Arizona Will Get a New Representative Adelita Grijalva won decisively in a special Democratic primary on Tuesday, making it almost certain she will win the heavily Democratic 7th District in the September general election. Support from Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez boosted her progressive credentials. Her previous experience as a county supervisor also helped her campaign. But perhaps most importantly, name recognition played a key role: She shared the last name of her father, Democratic Rep. Raúl Grijalva, who held the seat for over 20 years before passing away in March due to cancer. [Politico]
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Trump Likes Apprentices Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer has visited several training facilities on a 50-state tour since being sworn in in March, and signed a deal in April to launch a national apprentice program for firefighters and emergency responders at the DOL’s D.C. headquarters. “We know that we’re not going to see four-year universities deliver all of that workforce,” Chavez-DeRemer said during a keynote speech at the Western Governors’ Association conference last month.
Trump aims to have at least 1 million active apprentices, and Chavez-DeRemer told WGA attendees that she hopes to surpass that target and reach 1.2 million apprentices to “really deliver on this.” Since Trump returned to the White House earlier this year, more than 145,000 people have joined apprenticeship programs, and nearly 700,000 registered apprentices are nationwide, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
But the high-stakes bet is happening at an awkward moment. The Trump administration has spent months hobbling labor regulators, rolling back worker-friendly rules, antagonizing unions, slashing jobs across the federal government, and cutting funding for other workforce development programs. “People talk a good game about, ‘Oh, we need more [apprentices],’” AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said in an interview. “But if you're not willing to invest in the infrastructure around that, it's meaningless.”
Some employers that heavily rely on apprenticeships are cautious about relying on them as the sole solution to meet the need for skilled workers. “We see Registered Apprenticeships as one of many different workforce development solutions," said Michael Altman, senior manager of federal regulatory affairs at the Associated Builders and Contractors. “There are many construction contractors that have their kind of on-the-job training that do not align with Registered Apprenticeships.”
Trump spoke confidently about apprenticeships during his first term. Still, DOL spent most of those four years developing a separate apprenticeship model that would give employer groups more control in designing and overseeing training programs. The Biden administration later weakened these efforts. As a result, the emphasis on Registered Apprenticeships, which unions and Democrats also support, marks a significant shift for Trump this time around. [Politico]
California Voter ID? Senator Tony Strickland and Assemblyman Carl DeMaio announce the filing of language for a VOTER ID initiative. This is the first step toward ultimately gathering signatures to get this on the November 2026 ballot. (Photo credit: @EytanWallace)
In a related story, CDM was picked as the Biggest Troublemaker and Most Duplicitous in a poll by Capitol Weekly, a publication of Open California, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization founded in 2012 to inform, enlighten and educate Californians about public policy and state governance, and to provide a platform for engagement with public officials, advocates and political interests.
In their latest survey, conducted in partnership with Paul Mitchell of Political Data Inc., thousands of Capitol denizens were polled on their favorite and least favorite legislators.
“The bombastic Republican who has a long history of fighting with labor and generally not playing well in the policy sandbox took this category with 31.6 percent of the vote, by far the widest margin of victory of anything polled in this survey. Wiener and Sen. Aisha Wahab (D-Hayward) tied for second with 9.2 percent each. DeMaio seems to relish a fight, with his opponents on the left as well as with his presumed allies on the right. We could recount his greatest hits, but is there a point? Just about a year into his first term in the Assembly, the community seems to know what he’s about or at least has formed a strong opinion.”
I like Carl a lot. There is no more vigorous advocate for Fair and Open Competition in Sacramento than Carl.
