California
‘Too damn hard to build’: A key California Democrat’s push for speedier construction
In summary
Oakland Democrat Buffy Wicks said lawmakers will soon see 20 bills to speed up housing construction, along with more on energy, water and transit.
A California legislator wants to solve the state’s housing crisis, juice its economy, fight climate change and save the Democratic Party with one “excruciatingly non-sexy” idea.
Oakland Democratic Assemblymember Buffy Wicks sees the slow, occasionally redundant, often litigious process of getting construction projects okayed by federal, state and local governments as a chief roadblock to fixing California’s most pressing problems, from housing to water to public transportation to climate change.
Last year, Wicks helmed a select committee on “permitting reform” — a catch-all term for speeding up government review at all stages of a project’s development, not just its literal permits. The committee went on a state-hopping fact-finding mission, taking testimony from experts, builders and advocates on why it takes so long to build apartment buildings, wind farms, water storage and public transit, to name a few notoriously slow and desperately needed project types.
Today, that committee released its final report. The summary, per Wicks, is that “it is too damn hard to build anything in California.”
The report stresses the need for the state to build millions of new housing units and electric vehicle chargers; thousands of miles of transit; drought, flooding and sea level rise projects; and renewable energy projects “built and interconnected at three times the historical rate.”
Though the jargon-laden technical analysis isn’t likely to go viral, the report tees up what could be one of the biggest legislative battles of the coming year. Wicks said lawmakers in both chambers are hammering out 20 bills on permitting snags for housing construction alone. Other bills to speed approvals for transit, clean energy and water projects are reportedly in the works too.
Lawmakers regularly pass one-off bills aimed at making it easier for favored projects to get built. Nearly every legislative session for the last decade has seen at least a handful of “streamlining” bills for dense housing.
This political moment may be primed for something bigger, said Wicks. In the capitol, an aggressive red-tape snipping mood seems to have set in. More California officials, especially in Los Angeles and especially in the wake of January’s wildfires, want to re-examine how buildings get permitted.
President Trump’s unambiguous, if modest, electoral victory in November, riding a wave of public anger over Biden-era inflation, has pushed many Democrats to reorient their policy platforms toward cost of living issues.
Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, a Salinas Democrat, kicked off this year’s legislative session by urging lawmakers to “consider every bill through the lens” of affordability. Gov. Gavin Newsom more recently acknowledged “the inability of the state of California to get out of its own way” on big, important projects. He suspended certain environmental regulations for fire prevention projects last Saturday.
In California and across the country, concurrent housing and climate crises have convinced many lawmakers and Democratic-leaning policy commentators to prioritize building lots and lots of things: apartment buildings, EV charging stations, electric transmission lines, solar and wind farms, rail lines and bus networks. The quicker the better.
The catastrophic Los Angeles firestorms from January highlighted just how difficult it can be to rebuild. Newsom has named cutting environmental regulations and speeding up entitlement and permitting processes in the burned areas as his top priority.
In Sacramento, a new batch of state lawmakers, elected partly by mad-as-hell voters and unscarred by past legislative battles over permitting changes, may be newly receptive to making big changes too.
“All of that combined makes, I think, a unique opportunity for us to actually have some pretty significant change,” said Wicks.
The report itself does not offer precise recommendations, but its analysis is often tellingly specific, offering clues about the changes that lawmakers can expect to debate this spring.
Described as “opportunities for reform,” these are, in Wicks’ words, often “excruciatingly non-sexy.” For example, the report notes that lawmakers could be more specific about when a certain type of housing application is deemed “complete” in order to shield developers from future legal changes. Another “opportunity”: Allow for third-party experts to sign off on a project’s plans.
Current policies that could be a template for regulatory revamping, according to the report: the state’s bolstering of accessory dwelling units, electric vehicle charging stations and certain environmental restoration projects.
But those “success stories” share a trait that points to what could be the most contentious aspect of the coming legislative package. All three are exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act, a 1970 law that requires governments to study and publish findings on the environmental impact of any decision they make, including the approval of new housing, transit or energy projects.
The act, pronounced see-kwah, is among the most fiercely debated in California politics. Opponents contend that the law is regularly hijacked by special interest groups, such as NIMBY property owners or organized labor unions, to stall projects for decidedly non-environmental reasons. They point to high profile court battles as examples of the act’s abuse, such as the case resolved by the state Supreme Court last year in which Berkeley neighborhood groups argued that the noise predicted to come from college student housing amounted to a pollutant under the law.
“If we want to reach our climate change goals, CEQA needs to be reformed,” Wicks said. “If we want to reach our housing goals, CEQA needs to be reformed.”
Defenders of the law say it is vital to deliberation, public input and transparency, keeping local and state governments and developers from running roughshod over vulnerable communities.
“Sometimes, for vulnerable communities, the act is the only tool available to have a seat at the decision making table,” said J.P. Rose, a policy director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “To brush all of that aside to say ‘that’s just permitting,’ I think that’s a misguided lens to address this issue.”
