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California Legislature rejects many of Gov. Gavin Newsom's budget cuts as negotiations continue

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California Legislature rejects many of Gov. Gavin Newsom's budget cuts as negotiations continue


SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The California Legislature on Thursday rejected many of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s most difficult budget cuts, choosing instead to speed-up a temporary tax increase on some businesses to help pay off an estimated $45 billion deficit while preserving spending on many social safety net programs.

Thursday’s vote was not really a public rebuke of Newsom, a Democrat who for the most part has had a good relationship with a Legislature dominated by members of his own party. Lawmakers had to pass a balanced budget before Saturday in order to keep getting paid while negotiations on a final spending plan continue.

Instead, the Legislature’s proposal outlines the differences between Newsom, a second-term governor who many believe holds presidential aspirations, and a liberal state Legislature that is often more willing to take risks.

While Newsom’s budget proposal preserved most of the state’s major assistance programs, he included a number of smaller cuts that angered his Democratic allies. He proposed to stop paying for in-home caretakers for some disabled immigrants on Medicaid. He wants to eliminate a program that helps provide housing for families with incomes less than $13,000 per year. And he suggested delaying a rate increase for organizations that care for people with intellectual disabilities.

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To reject these cuts, lawmakers needed to find more money. They found it by taking one of Newsom’s ideas and making it happen faster.

Newsom proposed temporarily stopping some businesses from deducting financial losses from their state taxable income, thus increasing their tax bill. It has become a common way to increase revenue during budget shortfalls. The Legislature chose to do this, too, but their plan would start the tax increase one year earlier. That generated an extra $5 billion in revenue compared with Newsom’s plan.

Lawmakers also found large budget cuts in other places. They want to cut $1 billion out of the state’s prison budget, arguing the money isn’t needed now that the prison population is about half of what it was two decades ago. And they want to cancel a $400 million loan to PG&E that would help extend the life of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant.

One major issue that has yet to be addressed by either side is what to do about a minimum wage increase for health care workers that is scheduled to start on July 1. Newsom signed a law last year that would eventually raise health care workers’ minimum wage to $25 per hour over the next decade.

The wage increase is expected to cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars in increased wages for some state workers and increased payments in the state’s Medicaid program, according to an analysis by the University of California-Berkeley Labor Center. Newsom has said he wants to delay the minimum wage increase, but he so far has been unable to get an agreement from the state Legislature.

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Republicans, who don’t have enough numbers to sway policy decisions and say they were left out of the budget negotiations with Democrats, criticized the Legislature’s spending plan as unsustainable. Republican state Sen. Kelly Seyarto accused Democrats of “divesting” from the state’s prison system “instead of fixing it and creating a system that works for all of us.” And Republican state Sen. Roger Niello said it was dangerous for Democrats to assume the state would collect more revenue next year than what the Legislative Analyst’s Office had projected.

“One of the easiest ways to balance a public sector budget is just to assume more revenue and you don’t have to deal with that until the year is over,” he said. “This budget is balanced nominally. But it is not sustainable.”

Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener said the Legislature’s budget is a plan “we can all be proud of.” He defended the budget cut for prisons, saying “it is absolutely absurd that we have reduced our prison population by 50% and yet we’re spending more on prisons.”

“We can have accountability for committing crimes without going back to mass incarceration,” he said.

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California

Want to move to Nevada? California-based class teaches how

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Want to move to Nevada? California-based class teaches how


LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – Hundreds of thousands of people have moved to Nevada since the pandemic, and a class helps Northern California residents make informed decisions before the leap to relocate to the Silver State.

The class is titled “Exit Strategies for Leaving the Bay Area,” offered by Campbell Adult & Community Education in San Jose. Realtor Punam Navalgund created the class in 2019 and tells FOX5 that the concept was born out of necessity by a demand from clients.

“It was me hearing a need from home sellers to make more informed decisions about making their move,” Navalgund said. “There are people from all walks of life, people looking to retire, people who want to raise a family somewhere else where the cost of living isn’t as high as it is here in the Bay Area. It’s people who have a lot of equity in their homes, who aren’t really sure how much they’re going to have left at the end of the transaction,” she said.

Navalgund said students have moved to states such as Nevada, Arizona, Oregon, Texas, Florida and Georgia, but Nevada remains a popular relocation destination.

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“We help people build a support team here locally, as well as in their destination. So whether that’s looking for lawyers, looking for real estate agents, looking for tax professionals, financial planners, I really want people to feel secure about making that decision,” she said.

According to data from the Lee School of Business at UNLV, 355,088 people moved from California from 2020 to 2023 and 148,939 people were from California. Data came from licenses surrendered to the Nevada DMV.



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California Judge Breaks With New York Counterpart, Sends Ripple Securities Lawsuit to Trial

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California Judge Breaks With New York Counterpart, Sends Ripple Securities Lawsuit to Trial


“The court declines to find as a matter of law that a reasonable investor would have derived any expectation of profit from general cryptocurrency market trends, as opposed to Ripple’s efforts to facilitate XRP’s use in cross-border payments, among other things,” Hamilton wrote. “Accordingly, the [court] cannot find as a matter of law that Ripple’s conduct would not have led a reasonable investor to have an expectation of profit due to the efforts of others.”



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Summer to greet Southern California with a weekend heat wave

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Summer to greet Southern California with a weekend heat wave


Thursday marks the first day of summer in Southern California and it won’t take long for a heat wave to follow.

“We’re talking about a real big warmup for the upcoming weekend,” KTLA Meteorologist Henry DiCarlo said during the final hours of spring.

As the season changes, so will the mild weather the Southland has been enjoying.

A warm weekend forecast is outlined in this image from the National Weather Service.

Residents will begin to notice warmer weather on Friday but the big jump in temperatures arrives over the weekend and will continue into next week, according to the National Weather Service.

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A heat advisory has been issued between 10 a.m. Saturday and 8 p.m. Sunday for the Inland Empire and parts of Orange County.

Temperatures in some Inland Empire locations could reach 104 degrees on Saturday and 101 degrees on Sunday.

Although the advisories are currently set to expire on Sunday, triple-digit conditions are expected to continue in some desert locations through at least Wednesday of next week.

“Hot temperatures may cause heat illnesses,” the Weather Service warned. “Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors.”

The heat wave is not the only thing residents should be aware of.

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“Now we’re going to increase the chance of thunderstorms [Sunday] over our local mountains and desert areas. Some of those could creep into some of the valleys, like the Inland Empire,” Henry said.



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