California
California spent $3.7 billion reducing wildfire fuel. Bill would make insurers factor that into coverage
Insurers in California have sounded the alarm: A warming climate has dramatically raised the risk of devastating wildfires, and with it the cost of providing coverage. But now a Peninsula lawmaker says those insurance companies should credit the state and homeowners for the work done to reduce our vulnerability to wildfires.
State Sen. Josh Becker, a Menlo Park Democrat, has introduced a bill that would require insurers to consider the state’s efforts to thin flammable brush and trees as well as property owners’ steps to make their homes more fire resistant, such as covering vents and clearing vegetation. Those efforts would need to be incorporated into their risk modeling to determine coverage decisions and costs.
“What we’re seeing is that in addition to the impact of home hardening, that forest treatment is going to have a big impact on wildfire risk, and that’s not being taken into account,” Becker said. “You have to take these into consideration.”
Becker’s bill, SB 1060, comes as state officials scramble to prop up a home insurance market on the brink of collapse, with major insurers restricting coverage and refusing to renew policies in many parts of the state. The bill is scheduled for its first hearing before the Insurance Committee on April 24.
The American Property Casualty Insurance Association, which represents insurers, said that while it supports wildfire mitigation efforts such as home and community hardening, the bill “has several complicating factors to consider.”
“The California Department of Insurance already requires insurers that use risk models to take into consideration specific mitigations and provide consumers discounts,” the industry association said. “The department is also in the process of developing regulations to authorize new types of catastrophe models that factor in the risk of wildfires and mitigation efforts taken by individuals and communities. We believe the department should be allowed time to adopt these regulations.”
Becker said the proposed law wouldn’t mandate any particular discount or result, only for insurers to account for wildfire risk reduction efforts.
“The bill just requires them to do the work to collect the data,” Becker said. “If the models show these activities aren’t helpful, then we shouldn’t be spending billions of dollars on this, we should be spending it on other things.”
California suffered 14 of its 20 most destructive wildfires on record in the last 10 years, a period that included a record drought. Insured losses from those blazes totaled more than $45 billion, according to the Insurance Information Institute.
Insurers say that as wildfire risks have risen with global temperatures, California’s regulations on what they can charge consumers haven’t allowed policy premiums to keep up, forcing them to reduce their exposure by discontinuing coverage in riskier areas.
The state’s elected insurance commissioner, Ricardo Lara, has promised to overhaul regulations by the end of the year to address the industry’s top complaints. That would speed approval of rate increases, let insurers base them on catastrophe models, and pass on their costs for reinsurance, which helps them absorb catastrophic losses. Lara in exchange wants insurers to commit to covering more homes in areas at greater risk of wildfire.
Consumer advocates have argued the changes would just end up costing homeowners more without guaranteeing more coverage, pointing to other disaster stricken states like Florida.
Some California homeowners have been stung with massive increases in premiums — if not stripped of coverage altogether and forced onto the state’s last-resort FAIR Plan. That plan is a private high-risk pool that provides minimal coverage at multiple times the cost of regular policies. Many homeowners in the Santa Cruz Mountains, the North Bay and East Bay foothills have had to switch to that plan after their traditional coverage was dropped.
“This is top of mind for so many of my constituents,” Becker said. “This is affecting thousands and thousands of households.”
Becker said that it’s gotten so bad that the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection can’t even get insurance for at least two and as many as 11 of its fire stations.
Becker said higher temperatures weren’t the only factor that fueled the state’s destructive wildfires. Vegetation management policies over the years allowed fuels to pile up in and around forests that before modern fire suppression would have burned more regularly. Those accumulated fuels, left bone-dry by the drought, drove explosive wildfires.
But California since 2017 has spent $3.7 billion on wildland fuel reduction, thinning and vegetation management, Becker said.
He points to a 2021 analysis by the Nature Conservancy and Willis Towers Watson, the world’s third-largest insurance broker, which found that applying ecological forestry practices — prescribed burns and thinning to remove smaller trees and other vegetation in overgrown forests — could lower insurance premiums 41% on average for homes. That research was based on an ecological forest restoration project in the watershed of the Placer County Water Agency in the Tahoe National Forest.
