Latest news with #CaliforniaPlaybook
Politico
28-05-2025
- Politics
- Politico
Trump's gaze pans back to California
Presented by California Environmental Voters Announcement from Editorial Director, California Christopher Cadelago and Senior Executive Editor Alex Burns: We're excited to announce that David Siders, who got his start at POLITICO as a co-author of California Playbook, is returning home to a leadership role as Senior News Editor where he'll play a critical role in managing the news report and help oversee the Playbook newsletters to grow their reach across the Golden State. California is home to one of POLITICO's most successful expansions, and David will closely coordinate with newly installed Senior Policy Editor Joel Rubin and Politics Editor Katy Murphy to turbocharge policy and political reporting. Under Christopher Cadelago, David will help shape the most impactful journalism POLITICO is doing in a critical market by expanding the report into new coverage areas and geographies and drawing connections to fast-moving news in Washington. David has been a regular contributor to POLITICO Magazine. As an editor, he brought his rich narrative sensibility and empathetic management style to the Politics team during the tumultuous 2024 campaign, helping direct coverage of a wild campaign from start to finish. Before transitioning into editing, Siders was a national political correspondent for POLITICO, covering politics and campaigns, including the primaries and general election in 2020. Before that, he co-authored California Playbook with its founding anchor, Carla Marinucci, and was a senior writer for The Sacramento Bee. Siders lives in the Los Angeles area with his wife and two daughters. THE BUZZ: SIDELINE STRIFE — Months before President Donald Trump pointed to a Californian transgender athlete's success as evidence that trans girls should be banned from teams matching their gender, conservative activists pushed to draw national scrutiny to the teen. Sophia Lorey, outreach director at the California Family Council, said she first attended one of the student's volleyball matches last fall 'to try to help girls that wanted help.' Chino School Board President Sonja Shaw, who in February disclosed the athlete's name and trans identity online, posted video from one of her track meets in which an adult protester shouted, 'That's a boy!' Within weeks, conservative activists were appearing on Fox News to air their grievances about the teen. In March, Charlie Kirk mentioned her by name on Gavin Newsom's podcast and asked the governor whether he'd denounce her participation in girls' track. And Trump's Tuesday morning Truth Social callout — and threat that 'large scale Federal Funding will be held back, maybe permanently' if California officials do not step in to prevent the trans athlete from competing in the state finals — came just over an hour after Fox aired an interview with conservative activist Jennifer Sey bemoaning her wins as unfair. (Trump called Newsom about the issue Tuesday, but a spokesperson for the governor said he missed the president's call while at an event and hoped to connect soon.) The episode demonstrates how the rise of the conservative media influencer class — and its proximity to the president — has given local hard-line activists in California unusual sway. Just last summer they were watching their allies suffer electoral defeats in local races. Now, they have the president amplifying their message. 'When Charlie Kirk — when all of these people do this — I am extremely grateful,' said Shaw, who earlier this month filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights to try to block the student from competing. 'It does take these influencers to really expose it.' At least three segments focused on the Jurupa Valley High School student have run on Fox News in the last month. But it was on Newsom's podcast, 'This is Gavin Newsom,' where Kirk mentioned the athlete twice by name in an episode in which Newsom said he found the participation of trans girls in girls' sports 'deeply unfair.' 'You right now should come out and be like, 'You know what, the young man who's about to win the state championship in the long jump in female sports — that shouldn't happen,' Kirk advised Newsom. The governor did not seem to register the individual example and didn't address it specifically. He didn't know the athlete's name at the time, though he had been briefed on the case, a Newsom staffer told Playbook. A White House spokesperson did not respond to questions about how the case came to Trump's attention or whether the OCR complaints had any bearing. Republican leaders in the state Legislature swiftly sided with Trump on the policy question but did not explicitly back his call to revoke funding from California schools. 'No one should lose school resources because Newsom refuses to lead,' Assembly GOP leader James Gallagher said in a statement, blaming the governor for not requiring schools to comply with a Trump executive order barring transgender girls from girls' school sports. 'President Trump applied the pressure, and it's forcing this state to wake up. All Newsom has to do is follow the law.' Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones also in a statement blamed Newsom for putting school funding at risk but did not take a position on whether funding should be cut if California doesn't budge. 'Just follow federal rules and we wouldn't even be having this conversation,' Jones said. In her home near Riverside, the track star has described the intense national attention as baffling. Her mother characterized the backlash against her daughter as 'child abuse' in an interview with Capital and Main. 