Palestinian-American who mediated Edan Alexander's release separates from Witkoff team
Palestinian-American businessman Bishara Bahbah, who was a key mediator for the release of former Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander, will no longer be working with the US negotiating team for a ceasefire and hostage deal, N12 reported Saturday.
"Dear people of Gaza, all I can say now is that aid trucks will continue to enter the Strip on a regular basis. Unfortunately, most of the aid trucks are stolen as soon as they enter the Strip," Bahbah said on Facebook Friday night.
"Ceasefire negotiations are currently stalled. I am not a mediator in the true sense of the word, but I share your suffering. My role is to convey your voices to all officials, high and low. As I said before, I have not and will not forget you."
Bahbah is now expected to work separately from US Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, according to N12.
"I can achieve more with Hamas when I conduct myself freely," he said, according to the report. Bahbah said that he was never an official member of the US negotiating team.
"I have played the role of a mediator whenever Steve Witkoff asked me to do so. I have tremendous respect for Mr. Witkoff. I believe that President Trump wants to end the tragedy in Gaza," he added.
In late July, Bahbah criticized Hamas for not providing a quick response to an Israeli proposal. "The delay is costing the Palestinian people dozens of victims every day, and there is no convincing reason to delay the response or to demand amendments that are not essential," he wrote on Facebook.
Bahbah's deal proposal months ago
Bahbah proposed a plan in May for a 70-day ceasefire and the release of 10 hostages in two stages, Ynet reported.
Bahbah's plan "is something that no Israeli government would agree to accept. Hamas is setting impossible conditions that mean a complete failure to meet the goals of the war, and an inability to release the hostages," an Israeli official told the Israeli news site.
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Yahoo
40 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Anas Al-Sharif became the face of the war in Gaza for millions. Then Israel killed him
As a ceasefire in Gaza took hold in January, Anas Al-Sharif began removing his protective gear live on television, piece by piece, while a jubilant crowd cheered, hoping the day marked the end of the suffering of 2 million Palestinians in the enclave. Nearly seven months later, Israel killed the Al Jazeera journalist and four of his colleagues in a strike in Gaza City. One of the most well-known Palestinian journalists in Gaza – and one of dozens to be killed by Israel during the war – Al-Sharif's death has ignited international condemnation and calls for accountability. The 28-year-old rose to prominence as the face of the Gaza story for millions while Israel has blocked international media outlets from accessing the territory. Little known before the war, he quickly turned into a household name in the Arab world for his daily coverage of the conflict and its humanitarian toll. His reports provided first-hand accounts of critical moments in the conflict, including the short-lived ceasefires in the territory, the release of Israeli hostages and harrowing stories of the starvation that have shocked the world. Al Jazeera recruited Al-Sharif in December 2023 after his social media footage of Israeli strikes in his hometown of Jabalya went viral. Then a professional cameraman, he was initially reluctant to appear on air but was persuaded by colleagues to front his reports, an experience he called 'indescribable.' 'I had never even appeared on a local channel let alone an international one,' he was cited as saying in the Sotour media outlet in February. 'The person who was happiest was my late father.' His father was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Jabalya shortly after Al-Sharif began appearing on Al Jazeera. A father of two, he appeared on the channel nearly every day since he started his job. 'We (journalists) slept in hospitals, in streets, in vehicles, in ambulances, in displacement shelters, in warehouses, with displaced people. I slept in 30 to 40 different places,' he told the outlet. After he took off his protective gear on air in January, crowds lifted him on their shoulders in celebration. 'I am taking off the helmet that tired me, and this armor that has become an extension of my body,' he said live on Al Jazeera at the time as he paid tribute to colleagues killed and injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza. Al-Sharif's reports attracted the attention of the Israeli military, which, he claimed, warned him to stop his work for Al Jazeera, a network that had already lost several staff members to Israeli actions in Gaza, including Ismail Al Ghoul, killed last year, and Hossam Shabat, killed in March. 'At the end, (the Israeli military) sent me voice notes on my WhatsApp number… an intelligence officer told me… 'you have minutes to leave the location you are in, go to the south, and stop reporting for Al Jazeera'… I was reporting from a hospital live.' 