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Presented by Solar Rights Alliance: Jeremy B. White and Lara Korte’s must-read briefing on politics and government in the Golden State | | | | |  | | By Lara Korte , Jeremy B. White , Sakura Cannestra and Owen Tucker-Smith | Presented by Solar Rights Alliance | THE BUZZ — GUESS WHO’S (SORT OF) BACK? Kevin de León’s attempt to make a reappearance in the Los Angeles City Council Friday didn’t go as he might’ve hoped. The embattled member has kept a relatively low profile since the now-infamous recordings captured him, former council President Nury Martinez, former member Gil Cedillo and then-labor leader Ron Herrera in shocking, back-room conversation that included racist remarks and the mocking of a fellow member’s young Black son. It’s been two months since an anonymous Reddit user leaked that audio and threw Los Angeles into chaos. Three of the people in the conversation no longer hold positions of power — save for de León, who has refused to step down in the face of ongoing protests. He has attended small events in his district, but his seat on the dais has remained vacant for weeks. That brings us to Friday , when the council gathered in City Hall for what was expected to be another day of mundane municipal matters. About 45 minutes in, however, KDL walked in and took his seat. He said nothing, but his unexpected appearance prompted members Nithya Raman, Marcqueece Harris Dawson and Mike Bonin, whose son was mentioned on the tapes, to immediately leave. Members of the public began shouting . Within a few minutes, members Paul Krekorian and Curren Price left, too. Without a quorum, the council recessed. After an hour, they reconvened — without de León — and returned to the business of the day.
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This April 20, 2017, photo shows then-Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, in Sacramento, Calif. | Rich Pedroncelli/AP Photo | Then, things reached a fever pitch. Hours after being shouted out of council chambers, de León got into a physical altercation with protesters during a kids’ gift giveaway in Lincoln Heights. Part of the interaction was posted on Twitter, but the exact sequence of events, including who actually started the fight, are still in dispute. KDL has accused the protesters of assaulting him. Activists say de León and his team are responsible for the escalation . Police are investigating. For weeks, the question looming over Los Angeles has been whether de León, the former leader of the state Senate, will be able to recover from such a seismic political scandal. But Friday’s events, both at City Hall and the gift giveaway, made it clear that the opposition remains obstinate and outraged. Some voters aren’t waiting for him to bow to pressure — and have already launched a recall effort , which was cleared to gather signatures last week. Will de León try to make another public appearance? We’ll know tomorrow at the next City Council meeting. BUENOS DÍAS, good Monday morning. Today, the San Francisco African American Reparations Advisory Committee will hold its final meeting on the report and recommendations it will submit to the mayor and Board of Supervisors. QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Lastly, to the disruptors and protesters ... in their own words, I yield the rest of my time — and fuck you." Los Angeles City Councilmember Paul Koretz on Friday in council chambers. TWEET OF THE DAY:
|  Today's Tweet of the Day | Twitter | WHERE’S GAVIN? Nothing official announced.
| | | | A message from Solar Rights Alliance: The California Public Utilities Commission is considering a proposal that would cut California’s most successful solar program by 75% overnight. It’s a bad idea that hurts consumers, green jobs, and California’s clean future. California needs a lot more rooftop solar, not less. Tell the CPUC to stop the attack on solar. Learn more and take action at savecaliforniasolar.org. | | | |  | Top Talkers | | HOLIDAY CHEER — “ ‘Little kids were starting to cry’: Inside the Kevin de León fight at Christmas gift giveaway ,” by the Los Angeles Times’ Brittny Mejia, Liam Dillon and Gregory Yee: “The fight between embattled Councilman Kevin de León and an activist Friday night has heightened the simmering tensions in L.A. politics over the leak of racist audio that has rocked City Hall.” READY OR NOT… Karen Bass comes home to LA — and all its problems , by POLITICO’s Lara Korte and Alexander Nieves: Rep. Karen Bass is taking the helm of America’s second-largest city — whose deep-seated problems could thwart the most skilled of politicians. Bass has represented Los Angeles in Sacramento and Washington for decades, but she’s never taken on a task as daunting as this one. STRIKING A DEAL — “ University of California Academic Workers Partly End Strike ,” by the New York Times’ Shawn Hubler: “Postdoctoral employees and academic researchers at the University of California announced on Friday night that they will return to work on Monday, partly ending a weekslong strike but bringing little relief to hundreds of thousands of undergraduates whose campuses have been disrupted in the midst of finals.”
