President Joe Biden called upon Congress to provide $310 million in emergency funding to expand the treatment of raw sewage from Mexico causing beach closures, stench, poor air quality, and even illness to San Diego residents. According to academic research from UC San Diego, approximately 34,000 people swimming at San Diego’s Imperial Beach next to the border got sick with just norovirus in 2017, the year of the most recent available study. The funding will go towards the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant, which can currently treat 25 million gallons per day of wastewater but can be expanded to treat up to 100 million gallons per day.

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According to a new annual report from the California Department of Education, the majority of public school students in California are not meeting standards in the three main subjects tested by the state. 53% of students don’t meet state literacy standards while 65% don’t meet math and 70% don’t meet science standards. California Department of Education officials celebrated the numbers as an improvement upon the previous year, noting that math and science proficiency levels increased by 1.2 percentage points and .7 percentage points respectively. 

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According to newly released FBI crime statistics for 2022, violent crime decreased nationwide but sharply increased in California. Between 2021 and 2022, the violent crime rate per 100,000 people increased from 481.2 to 499.5 in California and decreased from 387 to 380.7 nationwide. At the same time, statewide arrests decreased significantly from pre-pandemic levels, a statewide phenomenon not localized to just major cities. 

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 California governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law that expands the definition of “gravely disabled” to cover not just mental illness, but also substance use disorder and those “unable to provide for their personal safety or necessary medical care” to get more homeless individuals into state-mandated treatment programs. SB 43, authored by State Senator Susan Eggman, D-Stockton, reforms the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act of 1967, a bipartisan bill signed into law by then-governor Ronald Reagan and passed by a Democratic legislature to reduce involuntary mental health commitment of Californians at a time when “warehousing” of the mentally ill into ill-equipped mental health hospitals was the norm. 

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill ending “willful defiance” suspensions in TK-12 public and charter schools, a move that experts say could bring disaster amid already declining academic performance, behavior, and attendance. Under SB 274, schools would have to offer “interventions or supports” instead. Willful defiance is defined as “disrupting school activities or otherwise willfully defying the valid authority of school staff.

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A new report from California YIMBY has found California must build 3.5 million homes by 2025 to address its housing shortage, and that governor Gavin Newsom's housing production efforts have failed to sufficiently increase housing production, which in 2022 was just 116,000 new units of housing. The report focuses on the relative housing underproduction rates across the state by calculating a “conversion rate” for each city and county that “compares historical rates of housing permitting to potential market-feasible housing development opportunities, assuming no limitations due to zoning.” Thus, a jurisdiction that permitted 100 units last year with a potential for a new 10,000 feasible units in the absence of supply-limiting regulations would have a 1% conversion rate.

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Crime and homelessness have converged in San Francisco to allow homeless individuals who some have called "pirates" to settle offshore into small, cheap boats that anchor illegally and roam the bay looking for property and even other boats to steal.  According to research by the San Francisco Standard, seven boats were stolen in August in the waters between Alameda and Oakland in San Francisco Bay, while only three were reported stolen, including one 40 foot powerboat stolen with three still-unrecovered guns aboard. These thefts are attributed to a small cadre of so-called “anchor-outs,” or individuals who illegally anchor their boats offshore.

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Federal judge Roger Benitez overturned California's ban on standard-sized ammunition magazines, with California Attorney General Rob Bonta filing an immediate notice of appeal. The injunction on the ban will be stayed for 10 days, which means that the ban's overturn will likely not take effect as the decision is appealed. Standard-capacity magazines have been illegal to manufacture, import, keep or offer for sale, give, or lend since 2000, and illegal to purchase or receive in any way since 2013. 

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