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New CEQA Exemptions in 2025: Streamlining Housing & Infrastructure Development in California. On Monday, June 30, 2025, Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law two bills, AB 130 and SB 131, which provide new exemptions from and streamline the process under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). AB 130 creates a statutory exemption for qualifying infill housing projects, simplifies the CEQA review process for residential projects in the coastal zone, and provides procedural changes to the administrative review process to prevent unnecessary delays for new development projects. SB 131 focuses on accelerating public interest projects, such as clean water infrastructure, park and trail projects, and community support facility projects, by creating new exemption categories and streamlining processes for projects that would otherwise be CEQA-exempt but for a single condition. Both bills also include non-CEQA-related provisions that seek to support infill and public interest development further. More
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Why One Union Became One of the Most Pro-Housing Voices in California. When Gov. Gavin Newsom last week signed the biggest effort in years to undo red tape for housing development, he singled out one group for credit. “This is the third of the last four years we’ve been together signing landmark housing reforms, and it simply would not have happened without the Carpenters,” Newsom said. The California Conference of Carpenters has emerged in recent years as one of the most influential voices on housing in Sacramento. The new law rolls back California’s landmark environmental review law to exempt urban apartment developments, an idea once considered a legislative third rail. It’s the most significant yet in a string of bills intended to boost housing production that lawmakers have passed with the union’s help. Story
America’s broken construction industry is a big problem for Trump
The Empire State Building, finished in 1931, was erected in just 410 days. That same year, construction on the Hoover Dam began. It was meant to take seven years, but was built in five. Such feats now seem almost unimaginable. Last year, half of America’s construction firms reported that commercial projects they were working on had been delayed or abandoned. In 2008, California voters approved a high-speed rail line connecting Los Angeles to San Francisco, with completion scheduled for 2020. It will be at least a decade late. America’s inability to build is a problem for Donald Trump. Although he has again delayed levying “reciprocal” tariffs until August 1st, the president’s commitment to reviving American manufacturing through protectionism is as strong as ever. But can the country build the factories, warehouses, and bridges needed to reindustrialize, and do so quickly enough? And if the administration is to achieve its ambition of winning the artificial-intelligence race, it will have to ramp up the construction of data centers and electrical infrastructure as well. Story
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New Challenger for Valadao Assemblymember Jasmeet Bains is running for Congress. The Bakersfield Democrat and physician announced today that she is running to replace Republican Rep. David Valadao next November, reports CalMatters’ Maya C. Miller. Bains was elected to the Assembly in 2022 and has garnered a reputation as a moderate who sometimes breaks ranks with her party. As the lone Democrat who voted against a 2023 law backed by Gov. Gavin Newsom to penalize oil companies for alleged price gouging, Bains was temporarily stripped of a committee post by the Assembly speaker at the time. She will challenge an incumbent who has represented the San Joaquin Valley in Congress for 10 of the last 12 years. A first-time congressional candidate, she is running to the right of fellow Democrat Randy Villegas, a progressive school board member in nearby Visalia who has run on an economic populist, anti-Trump platform. Before Trump signed the federal budget bill, Valadao repeatedly pledged that he would not support any measure that would harm Medi-Cal recipients. But each time the measure came before him, Valadao voted to advance the bill. More than two-thirds of Valadao’s district, which includes parts of Kings, Tulare, and Kern counties, are on Medi-Cal. Together with his eight other California GOP colleagues in the House, they represent 2.5 million Medi-Cal enrollees.
Valadao has proven incredibly difficult to unseat. He won his race last fall by more than three percentage points and has nearly $1.4 million on hand after raising over $870,000 in the previous quarter. Additionally, most of the Medicaid spending cuts won’t take effect until after the midterms, as Republicans have delayed work requirements until 2027 and financing changes until 2028. More
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California’s Wind and Solar Projects Face New Federal Hurdles California’s drive to run its electric grid entirely on wind, solar, and other clean sources of energy just got harder after President Donald Trump signed a sweeping new budget law. The changes in federal tax incentives could affect the feasibility of new solar and wind projects, as the state is counting on them to provide more electricity for Californians. A state law requires 100% of electricity to be powered by renewable, carbon-free sources by 2045, while also moving to electrify cars and trucks. Incentives championed by former President Joe Biden were rolled back, shortening the timeline for the industry to obtain tax credits. Developers of wind and solar projects now face a new, shorter deadline for receiving tax credits, most of which now expire at the end of 2027 instead of no sooner than 2032. Story
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Rooftop Reprieve Assemblymember Lisa Calderon agreed Tuesday to remove language from a bill that would have cut subsidies for many rooftop solar customers. The Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications committee eliminated a provision in AB 942 that aimed to reduce payments to homeowners who installed solar panels before 2023 for selling surplus energy back to the electric grid through a process called “net metering”. One group of customers, homeowners whose annual electric bills are under $300, would still be affected under the proposed law. They would no longer receive a credit funded with cap-and-trade auction revenues. This change enables California to better support households in need of additional assistance with their energy bills, the committee stated in its analysis. The amendments also removed a requirement that new homeowners receive fewer subsidies than previous owners when buying homes that received net-metering credits. The California Public Utilities Commission voted in 2022 to end net metering for new solar customers, deciding instead to lower payouts. [Politico]
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Rule Breakers Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer kickstarted an “aggressive deregulatory” effort this week that would slash more than 60 department regulations, including eliminating overtime and minimum wage protections for home health care workers and union organizing rights for migrant farmworkers. The deregulation push comes after Trump’s January executive order mandated “agency leaders to cut 10 existing rules, regulations or guidance documents for every new one created.” Also on the chopping block: “affirmative action requirements for registered apprenticeships.”
