The statement revealed in court papers raises questions about the reliability of the list of 20,000 people in California
The justice department’s list of suspected non-citizens in California includes a “high percentage” of people born in the United States, Los Angeles election officials said on Tuesday.
The statement, made in court papers, raises further questions about the reliability of a list of 20,000 people the justice department provided to election officials in Los Angeles last week. The department sent the county and California secretary of state the list last week and gave them a 48-hour deadline to segregate ballots cast from anyone on the list unless they could verify their citizenship. California election officials refused and the Department of Justice sued them on Thursday.
A proposed "wealth tax" on California's billionaires could backfire and cost the state tens of billions of dollars in the long run.
If the proposed tax drives wealthier residents out of the state, California could end up losing between $1 billion and $3.5 billion annually in income taxes, according to a working paper published this week. A pair of researchers at Stanford University warn that the state could end up losing an estimated $39 billion because of the consequences of the wealth tax.
"These findings suggest that the Billionaire Tax Act will not fulfill the primary functions for which it was designed," write researchers Benjamin Jaros and Joshua Rauh.
Voters in California will decide next month whether to impose the one-time, 5 percent tax when they vote on Proposition 40. The ballot measure is dividing Democrats—Gov. Gavin Newsom opposes it, while progressive Rep. Ro Khanna (D–Calif.) claims it is the "most important ballot initiative in America and a fight for the soul of our party."
And it's already spurring some billionaires to flee the state—including venture capitalist Peter Thiel and Google co-founder Larry Page. Including those two, the seven billionaires who have publicly said they are leaving the state represent more than $539 billion of the nearly $1.9 trillion aggregate net worth of California's billionaires, the researchers note.
With other departures likely happening more quietly, the new study estimates that the tax will generate about $30 billion, a far cry from the $100 billion that the tax's supporters expect. The "behavioral response" from billionaires in California "has eroded most of the projected tax base," write Jaros and Rauh.
That's still a pretty big pot of revenue. In the long run, however, the state is likely to lose out.
After running 100,000 simulations using different assumptions, the two researchers report that "85 percent of plausible outcomes produce a negative" result in state revenue.
Capital is always mobile, despite the best efforts of politicians. And if you were a billionaire living in California, why would you stick around?
Polls show voters are narrowly divided over Proposition 40. A Politicopoll published earlier this month showed 46 percent of voters plan to vote for the measure, while 43 percent oppose it. Voters were similarly divided when asked if they expected it to pass or not.
Happy Tuesday, and welcome to another edition of Rent Free. This week, we're going to jump right into it with a philosophical question: What is an accessory dwelling unit anyway?
It's a question that officials in Somerville, Massachusetts, are realizing they didn't know the answer to after learning that a state law allowing ADUs in single-family neighborhoods could also require them to approve three-story backyard mini-apartments.
As the Boston Globereported on Sunday, Somerville's "deep ethos in favor of new housing" is being tested by the extent of the state law. Elected officials are describing the potential for three-story ADUs as a "joke," and the area's state lawmakers, including one who voted for the state law, are demanding reforms to stop them.
The law in question was a statewide accessory dwelling unit (ADU) legalization tucked inside a major housing package of mostly new spending programs that passed in 2024.
The bill required municipalities to allow ADUs of either 900 square feet or half the size of the primary dwelling (whichever is smaller) anywhere single-family homes are allowed. A subsequent rule issued by state regulators also forbade localities from imposing height and bulk limits on ADUs that are stricter than the limits imposed on primary dwellings.
That latter rule is what's causing Somerville's freakout.
Because the town allows triple-decker apartments (a three-story triplex common in New England) in all its single-family zones, the state rule means that it must also allow ADUs to be three stories tall.
The Globe story notes that the mini-triple-deckers could still only be 900 square feet, meaning each floor of a mini-triple-decker would have to be pretty small. Thus far, no one has proposed building an ADU tower in Somerville.
Even so, the town is worried that someone will eventually propose one of these "out-of-scale" units that it'll have to approve. Its officials are now agitating for changes to the state law to prevent this.
On the one hand, one can perhaps understand why Somerville officials feel blindsided.
The text of the 2024 ADU law allows localities to set "reasonable" height and bulk limits on accessory units. It was state regulators who decided after the law's passage that requiring ADUs to be shorter than the primary unit was "unreasonable."
On the other hand, allowing a second home on a lot to be as tall as the first house sounds "reasonable" enough. Can one complain about out-of-scale development when the new unit is the same height as an existing home and a little bit smaller?
Somerville is not the first city where people's own colloquial definition of an accessory unit as "a tiny home that doesn't bother anyone" has clashed with official regulatory definitions that allow ADUs to be a fair bit bigger.
San Diego's ADU Bonus program once allowed a technically unlimited number of ADUs to be built on single-family parcels near transit stops. (Height and bulk regulations imposed practical limits on how many units could fit on a site.)
