Category Archives: Gavin Newsom

California school district fined $1.5m after rejecting curriculum with Harvey Milk

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Gavin Newsom, the state governor, said his office will provide new school textbooks and send a bill for violating state laws

A school district in southern California will be fined more than $1m after rejecting a curriculum that included Harvey Milk, the pioneering gay rights leader who the the school board’s president has called a “pedophile”.

Gavin Newsom, the California governor, announced on Wednesday that his office will send textbooks to the Temecula school district that include Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in the state, as well as fine the district $1.5m for failing to “adopt an updated social studies curriculum”.

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California governor says he won’t contest parole ruling of Manson follower Leslie Van Houten

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The Charles Manson follower could be free in about two weeks, after spending more than 50 years in prison for two murders

Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten could be freed in about two weeks after California governor Gavin Newsom announced he will not ask the state supreme court to reverse her parole. The move paves the way for Van Houten’s release after spending more than 50 years in a southern California prison for two murders in 1969.

The governor’s office said an appeal against a parole ruling by a California appeals court was unlikely – the court only accepts reviews in about 3% of cases petitioned – to succeed and that Newsom was disappointed. The governor had previously rejected parole for Van Houten but on 30 May an appellate court overturned that decision.

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Joshua Trees win long term protection in environmental victory

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The bill, to be signed by the California governor, requires drawing up a conservation plan and creates a fund to protect the species

California lawmakers have voted to permanently protect the iconic western joshua tree, delivering a hard-won victory for environmentalists who have warned that the climate crisis has imperilled these fixtures of the high desert.

The Western Joshua Tree Conservation Act was passed Tuesday, as part of the state’s budget agreement. It prohibits the unpermitted killing or removal of the trees, requires the development of a conservation plan and creates a fund to protect the species. It appears to be the first California legislation focused on protecting a climate-threatened species.

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Who’s unhoused in California? Largest study in decades upends myths

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Most unhoused people are from in state and desire to find housing, while Black and older people are disproportionately affected

Nearly half of all unhoused adults in California are over the age of 50, with Black residents dramatically overrepresented, according to the largest study of the state’s homeless population in decades.

University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) research released on Tuesday also revealed that 90% of the population lost their housing in California, with 75% of them now living in the same county where they were last housed. The study further found that nearly nine out of 10 people reported that the cost of housing was the main barrier to leaving homelessness.

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California seizes enough fentanyl in San Francisco to kill city’s population three times over

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Governor’s office says over 4kg of drug seized in city since May – enough to cause deadly overdoses of more than 2m people

California law enforcement officials have seized enough fentanyl, in San Francisco alone, to cause the deadly overdoses of more than 2 million people since the beginning of May. The amount, over four kilos, was enough to kill the entire city’s population three times over, the governor’s office announced on Thursday.

The seizures were made by California highway patrol (CHP) officers and are a part of Gavin Newsom’s plan to address the spread of fentanyl, blight and public safety in the city where 268 people died from accidental overdoses in the first four months of 2023, according to a report from the city’s medical examiner. All of the fentanyl was found in and around San Francisco’s historic and long-embattled Tenderloin neighborhood.

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‘I know he’s capable’: California’s Gavin Newsom backs Joe Biden on Fox News

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Governor spoke with host Sean Hannity about the state’s housing crisis and criticized Ron DeSantis while praising the president

California’s Gavin Newsom sat down with Fox News’s Sean Hannity for a wide ranging interview on Monday night that fueled speculation about his presidential aspirations – even as he again said he had no plans to run for the presidency in 2024.

The Democratic governor’s decision to appear on Hannity confounded many of his supporters, but Newsom, who routinely spars with Republicans on social media, took the opportunity to defend his state’s record and its policies with a senior adviser telling Politico that he viewed the interview as “going into the lion’s den”.

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Florida confirms it was behind flights that left asylum seekers in California

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Officials claim the people, mostly from Colombia and Venezuela, consented to the travel, refuting allegations from Gavin Newsom

Florida confirmed on Tuesday that it was behind two private jet flights that brought three dozen people seeking asylum from the US southern border to California amid accusations that the individuals were coerced to travel under false pretenses.

The state’s division of emergency management said in a statement that the passengers all went willingly, and refuted allegations from California officials such as the governor, Gavin Newsom, who had threatened Ron DeSantis, Florida’s governor, with kidnapping charges.

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‘Poster child for nimbyism’: California sues city over lack of affordable housing

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State officials launch lawsuit against wealthy city of Huntington Beach to force it to build new homes

California officials are suing Huntington Beach, a wealthy coastal city lambasted by the state’s governor as the “poster child for nimbyism”, in an attempt to force it to build more affordable housing.

Defiant Huntington Beach officials have filed their own lawsuit in response, pledging to fight any attempt by the state to “urbanize” their affluent, majority-white community.

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California governor halts $54m contract with Walgreens: ‘We’re done’

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After pharmacy giant pledged not to dispense abortion medicine in states that restrict its use, Gavin Newsom cancels agreement

California Governor Gavin Newsom on Wednesday withdrew a $54m contract with Walgreens after the pharmacy giant indicated it would not sell an abortion pill by mail in some conservative-led states.

Newsom ordered state officials to not renew a contract with Walgreens to purchase specialty pharmacy prescription drugs for California’s prison healthcare system, including antiviral and antifungal drugs and medication used for congestive heart failure. Walgreens has received about $54m from the contract, which expires 30 April.