State officials in recent years also have been promoting techniques in which homeowners can reduce their property’s wildfire vulnerability by removing vegetation, wood and other combustibles near the home and cover vents with screens to keep hot embers out. Lara has told insurers they must credit homeowners on their policies for those measures, though many say they have yet to receive such benefits.
But Becker said that as these home-hardening measures get adopted across communities, it reduces overall fire risk, and that also should be reflected in the modeling insurers use in their underwriting decisions.
“We need to see a number of homes in a community (do the work) to have an impact on that model,” Becker acknowledged. “But it helps. Whether it’s cities or individuals, the people doing the work should get the reward.”
LOS ANGELES (AP) — In the wide-open race for California governor, billionaire Tom Steyer is on a spending binge.
The hedge fund manager-turned-liberal activist is using his personal fortune to saturate TV screens and mobile phones with advertising, while his competitors accuse him of trying to use his vast wealth to buy the state’s most powerful job.
Steyer’s ads — in which he promises to bring down household costs or rails against federal immigration raids — appear inescapable at times in heavily Democratic Los Angeles, the state’s largest media market. Data compiled by advertising tracker AdImpact show Steyer has spent or booked over $115 million in ads for broadcast TV, cable and radio — nearly 30 times the amount of his nearest Democratic rival.
If he makes it through the June 2 primary election, Steyer could easily eclipse the 2010 record set by Republican Meg Whitman, who spent $178.5 million in a losing bid for governor, much of it her own money. At the time, it was the costliest campaign for statewide office in the nation’s history.
Even when ad buys from all his major competitors are combined, along with ad purchases by independent committees supporting candidates, Steyer is outspending the field by tens of millions of dollars.
“Billionaire money is flooding our state in an attempt to buy this election,” former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, one of Steyer’s chief rivals, warned her supporters this month.
Mail-in ballots are set to go out to voters next month. Steyer is among a crowd of candidates hoping to seize a spotlight after former Democratic U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell’s dramatic departure from the race following sexual assault allegations that he denies.
But while Steyer has ticked up in polling amid his spending splurge, he has not broken away from the field, leaving some wondering if he’s getting value for his dollars.
“If your first round of ads doesn’t move you dramatically (in the polls), the third, fourth, fifth, six, seventh and eighth rounds won’t either,” said veteran Democratic strategist Bill Carrick, who for years advised the late Democratic U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein. “There is something inherently holding Steyer back.”
In recent prior campaigns for governor, at this stage a leading candidate was taking control of the race. This year, voters appear to be shrugging at a contest that lacks a star candidate among seven leading Democrats and two Republicans.
“Somehow the campaign is frozen,” Carrick added.
History shows that money doesn’t always translate into votes.
Billionaire developer Rick Caruso spent over $100 million in 2022 in his bid to become Los Angeles mayor, much of it his own money, but he was handily defeated by Mayor Karen Bass, who spent a fraction of Caruso’s total. Billionaire former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg spent more than $1 billion of his own money on his 2020 presidential bid before dropping out. And Steyer’s money was unable to lift him into contention in the 2020 presidential contest, when he dropped out early in the year after a poor finish in the South Carolina primary.
Steyer has never held elected office.
In a 2019 interview with The Associated Press, Steyer was asked what he would say to people who think he’s trying to buy the presidency.
“I don’t think that’s possible,” Steyer said at the time, before adding, “I’m never going to apologize for succeeding in business. That’s America, right?”
His campaign did not respond directly when asked about similar criticism facing his run for governor.
“Tom now stands as the only Democrat with the grassroots energy, institutional backing and resources to advance to the general election,” spokesperson Kevin Liao said in a statement.
The governor’s race was recently reordered by two developments: Swalwell, a leading Democrat, abruptly withdrew from the race then resigned from Congress, following sexual assault allegations. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump endorsed conservative commentator Steve Hilton.
Still, there is no clear leader.
Polling in late March and early April by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California found a cluster of candidates in close competition: Democrats Steyer and Porter, Republicans Hilton and Chad Bianco, and Swalwell. Other candidates were trailing. The polling was conducted before Swalwell withdrew.
