(The Center Square) – The fate of two levies from Seattle Public Schools will be determined on Tuesday by Seattle voters, amid recent survey results showing that parents of former students were dissatisfied with the quality of the education their children received. Currently, Seattle Public Schools’ current tax rate is $1.85 per $1,000 of assessed property value. This includes the three-year Educational Programs and Operations Levy, the six-year Building Excellence VI Capital Levy, and the continuing Building, Technology and Academics Capital Levy approved in 2022. 

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(The Center Square) - California Gov. Gavin Newsom is visiting President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C. to seek wildfire relief funding just after the state legislature passed bills to fund lawsuits against the Trump administration and deportation defense of illegal immigrants in a Newsom-called “Trump-proofing” special session. Trump has said he supports placing conditions on California wildfire aid, including the adoption of voter identification laws and better water management, and announced that he is seeking a federal investigation into the state’s high speed rail program. 

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(The Center Square) - California Gov. Gavin Newsom Tuesday signed a new wildfire relief executive order ending an anti-price gouging provision that limited the supply rentals in higher-end Los Angeles neighborhoods that fire-displaced families are searching for homes. His order also closed a loophole that did not apply the anti-price-gouging laws to leases greater than one year in duration, which had led to many leases in Los Angeles County being offered at 13 months. 

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(The Center Square) – California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a plea agreement has been reached to result in no jail time for activists who recorded conversations with Planned Parenthood staff about the procurement and sale of tissue from aborted fetuses. In 2015, then-California Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed 15 charges against David Robert Daleiden and, as a co-conspirator, Sandra Merritt, for illegally recording private conversations without the other parties’ consent by posing as buyers for a medical company. The undercover recordings released by Daleiden, who serves as Project Lead at the pro-life Center for Medical Progress, show a senior Planned Parenthood director meeting with him to discuss the sale of tissue from aborted babies, and includes a description from the Planned Parenthood staffer about the abortion process and what tissues are easiest to save for sale for medical research. 

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(The Center Square) – Housing and land use experts say a Los Angeles city law could require the Pacific Palisades to include “affordable” housing to replace older buildings, and for new buildings where owners cannot definitively prove that their rental apartments had no low-income renters in the past five years. The new Resident Protections Ordinance taking effect soon requires that “In Higher Opportunity Areas and Moderate Opportunity Areas, units deemed or presumed to be occupied by persons or families above the lower income category shall be replaced with low income units.” The RPO applies to units “subject to a form of rent or price control through a local government’s valid exercise of its police power.” 

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(The Center Square) - After California Attorney General Rob Bonta issued warnings to landlords over anti-price-gouging laws during declared emergencies, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office has provided clarifications on which rules are in effect and for how long. This clarity could bring relief to real estate professionals who have been wary of leasing homes to wildfire victims, especially after the attorney general’s broad warnings appeared inconsistent with the governor’s orders. California Penal Code 396 automatically goes into effect for the 30 days after an emergency declaration, largely limiting price increases for materials, goods, services, hotels, and rent to no more than 10% above what prices were before the declaration, with the code in effect for services for 180 days after the declaration. 

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(The Center Square) - The California beachside city of Huntington Beach continued its confrontation with the state with its city council adopting a resolution declaring the city “a non-sanctuary city for illegal immigration for the prevention of crime.” Huntington Beach has an ongoing lawsuit against the state’s sanctuary state law that limits cooperation with federal immigration authorities, citing a high reoffending rate by illegal aliens with active detainers from federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials that are supposed to result in transfers and deportation. 

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(The Center Square) - The monthly payment to purchase an entry-level California home has risen 88% since 2020, according to a new report from the non-partisan, state-funded Legislative Analyst’s Office. With the ongoing wildfires having destroyed over 10,000 buildings in high-income areas, prices are primed to go up even further as wealthy families seek new shelter. “Payments for a mid-tier home were nearly $5,800 a month in December 2024 – an 84% increase since January 2020. Payments for a bottom-tier home were over $3,500 per month – an 88% increase since January 2020,” wrote the LAO. “This rapid increase in monthly costs for homebuyers was driven by higher home prices and increasing mortgage rates.”

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(The Center Square) – U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Monday that he supports adding conditions to any federal aid to California over the Los Angeles wildfires, citing his position that state and local leaders were “derelict in their duty.” With the state’s insurers already on the brink of insolvency before the massive wildfires, and the state nonpartisan legislative analyst’s office saying the state faces rising multibillion dollar budget deficits and has “no capacity for new commitments,” a federal bailout may be the state’s only option. But for California Gov. Gavin Newsom, that may mean giving up on key policy priorities, whether that includes the state’s high speed rail program, 2035 ban on new gasoline-powered vehicles, sanctuary state laws limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities, or the state’s providing of taxpayer-financed health care for illegal immigrants. 

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(The Center Square) - The City of Huntington Beach is suing to overturn the state’s sanctuary state laws protecting illegal immigrants, arguing they violate federal immigration laws and the state and national constitution. Huntington Beach and the state government have long been at odds, with the state government recently winning a court battle requiring the city to follow state housing laws, and Huntington Beach emerging victorious — or at least for now — in a state challenge to its voter ID requirement for city elections. Huntington Beach claims the state’s sanctuary state laws, which limit cooperation between state and local law enforcement with federal immigration authorities, force city officials to violate federal law, which, under the U.S. Constitution’s supremacy clause, preempts state law. 

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