Gavin Newsom

Force in Play

Managing state emergency response to atmospheric river and coordinating burn scar evacuations

A Christmas Day atmospheric river dumped up to 12 inches of rain on Southern California's mountains, triggering mudslides that buried roads in Wrightwood and forced helicopter rescues from rooftops. More than 120 emergency responders rescued residents trapped in vehicles and homes overnight Christmas Eve.

Updated 1 hour ago

Rule Changes

Signed California’s SB 53; effectively created the template New York builds on

New York just told the biggest AI labs: if something goes seriously wrong, you don't get to bury it. Under the RAISE Act, large "frontier AI" developers must publish a safety approach and report "critical harm" incidents to the state within 72 hours after determining one occurred. First violations carry civil penalties capped at $1M; later violations, $3M—far below the bill's June penalty structure.

Updated Yesterday

Money Moves

Signed SB 237 (Chapter 118, Statutes of 2025), reshaping the permitting backdrop

The CRC–Berry all-stock combination is now in the paperwork-and-plumbing phase. CRC's post-close 8-K confirms Berry is a wholly owned subsidiary and discloses an amendment raising CRC's elected credit-facility commitments to $1.46 billion. CRC has 71 days to publish pro forma financials for the combined company.

Updated Yesterday

Rule Changes

Overseeing the nation’s most ambitious state AI regime and likely top legal target.

Donald Trump just turned AI regulation into a states' rights knife fight. His new executive order creates a Justice Department "AI Litigation Task Force" to attack state AI laws. Washington can threaten to withhold $42 billion in broadband funds from states that don't comply.

Updated 5 days ago

Force in Play

Leading legal and political resistance to Trump’s militarization

Donald Trump has quietly turned long stretches of the southern border into de facto military bases. Under a new system of National Defense Areas, soldiers can stop migrants, hold them, and help prosecutors charge them as trespassers on military land.

Updated 5 days ago

Rule Changes

Leading state-level resistance to Trump's proposed offshore drilling off California coast

Donald Trump's second-term energy agenda has moved from a single Gulf auction to a full-scale offshore transformation. The December 10 Gulf lease sale—81.2 million acres at a 12.5% royalty rate, generating $279.4 million—was just the opening move. By year's end, the administration had proposed a sweeping 2026-2031 leasing plan covering 1.27 billion acres off California, Florida and Alaska, and scheduled a second Gulf sale for March 11, 2026. It simultaneously halted all five major East Coast offshore wind projects, citing national security risks; Shell-INEOS's early January oil discovery south of New Orleans showed the industry's bet on deepwater Gulf prospects.

Updated 6 days ago

Rule Changes

Leading legal and political resistance to federal rollbacks

On December 3, 2025, President Trump unveiled an NHTSA proposal to slash Biden-era CAFE standards, cutting the 2031 target from about 50.4 mpg to roughly 34.5 mpg. The rule also slows annual increases to 0.25–0.5% from 2% and bans credit trading after 2028, which especially hurts EV-focused companies that sell credits to gasoline-heavy manufacturers.

Updated 6 days ago

Built World

Backing the rail project as a state-funded priority through cap-and-trade revenue

California voters approved a bullet train in 2008 with a $33 billion price tag and a promise to whisk passengers from San Francisco to Los Angeles by 2020. Eighteen years later, no train has run, the price tag for the full San Francisco–Anaheim line has climbed to roughly $231 billion, and the first segment — Merced to Bakersfield in the Central Valley — is not expected to carry passengers before 2033. On February 28, 2026, the California High-Speed Rail Authority released its Draft 2026 Business Plan, the agency's first full strategic update since the Trump administration pulled $4 billion in federal grants and California abandoned its court fight to get them back.

Updated Apr 27

Rule Changes

Led Democratic counter-redistricting effort

States usually redraw congressional districts once a decade, after the census. Texas just redrew its map four years early—and the U.S. Supreme Court has now cleared it for the 2026 midterm elections.

Updated Apr 27

Rule Changes

Leading California lawsuit preparations

For seventeen years, the Environmental Protection Agency's 2009 endangerment finding—the determination that carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases threaten public health—served as the legal foundation for virtually all federal climate regulation. On February 13, 2026, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin officially revoked it, eliminating the basis for vehicle emissions standards, power plant rules, and regulations on oil and gas facilities in what the administration called 'the largest deregulatory action in American history.'

Updated Feb 21

Rule Changes

Leading CalRx state insulin program

On January 1, 2026, two unprecedented insulin programs launched simultaneously: nonprofit Civica Rx began distributing insulin glargine pens for $55 per box, while California became the first state to sell its own CalRx-branded insulin at the same price point—both undercutting branded products by up to 90%. The coordinated launches mark the first major breach in a pricing fortress built by three pharmaceutical giants who control 90% of the U.S. insulin market. Unlike existing insulin, these products require no insurance forms, no rebates, no hidden markups. Just one transparent price available to anyone.