'Minutes later, the room I was reporting from was struck,' he said. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) didn't respond to CNN's request for comment. Why now? Israel first accused Al-Sharif of being linked to Hamas 10 months ago. Why it decided to target him now is unclear. In a statement confirming his targeted killing, the IDF accused Al-Sharif of leading a Hamas cell in Gaza that orchestrated 'rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF forces.' In October 2024, the Israeli military published documents it claimed showed 'unequivocal proof' of Al-Sharif's ties to Hamas and named five other Al Jazeera journalists who it said were part of the militant group. An Israeli army spokesperson said in a video on X that Al-Sharif joined a Hamas battalion in 2013, and was injured in training in 2017, CNN has not been able to independently confirm the IDF's claims. Al-Sharif denied the accusations, and Irene Khan, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression, also rejected them. 'I reaffirm: I, Anas Al-Sharif, am a journalist with no political affiliations. My only mission is to report the truth from the ground – as it is, without bias,' he wrote last month. 'At a time when a deadly famine is ravaging Gaza, speaking the truth has become, in the eyes of the occupation, a threat.' Following the killing, the IDF's Arabic spokesperson published several pictures of Al-Sharif with Yahya Sinwar, the late Hamas leader who is believed to have masterminded the October 7, 2023 attack that left around 1,200 people in Israel dead and roughly 250 more taken hostage. Israel killed Sinwar in October 2024. CNN has established that, before the war in Gaza, Al-Sharif worked for a Hamas media team in the strip. In an audio recording from several months ago, Al-Sharif could be heard criticizing the stance adopted by the Hamas negotiating team. When he was killed on Sunday, Al-Sharif was in a tent with other journalists near the entrance to the Al-Shifa Hospital, according to hospital director Dr. Mohammad Abu Salmiya. The tent was marked with a 'Press' sign, Abu Salmiya told CNN. The strike killed at least seven people, he added. Al Jazeera said correspondent Mohammed Qreiqeh and photojournalists Ibrahim Al Thaher and Moamen Aliwa were also killed in the strike, as well as Mohammed Noufal, another staff member. 'Pattern of accusing journalists' Al-Sharif's killing prompted condemnations from rights groups and officials. The Committee to Protect Journalists said it was 'appalled,' adding that Israel has 'a longstanding, documented pattern of accusing journalists of being terrorists without providing any credible proof.' The CPJ said 192 journalists have been killed since the beginning of the war nearly two years ago, adding: '184 of those journalists are Palestinians killed by Israel.' Since the start of the war, Israel has not allowed international journalists to enter Gaza to report independently. Just hours before the strike that killed Al-Sharif and his colleagues, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said foreign journalists would now be allowed into Gaza, but only with Israeli military approval and accompanied by them, the same embed policy that has been in place since the beginning of the war. Al Jazeera, based in Qatar, is one of the few global news outlets broadcasting live from Gaza during the conflict, unlike others that primarily rely on local freelance journalists. As one of the most watched channels in the Arab world, its continuous coverage of Gaza has drawn a significant viewership among Palestinians and Arabic-speaking audiences. The network's YouTube channel has more than 21 million subscribers and nearly 16 billion views, with a live stream that attracts millions of viewers Al-Sharif gained prominence in the network as many of its well-known journalists in Gaza were killed or injured by Israeli strikes. Wael Al Dahdouh, the former Gaza bureau chief, was evacuated to Qatar after sustaining injuries and having most of his family killed. Al-Sharif then emerged as a roving reporter across Gaza, providing Al Jazeera with live updates from the north of the enclave. He also regularly posted videos on his Telegram channel highlighting the toll of the war on Palestinians. Last year, Israel banned the Al Jazeera from operating in the country under a sweeping new wartime law that allows the Israeli government to ban foreign media organizations it deems 'harmful' to the nation's security. Al-Sharif was buried in Gaza on Monday in a funeral that attracted large crowds of Palestinian mourners. Anticipating his own death, Al-Sharif had written a will that was released by his colleagues after he was killed. 'I have lived through pain in all its details, tasted suffering and loss many times, yet I never once hesitated to convey the truth as it is, without distortion or falsification… If I die, I die steadfast upon my principles,' he wrote. 'Do not forget Gaza … and do not forget me in your sincere prayers for forgiveness and acceptance.'
