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California Policy and Politics Monday

California earthquake expert gives staggering cost estimate for Big One: $1 trillion -- Ahmed Elbanna, the director of the Statewide California Earthquake Center, told the state’s Seismic Safety Commission in April that a 7.8-magnitude earthquake rupturing from Imperial to Los Angeles County would likely cause $500 billion in damage at a minimum — and possibly double that. Brooke Park in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 7/27/26

Trump administration admits grants for clean energy were canceled based on politics -- The Trump administration has acknowledged in court documents that it canceled $7.6 billion in grants for hundreds of clean energy projects “based solely on the political identity of the grant recipient’s state” — in this case, 16 states that voted for Democrat Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election. Matthew Daly Associated Press -- 7/27/26

Padilla introduces a new bill to counter Trump’s ‘attacks’ on federal elections -- The bill, called the Stop Harassment and Intimidation in Elections through Legal Defenses (SHIELD) Our Elections Act, would give state attorneys general and voters new pathway to enforce federal anti-election interference laws. Alula Alderson in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 7/27/26

Wildfire forces evacuations in Yosemite gateway town -- The Dove Fire was reported just before 3 p.m. in the hills southwest of downtown Sonora and grew to 166 acres by 4:35 p.m., according to Cal Fire. But the fire had slowed from a dangerous rate of spread to a moderate speed by 5:19 p.m. and was holding within lines built to slow it down. Anthony Edwards, Anna Bauman in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 7/27/26

California bill would let abuse victims use trauma as legal defense for violent crime -- For the fourth year in a row, California lawmakers are weighing whether to give violent criminals the legal right to cite abuse in their legal defense. Ryan Sabalow Calmatters -- 7/27/26

Prop. 43 would make some local taxes harder to pass. What’s at stake in the Bay Area? -- Known as Proposition 43, the measure would set the threshold to impose or extend a tax earmarked for specific purposes at a two-thirds vote. Grace Hase in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 7/27/26

Why California prisons are using their own employees as human fire alarms -- California spends tens of millions dollars every year paying prison employees to look for smoke and fire. Replacing fire alarms costs much more. Cayla Mihalovich Calmatters -- 7/27/26

ICE

Deportation rate of California children surges during Trump’s immigration crackdown -- More than 650 children in California have been detained by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during Trump’s second term. Some were swept up in community ICE raids, and many have been deported, according to an EdSource analysis of ICE records available through March 10. Emma Gallegos EdSource -- 7/27/26

Day laborers come together at a convention to process a year and a half of ICE raids -- Carlos wasn’t surprised when immigration agents cornered him at a Home Depot in Los Angeles last summer. His luck had finally run out, he thought. Itzel Luna in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/27/26

ICE detentions spiked in June, targeting immigrants with no criminal records, new data show -- Immigrants without criminal records make up 74% of the average daily population in California detention centers and 79% nationwide, according to data released this week by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The data shed light on how immigration detention has ebbed and flowed so far in 2026. Itzel Luna in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/27/26

Marketplace

Wine grape growers consider agave as industry searches for a way forward -- As the California wine industry faces an oversaturated market due to a steep dropoff in consumer demand, some wine grape farmers are considering growing agave to produce what is known in the United States as “agave spirits.” Lizzie Kane in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 7/27/26

Workplace

Big Companies Are Starting to Hire Again, Defying Predictions of AI Wipeout -- After a year of holding back on new hires, companies from tech and transportation to defense now say they need more people to work alongside AI Chip Cutter in the Wall Street Journal$ -- 7/27/26

Hollywood’s open secret: It’s battling AI — and already addicted to it -- Although few places are better than Hollywood at crafting a narrative and concealing what happens off-frame, a Los Angeles Times survey of job postings sheds light on what is happening offstage. Nilesh Christopher in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/27/26

Employers Fear Labor Shortage as Many Immigrants Lose Protected Status -- A recent Supreme Court ruling cleared the way for the Trump administration to end a humanitarian program that has allowed about one million immigrants to work legally in the U.S. Miriam Jordan and Madeleine Ngo in the New York Times$ -- 7/27/26

AI

Nvidia, Other Tech Giants Launch AI Defense Alliance Following OpenAI Hacking Incident -- The initiative, dubbed the Open Secure AI Alliance, is developing open-source programs to give companies access to tools to help fend off AI cyberattacks. Members of the group include SpaceX, Microsoft MSFT, Palantir and dozens of others. Joseph De Avila in the Wall Street Journal$ -- 7/27/26

Silicon Valley Splits Over Closing the Borders to Chinese A.I. -- Anthropic and OpenAI are clashing with the rest of the tech industry over whether “open-source” models from China should be freely available or restricted. Mike Isaac, Kate Conger, Ana Swanson and Meaghan Tobin in the New York Times$ -- 7/27/26

POTUS 47

Trump Seems Trapped by Iran War, Even as He Wields the World’s Biggest Hammer -- A president who thought there were no limits to his power has discovered several, leaving him more frustrated and erratic. David E. Sanger in the New York Times$ -- 7/27/26

Trump wants to give U.S.-Iran talks ‘some space’ as he weighs escalation, aide says -- Over the weekend, the U.S. military halted its bombing raids on Iran after 13 straight days of heavy strikes and warnings of even more aggressive attacks. Sammy Westfall and Suzan Haidamous in the Washington Post$ -- 7/27/26

Poll: Even Trump voters aren’t very impressed by the GOP’s tax overhaul -- Only a quarter of them believe the working class got substantial breaks from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signaling how low public opinion is among Republicans’ own base. Bernie Becker Politico -- 7/27/26

67 boat strikes. 221 dead. The cocaine hasn’t slowed, officials report -- The president says Operation Southern Spear has virtually ended drug trafficking by sea. Pentagon and DEA analysts have concluded otherwise. Alex Horton, Terrence McCoy, Samantha Schmidt and Dylan Moriarty Politico -- 7/27/26

Pentagon reports more than 600 Iran war casualties in quiet database update -- The Pentagon updated its official war casualty database over the weekend, adding more than 140 wounded service members. The Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS) also introduced a new casualty category labeled “Overseas Operations” for personnel killed and wounded “starting July 7”. Marina Dunbar in The Guardian -- 7/27/26