'Girls were just shocked that people would actually come to do that, and really bully a child,' the student told the California outlet. 'There's nothing I can do about people's actions, just focus on my own.' — with help from Melanie Mason GOOD MORNING. Happy Wednesday. Thanks for waking up with Playbook. You can text us at 916-562-0685 — save it as 'CA Playbook' in your contacts. Or drop us a line at dgardiner@ and bjones@ or on X — @DustinGardiner and @jonesblakej. WHERE'S GAVIN? Nothing official announced. STATE CAPITOL FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: PAROLE PUSH — The state Senate Republican Caucus plans later today to blast moderate Democratic Sen. Susan Rubio's attempt to expand parole for people who've been in prison for at least 25 years for crimes they committed as young adults. The proposal would allow people sentenced to life without parole whose offenses came when they were under 25 to seek early release. The coming messaging will focus on the possibility of people who committed hate crimes and murders being let out of prisons early, painting Democrats as soft-on-crime — a go-to move for Sacramento Republicans. Sen. Kelly Seyarto said the bill 'betrays victims' in a statement shared with Playbook, while Jones called it 'extreme.' The issue of parole for younger offenders has been thrust into the national spotlight as the brothers Erik and Lyle Menendez, who were convicted of killing their parents, seek parole. Their case has gotten attention from the likes of Newsom and Netflix producers due to nuances in their case, including allegations that their father was sexually abusive. The Menendez brothers were at first sentenced to life without parole but were re-sentenced to have a chance at parole, so the bill would not apply to them. Rubio, in a previous committee hearing, said her proposal 'recognizes that true public safety and a strong criminal justice system must also recognize the potential for rehabilitation and change.' NEEDLING THE NEWBIES — State senators engaged in some frat house-style antics on the floor Tuesday as new members presented their bills ahead of next week's deadline to pass legislation to the Assembly. Returning senators peppered their new colleagues with random questions about their bills, prompting laughter from those in the chamber. As state Sen. Jesse Arreguín presented a wonky bill on streamlining Local Agency Formation Commission permitting, state Sen. Caroline Menjivar and Sen. Angelique Ashby jumped in with trivial inquiries. Ashby asked him how many housing permits were issued by LAFCOs in California last year. This prompted state Sen. Shannon Grove to issue a lighthearted warning. 'I would like to remind my colleagues that hazing — if the individual does not participate voluntarily — it risks the safety of the individual who's being hazed,' she said, at one point appearing to read off her phone. 'And could cause physical and emotional harm. I respectfully ask you to be respectful.' — Lindsey Holden CLIMATE AND ENERGY OIL PATCH — Buoyed by Trump, a Texas-based company is pumping oil again at offshore wells in Santa Barbara that were shut down 10 years ago because of a spill. And while the Coastal Commission and local Democrats are putting up a fight, Newsom's administration isn't. Read more about the battle lines in last night's California Climate. Top Talkers BALLING ON A BUDGET — San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie will not cut funding for the city's public safety agencies and workers amid an $800 million budget deficit over two years, the San Francisco Chronicle Reports. 'We have made tremendous strides over the last three years to make our city safer, and I look forward to continue making progress in partnership with Mayor Lurie and the San Francisco Police Department going forward,' said District Attorney Brooke Jenkins. FAKE FEEDBACK — Esther Kim Varet, a Democratic challenger to California Rep. Young Kim, is raising money to run her first campaign TV ad. The 30-second commercial the candidate posted to X is mostly made by AI, featuring multiple prompt-generated people who make their case against the Republican representative. 'She pretends to be balanced, but she's almost as fake as I am,' said the actually fake person in the ad. The ad is running on Fox News throughout Kim's district and doesn't have a specific dollar figure attached to it, according to Varet's campaign. AROUND THE STATE — Equal Rights Advocates, a San Francisco nonprofit, urged a federal judge to uphold a new California free-speech law sparked by the #MeToo movement in an amicus brief filed in the clash between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni. (Los Angeles Times) — Encinitas City Council will continue to allow homeless people living in their vehicles to spend the night in the parking lot of Encinitas Senior & Community Center. (The San Diego Union Tribune) — PG&E is studying requests for new data centers that would require a combined 8.7 gigawatts of electricity to operate. (Mercury News) PLAYBOOKERS PEOPLE MOVES — Antonio Isais is now briefings manager for San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie's office. He previously served as Northern California deputy regional director of external affairs in Newsom's office. BIRTHDAYS — Furkan Yalcin in the office of Assemblymember Pilar Schiavo … neurologist Stanley Prusiner … Kathleen Fullerton in the UC president's office … Kylie Minogue … actor Lukas Gage … Andy Stone of Meta … Uber's Josh Gold … BELATED B-DAY WISHES — (was Tuesday): Christina A. Snyder ... Neil J. Sheff WANT A SHOUT-OUT FEATURED? — Send us a birthday, career move or another special occasion to include in POLITICO's California Playbook. You can now submit a shout-out using this Google form.