Politico
43 minutes ago
- Politico
What William Bennett is doing for Qatar
With help from Daniel Lippman REPRESENTING QATAR: Former Education Secretary William Bennett registered as a foreign agent last month to provide the Qatari government with backup against accusations that it has funded antisemitic activity on college campuses. A filing with the Justice Department on Monday offers a glimpse at what exactly Bennett is doing for the Gulf nation. — 'I accepted this role so I could apply my experience and independent judgment to a growing body of accusations against Qatar,' the Reagan-era education chief wrote in a recent letter to current Education Secretary Linda McMahon, according to a copy filed with DOJ on Monday. The Qatari Embassy is paying Bennett a $30,000 monthly retainer for his work, DOJ filings show. — Foreign funding in U.S. academia — of which Qatar is a top provider — has become a major focus of congressional Republicans probing anti-Israel protests at colleges. It was the subject of an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in April. — Bennett refuted the notion that Qatar has sought to exert 'malign influence' or sought to foster antisemitism on campuses. Many of the gifts attributed to Qatar in federal disclosure databases are tied to satellite campuses in Doha operated by more than half a dozen U.S. colleges — a model that 'should be recognized as a constructive extension of American educational leadership,' he wrote. — Moreover, Bennett claimed his review found that some of the worst allegations about Qatari influence on campuses were the result of a 'coordinated campaign of distortion led primarily by third-party advocacy groups' such as the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, 'whose motivations and funding sources deserve far more scrutiny than they have received.' — The think tank, which has previously received funding from the Israeli government, has been one of the top critics of Qatar's gifts to universities, with its leaders and research featured in numerous congressional hearings on the matter. — Bennett lauded McMahon's push for greater transparency into foreign influence in academia, repeatedly pointing to his own registration as a foreign agent as proof. But 'if the Department is to evaluate the influence of foreign funding in higher education,' he wrote, 'it should do so comprehensively and impartially, including examining the foreign ties, funding sources, and lobbying activities of those making the loudest accusations.' — 'Contrary to the false assertions by Mr. Bennett, ISGAP is an independent non-partisan high calibre research Centre,' Charles Asher Small, ISGAP's executive director, told PI in an email. 'Unlike Mr [Bennett], ISGAP does not work with, or for, foreign entities, like the Qatari Regime his client.' Small said that the group had received a $123,000 grant from the Israeli government in 2019 'for a university based academic programme,' but that it was the 'only occasion in ISGAPs history that we received a grant from a government.' — 'Mr. Bennett quotes false reports designed to dismiss our fact based research that points to the dangers of unreported foreign funding of American higher education by entities, like the undemocratic Qatari regime with … close relations to the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and to other terror entities.' Happy Tuesday and welcome to PI. Keep sending influence tips and scoops from whichever waterside locale you're spending recess in. Add me on Signal at caitlinoprysko.17 and email me at coprysko@ and you can add Daniel on Signal at danielbarnes.13 and email Daniel at dbarnes@ And follow us on X: @caitlinoprysko and @dnlbrns. AFGE'S ADVOCACY SHOP GETS AN OVERHAUL: The largest union representing federal employees is retooling its advocacy operations amid the Trump administration's moves to slash and dramatically reshape the federal workforce. — The American Federation of Government Employees announced today that it's bringing together staffers working on political, grassroots, education, community relations and comms for the union under the umbrella of a newly formed 'Advocacy Department.' — Andrew Huddleston, who has led AFGE's comms team for the past seven years, will lead the new advocacy unit. Brittany Holder will move up to communications director, and AFGE's political and field staff will be led by an as-yet-unnamed director. — AFGE's lobbying arm will remain separate from the advocacy department. But the union tapped Daniel Horowitz, who's been heading up AFGE's Hill outreach on an interim basis since January, to fill the role permanently. — 'The idea is for AFGE to be ready to act fast when events break, while also pursuing our long-term goals: winning for our members, protecting the integrity of our government, building stronger partnerships with allies, and making AFGE more powerful and influential for decades to come,' Huddleston told PI of the reorg. — AFGE has been on the front lines of the Trump administration's war with the federal workforce as Elon Musk's DOGE cost-cutting initiative moved to shutter entire agencies, steamroll career employees and obtain access to sensitive government data. The