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Top 10 CNBC rated states for overall quality of life, taking into account several factors:
1. Vermont
2. Maine
3. New Jersey
4. Minnesota or Maine, I always get them confused, one has maple syrup, I believe
5. Connecticut
6. Hawaii
7. North Dakota
8. tied among Massachusetts, Nebraska, Virginia
The bottom states for overall quality of life:
50. Tennessee
49. Texas
48. Indiana
47. Utah
46. Louisiana
45. Georgia
44. Alabama
43. Arkansas
42. Oklahoma
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Newsom Signs Budget, Highlights Tax Reduction for Veterans Governor Gavin Newsom (henceforth GGN) signed the 2025-26 state budget on June 27th. He issued a press release with the headline: “Governor Newsom signs balanced state budget that cuts taxes for vets, fully funds free school meals, builds more housing & creates jobs.” The governor signed the main budget bill (AB 102, Gabriel) and numerous trailer bills the same day they were approved by the Assembly and Senate. Newsom’s approval was expected, as he and the Democratic leaders of the Legislature had negotiated the budget privately and unveiled it three days before the votes. The new budget, which replaced the placeholder approved by the Legislature in mid-June to meet lawmakers’ constitutional deadline to approve a budget or forfeit their pay, includes $321 billion in total spending from all funds, up from $298 billion in the budget for the current fiscal year. The tax relief for some veterans is a relatively small part of the budget, estimated to reduce revenue by $85 million. The relief will come in the form of an income exclusion for up to $20,000 in federal military retirement benefits for veterans who have other income that doesn’t exceed $125,000 (or $250,000 for joint filers). The exclusion is retroactive to January 1 and will expire in 2030. The Legislative Analyst’s Office estimated this will result in a tax reduction for 130,000 veterans. “The maximum benefit available under the proposal equates to a $600 tax reduction for the average military retiree,” the analyst added. [CalTax]
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How Did the Santa Ana Streetcar Construction End Up Costing Over $150 Million Per Mile? Orange County’s grand jury is seeking answers about what went wrong with the Orange County Transportation Authority’s Santa Ana Streetcar, highlighting that the project is now six years behind schedule, nearly $400 million over budget, and has no clear ridership plan for a four-mile rail line. The streetcar has long been one of the county’s most contested projects, with the original idea first proposed in 2006 when Santa Ana officials presented the plan. Story
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And if you’re Not Livid Already, Grand Jury Finds 'Lavish Spending' by Stanislaus County Agency The executive director of the Stanislaus Council of Governments, Rosa De Leon Park, was placed on paid leave after a grand jury report criticized “rampant and lavish spending” at the agency, which works on city and county transportation issues. The grand jury questioned approximately $150,000 in spending. “The grand jury accuses the StanCOG Executive Director of using taxpayer dollars on rental cars, luxury hotels, meals, and first-class flights,” KCRA News reported June 27. “The grand jury report says the Executive Director drove in rental cars virtually nonstop for three and a half years, totaling more than $100,000. The report says a lot of the rentals were ‘elite, premium, and luxury vehicles.’ The Executive Director claimed the cars had been ‘free upgrades and not at her request,’ according to the report. However, the jury claims that internal documents … contradict that.”
Additionally, the grand jury flagged 39 nights spent at Ritz-Carlton hotels in five cities, costing over $33,000 in total. “The same credit card was used at other luxury hotels such as the Hotel del Coronado and Vespera on Ocean,” the report stated. The grand jury also questioned charges for a $560 suitcase, more than $1,900 paid to scammers without challenge, and over $400 for a pontoon boat rental. Over seven months, the grand jury found $10,000 worth of purchases with no receipts. “What the civil grand jury found is deeply troubling,” the Stanislaus Council of Governments said in a written statement. “We are a public agency that is trusted to safeguard taxpayer dollars and deliver results for our community. This alleged level of waste and mismanagement demands immediate action. We are deeply disturbed by the supposed waste, mismanagement, and lack of accountability within StanCOG’s management. If true, these actions are unacceptable.” [KCRA]
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Kevin Faulconer has a New Job Former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer is now the CEO of the Lincoln Club. “… and he’s ready to protect jobs and push back against policies that make San Diego more expensive,” the Club wrote. Since leaving office in 2020, Faulconer has run for governor and county supervisor. He has also worked as a lobbyist. Fun fact: The last two elected Republicans in San Diego now lead the Chamber of Commerce (Chris Cate) and the Lincoln Club. [VOSD]
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White House Announces NLRB Nominations On July 17, 2025, the White House announced the nominations of Scott Mayer, Chief Labor Counsel at The Boeing Company, and James Murphy, a former career official with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), to serve as members of the NLRB. The Board has been without a quorum since the termination of former Board Member Gwynne Wilcox. The appointment of two new Republican members will enable the NLRB to issue new decisions and regulations once again. CDW’s statement on the nominations can be read here.