That enabled developers to build what were, in effect, ADU apartment complexes on large single-family lots throughout the city. This year, the city imposed new restrictions to stop these "monster" ADU developments, including a per-lot accessory unit cap.
The latest dust-up in Somerville, like the San Diego controversy before it, provides several lessons about the realities of housing reform.
The first is that the definition of "accessory dwelling unit" is completely arbitrary.
In Massachusetts, an ADU is a 900-square-foot home that can be one story or three stories, depending on the town and zoning district it's being built in.
In Montana, it's a 1,000-square-foot unit. In California, state law can require localities to allow ADUs as large as 1,200 square feet. Under certain conditions, these ADUs can even be sold separately from the main house.
At a certain point, an accessory dwelling unit is just a dwelling unit. A house is a house.
The second lesson is that any ADU reform that is actually intended to produce new housing units is going to cause controversy.
State and local laws allowing ADUs have been one of the more common forms of housing reforms to pass.
Supply-boosters see them as a way to get a modest number of new units. Supply skeptics don't see much to object to about allowing someone to install a kitchenette and bathroom in their garage.
If the ADU regulations don't allow much more than the garage conversion, supply-boosters will be disappointed and push for expansions of the law. California passed dozens of ADU laws before they started enabling actual units to be built.
If an ADU law actually allows more homes, the ADUs will look like homes, and the supply skeptics will be mad.
No amount of branding or planning will resolve the inherent conflict of some people wanting more development while others oppose it in their neighborhoods.
Thus far, Massachusetts' ADU law has been modestly productive. The state's ADU survey reports that 2,048 ADU permits have been issued since the state law went into effect in January 2025. About half of those units are attached ADUs (think the garage with the kitchenette).
That's a little under 10 percent of Massachusetts total housing production during that time, per the Census Bureau's building permit survey.
At 50 units permitted, Somerville has actually approved the second most ADUs of any jurisdiction in the state. (Boston has only approved 49.)
But now that it's facing the prospect of allowing ADUs that look like actual homes, it's starting to get cold feet about the new law.
While Spain is tightening its tenant protections and rent controls in the face of housing protests, Portugal is trying to remove regulations on its rental housing industry. Either way, housing protesters are clashing with police.
The Urban Institute has a new white paper on whether data center development is coming at the expense of housing development.
A new report on home construction in Chicago finds that the practice of aldermanic privilege (where individual aldermen can veto projects in their district) is strangling development.
No dia em que se assinalou o centenário da publicação de Winnie-the-Pooh um urso-negro entrou numa biblioteca e "atacou" o lanche dos funcionários: manteiga de amendoim, bolachas, um pote de mel.
Josef Bopp diretor da biblioteca apelou aos visitantes, “lembramos a quem frequenta — e talvez ainda mais importante, aos nossos ursos — que os lanches não fazem parte da coleção em circulação.”
Videos show shark launching several feet from water as a group of friends pose for photos along Marina state beach
A great white shark put on a spectacular display for California beachgoers over the weekend, leaping from the water off Marina state beach and photobombing visitors.
Videos circulating online show a great white shark launching several feet out of the water in the background as a group of friends pose for photos along the beach.
Coyote euthanized after reportedly roaming Atwater Village comfortably for months and attacking one-year-old boy
One Los Angeles neighborhood has been at war over a wild coyote, and over the weekend it all came to a head.
For months, the animal had been roaming the trendy Atwater Village, showing up in broad daylight, sleeping in back yards and approaching residents. At least one person had reportedly fed the coyote and others affectionately nicknamed it Wiley. But some residents feared the creature had become dangerously too cozy.
Nearly $1 million worth of trading cards in more than 200 packages were stolen from a FedEx truck last week outside of Professional Sports Authenticators (PSA) in Santa Ana.
The thief had broken into the truck by breaking the lock. The cards were stolen while the FedEx driver was away from the vehicle.
Card collector and YouTuber SKY-B was a victim of the heist, saying he had 104 cards stolen, "many" of which are "irreplaceable."
"A hundred four cards which were either case hits, which are ultra rare, or they're 1-of-1s, meaning they're the only one in the world," the YouTuber said.
"We are aware of a theft involving a third-party shipping vehicle carrying PSA-graded items. We are working closely with law enforcement and the carrier as the investigation continues," Collectors said in a statement.
Collectors said it has "deactivated the certificates for the stolen items and notified marketplace partners so they can be on the lookout for rare and serialized items."
"Our customer service team has contacted affected customers directly and is arranging compensation based on fair market value," Collectors said.
"We understand the impact this has on collectors involved, many of whom see these cards as far more than a financial asset. Our team is focused on supporting them. We take this incident seriously, and we will continue working with law enforcement to hold those responsible accountable."
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby backed national wealth and inheritance taxes in an interview published Sunday, arguing they would help level the playing field for Americans. Kirby told The New York Times that wealth inequality “has become a danger to our society,” adding the federal government must “address” it. “We should have a national wealth…
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby backed national wealth and inheritance taxes in an interview published Sunday, arguing they would help level the playing field for Americans. Kirby told The New York Times that wealth inequality “has become a danger to our society,” adding the federal government must “address” it. “We should have a national wealth…
FIRST ON FOX: Rep. James Gallagher, R-Calif., urged FBI Director Kash Patel on Monday to crack down on illegal marijuana cultivation operations in Northern California.
