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Newsom refuses to back fellow Dems taking on Google, Big Tech through news link legislation

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Newsom refuses to back fellow Dems taking on Google, Big Tech through news link legislation

Gov. Gavin Newsom is staying silent on a Democrat-led bill moving through the legislature that would create a “link tax” requiring big tech companies, like Google, to pay media companies for linking to their pages.

Last week, Google began removing news links to news pages while the legislation, dubbed the California Journalism Preservation Act (CJPA), is under consideration. The bill, authored by Democrat Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, would effectively charge Google, Microsoft, Facebook and other big tech companies for linking to state news websites. The collected “link tax,” as Google calls it, would go toward supporting struggling newsrooms, according to the text.

While Newsom’s office declined to “comment on pending legislation” pioneered by his Democrat counterparts to Fox News Digital, the governor previously partnered with Google on initiatives during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, such as incorporating the state’s “earthquake early warning technology into all Android phones.” 

At the time, Newsom gushed over the partnership, saying, “It’s not every day that Silicon Valley looks to state government for state-of-the-art innovation, but that’s exactly what is happening today.”

PRESSED BY GOP SENATOR, ZUCKERBERG APOLOGIZES MID-HEARING TO FAMILIES OF VICTIMS OF BIG TECH HARMS IN AUDIENCE

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Gov. Gavin Newsom is remaining quiet regarding a new bill that would create a “link tax” requiring big tech companies to pay media companies for linking to their sites. (Screenshot/NBC)

Also in 2020, Newsom partnered with Google to give away 4,000 Chromebooks and free Wi-Fi hot spots for mobile users up to 90 days with unlimited broadband internet access to 100,000 households in rural regions of the state. In 2021, Newsom signed SB 7 into law, which changed real estate zoning laws to allow denser housing construction. Alongside him was Google’s president of global affairs, Kent Walker.

“To be here with Google and the incredible private sector investment and the faith and devotion to the future of this city and this region and this state is exactly where we want to be and it’s why we are here,” Newsom said to reporters at the time. 

However, Google said in a statement last week the proposed CJPA, in its current form, would “up-end” its model of helping publishing sites grow their audiences without financial penalties.

“As we’ve shared when other countries have considered similar proposals, the uncapped financial exposure created by CJPA would be unworkable,” Google said in a statement. “If enacted, CJPA in its current form would create a level of business uncertainty that no company could accept.”

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CA REPUBLICAN CRITICIZES GAVIN NEWSOM’S HOMELESS STRATEGY: ‘YOU CAN’T KEEP THROWING MONEY AT THE SYMPTOMS’

The Media Research Center says that from 2008 through February 2024, “Google has utilized its power to help push to electoral victory the most liberal candidates, regardless of party, while targeting their opponents for censorship.” (Photographer: Marlena Sloss/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The big tech company said that to “prepare” for possible CJPA consequences, they have begun a soft roll-out of removing links to California news websites to test the impact it would have on the company’s “product experience.”

How much the companies would have to pay would be decided by a panel of three judges through an arbitration process under the bill.

The bill aims to stop the loss of journalism jobs, which have been disappearing rapidly as legacy media companies have struggled to profit in the digital age. More than 2,500 newspapers have closed in the U.S. since 2005, according to Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. California has lost more than 100 news organizations in the past decade, according to Wicks. 

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BIDEN AGENCY ‘LIKELY’ VIOLATED FREE SPEECH BY WORKING WITH BIG TECH TO CENSOR ELECTION CONTENT: COURT

The Real Facebook Oversight Board embarked on the Facebook Receipts project to expose how big tech lobbyists used power and influence to kill would-be-landmark antitrust bills. (iStock)

“This is a bill about basic fairness — it’s about ensuring that platforms pay for the content they repurpose,” Wicks said. “We are committed to continuing negotiations with Google and all other stakeholders to secure a brighter future for California journalists and ensure that the lights of democracy stay on.”

However, Google argues the bill “undermines news” in the Golden State.

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“To avoid an outcome where all parties lose and the California news industry is left worse off, we urge lawmakers to take a different approach,” the company said. 

Big tech companies have also been targeted in recent years by state officials and Republican lawmakers, who claim the Biden administration’s alleged coordination with the search engine giants could unfairly impact the discourse around the 2024 election. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Colorado

Colorado attorney general expands lawsuit to challenge Trump ‘revenge campaign’ against state

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Colorado attorney general expands lawsuit to challenge Trump ‘revenge campaign’ against state


Attorney General Phil Weiser on Thursday expanded a lawsuit filed to keep U.S. Space Command in Colorado to now encapsulate a broader “revenge campaign” that he said the Trump administration was waging against Colorado.

Weiser named a litany of moves the Trump administration had made in recent weeks — from moving to shut down the National Center for Atmospheric Research to putting food assistance in limbo to denying disaster declarations — in his updated lawsuit.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser speaks during a news conference at the Ralph Carr Judicial Center in Denver on Tuesday, July 22, 2025. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)

He said during a news conference that he hoped both to reverse the individual cuts and freezes and to win a general declaration from a judge that the moves were part of an unconstitutional pattern of coercion.