Lawmakers often carve specific exemptions into the law, but historically, making across-the-board changes to CEQA has been a heavy lift in Sacramento. Two years ago, Newsom rolled out plans to overhaul the law in order to speed up the approval of big, infrastructure projects. Many of its most ambitious proposals were sidelined. Last year, the Legislature tried to rush through a bill aimed at getting clean energy projects up and running more quickly (it failed).
“Right now, there are too many opportunities in the process to put a wrench in the gears.”Buffy Wicks, Assemblymember, Oakland
Lawmakers are likely to spend plenty of time arguing about the act, no matter what happens to the permitting package. One bill, already in print, by San Francisco Democratic Sen. Scott Wiener, would make it easier for urban housing projects to exempt themselves from the law and for local and state governments to avoid having to conduct full environmental reviews for every aspect of each project. The senator dubbed it “the fast and focused CEQA Act.”
Rose, at the Center for Biological Diversity, said the bill “fires a shotgun at the heart of CEQA.”
Carter Rubin, a public transportation advocate with the Natural Resources Defense Council who testified to the select committee last year, said there ought to be a difference between the way regulators review projects that help achieve the state’s housing and climate goals and those that emphatically do not.
“We certainly would not support streamlining highway expansion or sprawl development that impacts ecosystems,” he said in a phone interview. “It’s really important that the Legislature focuses on shovel-worthy projects, not just shovel-ready projects.”
Wicks said she will put forward a housing bill on CEQA as part of the overall package.
“Right now, there are too many opportunities in the process to put a wrench in the gears,” she said. “There will be a cost for us Democrats on the ballot in the future if we don’t fix that problem.”
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California Lieutenant Gov. Eleni Kounalakis insisted the ongoing anti-ICE riots happening in Los Angeles on Sunday were a direct result of President Donald Trump’s actions.
Riots broke out in Los Angeles on Friday and Saturday as immigration officials carried out raids to remove individuals illegally residing in the city. On Saturday, Trump deployed the National Guard to quell the violence, though California Gov. Gavin Newsom accused the president of simply wanting a “spectacle.”
Kounalakis, a Democrat, echoed Newsom’s sentiment on “CNN Newsroom” by suggesting the demonstrations were peaceful and manageable before Trump was involved.
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California Lt. Governor Eleni Kounalakis described the state of affairs in Los Angeles on CNN as anti-ICE riots continued for the third day in a row. (Screenshot/CNN)
“What started yesterday was about 400 protesters in two separate locations. 400 altogether, and local law enforcement was absolutely capable of managing those kinds of protests,” Kounalakis said. “So bringing in the National Guard, threatening now to bring in the Marines, this is a crisis that is being ginned up and generated by Donald Trump for more of his political theater. It‘s deeply concerning that he is attempting to rile people up in this way.”
Kounalakis added that the “biggest concern” was the ongoing raids conducted by the Trump administration in major cities like Los Angeles. She claimed people who are only being “profiled” as undocumented immigrants were “being swept up in them.”
“It is not what I think most people thought when the president said that he was going to go after violent criminals, going into kitchens and rounding people up and asking for their papers, detaining them. That’s really the precursor to it all.”
She continued, “But even as people are voicing their disagreement with that, calling in the National Guard in the way that he did was not necessary. Absolutely overkill and seems to now be escalating the problem because of Donald Trump‘s actions.”
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Police officers stand amid tear gas during a protest against federal immigration sweeps in downtown Los Angeles, California, U.S. June 8, 2025. REUTERS/Daniel Cole (REUTERS/Daniel Cole)
Kounalakis also revealed a lawsuit will likely be filed against the Trump administration for the deployment.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the president sending in the National Guard in an X post on Monday, saying, “Gavin Newsom did nothing as violent riots erupted in Los Angeles for days.” She went on to say that the governor “was too weak to protect the city.”
The riots entered their third day in California on Sunday, forcing officials to shut down the 101 Freeway.
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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said 500 Marines are on a “prepared to deploy” status and 2,000 California Army National Guard soldiers have been placed under federal command and control. There are currently 300 members of the California Army National Guard’s combat team deployed in several locations.
California
Trump's border czar threatens arrest for immigration interference, warns Newsom and Bass not to 'cross that line'
LOS ANGELES — The Trump administration’s border czar warned that immigration enforcement will continue “every day” in Los Angeles, hinting that even elected officials could face arrest if they interfere with agents on the ground.
Tom Homan, appointed by President Donald Trump, appeared undeterred by the volatile protests against federal agents in Los Angeles who were carrying out immigration raids. Enforcement would be a daily occurrence, he said in a late-Saturday interview with NBC News.
“I’m telling you what, we’re going to keep enforcing law every day in L.A.,” Homan said. “Every day in L.A., we’re going to enforce immigration law. I don’t care if they like it or not.”
