California
Upcoming state audit targets California’s housing mandates
California housing regulators are demanding that cities statewide develop meticulous plans to add 2.5 million affordable and market-rate homes by the end of the decade — but some local officials say the process sets them up for failure.
Frustrated mayors and city councilmembers say the new planning requirements are needlessly confusing and that regulators have been slow to review the plans that have been submitted. They argue the convoluted process is leaving some cities vulnerable to unfair penalties for failing to get state approval.
Auditors will now examine whether the state is doing enough to help local governments satisfy the requirements and plan for many more homes than ever before.
“We do have an affordable housing crisis, and the vast majority of cities are doing their best effort to help, but there has been inconsistent guidance,” said state Sen. Steve Glazer, a Democrat from Orinda. He’s pushed for some new housing laws and programs but he has received mixed reviews from housing advocates.
In a letter to the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, which approved the audit last week, Glazer wrote the complaints he’s received from cities — which he declined to identify because they have not all received approval for their proposals — point to “structural problems” in how the state reviews the every-eight-year plans, dubbed “housing elements.”
While the audit will not be legally binding, he hopes it can “reveal the sources of these problems and how to cure them for current and future review processes.”
A 2022 audit of how the state sets goals for the number of homes different regions are expected to approve found errors in the process, which may have led regulators to underestimate the housing need in some areas and overestimate it in others. While the state completed some of the audit’s recommendations for calculating future housing goals, the review did not force any legislative reforms.
Ahead of the new audit, Glazer raised concerns that cities still waiting to get approval are now subject to penalties such as losing state funding, less time to complete mandatory zoning reforms and the dreaded “builder’s remedy,” which could force local officials to accept massive housing projects.
More than a year after California cities and counties were supposed to finalize their plans, many have yet to get state approval. Most are smaller cities that haven’t received much scrutiny on past plans.
Pleasanton Vice Mayor Julie Testa, a vocal critic of the state’s push to build, said 32 Bay Area jurisdictions without compliant plans are evidence of serious flaws in the review process. Testa said that before Pleasanton received approval last summer, it was sometimes difficult to get a timely response from reviewers. She said local planners were often left guessing how to meet the housing element requirements.
“It is absolutely a moving target,” Testa said.
Meanwhile, housing advocates said that as recent laws made the planning process more stringent, state and regional officials alerted cities about the new requirements while offering additional training and other resources.
“Many cities ignored it and just thought they were going to do the same thing they’ve always done,” said Mathew Reed, director of policy with the Silicon Valley pro-housing group SV@Home. He said a backlog of half-baked housing element drafts for regulators to review likely contributed to delayed review times.
For its part, the Department of Housing and Community Development said in a statement that it’s proud of its work to “ensure that communities plan for their fair share of housing.” It took credit for an increase in homebuilding in recent years, though high interest rates and other economic factors have since stalled new construction.
Every eight years since 1969, the department has required cities and counties to submit housing plans that describe how to accommodate a specific number of single-family homes, condos and apartments across a range of affordability levels. But during recent cycles, most jurisdictions haven’t come close to hitting their low- and middle-income housing goals.
To help reverse that trend, the state is now asking local officials to do much more meticulous planning to meet their latest housing targets, which in some cases are double that of the previous cycle. That includes proving sites identified for future homes have a realistic chance of development and providing specifics on programs to streamline the local permitting process.
In 2021, the state also created its Housing Accountability Unit to crack down on local officials skirting state housing laws and flouting the planning process. Last year, the unit and the state attorney general sued Huntington Beach for failing to develop a housing element. In March, a judge stripped the city of some of its authority to block new housing projects.
The newly approved audit is set to begin this fall, but it’s unclear when it could be finalized. A high-profile audit of the state’s homelessness spending released last month took more than a year to complete.
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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