Democrats have feared the party’s large number of candidates could lead to them getting shut out of the general election in November. That’s because California has a primary system in which only the top two vote-getters advance to the general election, regardless of party.
Leading Democrats are all claiming to have picked up support since Swalwell’s exit. Steyer nabbed one plum endorsement, when the influential California Teachers Association, which previously backed Swalwell, recommended him.
In his ads, Steyer promises to “abolish” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has been staging raids across California. In another, he laments the state’s punishing cost of housing, “Everybody needs an affordable place to live,” he says.
Rapper was stabbed 16 times by fellow inmate in May 2025 while 10-year sentence in Megan Thee Stallion shooting case
Tory Lanez has filed a $100 million lawsuit against the California Department of Corrections stemming from a May 2025 incident where the rapper was stabbed in prison.
Lanez — born Daystar Peterson and currently serving a 10-year sentence after being found guilty in the Megan Thee Stallion shooting case — also sued the warden and guards at the California Correctional Institute in Tehachapi, where the rapper was stabbed 16 times in an “unprovoked life-threatening attack” by another inmate, the lawsuit states.
Peterson was hospitalized following the May 2025 incident, suffering a collapsed lung among stab wounds to his back, torso, and head.
According to the Associated Press, the lawsuit criticized the Department of Corrections for housing Peterson with fellow inmate and alleged attacker Santino Casio, who was serving a life sentence for second-degree murder. “The choice to house Casio with Peterson was known or should have been a known danger,” the lawsuit said, adding that Tory Lanez’ “high-profile celebrity status” made him a target.
The lawsuit also said that prison guards were slow to respond to the shanking, and didn’t employ flash grenades or other measures to halt Casio’s attack.; Casio was not charged for stabbing Peterson, the Associated Press notes.
Lanez, who following his hospitalization was transferred to San Luis Obispo County’s California Men’s Colony, also alleges in the lawsuit that he never received his possessions from the California Correctional Institute in Tehachapi, including songbooks filled with lyrics to his unreleased music.
Lanez is serving a 10-year prison sentence for shooting Megan Thee Stallion in the foot during a confrontation in the summer of 2020. He was eventually convicted on several firearms charges, including assault with a firearm, in December 2022. In November 2025, his appeal was denied by a three-judge panel, and the 10-year sentence was upheld.
From one crackdown on hospice fraud to another.
A few weeks ago, the FBI arrested multiple people in Southern California that were accused of defrauding the government for millions of dollars.
In a more recent announcement last Thursday, California’s State Attorney General Rob Bonta held a press conference to announce a fraud bust of their own.
“Operation Skip Trace uncovered and ended a hospice fraud scheme that defrauded Medi-Cal of $267 million,” Bonta said. “So just to be clear, a quarter billion dollars over funds that are paid for by California taxpayers, funds that are meant to provide care to Californians in need. It is unacceptable. It is illegal and we will not stand for it.”
The operation saw a total of 21 suspects charged as a result and dismantled a major hospice fraud scheme, with two handguns and over $750 thousand in cash seized as well.
According to the state’s attorney general, this is just one of the many cases over the years the state has cracked down on.
“This is just the latest example of the California DOJ’s longstanding ongoing and successful efforts to combat hospice and medical fraud,” Bonta said. “We have been doing this work for years. We’ve been doing it successfully before certain people in this country decided to think about it for the first time. We will continue to do this work. Heads down, sleeves rolled up, important investigative work, prosecutorial work.”
He added to that by taking a shot at the Trump Administration’s latest fraud operations.
“While healthcare fraud might be President Trump’s shiny new political talking point, the California DOJ has been going after healthcare fraud since 1979,” Bonta said. “For decades, Trump is late to the party. Protecting taxpayer dollars and protecting programs sick and vulnerable Californians rely on have been our priority for nearly five decades.”
Governor Gavin Newsom also spoke out about this latest crackdown while taking a shot of his own at President Trump.
In a post to “X” the Governor’s Press Office wrote in part quote…
“California has been cracking down on hospice fraud long before Trump gutted oversight and pardoned the architect of the biggest health care fraud scheme in U.S. history.”
State Republicans have responded to this latest announcement from Attorney General Bonta, calling for a special session to demand accountability from the Governor on widespread fraud.
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