administration has also taken aim at federal workers' rights to unionize altogether and last week moved to cancel collective bargaining agreements for EPA employees. — But the administration attacks on the federal bureaucracy have already hit the union hard, and AFGE announced in April that it would lay off more than half of its own workforce. CREDIT UNIONS TAP NUSSLE'S SUCCESSOR: America's Credit Unions has picked Scott Simpson as the next president and chief executive of the trade group. Simpson will take over in November from former Rep. Jim Nussle, who announced his retirement in April. Simpson is currently president and CEO of the California Credit Union League and Nevada's Credit Unions in addition to serving as CEO of Utah's Credit Union Association. — At America's Credit Unions, which formed last year as the result of a merger between the two leading trade groups for credit unions, the Credit Union National Association and the National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions, Simpson has served on the group's legislative action council and led its national advocacy fund. BLUESKY LOBBIES UP: Bluesky Social, the upstart microblogging platform angling to dethrone Musk's X, has hired its first federal lobbyists. The Vogel Group began working last month to provide 'general awareness and education building about decentralized platforms' like Bluesky, according to a newly filed disclosure. Republican lobbyist and firm founder Alex Vogel is working on the account along with Ali Khimji, Gabby Smith and Isabelle Drayer. — Bluesky was started in 2019 as a research project by Twitter architect and then-CEO Jack Dorsey to explore decentralization, which allows users to store their data on independent servers rather than ones owned by the company. Bluesky launched its social media app years later after spinning off from Twitter before Musk's takeover. — It has shown more staying power than some of the other social networks competing to replace Dorsey's old site, and saw another surge of new users following Trump's election last year. But X remains dominant over Bluesky Social and Meta Platforms' copycat site Threads, TechCrunch reported last month. ANNALS OF DARK MONEY: New DNC Chair Ken Martin 'is taking a symbolic step toward curbing the influence of undisclosed and corporate funds in his party's 2028 presidential primary,' The New York Times' Reid Epstein reports, 'a move that is likely to instigate a broader conversation about the role of big money in Democratic politics.' — Martin's plans include tasking a new reform committee with coming up with 'real, enforceable steps the D.N.C. can take to eliminate unlimited corporate and dark money in its 2028 presidential primary process' by next summer. — 'The move is the first significant maneuver from Mr. Martin to shape the party's next presidential nominating process,' the Times writes. But 'how much bite the effort has will be determined in large part by the enforcement mechanism the party seeks to implement,' especially as some Democrats have called for going toe to toe against the GOP in other political arenas like redistricting. SPOTTED on Saturday at the Edgartown home of April Miller Boise and David Willbrand for a fundraiser benefiting the DSCC and Sens. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) and Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), per a tipster: Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.), Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, co-hosts Paul and Sonya Brathwaite of Federal Street Strategies; Art Collins of TheGROUP, Larry Parks of Forethought Advisors, Hasoni Pratts of the National Urban League, former Domestic Policy Council Director Susan Rice, Dawn Smalls of Jenner & Block, Bert Smyers of New Heights Research, Robyn Minter Smyers of Thompson Hine and Crystal Wagar of The Southern Group and TSG Advocates; Mo Cowan of Devoted Health, former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, Veronica Duron of Booker's office, Joy Russell of Alsobrooks' office, Will Washington of Blunt Rochester's office and Meredith Lilly of Warnock's office. Jobs report — Elliott Echols is now senior vice president at Frontline Government Relations. He previously was national political director at the RNC. — Stephanie Waties is returning to APCO as a senior director in D.C. She was previously a senior vice president at LSG and previously spent almost eight years at APCO. — Tatiana Rice is being elevated to the senior director role for the Future of Privacy Forum's U.S. legislation team, per Morning Tech. She was previously the team's director, and has been at the company for nearly four years. — Todd Breasseale is now chief communications and brand officer at Brighton Marine, Inc. He's a former Biden DoD and Obama DHS spokesperson. — The Plastics Industry Association has added Hodayah Finman as senior director of regulatory affairs and Ivy Brittain as regional director of state government affairs. Finman was previously the acting director of EPA's Office of International Affairs and Brittain most recently served as legislative affairs director for the Northern California Water Association. — Mollie Timmons is now a senior