Gallagher sent the letter after the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office reported extensive illegal cultivation and illegal immigrant labor in the region. The congressman said the operations have harmed local ranchers, depleted groundwater supplies and raised concerns about potential financing from Chinese organized-crime networks.
"Entire rural properties are now covered with rows of makeshift, plastic-covered greenhouses, known as ‘hoop houses,’ where marijuana is cultivated using groundwater hauled in from nearby wells," Gallagher wrote in a letter exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital.
"The consequences have been devastating, with residents facing depleted water supplies and threats to their safety, while local farmers and ranchers contend with increased competition for groundwater and the risk of contamination to their agricultural land," he continued.
The letter cited estimates of as many as 7,000 illegal growers in the Mount Shasta Vista subdivision alone. Gallagher said illegal cultivation has also expanded onto federal lands, including the Shasta-Trinity National Forest.
Gallagher also raised concerns that Chinese organized-crime networks could be financing or directing some of the operations.
"In Siskiyou County, investigators have traced cultivation properties to individuals residing outside the county, while those managing the grows often have no apparent ownership interest," Gallagher wrote. "These arrangements raise serious concerns about who is actually financing and controlling these operations and whether the ownership arrangements are intended to conceal their involvement."
Gallagher pointed to a 2018 federal investigation in California involving an illegal marijuana growing operation that authorities said was funded with money from China. The investigation led to federal forfeiture actions involving more than 100 properties in the Sacramento area, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California.
The congressman also cited environmental damage linked to the illegal grow sites, including the use of toxic pesticides.
"Compounding these concerns is the widespread use of highly toxic pesticides, including chemicals banned in the United States and products bearing Chinese-language labels that are suspected of being illegally imported," Gallagher wrote.
Siskiyou County investigators have identified at least 27 pesticide compounds at illegal grow sites, according to county findings. Officials have warned that the chemicals could pose risks to residents, law enforcement officers and first responders.
When police were searching for his missing wife, Gurinder Gill allegedly told them Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested her when she went out to bring in the mail at their home in Sacramento, California.
Days earlier, however, authorities in neighboring El Dorado County found burned and buried remains that were later identified as hers.
Now Gill, 28, is charged with the murder of his 30-year-old wife, Jasmine Gill, an India-born nurse and mother of their 8-month-old child.
"As the investigation progressed, Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office detectives identified several inconsistencies in Gurinder’s statements about his wife’s disappearance," Sgt. Edward Igoe, a spokesperson for the sheriff's office, said in a statement.
After Sacramento detectives contacted Gurinder Gill, they attempted to vet his claim with ICE.
According to a GoFundMe campaign set up for Jasmine Gill's family, she was born in India, where her mother still lives. Jasmine Gill became a registered nurse to follow in her mom's footsteps and had an 8-month-old.
"She was fighting for a better future for herself and her baby," the campaign reads. "She was seeking a divorce. She was trying to find the freedom, safety, and fresh start they both deserved. Tragically, before she could build that future, Jasmine was murdered, leaving behind the very child she was fighting so hard to protect."
None of the injuries were life-threatening, SJFD wrote.
"SJFD is on scene of a plane crash in the area of Capitol Expressway and Excalibur Dr.," the department wrote in the Saturday post on X.
"Small prop plane down, no vehicles involved. Two adults and one child transported with non-life-threatening injuries out of an abundance of caution. Please avoid the area," the post read.
The fire department also said the crash resulted in a "minor fuel spill which was absorbed."
Investigators from the SJFD, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are still investigating the cause of the crash and have not publicly released a potential cause, according to Fox2 KTVU.
A spokesperson for the San Jose Police Department told KTVU that drugs and alcohol were not believed to have been a factor in the crash.
NFL Hall of Famer Eric Dickerson’s family sued a California private school, alleging administrators failed to protect his sixth-grade son from repeated racial slurs, bullying, and physical attacks despite complaints from his parents.
The Donald Trump administration dubbed it Operation Protect the Vote and on Monday focused its efforts on trying to substantiate the conspiracy theories promoted by the president and members of his administration: that large numbers of undocumented immigrants in California vote illegally for Democrats and that the state’s voter rolls still contain deceased individuals and people who have moved to other states. The charges announced, however, do not prove those claims.
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers broke an American citizen’s arm over the weekend. “ICE agents brutally attacked and broke the arm of a North Long Beach resident and U.S. citizen. The videos are horrific and should concern not just our community but the country,” Garcia said in a…
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers broke an American citizen’s arm over the weekend. “ICE agents brutally attacked and broke the arm of a North Long Beach resident and U.S. citizen. The videos are horrific and should concern not just our community but the country,” Garcia said in a…
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