Politico
15-04-2025
- Politics
- Politico
Kamala Harris for governor? Poll shows how California voters feel about the idea.
Political influencers in California are greeting Kamala Harris' potential bid for governor with a shrug, while registered voters in the state react more passionately — in good and bad ways — to her possible candidacy, according to a first-of-its-kind poll from POLITICO and UC Berkeley's Citrin Center. Insiders reported feeling 'indifferent' more than any other emotion to a hypothetical Harris run, while registered voters were more likely to characterize their reaction as 'joyful,' 'outraged' or 'hopeless.' The survey question, while focused only on attitudes about Harris, offers a broader snapshot into the mindset of California voters as the state prepares for its first open contest for the governor's mansion in eight years — and hints at both upsides and vulnerabilities for the former vice president. The 2024 Democratic presidential nominee has widely been considered a de facto frontrunner in the contest, given her near-universal name identification and blockbuster fundraising operation. Harris has not yet said if she's going to jump into the race to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom, who cannot run due to term limits. She told associates that she has given herself a deadline of late summer to decide as she also ponders mounting a bid for the White House in 2028. But her potential candidacy has loomed large over the contest, with some contenders signaling they would step aside if Harris joins the field. To gauge the mood of the state's marquee political contest, POLITICO and the UC Berkeley Citrin Center asked respondents to select from a list of possible emotions they felt about Harris running for governor: 'joyful,' 'mostly excited,' 'indifferent,' 'irritated,' 'outraged,' 'hopeless,' or other. Respondents could select multiple options. The question was put to two distinct survey groups: California registered voters and a selection of 'policy influencers.' To generate the influencer sample, the survey was emailed to a list of people including subscribers to California Playbook, California Climate, and POLITICO Pro in California who work in the state. Respondents in that sample included lawmakers and staffers in the state Legislature and the federal government. This group of in-the-know politicos was notably blasé about the prospect of a Governor Harris, with 36 percent choosing 'indifferent' to describe how they'd feel about her hypothetical bid. The collective 'meh' is not particularly surprising, said Jack Citrin, a longtime political science professor at UC Berkeley, who said the insider cohort is dispositionally more likely to be more jaded about government or politics. 'These people are not given to euphoria,' said Citrin. But the lack of enthusiasm also harkens to Harris' past struggles to conquer the state's political class. Her ability to quickly marshal unanimous support from the state's party delegates in her warp-speed path to the Democratic nomination last year stood out precisely because it showed a newfound strength among California insiders. Now, the tepid finding from the survey suggests that elite enthusiasm may have been short-lived. Before her first run for president in 2019, 'the buzz on her was better outside of California than it was in California,' said Mike Murphy, a longtime Los Angeles-based Republican strategist who broke with his party over President Donald Trump. 'She's never been that popular in the California political high school.' The wishy-washy reaction from insiders does not indicate an overt hostility from the influencer class; only 4 percent said they would be outraged by her candidacy, and slightly more respondents — 22 percent — said they would feel mostly excited than the 20 percent who selected 'irritated.' Passions were higher — and more polarized — when it came to the survey of registered voters. Among the state's Democrats, there was a warm response to a Harris run, with 33 percent saying they felt joyful about her possible candidacy and 41 percent feeling 'mostly excited.' The negative emotions hovered in the single digits, while roughly a quarter of Democrats said they were indifferent. 'The registered Democratic voters are very enthusiastic about her,' Citrin said. 