California
Mike Johnson proposes conditional wildfire aid for California, Los Angeles
House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana on Sunday reiterated his belief that Congress should consider attaching conditions to aid for California following the wildfire disaster that destroyed many homes and parts of Los Angeles.
Newsweek reached out to the House Speaker’s office and Trump transition team by email on Sunday for comment.
The Context
California fire authorities over the past 10 days have worked to successfully contain all but the two largest wildfires – the Palisades fire and the Eaton fire, which as of Sunday afternoon local time stood at 52 percent and 81 percent contained, respectively. The fires spread rapidly due to unexpected Santa Ana winds blew the initial flames over land that had been in a drought since March 2024.
Each of those fires now rank among the most destructive fires, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection: The Eaton fire, which has burned up 14,117 acres, has destroyed around 9,300 structures, making it the second-most destructive fire in state history; the Palisades fire, which has burned up 23,713 acres, has destroyed just over 4,300 structures, making it the fourth-most destructive fire.
However, Republicans have heavily criticized California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass for their response to the wildfires, blaming a number of factors that they attributed to Newsom’s policies, including an allegedly drained water reservoir and budget cuts to the fire department.
California authorities have ordered investigations into the various conditions that led to and exacerbated the wildfires.
Samuel Corum/Getty Images
What To Know
On Sunday, Johnson made an appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press, during which host Kristen Welker addressed comments he made last week where he suggested that any relief or aid to help recover and rebuild in the aftermath of the fire be given only on condition of addressing policy concerns.
When asked if he would commit to disaster relief for California without “strings attached,” Johnson said: “No, I won’t commit that, because we have a serious problem in California.”
“Listen, there are natural disasters,” Johnson said. “I’m from Louisiana. We’re prone to that. We understand how these things work, but then there’s also human error, and when the state and local officials make foolish policy decisions that make the disaster exponentially worse, we need to factor that in, and I think that’s a commonsense notion.”
“Listen, in California over the last couple years, they cut $100 million from forestry management,” Johnson said. “They cut, I think, almost $18 million from L.A.’s Fire Department, putting them into their other crazy priorities, and he had 117-million-gallon reservoir that was left empty for a year outside Pacific Palisades.”
“Those were decisions they made based on whatever their ideas were, but it made it worse, and everyone knew it would, and the risk was there,” he added.
When asked if he would consider linking relief to a measure requiring an increase in the national debt limit, Johnson said, “That’s one of the things we’re talking about every morning.”
What People Are Saying
When asked for comment, California Governor Gavin Newsom‘s office directed Newsweek to comments made during an interview with MSNBC political analyst Jen Psaki: “If that’s leadership, I have a different definition. I imagine it would be universally felt here. I’m not meeting Democrats, I’m not meeting Republicans, I’m not meeting Californians: I’m meeting American citizens desperate in need, and what they need is empathy, care, compassion, understanding.”
“They need support, not rhetoric, not strings attached,” Newsom said. “I met families who lost not only their home, but their business, their church, their sense of self, place, community,” adding, “That’s the face of leadership in the United States of America? Conditioning aid to the American people in need? Politicizing this tragic moment? So, I’ll spare any more commentary on it.”
DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd in a statement: “Mike Johnson is following Donald Trump’s lead to put tax handouts for billionaires ahead of desperately needed disaster relief for Californians. Americans recovering from a disaster shouldn’t be a bargaining chip for Trump and Johnson’s reckless policies. But instead of working to provide help and lower costs for working families, Trump and Johnson are already telling us they’ll only focus on themselves and their billionaire backers over what’s best for the American people.”
Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming told FOX Business host Larry Kudlow: “It is heartbreaking what we’re seeing happening right now in California, and we have our Wyoming national guard helping out there … but there’s going to help from the federal government, you’re absolutely right: There has to be accountability for that money. It cannot be a blank check.”
“What we’ve seen, and even the fire chief of LA County has said that they were let down by the mayor, the elected officials – I mean, gross negligence at the state and local level where the fire department had $17 million taken away from their budget, and they were already stretched too thin, and they used the money for social programs,” Barrasso said.
What Happens Next
California continues to fight the fires and will focus on completely containing the two remaining major wildfires while extinguishing the other fires they managed to control over the past 10 days.
California
Man charged with murder, kidnapping their 5-year-old child before fleeing to Mexico
A 40-year-old Los Angeles man was charged with murder after allegedly killing his girlfriend and kidnapping their young child before fleeing to Mexico, according to authorities.
Ruben Fregosojuarez has been charged one count of murder and one misdemeanor count of child abuse under circumstance or conditions other than great bodily injury or death, according to a Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office news release. Authorities first identified him as Ruben Fregoso but Los Angeles County prosecutors listed him as Ruben Fregosojuarez.
On Monday around 12:39 p.m., the Los Angeles Police Department conducted a welfare check in the 2600 block of South Alsace Avenue in West Adams, police said in a news release.
Officers found a woman dead inside the home “as a result of violence” and the woman’s daughter missing, police said. On Monday night, the California Highway Patrol issued an Amber Alert for the child, Daleza.
