Daily Business Report: Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Toni Atkins drops out of 2026 California governor’s race
By City News Service | Times of San Diego
Longtime San Diego legislator Toni Atkins announced Monday she was bowing out of the 2026 race to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is termed out.
Atkins, a former San Diego City Council woman, acting mayor, assemblywoman, Speaker of the Assembly and President pro tempore of the California State Senate, announced her gubernatorial candidacy in January 2024.
In announcing her withdrawal from the governor’s race, she said she will continue to fight against the politics of President Donald Trump.
ADU Construction Is Fueling the County’s Housing Production
By Lisa Halverstadt| Voice of San Diego
Halfway into an eight-year planning cycle, San Diego County reports it has permitted more than three quarters of new homes the state called for in unincorporated areas by 2029. Thirty percent of them are accessory dwelling units.
A Voice of San Diego analysis of county data reported to the state revealed those ADUs or granny flats made up half the homes the county reported as affordable to low-income and middle-class San Diegans the past four years.
The rise of ADUs has coincided with the state-mandated implementation of environmental rules that the region’s homebuilding lobby has blamed for dramatically slowing development. Meanwhile, state and local policies and programs, including a now-expired county fee waiver initiative, made it easier to build ADUs.
Newsom to decide on renter protections tied to Social Security changes under Trump
By Ryan Sabalow | CalMatters
With the Trump administration again threatening mass firings of federal employees, Gov. Gavin Newsom must soon decide whether California landlords must accept Social Security benefit delays as an excuse not to evict tenants who fall behind on rent.
Earlier this month, the California Legislature passed Culver City Democratic Assemblymember Isaac Bryan’s Assembly Bill 246. The measure would give tenants legal protections in eviction proceedings if their Social Security benefits are “terminated, delayed, or reduced due to no fault of the tenant” and the federal problems caused them to miss rent.
Bryan introduced the bill this spring in the middle of the uproar over President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency campaign to slash the federal workforce and fears that Republicans would cut Social Security payments, which they ultimately didn’t do.