'The 'joyful' number goes up, the 'excited' number goes up and the 'irritated' and 'outraged' numbers go way down.' That's a significant leg up in solid blue California, where Democrats have a 20-point registration advantage over Republicans and no-party-preference voters. In a multi-candidate field, those positive feelings could translate into a healthy plurality of votes that could easily catapult her into a top-two finish in next year's June primary, qualifying her for the general election. Republicans, unsurprisingly, were less keen on a Harris run; the most popular responses among GOP respondents were 'irritated' and 'outraged.' But the sentiments captured in the poll also signal some weakness among groups she would need to keep in her coalition. Independent voters were notably bearish on a Harris candidacy — 26 percent said they felt irritated by the prospect and 21 percent selected 'hopeless.' And while Black voters were the most eager for Harris to run — 35 percent said they felt joyful about the possibility, and 38 percent selected 'mostly excited' — other voters of color gave a mixed verdict. Among Asian American voters, for example, 18 percent chose 'irritated' to describe their reaction while 19 percent of Latinos said the prospect made them feel hopeless. 'It's almost a surprising lack of enthusiasm' from Latinos, Citrin said. 'But we know from the general election that Latino voters shifted as compared to 2020 or 2016 towards Trump.' The findings from the POLITICO-UC Berkeley Citrin Center survey will add more fuel to the already-raging debate in state political circles about whether Harris would reshape the contours of the governor's race. The early consensus, even among Democratic candidates, was that Harris would be too commanding an opponent to take on. Attorney General Rob Bonta, who opted not to run for the post, told POLITICO that Harris would be a 'field-clearing' candidate if she launched a campaign. Some declared candidates — including Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, a close Harris friend — have floated backup plans to supporters about running for a different office if Harris gets in. But other Democrats have become increasingly vocal about their intentions to stay in the race, regardless if Harris runs or not, and have stepped up their pressure on Harris to make her plans known. Murphy, who has advised Rick Caruso, the billionaire Los Angeles developer who is also mulling a gubernatorial run, said that this survey on voter sentiment shows that Harris has 'a glass jaw.' 'If I were a rival Democrat, I look at those numbers, and I would say she'll start in front, but she's vulnerable to a campaign,' he said. 'So there's plenty of time to move.' Antonio Villaraigosa, the former Los Angeles mayor who has been among the most assertive Democrats goading Harris, said the findings from POLITICO and the UC Berkeley Citrin Center confirm that her initial strength in horse race polls 'are just a reflection of her name ID and the fact that she just spent $1.4 billion on a losing presidential campaign.' 'It's clear that Californians agree we need a proven problem solver and there's no appetite for a coronation,' Villaraigosa said. 'People want a leader willing to take on the tough challenges we face. The issues of the cost of living, housing and homelessness are too important for people to think they can stand on the sidelines and come in late to the game.' Toni Atkins, the former legislative leader who is a well-known quantity in Sacramento but lags in name ID among California voters, said the poll 'reaffirms what we already know — governors are elected, not anointed.' 'A lot can happen between now and Election Day — but one thing that won't change is California's next governor must earn every single vote,' Atkins said. 'I've spent the last 15 months doing just that and meeting with voters of all backgrounds in every corner of the state. They've made it clear exactly what they're looking for: steady, proven leadership and a governor who puts California first. That's exactly what I'll deliver.' The surveys were conducted on the platform from April 1 to 14 among 1,025 California registered voters and 718 influencers. Verasight provided the registered voter sample, which included randomly sampled voters from the California voter file. The modeled error estimate for the voter survey is plus or minus five percentage points.
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
California Democrat takes on ‘ultra-processed food' — and RFK Jr.