2025-26 State Budget Approved
On Friday, June 27, the Legislature passed, and the Governor signed, the 2025 Budget Act along with several related bills (including numerous trailer bills that implement policy changes tied to the budget). The package represented a final agreement among three parties (the Governor and the Democratic leaders of both houses; Republicans are no longer included as their votes are not necessary to enact a budget) for the 2025-26 state budget. The budget deal advances many of the Legislature’s priorities, such as reducing the Governor’s proposed cuts to the Medi-Cal program. It relies more on reserves and internal borrowing than what was proposed in the May Revision. In a notable, and probably unprecedented move, the entire budget deal was made contingent on the Legislature’s approval and the Governor’s signature on SB 131, a budget trailer bill that authorized a new CEQA exemption for infill housing projects and other environmentally-beneficial initiatives, as well as providing an extra $500 million appropriation to local governments through the Homeless Housing and Assistance Program (HHAP) in FY 2026-27.
Despite contentious hearings on a related housing trailer bill, AB 130, and significant opposition from the environmental community to SB 131’s changes to CEQA, the Legislature came together to pass both bills, which Governor Newsom signed on June 30. While all components of the final budget deal have been approved, action will continue on additional trailer bills throughout the rest of the 2025 legislative session, and modifications to the budget are entirely possible given the considerable uncertainty of fiscal policy at the federal level.
What wasn’t widely discussed in the media but was noted by several bloggers was the concessions made to construction unions.
John Fleishman wrote:
“Media outlets around the state are heralding this as a triumph for housing reform, praising streamlined permits, CEQA exemptions, and such. Yet behind this carefully crafted narrative lies a troubling truth: these bills represent yet another extreme expansion of pro-union labor mandates, but you would not know it because it is largely unreported by the media. With a liberal in Governor Newsom who has made no secret of his progressive agenda and a legislature that has received millions in union campaign contributions, such government overreach was predictable. The public gets promises of housing relief while powerful union interests secure unprecedented control over California’s construction industry. It is time to examine what these politicians are delivering to their constituents.
AB 130 strikes at the heart of competitive free enterprise in California. The bill creates new CEQA exemptions for infill housing developments that meet local zoning and planning standards, but the devil lives in the details, which most media outlets ignore. Section 25 of the legislation exempts housing projects from environmental review while imposing minimum wage requirements and prevailing wage rates on developments that were never subject to these costly mandates—a costly mandate in a bill that purports to make it easier to build housing.
Most small-scale residential construction projects are not currently covered by prevailing wage requirements, making this a seismic shift in California’s construction landscape. For San Francisco projects exceeding 50 units, the legislation establishes labor standards that must be enforced by joint labor-management committees—entities dominated by union representation. Section 26 further rigs the system by manipulating prevailing wage calculations to exclude non-union data, guaranteeing that union-negotiated rates become the mandatory standard.
While SB 131’s CEQA exemptions appear less explicit in their union favoritism, they trigger prevailing wage laws that funnel construction work directly into union hands. This represents the government picking winners and losers in the marketplace, not genuine policy reform designed to benefit California families.
CEQA reform has long been a priority for Republicans and business advocates, who recognize that excessive environmental regulations strangle economic growth and housing development. Streamlining environmental review for appropriate projects represents sound policy that could benefit California families struggling with housing costs.
However, Newsom and the Democrats in the legislature have weaponized this reform to serve their union allies. By tying CEQA exemptions exclusively to projects that accept union labor mandates, they have transformed a pro-business reform into a tool for government favoritism. Only developments that surrender to these costly labor requirements receive regulatory relief, while projects seeking to operate competitively face the full burden of environmental bureaucracy.
