Hey all, we've been enjoying a boom in listeners, and so we'd like to remind you to like, subscribe, rate, comment, and tell your friends about the Drain. Many, many fun things to come!

We're hitting you a couple days late, due to Kempa moving on up to a nicer part of town. He's also gonna be out east, but we'll be recording through ALL of that, so do not fret.

Today, however, we've got some interesting stuff for you:

Cal Fresh is set to stop November 1 – Paris Barraza Palm Springs Desert Sun (look at lawsuit, and call to action)

National context: What's in the House GOP's budget resolution? Here's what to know about the plan. - CBS News

$1.5 trillion in spending cuts over a 10-year period 

$230 b. will come from SNAP program alone

OBBBA already neuters SNAP somewhat by lowering the amount the FDA pays states for implementing the program, while raising the amount of money it requires states to match.

The shutdown did not impact funding for October benefits. But on Oct. 10, the USDA said in a letter that “if the current lapse in appropriations continues, there will be insufficient funds to pay full November SNAP benefits for approximately 42 million individuals across the Nation.”

Democratic officials throughout the country “believe the USDA has up to $6 billion in contingency funds and “possibly more” to fund SNAP.”

But a highly-partisan announcement — and likely grim news to the millions of Americans nationwide who rely on food assistance — published on the USDA’s website blamed Senate Democrats over SNAP funding amid the shutdown, and that benefits wouldn't be issued next month.

Perhaps this is why “California has joined a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture over the loss of SNAP benefits expected in November amid the federal government shutdown.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom had warned Californians were likely to have their CalFresh benefits delayed in November due to the shutdown. CalFresh, known federally as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, provides scores of lower-income Californians with food assistance and is federally funded.

$11 insulin announced in California (though Newsom promised in 2024)

Story from by Kristen Hwang and Ana B. Ibarra

“Long-acting insulin pens will be available at pharmacies for $11 per pen — or $55 for a five-pack — beginning Jan. 1. The pens are interchangeable with glargine, the generic alternative for Lantus, a once-a-day injection that regulates blood sugar. An equivalent amount of Lantus sells to pharmacies for more than $92, according to data compiled by the governor’s office, but consumers may pay a different price based on their insurance”

“California Gurl” Katy Perry and former Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are dating (squeeeeee)

Apparently she and Orlando Bloom broke up last month?

CA GOP retreats on Prop 50 (Will McCarthy in Politico)

“The biggest funder of the campaign to defeat Proposition 50, Charles Munger Jr., has not contributed any significant cash to the cause in weeks, and his Protect Voters First committee cut its weekly spending from more than $4 million to less than $300. The other opposition committee, Stop Sacramento’s Power Grab, spent $155,000 on advertising last week, compared to $3.8 million from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Yes on 50 campaign.”

“It’s as full-throated a campaign for Democrats in California as if we were in the middle of a presidential election,” said Jon Fleischman, a former executive director of the California Republican Party. “But you can go to the house next door, occupied by Republicans, and it’s crickets — other than receiving their ballot in the mail.”

“Prop 50 opponents have been greatly outmatched in resources and are now bracing for an embarrassing loss. A CBS News poll released last week showed 62 percent of likely voters support the initiative.

“We still believe that there is a pathway here,” Jessica Millan Patterson, a former California Republican Party chair leading McCarthy’s committee, insisted at an American Association of Political Consultants panel in Long Beach last week. “Despite being outspent two to one.”

Republican Assemblymember Carl DeMaio said that he believed the opposition campaign “defrauded” donors with a poor campaign strategy and “inauthentic” videos.

“I knew they were going to waste money,” he told POLITICO at a No on 50 rally in the Sacramento suburb of Roseville. “The same people who gave us a superminority are the ones running these committees and profiting off the failure.”

Speaking of DeMaio… he’s starting a voter ID initiative, and they’re touting reaching 250,000 of the 875,000 votes they need (deadline is Jan. 22, 2026)

DOJ removes 5 top ICE officials, replaces them with senior border patrol agents (Anna Giaritelli Twitter thread) (Examiner story)

ICE's top officials in Denver; Los Angeles; Philadelphia; Phoenix; and San Diego were quietly relieved of their duties last Friday 

DHS's Kristi Noem & Corey Lewandowski had pushed for them to be fired.

Not only has the Trump admin kicked ICE field office directors in five major cities out of their jobs, this is all part of a plan within DHS to bring BORDER PATROL officials into ICE leadership, an unprecedented move, sources say. 

The Trump administration wants to remake ICE with Border Patrol's more in-your-face, aggressive style

Both are federal law enforcement agencies that deal with immigration but in very different ways. Border Patrol is on the border, ICE is in the interior mostly

Anna Giaritelli cites Greg Bovino’s Operation Midway Blitz as model for future ICE operations.

More on Greg Bovino: Who’s Gregory Bovino, and why is he appearing in a Chicago courtroom Tuesday?

He’s worked for the Border Patrol since 1996 and was the chief patrol agent of the El Centro sector headquartered near the Mexico border in California.

Bovino’s tactics consist of stopping people based on race, language and other factors. Bovino has sincetold a WBEZ reporter that agents in Chicago were stopping people based partly on “how they look.”

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