SACRAMENTO, California — In many ways, state lawmaker Jesse Gabriel was trying to make California healthy again before Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Gabriel, a Democratic assemblymember from the Los Angeles area, has been on a tear in recent years getting synthetic dyes and artificial preservatives out of snacks and school lunches. His newest proposal in Sacramento, reported first by POLITICO's California Playbook, would define 'ultra-processed food,' and phase it out of the billion school meals California serves every year. It could be the first time a definition of ultra-processed food has ever been set down in law, anywhere in the world, according to Gabriel's office. But he isn't thinking about RFK Jr. In an interview with POLITICO, Gabriel didn't mention the secretary of Health and Human Services by name even once. 'I've never spoken to him, we haven't worked with him on any of this,' Gabriel said. 'This has been an effort that predates him and has been successful. We have developed a formula here in California that is working for us, this common sense, science-based, bipartisan approach, and that's the formula that we're gonna keep working with.' Gabriel gained a reputation in the past few years as the 'Skittles' lawmaker. His 2023 law banned four chemicals (like brominated vegetable oil and red dye 3) from any food sold in the state and his 2024 law exorcised synthetic dyes (like red 40) from school meals. If he sounds like a certain secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, there's a good reason. Kennedy pledged at his confirmation hearings to go after food additives, and at a closed-door meeting with food company CEOs in early March, said they would have to start removing some dyes from their products or face a government ban. Ultra-processed foods have become the latest villain in the country's war on chronic disease. The Goop-reading set have been skeptical of processed food for years, and there's new life being pumped into the movement from Washington. Gabriel takes credit for inspiring a host of other reforms. The federal Food and Drug Administration banned brominated vegetable oil and red dye 3 in 2024 and 2025, respectively. Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order this year directing state agencies to investigate the harms of ultra-processed foods and find ways to limit them. Dozens of states including West Virginia and New York have introduced similar legislation to ban many of the dyes and preservatives in Gabriel's last two laws. He sees it as quintessentially Californian: getting out ahead on something health and wellness-related while everyone else follows suit. 'We were doing this work before anyone had heard of Make America Healthy Again, this started with Democrats in California,' Gabriel said. 'I am very encouraged by the fact that people who identify themselves with Make America Healthy, and people who identify themselves as very progressive Democrats and a lot of folks in between, have all come on board to support these bills, and we welcome all that support again.' Republican Minority Leader James Gallagher and Assembly Progressive Caucus Chair Alex Lee have both lent their names to the cause. Wellness has become one of the biggest areas of bipartisanship in an otherwise divisive Trump era. RFK Jr.'s distrust of corporations, 'big food' and 'big ag' is appealing to people outside of left vs. right politics. In California especially, wellness has been an area of political agreement. Crunchy moms from the affluent Marin County outside San Francisco, who don't want to feed preservative-laden snacks to their kids, have often found common ground here with a more right-leaning crowd skeptical of giving their kids preservative-laden vaccines. First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom has been pushing for more vegetables and fewer chemicals in school since at least 2019. Gabriel's proposal, which is being introduced Wednesday, directs University of California scientists to find the 'particularly harmful' ultra-processed foods based on evidence that links them to chronic illnesses like cancer, diabetes, heart disease and neurological issues. They will also factor in whether they're banned in other places, are addictive or are high in fat, sugar and salt. Then, the bill would require California to phase those chemicals out of school lunches by 2032. 'Part of what I'm trying to do here is intentionally not make this a divisive political issue,' Gabriel said. Like this content? Consider signing up for POLITICO's California Playbook newsletter.
Politico
19-03-2025
- Health
- Politico
California Democrat takes on ‘ultra-processed food' — and RFK Jr.
SACRAMENTO, California — In many ways, state lawmaker Jesse Gabriel was trying to make California healthy again before Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Gabriel, a Democratic assemblymember from the Los Angeles area, has been on a tear in recent years getting synthetic dyes and artificial preservatives out of snacks and school lunches. His newest proposal in Sacramento, reported first by POLITICO's California Playbook, would define 'ultra-processed food,' and phase it out of the billion school meals California serves every year. It could be the first time a definition of ultra-processed food has ever been set down in law, anywhere in the world, according to Gabriel's office. But he isn't thinking about RFK Jr. In an interview with POLITICO, Gabriel didn't mention the secretary of Health and Human Services by name even once. 'I've never spoken to him, we haven't worked with him on any of this,' Gabriel said. 