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Newsom Suspends State Environmental Rules for Rebuilding After Fires
Governor Gavin Newsom has signed a broad executive order that aims to make it easier to rebuild after the fires by suspending California’s costly and time-consuming environmental review process for homeowners and businesses whose property was damaged or destroyed.
The order is likely to be the first of several permit streamlining measures issued by state, county and city agencies in the wake of the devastating fires across greater Los Angeles.
Mr. Newsom’s three-page order, signed Sunday, covers all of Los Angeles and Ventura Counties and directs state agencies to coordinate with local governments to remove or expedite permitting and approval processes during rebuilding. The most significant piece is a waiver on permitting requirements under the California Environmental Quality Act — a landmark environmental law known colloquially as C.E.Q.A. or “See Qua.”
The governor also announced that he had suspended all permitting requirements under the California State Coastal Act for properties rebuilding after the fires.
California is one of America’s most difficult and costly places to build — a driving factor behind the state’s longstanding affordable housing shortage. Between state agencies and local land use commissions, the process of developing buildings, from office complexes to subsidized rental complexes, is longer and more expensive than in almost every other state.
Of all the hurdles a project can be subjected to, few are more difficult and time-consuming than C.E.Q.A. The law often requires developers to fund in-depth environmental studies on a project’s potential impact on everything from local wildlife to noise, views and traffic. Groups who oppose a particular development often use C.E.Q.A. lawsuits to try to stop them. This can add years even to small projects.
While the state’s powerful environmental groups are fiercely protective of any attempts to amend C.E.Q.A. or the Coastal Act, the laws are routinely suspended in emergencies and for large projects such as sports stadiums.
Still, Mr. Newsom’s order was unusually extensive. For instance, after other disasters C.E.Q.A. suspensions have typically required rebuilding property owners to show they tried to comply with the law, even if they weren’t subjected to it. The order announced Sunday is a full waiver: For anyone rebuilding after the fires, C.E.Q.A. is effectively gone.
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Which billionaire said they learned a ‘significant lesson’ this week? The quiz knows
From left: Elon Musk, a person in a musical that there’s a question about; Nithya Raman.
Allison Robbert/AFP via Getty Images; Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions; JC Olivera/Getty Images for the National Wildlife Federation’s #SaveLACougars Campaign
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Allison Robbert/AFP via Getty Images; Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions; JC Olivera/Getty Images for the National Wildlife Federation’s #SaveLACougars Campaign
This week, Knicks fans had a big win after a big loss; fans of inflation were delighted and World Cup fans went broke. How will quiz fans fare?
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Video: Can Democrats Overcome G.O.P. Gerrymandering?
new video loaded: Can Democrats Overcome G.O.P. Gerrymandering?
By Nate Cohn, Laura Bult, June Kim, Edward Vega and Pierre Kattar
June 11, 2026
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A Nebraska immigration raid shut businesses down a year ago. The fallout is ongoing, officials say.
The results echo some of the findings from recent nationwide workforce studies on the economic impact of last year’s immigration raids.
A Brookings Institution study found that last year’s immigration enforcement surge across the nation cost 668,000 jobs, and those losses affected both immigrant and U.S.-born workers. Another study from the University of Colorado Boulder found immigration enforcement didn’t expand opportunities for U.S.-born workers and instead reduced employment for some of them.
‘Unlike anything we had ever seen’
Of the 76 people immigration authorities arrested at Glenn Valley Foods, close to 10 self-deported, Garcia told NBC News on Tuesday. Others who were also detained were eventually granted bond and reunited with their families, though many of them are still facing immigration proceedings.
“They have this constant pressure of being tied up in that system that might ultimately lead to deportation eventually,” said Garcia, who is the first Latino commissioner of Douglas County, where Omaha is located.
Garcia’s family was also among those directly affected by the raids. His wife’s aunt was among the meatpacking workers taken into immigration custody.
The woman, a mother of three U.S.-born children, spent a couple of months in detention before she was released on bond. Garcia said his wife’s aunt was granted a temporary work permit — alongside others who had been detained — while they wait for their next immigration court hearing.
Luis Mejía, 20, said he went to work last June at Glenn Valley Foods “thinking it would be a normal day.” The Nebraska native who was raised in South Omaha said everything changed that morning when immigration officers entered their workplace.
As some ran away in fear, Mejía’s immigrant mother hugged him and told him to take care of his younger siblings. Then, she ran with the others.
Meanwhile, immigration officers asked Mejía to show proof of U.S. citizenship.
“I didn’t know how to do that since I’ve never been asked that before. I looked at the officer with confusion and told him I was born here,” Mejía recalled. The officers cleared him to go after looking him up in their system.
A couple of hours after authorities let him go, Mejía received a call from his mother, telling him she had been detained. After that, Mejía didn’t hear from her for a few days while she was in detention.
She was one of the at least 63 workers who were taken to the Lincoln County Detention Center, four hours away.
The situation forced Mejía and his older brother to provide for their two younger siblings while not knowing if they would get to see their mother again.
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