Good morning. It’s Thursday, Jan. 8.
- Silicon Valley heavyweights plot to oust Rep. Ro Khanna.
- Vallejo is the capital of young adults living with parents.
- And Los Angeles commemorates wildfire anniversary.
Statewide
1.
The federal government pulled $160 million in transportation funds from California on Wednesday after the state delayed the revocations of 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses held by non-citizens. “It’s reckoning day for Gavin Newsom and California,” said Sean Duffy, the transportation secretary. The state notified drivers in the fall that a federal audit found problems with their licenses. Immigrant truckers then sued, accusing California of unlawfully threatening their livelihoods under pressure from the Trump administration. L.A. Times | A.P.
2.
In a rare convergence, Gov. Gavin Newsom and President Trump are both planning to crack down on institutional investors buying up large stocks of homes, blaming the firms for the affordability crisis. “People live in homes, not corporations,” Trump said in a post on Wednesday that vowed to “ban” corporate homebuying. Newsom’s office said he would announce steps toward the same objective during a speech on Thursday. The stocks of residential investment firms tumbled. CalMatters | Bloomberg
Northern California
3.
A man who was among the guests at the Stockton child’s birthday party where a mass shooting unfolded in November was shot to death on Dec. 28, reports revealed on Wednesday. Details of the killing of Emmanuel Lopez were scarce. Lopez was quoted in news reports immediately after the birthday massacre, which left one adult and three children dead, recalling holding a friend in his arms as he died. Lopez’s 9-year-old daughter was shot in the head but survived. The authorities have identified no suspect in either shooting. Stocktonia | Stockton Record
4.
A loose constellation of wealthy Californians is quietly mobilizing to oust Rep. Ro Khanna over his support for a proposed billionaire tax, sources said. The group is said to include Garry Tan, the head of Y Combinator, and the investor Sheel Mohnot. San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan said he rebuffed entreaties from several “significant leaders in the tech industry” to challenge the Silicon Valley Democrat. Khanna, meanwhile, has played up the billionaire backlash to help endear him to left-wing voters. N.Y. Times
- In recent weeks, Google co-founder Larry Page bought two Miami estates for a combined $173 million, sources told the Wall Street Journal. Sergey Brin, the other Google founder, is also said to be in talks to buy a Miami home.
5.
In the 1970s, only 8% of Americans aged 25 to 34 lived with their parents. By 2023, that figure was 18%, a Pew survey found. Nowhere in the country is the living arrangement more common than Vallejo. In the Bay Area city of roughly 125,000 residents, some 33% of young adults live with their parents. “Basically everyone I know lives with their mom, or if they moved out, they moved back in,” said Daniel, a 25-year-old union worker. The Guardian ventured to Vallejo to find out how they date.
6.
Around this time of year, crowds gather on Pfeiffer Beach in Big Sur to catch the rays of the low angling sun burst through Keyhole Arch, pictured above. But the beach is a marvel year-round, light show or no. The sand shimmers in pinks and purples, caused by the erosion of manganese garnet in the headlands. Boulders smoothed by crashing waves resemble giant bowling balls. And Monterey cypresses, gnarled by centuries of salty wind, cling stubbornly to the hillsides. See a guide to Pfeiffer Beach and, below, a photo tour.
Southern California
7.
On the first anniversary of the Los Angeles wildfires, survivors alternated between expressions of rage and mourning at gatherings across the city. At the American Legion veterans post in the Palisades, hundreds paid tribute to lost loved ones in a military-style ceremony. Down the street, a larger crowd shouted, “They let us burn.” In a gathering of thousands in Altadena, residents hugged and cried. They sang “Stand by Me” and held up their cellphone lights in a moment of silence for 19 neighbors who died. “Altadena forever!” a woman cried, eliciting cheers. L.A. Times
- See photos from Wednesday’s commemorations. 👉 A.P.
8.
Other fire anniversary dispatches:
- Fewer than a dozen homes have been rebuilt in Los Angeles County since Jan. 7, 2025. The reality of rebuilding: It’s possible, “but only for those who can negotiate deals, absorb losses or take on risk.” Bloomberg chronicled “the L.A. recovery nightmare.”
- In a hot-mic moment last fall, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass talked about the city and county response to the fires. “Both sides botched it,” she said. It was a moment of honesty that fire survivors say has been maddeningly absent over the past year. Politico
- Mile after mile of dirt lots. Here’s what Los Angeles’ burn zones look like a year later. 👉 The Atlantic
9.
Spencer Pratt announced on Wednesday that he is running for mayor of Los Angeles. After losing his home in the Pacific Palisades inferno, the mid-2000s reality TV star reinvented himself as a TikTok activist peddling a mix of fact and fiction about the disaster to a receptive online audience that included Republican members of Congress. “We’re going to expose the system,” Pratt told a crowd on Wednesday. “We’re going into every dark corner of L.A. politics and disinfecting the city with our light.” L.A. Times | Politico
10.
A gunman who opened fire at a suburban San Diego school in 2001, killing two students and injuring 13 others, could go free after a judge granted a request for him to be resentenced. Charles Williams was 15 when he burst from a bathroom stall at Santana High School and opened fire. He was given 50 years to life. The judge found him eligible for relief under a law that allows juveniles tried in adult court to be resentenced. As she issued her ruling, Williams, now 39, appeared to cry. S.D. Union-Tribune | City News Service
- “He deserves to stay there.” Victims of the school shooting reacted with frustration. S.D. Union-Tribune
11.
For nearly a year, someone has been driving around San Bernardino County in an unlabeled white tow truck and snatching cars from people’s driveways, frustrating owners and mystifying police. “This thief is just out there,” said Jesse Roller, whose Cadillac was taken in early December. Residents have shared numerous surveillance videos of the crimes being executed in mere seconds in front of homes. KABC | L.A. Times
12.
Ken Muench, the father of a 19-year-old who fell to his death on Mt. Baldy last week, spoke out about the circumstances of the tragedy in hopes of saving other kids’ lives.
“They went up thinking that it was a hike — a challenging hike, a dangerous hike, yes,” he said. “But they did not realize it was actually mountaineering, and the difference between hiking and mountaineering is a difference between black and white, a difference between life and death.” L.A. Times
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