'This has been an effort that predates him and has been successful. We have developed a formula here in California that is working for us, this common sense, science-based, bipartisan approach, and that's the formula that we're gonna keep working with.' Gabriel gained a reputation in the past few years as the 'Skittles' lawmaker. His 2023 law banned four chemicals (like brominated vegetable oil and red dye 3) from any food sold in the state and his 2024 law exorcised synthetic dyes (like red 40) from school meals. If he sounds like a certain secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, there's a good reason. Kennedy pledged at his confirmation hearings to go after food additives, and at a closed-door meeting with food company CEOs in early March, said they would have to start removing some dyes from their products or face a government ban. Ultra-processed foods have become the latest villain in the country's war on chronic disease. The Goop-reading set have been skeptical of processed food for years, and there's new life being pumped into the movement from Washington. Gabriel takes credit for inspiring a host of other reforms. The federal Food and Drug Administration banned brominated vegetable oil and red dye 3 in 2024 and 2025, respectively. Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order this year directing state agencies to investigate the harms of ultra-processed foods and find ways to limit them. Dozens of states including West Virginia and New York have introduced similar legislation to ban many of the dyes and preservatives in Gabriel's last two laws. He sees it as quintessentially Californian: getting out ahead on something health and wellness-related while everyone else follows suit. 'We were doing this work before anyone had heard of Make America Healthy Again, this started with Democrats in California,' Gabriel said. 'I am very encouraged by the fact that people who identify themselves with Make America Healthy, and people who identify themselves as very progressive Democrats and a lot of folks in between, have all come on board to support these bills, and we welcome all that support again.' Republican Minority Leader James Gallagher and Assembly Progressive Caucus Chair Alex Lee have both lent their names to the cause. Wellness has become one of the biggest areas of bipartisanship in an otherwise divisive Trump era. RFK Jr.'s distrust of corporations, 'big food' and 'big ag' is appealing to people outside of left vs. right politics. In California especially, wellness has been an area of political agreement. Crunchy moms from the affluent Marin County outside San Francisco, who don't want to feed preservative-laden snacks to their kids, have often found common ground here with a more right-leaning crowd skeptical of giving their kids preservative-laden vaccines. First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom has been pushing for more vegetables and fewer chemicals in school since at least 2019. Gabriel's proposal, which is being introduced Wednesday, directs University of California scientists to find the 'particularly harmful' ultra-processed foods based on evidence that links them to chronic illnesses like cancer, diabetes, heart disease and neurological issues. They will also factor in whether they're banned in other places, are addictive or are high in fat, sugar and salt. Then, the bill would require California to phase those chemicals out of school lunches by 2032. 'Part of what I'm trying to do here is intentionally not make this a divisive political issue,' Gabriel said. Like this content? Consider signing up for POLITICO's California Playbook newsletter.
Politico
06-03-2025
- Business
- Politico
Inside Jerry McNerney's new AI strategy
Hello California Playbook PM readers! We're excited to bring you a special, two-week preview of our new daily newsletter POLITICO Pro Technology: California Decoded in this space. If you like what you read, you can subscribe here. California Playbook PM will return on March 17. QUICK FIX — A former AI player in Congress brings his battle to Sacramento. — Lawmakers vow to crack down on digital scammers through tech and banking. Welcome to California Decoded! Happy Thursday. Send feedback, tips and story ideas to tkatzenberger@ and chasedf@ Driving the day EXCLUSIVE: ENTER BIG FISH — Former Rep. Jerry McNerney — a vocal advocate of AI rules on the Hill — is today pushing his first bill on tech as a California state lawmaker in ambitious new legislation shared first with POLITICO. The Stockton Democrat tells us he feels more confident about success in his deep-blue home state after 16 years of jumping through hoops in a divided Congress. 'You actually can do things here,' McNerney told California Decoded in an exclusive interview. 'I'm really thrilled about that.' McNerney's maiden bill on the technology since his election last November, SB 7, seeks to crack down on AI in the workplace by prohibiting employers from using automated decision-making tools to make hiring, promotion, disciplinary and firing decisions without human oversight. The so-called 'bossware' systems would be barred from obtaining — or using AI to infer — personal information about employees, such as their immigration status, sexual orientation or credit history. Companies would be forbidden from taking adverse actions against workers based on inferences about their future behavior generated by predictive AI tools. 'We're really excited about this one,' McNerney said. 'This is probably going to be our biggest achievement this year.' It's nothing to sneeze at. His 'No Robo Bosses Act' (insert Terminator jokes here) is one of the influential California Labor Federation's three flagship, first-in-the-nation bills aimed at regulating how companies can use AI-powered systems to monitor and manage workers. That makes it prime turf for another tense battle pitting labor unions against Big Tech-aligned business groups, which argue their tools already offer privacy protections in compliance with existing state and national laws. But it's not the earth-shattering entrance that some California tech watchers might have expected from the eight-term representative and former congressional AI Caucus co-chair. McNerney told us that's on purpose. 