Daily Business Report: Monday, August 4, 2025
California is FOR SALE: Gavin Newsom’s Pay-to-Play Politics
By Katy Grimes | California Globe
Governor Gavin Newsom “used his office to try to block a small tribe from opening a casino in Northern California, after taking nearly $2 million from the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, a major California political donor which operates its own gambling compound just 15 miles away from its rival’s proposed site, which broke ground on a $1 billion expansion in 2023,” the Washington Free Beacon reported in July.
Known as “behested” payments, this isn’t the Governor’s first rodeo. He accepted more than $700,000 from two major law firms in 2021 to both create and defend his Executive Order to repeal death penalty rules and dismantle the death chamber at San Quentin, James Lacy reported.
Gov. Gavin Newsom “behested” $3.5 million in 2018, the year he was elected governor. In 2019, he reported behested payments totaling $12.1 million, the Orange County Register reported in “Behested payments and the specter of corruption.”
A Trump order targets gender-affirming care for youth. California is suing to block it
By Anna B. Ibarra | CalMatters
Trump administration restrictions on gender-affirming care for transgender and nonbinary youth violate the Constitution and undermine state laws that require equal access to medical treatment, according to a lawsuit filed today by Attorney General Rob Bonta and 14 other states and the District of Columbia.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, targets a January executive order that makes it U.S. policy not to “fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support” gender transition for people under 19. The order threatens to pull federal funding from medical institutions that provide this type of care.
“The result is an atmosphere of fear and intimidation experienced by transgender individuals, their families and caregivers, and the medical professionals who seek only to provide necessary, lawful care to their patients,” the attorneys general wrote in the suit.
Sacramento Report: Five Bills We’re Watching
By Deborah Sullivan Brennan | Voice of San Diego
When California legislators come back from summer recess in a couple weeks, it will be crunch time to get their proposals passed.
San Diego lawmakers have introduced bills on issues including housing, public safety and digital security. Those had to pass either the state Senate or Assembly in June. To cross the finish line, they must be approved by both houses by Sept. 12 and get the governor’s signature by Oct. 12.
Here are five bills I’m following, and what they mean for San Diego. All of these bills passed their house of origin and cleared one or more committees in the opposite house. They’ll head to final votes starting this month.