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Parts of Los Angeles County erupted in wide-scale protests on Saturday after residents learned that Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids were happening in the area. Demonstrations descended into chaos, with videos showing protesters surrounding federal law enforcement on the ground and in vehicles. At least one person was hit by a car they were trying to stop from moving.
While many protests around the city remained peaceful, some escalated into clashes where authorities deployed tear gas and officers fired what appeared to be less-lethal ammunition at demonstrators.
The Los Angeles Police Department arrested 11 people Saturday night for failure to disperse, according to a law enforcement source familiar with the situation.
Trump made good on his threat to deploy the National Guard against protesters, as Guardsmen arrived in Los Angeles on Sunday morning. L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and California Gov. Gavin Newsom warned it would escalate tensions.
Homan has previously threatened arrest for anyone who obstructs immigration enforcement. When asked whether that would include Newsom or Bass, Homan did not rule it out.
“I’ll say it about anybody,” Homan said. “You cross that line, it’s a felony to knowingly harbor and conceal an illegal alien. It’s a felony to impede law enforcement doing their job.”
He did not accuse any politician of impeding enforcement, and when asked about Bass specifically, he said that he doesn’t believe “she’s crossed the line yet.” A spokesperson for Bass did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ongoing enforcement concerns
Protests are expected to continue in Los Angeles on Sunday, as many residents take issue with the way ICE has been operating on the ground.
Homan told NBC News that ICE was “prioritizing” threats to public safety. He cited a raid on a business in downtown Los Angeles’ Fashion District, saying agents were executing warrants as part of a criminal investigation.
But Homan also implied that the government does not differentiate between violent criminals and those who commit civil immigration violations when enforcing deportation laws.
“I’ve said a thousand times that aperture will open,” Homan said. “And I said, if you’re in the country illegally, you’re not off the table.”
Immigration raids have targeted workplaces and Home Depots, where many day laborers often gather to find manual labor jobs. Homan told NBC News that ICE agents at Home Depots were looking for “final orders,” which is a final order of removal.
Individuals have also been taken into ICE custody while attending immigration interviews, causing fear among those going through the legal immigration process.
Homan denied some of the allegations that ICE has been operating at schools, hospitals and churches, calling it misinformation. He criticized the overt hostility toward ICE agents, saying they’re unfairly compared to terrorists and Nazis.
Homan had harsh words for Newsom, calling the governor an “embarrassment for the state” and denouncing California’s “Sanctuary State” law. Sanctuary laws prevent local authorities from being compelled to participate in federal immigration enforcement.
“If he cared about public safety in the state of California, he would not have a sanctuary for criminals, where criminals get released to the street in this state every day because of his policy,” Homan said of Newsom.
In reality, California state prisons regularly cooperate with ICE, as the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is required by law to identify individuals subject to deportation within 90 days. However, if ICE fails pick up the individual prior to release, the department does not hold anyone past their release date.
A spokesperson for Newsom did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“The rhetoric keeps rising and rising and rising — someone’s gonna get hurt,” Homan said. “If this violence isn’t tamped down, someone’s gonna die, and that’s just that’s just a cold fact of life.”
California
Death row inmate killed in California prison as guards deploy blast grenades to control violent mob attack
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California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) officials are investigating after a death row inmate was killed at Kern Valley State Prison in Delano on Friday.
Convicted murderer Mario Renteria, 36, allegedly started beating fellow inmate, Julian Mendez, 46, at about 10:30 a.m. Friday, prompting prison staff to respond.
Officers ordered them to get down, but the men failed to comply, according to a CDCR news release obtained by Fox News Digital.
Chemical agents initially stopped the attack, but more than 30 additional inmates rushed Renteria and began striking him.
Julian Mendez was pronounced dead after the jail attack. (CDCR)
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Orders to stop were ignored, and staff used multiple blast grenades to quell the violence, according to CDCR.
Mendez suffered multiple wounds, and life-saving measures were immediately taken. He was taken to the prison’s triage and treatment area, where a doctor pronounced him dead at 11:05 a.m.
Prisoner Mario Renteria was allegedly the first to attack the death row inmate. (CDCR)
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Officials said an improvised weapon was found at the scene, though the type of weapon was unclear.
Renteria remains in restricted housing pending investigation, according to CDCR.
Officials limited population movement to facilitate the investigation by the prison’s Investigative Services Unit and the Kern County District Attorney’s Office.
The Office of the Inspector General was notified, and the Kern County Coroner will determine Mendez’s official cause of death.
The Kern Valley State Prison attack involved more than 30 inmates in Delano, Calif., on Friday. (Kern Valley State Prison)
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Mendez was received from Riverside County on Dec. 2, 2004, according to CDCR. He received a condemned sentence in 2002 for the first-degree murder of two teenagers.
CDCR said Renteria was received from Riverside County on April 27, 2022, and was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole for first-degree murder (a third-strike offense) and arson.
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Kern Valley State Prison opened in 2005 and houses over 3,100 minimum- and high-security-custody inmates.
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