'Oh no, no, nothing like that,' he said when asked if he would carry anything rivaling SB 1047, state Sen. Scott Wiener's sweeping AI safety bill that triggered Big Tech backlash and pitted leading congressional Democrats like Nancy Pelosi up against AI doomers like Elon Musk. 'This is my first year here, so I want to map out a long-term plan,' McNerney explained. 'But some things I think are urgently needed right now, and so that's where we're focused.' McNerney said he's still mulling other ways to push the envelope on AI regulations that fit his pragmatic approach. He declined to share more details for now but expected he'll soon flesh out a placeholder bill, SB 833, that would keep 'humans in the loop' when AI systems oversee 'critical infrastructure,' like water and electric projects. 'Establishing standards is an important part of the process, but we also want humans to be a part of the process,' he said. 'We don't want AI to just go rogue and make decisions without any kind of oversight.' McNerney's not the only lawmaker stepping back from the brink after industry opposition and Gov. Gavin Newsom's veto pen killed some of the Legislature's most ambitious proposals to rein in AI last year. Wiener told us last week that he significantly pared back his latest AI safety push, SB 53, in response to Newsom's veto of his SB 1047 last September. Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, a Yolo County Democrat, similarly trimmed her latest push to stick human safety operators behind the wheel of some autonomous delivery vehicles after Newsom sank it last year. NEWS BREAK: President Donald Trump delays most tariffs on Mexico for one month … Trump says Musk lacks unilateral authority to fire federal workers. HAPPENING TODAY 2 p.m. PT — California's privacy watchdog, the CPPA, holds a closed-door board meeting to discuss a potential new executive director after former leader Ashkan Soltani departed in January. Soltani helped build out the CPPA following its creation in 2020, including its enforcement division, and made rulemaking recommendations, which faced legal challenges. It comes as the agency weighs sweeping proposed rules on automated decision-making that have attracted fierce criticism from tech and business groups. The draft regulations would require businesses to scale back their use of automated tools in a wide array of scenarios if customers ask to opt out, ranging from targeted advertising in online shopping to facial recognition software used at ticketing gates. State Capitol BILLIONS WITH A B — Californians are losing billions of dollars every year to increasingly sophisticated financial scams that authorities have long struggled to combat since online tricksters often reside abroad. So state lawmakers are promising to introduce more bills this session to crack down not just on scammers, but also the tech and telecom companies they use to bilk billions from the state's economy. 'I suspect we will continue to see bills this legislative cycle to address this,' said state Sen. Monique Limón during a hearing Wednesday on tech-enabled scams at the Senate Banking and Financial Institutions Committee. California residents have lost at least $2.5 billion to scammers in the last year, U.S. Secret Service San Francisco Special Agent in Charge Shawn Bradstreet told the committee. Speaking to the committee and representatives from tech industry group TechNet and JPMorgan Chase, Limón said previous bills on the issue had been difficult to advance. She said she hoped to find common ground on heading off scams that target people on social media, through their cell carriers and elsewhere. Dylan Hoffman said on behalf of TechNet that social media companies have worked hard to detect and flag scammy accounts, many of which originate from overseas, on their sites. 'These are incredibly sophisticated criminal organizations,' Hoffman said. Options are limited for the state, and even the feds, to bust up overseas crime rings since they lack jurisdiction. Telecom providers are federally regulated and states can't force them to further clamp down on digital shysters. But putting more pressure on tech companies and banks in California is an option the committee appears to be considering. State Sen. Laura Richardson, for example, has authored a bill that would require increased security for digital payment apps. State Sen. Tim Grayson, who chairs the committee, told California Decoded a bill Newsom vetoed last year could be resurrected this session. Authored by former state Sen. Bill Dodd, that effort was aimed at preventing financial abuse of seniors by requiring the flagging and delaying of transactions that could be the result of fraud. Grayson said he wouldn't know for sure if the legislation is coming back until after the deadline to flesh out spot bills. Byte Sized — Anthropic submits AI proposal to Trump's White House (POLITICO Pro) — Former Meta official's 'explosive' memoir to be published next week (AP) — Crypto can't stop fighting itself (POLITICO) — California's list of failed tech projects just keeps growing (CalMatters) — DOGE's play for government data is straining a law inspired by Watergate (POLITICO) Have a tip, event or AI spaghetti video to share? Do reach out: Emma Anderson, California tech editor; Chase DiFeliciantonio, AI and automation reporter; and Tyler Katzenberger, Sacramento tech reporter.