adviser for public affairs at NTIA. She previously was communications manager at the American Petroleum Institute and is a Morgan Griffith and Rob Portman alum. New Joint Fundraisers None. New PACs The 218 Project (Super PAC) Fight4Michigan (Super PAC) Golden State Voices United (Super PAC) Government That Works PAC (Hybrid PAC) Hispanic Next Generation PAC (Hybrid PAC) VOLUNTEER OHIO TO ELECT REPUBLICANS (Hybrid PAC) New Lobbying REGISTRATIONS C6 Strategies, LLC (Fka Ms. Dana W. Hudson): Distributed Spectrum Capitol Counsel LLC: Levin Management Corporation Capitol Hill Policy Group LLC: Odawi Law Pllc Obo National Haskell Board Of Regents Cfm Strategic Communications (Conkling Fiskum & Mccormick): Detroit Lake Foundation Dla Piper LLP (US): Ira Watchdog The Artemis Group, LLC (Oklahoma): Dawn Aerospace Thorn Run Partners: Ava Labs, Inc. Thorn Run Partners: Avalanche Bvi, Inc. Thorn Run Partners: Ledger Sas Thorn Run Partners: Makpar Corporation Thorn Run Partners: Metrika, Inc. Thorn Run Partners: Wisdomtree Digital Management New Lobbying Terminations Foley Federal & International Affairs, Inc.: National Federation Of Croatian Americans Saunders Global Diplomacy: Desert Mountain Energy Schools That Can: Schools That Can Thomas Marquez: Turbovets
Politico
an hour ago
- Politico
Trump Bruins a good time at UCLA
BILLION-DOLLAR BATTLE: The Trump administration's battle to dominate higher education has come to California — and this time, it involves one of the country's largest university systems and the taxpayers who help fund it. The University of California, Los Angeles is in court today over more than half a billion dollars the federal government has frozen over antisemitism allegations stemming from last year's Israel-Gaza campus demonstrations. During virtual arguments this afternoon, Judge Rita F. Lin sounded skeptical of some of the administration's arguments, questioning how the Trump administration's explanation that the cuts were an 'indefinite suspension' rather than a 'termination' would comply with a prior ruling. The hearing came days after Gov. Gavin Newsom blasted Donald Trump's demand for $1 billion from UCLA in return for millions of dollars in frozen federal research grants, describing the president's move as an attempt to 'silence academic freedom.' Newsom also floated the idea of another lawsuit. 'He has threatened us through extortion with a billion-dollar fine unless we do his bidding,' the governor told reporters on Friday. Asked about a potential lawsuit, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt today said the governor could 'bring it on,' repeating a refrain Newsom frequently uses against Trump. Here's what we're watching after a week of rapid-fire developments. UCLA is the first public institution the Trump administration has targeted. The president has successfully gone after a handful of prestigious private schools, settling with Brown and Columbia in exchange for keeping their funding. Harvard is also reportedly close to a settlement, and George Washington University appears to be next on Trump's hit list. UCLA's status as a taxpayer-funded school means any major financial moves could have a trickle-down effect on the University of California system and the state, as a whole. It also gives state leaders more say over its actions, although they haven't always agreed with university leaders' decisions — lest we forget the demise of the Pac-12 over Newsom's objections. It's about the money, but it's not just about the money. Trump is using federal funding as leverage to force policy changes at UCLA, as he's done at the other schools that have settled. His administration wants the university to stop giving scholarships based on race or ethnicity, end DEI incentives for hiring, stop using proxies for race in its admissions process and share information on test scores, grade point averages and applicant race. Assembly Budget Chair Jesse Gabriel told Playbook it's 'hard to take this seriously,' and it seems more related to 'political gamesmanship.' 'They're asking for a billion-dollar settlement in exchange for not removing roughly $500 million in funding,' he said. 'It just doesn't make any sense. So there's a couple pieces of this that just don't add up.' Trump says the settlement is about antisemitism. California Jewish leaders disagree. The president's administration is using the protest movement and related claims of discrimination to exercise authority over UCLA. But the Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California today released a statement saying it 'strongly opposes' Trump's push for a settlement, saying the move would 'drive a wedge between the Jewish community and other vulnerable groups that are harmed.' 'As a public institution, such a settlement would ironically divert public funds from other initiatives, including those that combat antisemitism and hate,' the group said. UCLA already paid $6.5 million to settle a separate case brought by Jewish students and a professor related to pro-Palestinian encampments protesters constructed on campus last year. Gabriel and his Legislative Jewish Caucus co-chair Scott Wiener, a Democratic state senator from San Francisco, both said rising antisemitism is real, but they've been encouraged to see changes enacted by UCLA's new chancellor, Julio Frenk. They said Trump's settlement demand isn't really about protecting Jewish students. 