The News Brief: January 26th, 2025

Bay Area News

This past week, The Unity Council, Clinica de la Raza, Centro Legal, and many other Fruitvale organizations held a press conference supporting immigrant communities. Steve Tavares also reported the potential dangers elected officials face from the Trump Administration. Trump has said he wants the Department of Justice to go after elected officials who stand in the way of his attacks.

Articles

• EBI: Trump is already imperiling Alameda County with latest moves and threats

• NBC | Bay Area Leaders Aim to Offer Protections Under Trump

In the southern part of the Bay Area, the largest city, San José, is facing its own budget shortfall. Originally they were expecting a $39 million shortfall for fiscal year 25-26. Now they’re projecting a shortfall of $60 million due to an unexpected drop in sales tax revenue. While smaller than San Francisco's ($1 billion FY 25-27) or Oakland’s ($409 million FY 25-27) budget deficits, it will have a significant impact on city services.

“The unexpected shortfall has led the City Manager’s Office to propose $50 million in budget cuts “as a starting point,” — including $12.6 million from the police department, $9.6 million from parks, recreation, and neighborhood services, and $5.9 million from the fire department. Every city department is required to submit its budget with proposed cuts by Jan. 31.”

Articles

• San José Spotlight: San José’s projected budget deficit skyrockets

SPUR is doing a three-part article series on how Oakland can close its budget gaps and fix its structural funding problems. Unsurprisingly, The deep roots of this can be traced to California’s greatest failed policy, Proposition 13. Nicole Neditch, Governance and Economy Policy Director at SPUR wrote, “In the 1970s, California voters approved Proposition 13, which capped property taxes at 1% and immediately caused local government revenues to plummet by 60%. Budget shortfalls have been a recurring problem for Oakland and many other cities across the state ever since. Prop. 13 forced cities to find alternative revenue streams to make up for the losses as well as to account for the rising costs of labor and materials.”

I highly recommend their first article.

Articles

• SPUR: What It Will Take to Close Oakland’s Structural Deficit, Part 1: How We Got Here

Federal News

Many media outlets have summarized the executive actions in the first week. Outside of the pardons and attacks on immigrant communities, here are a few that stood out to me: multiple repeals of climate policies, multiple calls to increase fossil fuel production, firing federal DEI staff, making it easier to fire federal staff, hiring freeze on federal staff with exceptions, and removing sanctions against far-right Israeli groups accused of violence against Palestinians.

Just on Friday Pete Hegseth was confirmed as defense secretary with Vice President Vance breaking the tie after three Republican Senators, including Mitch McConnell, voted against the confirmation. Multiple concerning allegations came out regarding Hegseth including a history of alcohol abuse at work, sexual assault, marriage infidelity, and misogynist remarks such as stating women shouldn’t be allowed to serve in the military. Despite these reports and a lack of experience running large organizations, he was confirmed.

On Friday night, Trump also fired multiple inspector generals across many departments, apparently in violation of federal law. These inspector generals serve as watchdogs of the departments they serve.“The independent watchdogs at these agencies are instructed to probe various allegations including abuse of power, fraud and waste. They can serve in multiple administrations.”

The release of Jan. 6 insurrectionists and attacks on immigrants indicate the next few years will see an increase in political violence by conservatives. The former federal prosecutor of the Jan 6 insurrectionists, summed it up in his recent essay, “Illiberal democracies and outright dictatorships often rely on such militia groups, whose organization and seriousness can range widely, from the vigilantes who enforce Iran’s hijab dress code to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia that have killed government opponents”

Articles

• NBC Chicago: Executive Action Article

• Axios: Trump signs executive order aimed at ending birthright citizenship

• Secretary of Defense Confirmation

• Inspector Generals Fired

• Jan. 6 prosecutor: Rioters freed by Trump ‘have never been more dangerous’

• Mississippi bill would pay bounty hunters to catch undocumented immigrants

CA Brief

In California political news, there’s been much speculation about whether former Vice President Harris will run for governor in 2026. That speculation continues to heat up now that we know the former VP has opened an LLC. Politico reported on the story but has no further details. CalMatters wrote an article a few months ago giving a lay of the land, but the landscape would change if the former VP or Attorney General Bonta decides to enter the race.

Meanwhile, Huntington Beach is once again showing it can’t be normal. It passed a resolution declaring itself a non-sanctuary city. While they also had a smaller budget deficit over the last few years, it looks like they planned to close libraries to cover the gap. However

“While [City Attorney] Gates’ office is currently wrapped up in high profile cases such as the city’s lawsuit against state leaders protesting housing mandates and the city’s $7 million settlement with the operators of the Pacific Airshow, he says the new lawyers would not be focused on those cases.”

Articles

• Politico: Kamala Harris provides a big signal about her next move

• CalMatters: Let the games begin: 2026 campaign for California governor now looms

• CBS: Huntington Beach City Council approves "non-sanctuary city" initiative

• Voice of OC: Surf City Leaders Unveil Budget Gap That Could Close Libraries, Shuttle Service