Photos obtained by NBC4 appear to show Fregosojuarez in a parking garage in San Ysidro with the girl on Sunday. The California Highway Patrol has listed her age as 4 years old but Los Angeles police say the girl is 5. She is also described as the suspect’s daughter.
The alert said that the girl was last seen with Fregosojuarez, who allegedly abducted her in a 2019 Land Rover Discovery, on Sunday at about 4 a.m.
The CHP posted in an update that the vehicle was found but that the child and man were still missing. The girl is described as 3 feet tall, 45 pounds, and having black hair and brown eyes.
California
23andMe Sued by California Over Massive 2023 Data Breach
California’s attorney general is suing the consumer genetics testing company formerly known as 23andMe, alleging the company failed to protect customers’ sensitive personal information in a massive 2023 data breach that exposed the ancestry and genetic data of nearly 7 million people.
Attorney General Rob Bonta filed the lawsuit on Thursday in San Francisco Superior Court against Chrome Holding Co., formerly known as 23andMe, accusing the company of failing to properly investigate or respond to numerous warnings that its systems had been compromised. The company’s mail-in self-testing kits became synonymous with DNA testing before it filed for bankruptcy in 2025.
In 2023, cybercriminals breached 23andMe’s systems by using a “credential-stuffing attack,” which involves bombarding online accounts with huge sets of user names and passwords stolen in previous unrelated attacks. Over a period of months, the intruders were able to make off with the personal data of more than 6.9 million people.
“23andMe’s security measures were so lax that the threat actor was able to operate undetected within 23andMe’s systems for over five months, and remarkably, 23andMe only began investigating after the threat actor offered the stolen user data for sale on the dark web and reached out to 23andMe to demand a ransom,” Bonta’s office said in the complaint.
The San Francisco-based company, which allowed people to submit genetic materials and get a snapshot of their ancestry, revealed in October 2023 that hackers had accessed customer information in the prolonged data breach that targeted customers with Chinese or Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry. The stolen data of more than 1 million Asian-Pacific Islander and Ashkenazi Jewish users was later posted for sale on the dark web.
“The sale of this data on the dark web took place amidst a period of mounting anti-Asian American and Pacific Islander and antisemitic hate and violence,” Bonta said in a press release. “This is disturbing and incredibly dangerous.”
A January 2024 lawsuit accused the company of not doing enough to protect its customers and not notifying certain customers that their data had been targeted specifically. It later settled the lawsuit for $30 million.
23andMe representatives didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
At its peak, 23andMe became the best-known name in the emerging area of DNA self-testing, with users paying upwards of $99 for kits that gave them insights into their genetic makeup, potential relatives and ancestry. But the company’s momentum slowed down in recent years after its $3.5 billion public offering in 2021.
Last July, TTAM Research Institute, a nonprofit led by Anne Wojcicki, 23andMe’s cofounder and former CEO, acquired 23andMe’s assets for $305 million.
California
Newsom signs law to shield California elections from federal interference
Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, signed legislation Wednesday that aims to shield California elections from federal interference, saying he expected Donald Trump’s administration to try to meddle in the midterms this year.
The law, which took effect immediately and came days before next Tuesday’s primary, prohibits any person – including federal agents – from accessing voter rolls or election technology without a court order. Law enforcement officers are restricted from disrupting election workers, except in public safety emergencies.
Trump administration officials so far have said they have no plans to send immigration agents to polling locations across the US, a concern raised this year by several Democratic secretaries of state. But Newsom warned “we have to be prepared for everything” because “there’s no rules any more with the Trump administration”.
Voting is already under way in California’s closely watched primary for governor, where a crowded field of Democrats and two viable Republicans are vying for just two spots on the November ballot. Under the state’s open primary system, only the top two vote-getters advance to the general election, regardless of party affiliation.
Newsom, who cannot seek a third term, said the election law is a response to “legitimate anxiety” about Trump’s tactics, primarily in Democratic-led states, where the president has deployed federal agents over the objections of local leaders. The Democratic governor warned against underestimating someone who “doesn’t believe in free and fair elections”.
“I expect the worst with Trump because he’s done the worst,” he said at a news conference.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told the Associated Press later Wednesday that Trump is committed to ensuring that Americans have full confidence in the administration of elections.
“Instead of levying false attacks at the President, Newscum should look in the mirror,” she said in a statement, using Trump’s derogatory nickname for Newsom.
In an interview last year with Vanity Fair, Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, knocked down the idea that Trump would deploy the military to suppress voting, saying it was “categorically false”.
The California law also makes it a crime to knowingly take voted ballots out of the custody of election officials.
Earlier this year, the FBI under Trump seized the 2020 general election ballots from Georgia’s most populous county, which is heavily Democratic and has long been at the center of the president’s false claims that fraud cost him the race. The FBI and justice department also have sought records from previous elections in the largest counties in Arizona and Michigan.
Trump triggered a national redistricting frenzy ahead of the midterms when he urged Republicans in Texas and elsewhere to redraw their US House districts to help the party retain control of the closely divided chamber. Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida and Tennessee also have enacted new maps that could benefit Republicans, and Louisiana is expected to be next.
Republicans so far think they could gain as many as 14 seats from redistricting in November, while Democrats think they could gain six in California and Utah.
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