'He does not care about Jews or antisemitism,' Wiener told Playbook. 'He is using Jews as human shields to accomplish his actual political goals, which are to consolidate control over universities and to destroy scientific research.' University of California leaders are still figuring out their next move. The UC Board of Regents held an emergency meeting about the settlement yesterday and 'discussed a path forward' without taking any action. Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis' team said she was present for the meeting. Newsom's office confirmed he was not in attendance. IT'S TUESDAY AFTERNOON. This is California Playbook PM, a POLITICO newsletter that serves as an afternoon temperature check on California politics and a look at what our policy reporters are watching. Got tips or suggestions? Shoot an email to lholden@ WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY GOING DIRECT: OpenAI has appealed directly to Newsom in a letter obtained exclusively by California Decoded, suggesting California should consider AI companies that sign onto national and international AI agreements as compliant with state AI rules. The letter, dated Monday from OpenAI's Chief Global Affairs Officer Chris Lehane, comes as Sacramento continues to debate key AI legislation, including Wiener's SB 53, which would require AI companies divulge their safety testing protocols and would establish whistleblower protections for their workers. Lehane recommended 'that California take the lead in harmonizing state-based AI regulation with emerging global standards' when it comes to the technology, dubbing it the 'California Approach.' OpenAI and other developers have already signed onto, or plan to sign onto, the EU's AI code of practice and committed to conducting national security-related assessments of their programs, both voluntary commitments, Newsom spokesperson Tara Gallegos said: 'We have received the letter. We don't typically comment on pending legislation.' The letter offers Newsom something of an off-ramp this year, after he vetoed Wiener's broader SB 1047 AI safety bill last year that would have required programs to complete pre-release safety testing. — Chase DiFeliciantonio If you like this excerpt from POLITICO Pro Technology: California Decoded, you can request a demo here. IN OTHER NEWS MUSICAL CHAIRS: Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones today threw cold water on rumors he might take advantage of Democratic redistricting efforts to mount a congressional campaign — although he doesn't seem to fully rule it out, either. 'Despite unfounded rumors and political gossip, I am not considering a run for Congress because of redistricting,' Jones said in a statement to Playbook. 'I strongly oppose Gavin Newsom's redistricting scheme,' he added. 'Senate Republicans will fight this unfair political power grab that silences Californians and undermines our Constitution.' The San Diego-area Republican, whose final term ends next year, lives in an area with two deep-blue congressional districts that could become more purple as Democrats try to pick up five new seats. As we've reported, San Diego Reps. Scott Peters and Sara Jacobs are preparing to add Republicans as Democrats draw a new map in response to Texas GOP redistricting. TOUTING TELEWORK: A long-awaited state audit of Newsom's return-to-office mandate for state employees was critical of the governor's push to require in-person work. Newsom ordered state workers back to the office for two days per week in 2024 and four days earlier this year, although he postponed the more stringent directive before it took effect. The audit says reducing state office space in response to telework could save the state $225 million. It also said the governor's office 'did not gather some important information about departments' office space needs or the associated costs before directing state employees to work an increasing number of days per week in the office.' GOP Assemblymember Josh Hoover, who's been an advocate of telework, released a statement promoting the report. 'The findings of the audit make clear that providing telework options for state employees in the jobs where it makes sense has substantial benefits for workers, taxpayers, state agencies, commuters, and the environment,' he said. WHAT WE'RE READING TODAY — Black leaders say Trump's criticisms of Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. and other cities smack of racism. (POLITICO) — Democratic members of Congress are accusing the Trump administration of cleaning up a basement ICE detention center in downtown Los Angeles ahead of their visit. (Los Angeles Times) AROUND THE STATE — The California High Speed Rail Authority wants lawmakers to help the agency resolve land-use conflicts that are slowing the expensive project. (Fresno Bee) — Advocates are urging officials to preserve video evidence of San Diego County jail deaths after surveillance footage from one incident was erased. (San Diego Union-Tribune)