“I recognize this is a novel request, and that’s because this is an unprecedented administration,” Weiser, a Democrat, said. “We’ve never seen an administration act in a way that is so flatly violating the Constitution and disrespecting state sovereign authority. We have to protect our authority (and) defend the principles we believe in.”

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The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Denver, began in October as an effort to force the administration to keep U.S. Space Command in Colorado Springs. President Donald Trump, a Republican, announced in September that he was moving the command’s headquarters to Alabama, and he cited Colorado’s mail-in voting system as one of the reasons.

Trump has also repeatedly lashed out over the state’s incarceration of Tina Peters, the former county clerk convicted of state felonies related to her attempts to prove discredited election conspiracies shared by the president. Trump issued a pardon of Peters in December — a power he does not have for state crimes — and then “instituted a weeklong series of punishments and threats targeted against Colorado,” according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit cites the administration’s termination of $109 million in transportation grants, cancellation of $615 million in Department of Energy funds for Colorado, announcement of plans to dismantle NCAR in Boulder, demand that the state recertify food assistance eligibility for more than 100,000 households, and denial of disaster relief assistance for last year’s Elk and Lee fires.

In that time, Trump also vetoed a pipeline project for southeastern Colorado — a move the House failed to override Thursday — and repeatedly took to social media to attack state officials.

The Trump administration also announced Tuesday that he would suspend potentially hundreds of millions of dollars of low-income assistance to Colorado over unspecified allegations of fraud. Those actions were not covered by Weiser’s lawsuit, though he told reporters to “stay tuned” for a response.

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Hawaii

Hawaii County accepting applications for Summer Fun employees

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Hawaii County accepting applications for Summer Fun employees


HAWAII ISLAND (HawaiiNewsNow) – The County of Hawaii Department of Parks and Recreation is now accepting applications for temporary positions in its 2026 Summer Fun program.

The two positions available are Activity Aide I ($17.50 per hour) and Activity Aide II ($19 per hour).

To be considered for employment, applicants must possess a valid first-aid certification, attend mandatory training June 2–5, and be available to work June 8–July 17.

Applications are available online on the Parks and Recreation website, and must be submitted to the Recreation Division Office at 799 Pi‘ilani St., Hilo, HI 96720, postmarked by Saturday, Feb. 28.

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For more information, call the Recreation Division Office at (808) 961-8740.



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Idaho

Water Outlook does not look promising in SW Idaho, but it could be worse without all the precipitation

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Water Outlook does not look promising in SW Idaho, but it could be worse without all the precipitation


BOISE, Idaho — It has been a dismal year for snow, but we’ve actually received more precipitation than normal in the Boise and Payette River basins. The difference has been the temperature, and we are trying to learn what the change in climate means for water users— both commercial and recreational.

“If you think about the lack of snow we have gotten in the Treasure Valley, it is unusual,” said hydrologist Troy Lindquist with the National Weather Service.

Click here to see the conditions and hear from the National Weather Service.

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Water Outlook does not look promising, but it could be worse without all the precipitation

The mountains of western and central Idaho received some snow this week, and that bumped up the snow water equivalent to 83 percent of average in the Boise Basin, 81 percent in the Payette River Basin, and 69 percent in the Weiser River Basin.

The lack of snow is obvious at lower elevations, but we have also received 4.88 inches of rain at the Boise Airport since the beginning of October, a full inch above the average. I wanted to talk with Troy Linquist to learn more about this strange winter and what it means for the future.

“If we don’t have that mid and low elevation snowpack, that’s just overall going to decrease the spring run-off,” said Lindquist. “Instead of it holding as snow and holding in the mountains, that rain has increased the reservoir system.”

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I’ve been out kayaking as the South Fork of the Payette River is flowing at normal summer levels and has been for several weeks.

Most of Idaho’s rivers are flowing higher than normal, including Mores Creek, which dumps into Lucky Peak Reservoir.

It’s good news, but not as good as if the precipitation was sticking around in the mountains in the form of a deep snowpack.

Mores Creek just above Lucky Peak Reservoir

“If we just don’t get the snow that is going to impact the water supply, it’s going to impact vegetation, spring flows, the health of the ecosystem, and stuff like that,” added Lindquist.

The team at the National Weather Service will continue to monitor the situation daily and Troy Lindquist told me the outlook for the next ten days doesn’t look good. However, the wet winter months are a marathon, not a sprint— with several months left to improve the outlook. That said, it could also get worse.

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The reservoirs have added water from the rivers and streams

“We got the second half of January, February, and March where we can accumulate snowpack,” explained Lindquist. “We do have time to see that snowpack recover, and that’s what we are hoping for.”

The Boise system has pretty good carryover from last year between Anderson Ranch, Arrowrock, and Lucky Peak. The system is 58 percent full, and the Payette system is 71 percent full.

Snow water equivalent after this week's snow

Some of Idaho’s river basins are actually doing pretty well right now, but southern Idaho is doing the worst, as the Owyhee River Basin is sitting at 20 percent of its average snowpack.

ALSO READ | Lemons into lemonade: Kayakers get a unique, winter opportunity while snow conditions worsen





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