Updated Feb 10

Force in Play

Leading state response and rebuilding efforts

On January 7, 2025, two wildfires exploded across Los Angeles County with unprecedented speed. The Palisades Fire in the Santa Monica Mountains and the Eaton Fire in Altadena spread at the rate of three football fields per minute, driven by Santa Ana winds gusting to 100 mph. Within hours, 200,000 people fled their homes. The fires killed at least 31 people directly, with researchers estimating 440 total deaths including those from heart and lung conditions aggravated by smoke and stress. By the time containment came 24 days later, 16,000 structures were destroyed and $150 billion in losses tallied—making it the costliest disaster in U.S. history.

Updated Feb 5

Rule Changes

Signed California's Phone-Free Schools Act in September 2024

January 2026 accelerated the school cellphone crackdown beyond the four-state January 1st rollout. Within the first three weeks, New Jersey signed a statewide ban (effective 2026-27 school year), Michigan passed legislation through both chambers targeting fall 2026 implementation, and Kansas introduced bipartisan Senate Bill 302 with support from 30 senators. The tally now stands at 37 states plus Washington D.C. with restrictions—up from 35+ just weeks earlier. What started as France's 2018 experiment has become America's fastest education policy shift in a generation, with implementation now reaching critical mass.

Updated Jan 30

Rule Changes

Second term, in office since 2019

California closed the loophole on its failed 2014 plastic bag ban and raised its minimum wage to $16.90 on January 1, 2026—the latest moves in a decades-long experiment testing whether aggressive regulation can coexist with economic growth. Many retailers began phasing out plastic bags weeks before the deadline, as Los Angeles-area supermarkets made plastics non grata at checkout in late 2025. The original bag ban backfired spectacularly, increasing plastic waste in landfills by 47% as stores sold thicker 'reusable' bags that nobody reused. Now the state is trying again, banning all plastic bags at checkout.

Updated Jan 30

Force in Play

Plaintiff in Newsom v. Trump

The last time a president invoked the Insurrection Act to deploy federal troops in American cities was 1992, during the Los Angeles riots. President Trump has deployed over 10,000 National Guard troops and active-duty Marines to six cities since June 2025—without invoking that law. The Congressional Budget Office now reports the seven-month operation cost taxpayers $496 million, with ongoing deployments projected to add $93 million monthly.

Updated Jan 29

Rule Changes

Leading state-level WHO engagement independent of federal withdrawal

The United States joined the World Health Organization on June 14, 1948, three years after helping design it. On January 22, 2026, the U.S. became the first country to complete a withdrawal from the agency—walking away from 77 years of leadership in global health. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. jointly announced the withdrawal's completion, citing the WHO's 'failures during the COVID-19 pandemic' and its inability to demonstrate independence from 'inappropriate political influence.' The U.S. departed without paying between $130 million and $278 million in disputed dues, with the administration asserting no obligation to pay prior to exit.

Updated Jan 23

Rule Changes

Supporting California's investigation

For decades, Western democracies debated whether to regulate social media platforms. The UK just stopped debating—and now the United States is joining the fight. After Grok, Elon Musk's AI chatbot, generated an estimated one nonconsensual sexualized image per minute—posted directly to X—regulators on both sides of the Atlantic are taking action. On January 15, X announced it will geoblock Grok from creating images of people in revealing clothing in jurisdictions where it's illegal. This came one day after California Attorney General Rob Bonta opened an investigation into xAI, calling the platform 'a breeding ground for predators.' Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer told Parliament that X is 'acting to ensure full compliance,' having removed over 600 accounts and censored 3,500 content items. The alternative: fines up to 10% of global revenue or a complete platform ban.

Updated Jan 15

Rule Changes

Vowed to defend California's AI laws in court

The DOJ's AI Litigation Task Force began operations on January 10, 2026, with one mission: kill state AI laws in federal court. California, Texas, and Colorado passed comprehensive AI regulations throughout 2025—transparency requirements, discrimination protections, governance mandates. President Trump's December executive order called them unconstitutional burdens on interstate commerce. Now Attorney General Pam Bondi's team will challenge them, consulting with AI czar David Sacks on which laws to target first.

Updated Jan 12

Rule Changes

Leading state-level resistance to federal climate retreat

President Trump signed a memorandum on January 7, 2026, directing withdrawal from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change—the 1992 treaty that George H.W. Bush signed and the Senate unanimously ratified. The US becomes the first of 198 parties ever to leave the foundational climate treaty. Unlike the Paris Agreement, which Trump also exited, the UNFCCC is the parent treaty underpinning all international climate negotiations. Withdrawal takes effect one year from notification.

Updated Jan 8