This represents the worst kind of crony capitalism—government using its regulatory power to favor politically connected interests over fair competition. Rather than consistently applying CEQA reform across all qualifying projects, Sacramento politicians use regulatory relief as a carrot to force compliance with their union agenda.
I note that some Republicans voted for this, and I wonder if they slept soundly last night, knowing they used the coercive power of government this way.”
That’s not to say that Governor Gavin Newsom didn’t TRY to make these CEQA by-pass projects more affordable. An earlier proposal included some new language:
- California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) exemptions for housing projects of up to 25 units (10 units in San Francisco) without Labor Code prevailing wage/apprenticeship requirements.
- For projects exceeding 25 units (or 10 units in San Francisco), new construction labor standards may be used as an alternative to Labor Code prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements.
- In Los Angeles, Marin, Monterey, Napa, Orange, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Solano, Sonoma, and Ventura counties, state law would require that 60% of the construction workers shall be paid at a wage rate of no less than $36 per hour and 100% at a wage rate of no less than $24 per hour.
- In Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties, and the City and County of San Francisco, 60% of the construction workers shall be paid at a wage rate of no less $40 per hour and 100% of the construction workers shall be paid at a wage rate of no less $27 per hour.
- For all other counties, 60% of the construction workers shall be paid at a wage rate of no less than $28 per hour and 100% of the construction workers shall be paid at a wage rate of no less than $20 per hour.
- These new wage rates would be reduced by the hourly cost of health benefits.
- These new wage rates would be adjusted annually based on CPI.
- There would be no apprenticeship requirement.
This alternative was hit with a buzzsaw of opposition from Democrats and their union supporters and the language was quickly dropped.
Time will tell if these changes make a difference and increase the availability of new homes, or slow their inflationary increase.
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Litigation Financing Measure Becomes Law, Delivering Win for Ariz. Legal System Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs on Friday signed legislation establishing new requirements around third-party litigation financing, marking a win for the Arizona business community concerned about the increasing prevalence of outside funders driving up the costs of litigation. The measure, SB 1215, sponsored by Sen. Vince Leach (R-SaddleBrooke), sets the stage for continued reform of lawsuit lending practices. The new law targets a fast-growing industry that funds lawsuits in exchange for a share of potential settlements. While once viewed as a novel tool for legal access, critics argue that the practice has evolved into an opaque, unregulated sector that distorts the legal system and even invites foreign interference in U.S. court cases. Story
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Rule Breakers Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer kickstarted an “aggressive deregulatory” effort this week that would slash more than 60 department regulations, including eliminating overtime and minimum wage protections for home health care workers and union organizing rights for migrant farmworkers. The deregulation push comes after Trump’s January executive order mandated “agency leaders to cut 10 existing rules, regulations or guidance documents for every new one created.” Also on the chopping block: “affirmative action requirements for registered apprenticeships”.
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New Supervisor Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre coasted to an easy victory in a special election for an open seat on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors. Votes are still being tabulated, but Chula Vista Mayor John McCann, down by about 6 points, conceded the race and said in a statement that he had called Aguirre to congratulate her on her win. Both Aguirre, a Democrat, and McCann, a Republican, issued statements that included pledges to address the sewage from Mexico that contaminates the Tijuana River and befouls south county beaches. That’s undoubtedly one of the most pressing issues in the district, one that has also attracted the attention of the Trump administration. Most of the attention outside the district, however, has been on how the results will break a partisan divide on the powerful Board of Supervisors. Aguirre’s win means the board will again have a 3-2 Democratic majority, which will matter as the county wrestles with changes to Medicaid in the Republican megabill and other looming challenges.
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OBBB Smackdown: Governor Newsom told reporters that Central Valley Rep. David Valadao “might as well resign early and I can call a special election” if he votes for Trump’s megabill, which is awaiting House approval. “If he votes for the bill, he should be voted out, period, full stop,” the governor said, calling the legislation “one of the most calamitous and devastating bills of our lifetime.” Newsom slammed Valadao, one of the state’s more vulnerable Republicans, at a Los Angeles news conference touting new film tax credits in the freshly-signed state budget. The governor said that any vote for the federal OBBB would be "the ultimate betrayal,” noting more than 60 percent of Valadao’s constituents rely on Medi-Cal, the state’s version of the federal Medicaid health insurance that covers the poorest Americans. The legislation could boot millions of Californians off the program to help Republicans fund tax cuts. [SV Sun]