Americans’ minds as they await the outcome in close contests in Arizona, California and elsewhere. Here are a few factors behind the wait. Close RacesIt always takes days and in some cases weeks for every ballot to be counted in every state.

☆ California Sues 3M and DuPont Over PFAS Chemicals
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Christine Mai-Duc | Kris Maher | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

California Attorney General Rob Bonta wants 3M and DuPont to establish an abatement fund to reduce the toxins’ effects. California is suing 3M Co. and DuPont de Nemours Inc. along with other manufacturers of PFAS, a collection of chemicals that have been linked to health issues including cancer and are commonly found in consumer products such as fabrics, food packaging and cookware. The complaint, filed in Alameda County Superior Court Thursday, alleges that a total of 18 defendant manufacturers made products containing PFAS, commonly known as “forever chemicals,” for decades even though they knew they were toxic and harmful to humans and the environment.

☆ Caruso-Bass Race for Los Angeles Mayor Might Take More Than a Week to Resolve
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Christine Mai-Duc | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Independent Rick Caruso and Democratic Rep. Karen Bass are vying to be the next mayor of Los Angeles, with issues such as homelessness occupying center stage. Congresswoman Karen Bass and developer Rick Caruso remained locked in a tight race for mayor of Los Angeles, as political strategists said it could take more than a week for the final result to become clear. As of Wednesday morning, Mr. Caruso was leading Ms. Bass by just more than 12,000 votes, 51% to 49%, with about 43% of the expected ballots counted, according to the Associated Press. Election administrators said they would release the next batch of results Friday in America’s second most populous city.

☆ Gambling, Marijuana and Taxing the Rich Will Be on Midterm Ballots
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Christine Mai-Duc | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Voters across the U.S. on Tuesday will decide the fate of dozens of consequential ballot measures, from legalizing marijuana to taxing the rich. Several states, including Maryland and Arkansas, are considering whether to legalize recreational marijuana, while five states, including Alabama and Louisiana, could open the door to ending the use of involuntary prison labor. Nebraska and Nevada voters could boost the minimum wage in their states. Other hot-button issues in Tuesday’s elections including gambling, immigration and guns are also the subject of state-level referendum campaigns.

☆ In Los Angeles Mayoral Race, Businessman Gains on Veteran Congresswoman
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Christine Mai-Duc | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Like virtually every political race in Los Angeles, the contest for mayor has centered largely on homelessness. LOS ANGELES—Businessman Rick Caruso has launched back into contention to become the next mayor of Los Angeles, as record spending and a focus on homelessness and crime have tightened his race with longtime Democratic Congresswoman Karen Bass , according to campaign strategists and a recent poll. Ms. Bass bested the mall developer in June’s crowded open primary by 7 percentage points, despite his record $41 million in spending in that round. Polls over the summer showed her leading by double digits and seemingly poised to become the first woman elected mayor of America’s second-most-populous city.

☆ California Gov. Gavin Newsom Fights Loudly with Republicans Nationally, Quietly With Democrats Back Home
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Christine Mai-Duc | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is intent on casting himself as a national champion for Democrats, many of whom he thinks are eager for more aggressive leadership, says people who have worked with him. As he cruises toward re-election Tuesday, California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has spent much of his time and campaign money picking fights with Republicans in other states, including running ads in Texas and Florida criticizing their GOP governors. But in Sacramento, where Democrats dominate the state legislature and have perennial ambitions to push first-in-the nation policies on everything from climate change to technology regulation, Mr. Newsom has regularly clashed with the most progressive elements of his own party.

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