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California cuts ties with Walgreens after company limits access to abortion pills

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Gavin Newsom said in a statement the state will not do business with any company that ‘puts women’s lives at risk’

California will not do business with Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc, Gavin Newsom, the state’s governor, said in a tweet on Monday, days after the pharmacy chain said it will not dispense abortion pills in some Republican states.

The state refuses to do business with Walgreens or “any company that cowers to the extremists and puts women’s lives at risk”, the Democrat said.

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A California measure would tax the rich to fund electric vehicles. Why is the governor against it?

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Proposition 30 would raise up to $5bn annually to help buy zero-emission cars, trucks and buses; Newsom calls it a ‘Trojan horse’

Two years ago, California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, issued an executive order banning the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035.

This year, he’s opposing a ballot measure to fund the transition to electric vehicles – siding with Republicans and against fellow Democrats, environmental groups, firefighters and labor unions.

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Human composting: California clears the way for greener burial method

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The state is the fifth to legalize the environmentally-friendly process which allows for the natural reduction of human remains to soil

California lawmakers have approved a new way of returning those who have died to the earth, after Gavin Newsom signed into law a bill allowing human composting on Sunday.

Cremation, which accounts for more than half of burials, is an energy-intensive process that emits chemicals like CO2 into the air. Through human composting, or natural organic reduction (NOR), the body is naturally broken down into soil.

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California’s fast-food industry calls for referendum on new labor legislation

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Law provides for councils to represent workers, but opponents claim menu prices will increase and restaurants will close

The fast-food industry is seeking to overturn one of the most significant labor wins in recent American history by trying to scrap a new law in California that will establish an industry council for the sector on wage standards and other regulations, including safety.

The Fast Food Accountability and Standards Recovery Act, AB 257, was signed into law by the California governor, Gavin Newsom, on 5 September in what is seen as a huge fillip to a US labor movement seeking to capitalize on a wave of unionization drives.

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Newsom airs Florida ad urging people to fight for freedom – or move to California

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‘Freedom is under attack in your state,’ California governor says in ad paid for by his re-election campaign that aired on Fox News

Governor Gavin Newsom of California has aired a commercial in Florida over the Fourth of July holiday weekend urging residents there to fight for freedom, or move to his state in order to find it.

The ad – which pits blue state California against currently red state Florida – exemplified the growing divides in the US as Republican-led state legislatures have pursued rightwing policies on a slew of issues from banning abortion to attacking LGBTQ+ rights and voting issues.

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‘It was never about saving Newsom’: how Latino voters played a major role in California

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About 30% of California’s registered voters are Latino, and it appears they voted largely Democrat – but some say it was ‘about ensuring this state didn’t move backward’

Luis Sánchez worked overtime to rescue Governor Gavin Newsom in California’s recall race. His group PowerCA Action reached more than a quarter-million voters ahead of election day, encouraging young Latino Californians to head to the polls.

Related: ‘Study Newsom’s playbook’: what Democrats – and Republicans – can learn from California’s recall

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Gavin Newsom will remain California governor after handily defeating recall attempt

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California voters resoundingly reject choice to replace Democratic governor, who faced a battle for his political life

California’s governor, Gavin Newsom has prevailed in a historic recall election that had him battling for his political life. In a referendum on the governor’s leadership through the pandemic, voters resoundingly rejected the choice to replace him with a Trumpist Republican.

The Associated Press projected the results about 45 minutes after polls closed on Tuesday night. Newsom’s most popular challenger was Larry Elder, a rightwing radio host who drew comparisons to the former president and who attempted to sow baseless doubts about the election process.

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Governor Gavin Newsom defeats California recall effort – video

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California's Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, has successfully fended off an effort to oust him from office in a special election. He overcame a Republican campaign to unseat him over his liberal policies on immigration, Covid-19 and crime. 

Newsom, a first-term governor beset by challenges including the pandemic, extreme drought and severe wildfires, boosted turnout among Democrats with a flurry of late campaigning. In the final days of the race, he appeared alongside President Joe Biden and the vice-president, Kamala Harris, who formerly represented California as a US senator and attorney general

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Californians vote in recall election as polls show Newsom holding favor – live

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Damien Gayle reports:

Facebook has kept internal research secret for two years that suggests its Instagram app makes body image issues worse for teenage girls, according to a leak from the tech firm.

Related: Facebook aware of Instagram’s harmful effect on teenage girls, leak reveals

Joe Biden will reportedly propose a target for 70% of the world’s population to be vaccinated within the next year at a global vaccines summit he intends to convene alongside the UN general assembly in New York this month.

The US president’s target, reported by the New York Times, is in line with ambitions set jointly by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the WTO and the World Health Organization (WHO) but is more ambitious than current performance and the targets set at the G7 meeting in Cornwall chaired by the UK prime minister, Boris Johnson. The G7 agreed to donate 870m doses of Covid-19 vaccines directly, with an aim to deliver at least half by the end of 2021.

Related: Joe Biden to propose target of vaccinating 70% of world in a year

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‘It’s a reality’: Biden calls for urgency in California as climate crisis fuels wildfires

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President calls year-round fires an emergency country can no longer ignore as he advocates for rebuilding plan

Joe Biden travelled to California on Monday to survey wildfire damage as the state battles a devastating fire season that is on track to outpace that of 2020, the state’s worst fire season on record.

The president is using the trip to highlight the connection between the climate crisis and the west’s increasingly extreme wildfires as he seeks to rally support for a $3.5tn spending plan Congress is debating.

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