| | CALIFORNIA AND THE CAPITOL CORRIDOR | | EXIT POLL — “ Eric Garcetti led L.A. during profoundly turbulent times. How will history judge him? ” by the Los Angeles Times’ James Rainey and Dakota Smith: “Garcetti leaves office Sunday, as L.A.'s longest-serving mayor since Tom Bradley. A year and a half of extra duty — a quirk of an electoral calendar remade to synchronize city and state voting — has felt at times like a siege, clouded by a sexual harassment scandal in his office that cast a shadow on the accomplishments and promise of his first years in office.” SF STALLING — “ S.F. nonprofit was set to open city’s first supervised drug use site. Then officials pulled the plug ,” by the San Francisco Chronicle’s Heather Knight: “San Francisco’s Gubbio Project has long been at the forefront of compassion and care — offering space for homeless people to stretch out during the day in a quiet, safe church for ‘sacred sleep.’” FIGHTING WORDS — “ In unusual move, Gov. Newsom smacks stem cell agency ,” by Capitol Weekly’s David Jensen: “Gov. Gavin Newsom has rebuked California’s stem cell agency about its conduct of the election of a new chairperson for the $12 billion enterprise, a process that has been disrupted with the withdrawal of one candidate and the addition of a new one.” — “ Lawsuits Cloud Efforts to Complete Suicide-Prevention Net Under Golden Gate Bridge ,” by the Wall Street Journal’s Jim Carlton: “A project to hang a net under the Golden Gate Bridge to prevent people from jumping to their death has hit another delay, much to the consternation of those trying to cut down on suicides there.” PAINED PORTS — “ California Long Ruled U.S. Shipping. Importers Are Drifting East ,” by the Wall Street Journal’s Paul Berger: “The hierarchy of U.S. ports is getting shaken up. Companies across many industries are rethinking how and where they ship goods after years of relying heavily on the western U.S. as an entry point, betting that ports in the East and the South can save them time and money while reducing risk.” — “ A Black Sacramento firefighter said his colleagues set him up to fail. Now he’s suing the city ,” by the Sacramento Bee’s Marcus D. Smith: “A Black Sacramento firefighter is suing the city, alleging that racial discrimination in the Sacramento Fire Department harmed his career, humiliated him and caused him emotional distress.” VEHICLE VIZ — “ High gas costs hurt California drivers as refiners rake in huge profits. These charts explain ,” by the Los Angeles Times’ Laurence Darmiento, Sean Greene and Vanessa Martínez: “For decades, California has suffered the nation’s most expensive gas because of higher taxes and clean fuel requirements, but that differential reached extreme levels in the spring and fall after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent ban on Russian oil.” — “ From diesel big rigs to electricity: The costly transition begins ,” by Capitol Weekly’s Will Shuck: “Never mind there are few on the market, or that keeping them moving requires a nonexistent network of chargers, California wants truckers to hurry up and replace diesel big rigs with versions that run on batteries or hydrogen.” LOOKING BACK — “ He’s leaving California politics as a ‘vaccine hero’. One choice set him on that path ,” by the Sacramento Bee’s Cathie Anderson: “An industrious medical student, the son of immigrants, wrestled with the choice of two plum summer jobs during his second year of medical school at the University of Pittsburgh. Richard Pan, from Yonkers, New York, knew the decision would have momentous consequences for his medical career.” HERE WE GO AGAIN — “ Gig Workers, Prop. 22 Backers Resume War Over Initiative’s Fate ,” by Bloomberg’s Joyce E. Cutler: “The next battle in the long-running California war over who’s an employee and who’s an independent contractor will take place in a San Francisco courtroom with arguments on the constitutionality of a voter-approved, court-suspended initiative carving out gig workers from the state’s worker-friendly classification law.” — “ California dips its toe into the deep waters of offshore wind energy ,” by the San Diego Union-Tribune’s Rob Nikolewski: “California has taken the first step in what will be a very deep dive into energy generation from offshore wind farms. The federal government completed an auction Wednesday that reaped $757.1 million from five different companies to lease more than 373,000 acres off the Central and Northern coasts of the Golden State.”
| | | | POLITICO APP USERS: UPGRADE YOUR APP BY DECEMBER 19! We recently upgraded the POLITICO app with a fresh look and improved features for easier access to POLITICO's scoops and groundbreaking reporting. Starting December 19, users will no longer have access to the previous version of the app. Update your app today to stay on top of essential political news, insights, and analysis from the best journalists in the business. UPDATE iOS APP – UPDATE ANDROID APP . | | | | | | | BIDEN, HARRIS AND THE HILL | | MADAME SPEAKER — “ Review: Nancy Pelosi fan or not, HBO’s ‘Pelosi in the House’ is essential viewing ,” by the San Francisco Chronicle’s Mick LaSalle: “If you admire Nancy Pelosi, you want to see the new HBO documentary, “Pelosi in the House.” But even if you’re simply interested in politics or in modern American history, this is an essential documentary. It records, from the inside, the pivotal moments of the past 20 years and provides a unique glimpse into the actual job of speaker of the House.” NUTS AND BOLTS — What the Jan. 6 select committee’s final report will look like , by POLITICO’s Kyle Cheney and Nicholas Wu: The Jan. 6 select committee’s final report will begin with a voluminous executive summary describing former President Donald Trump’s culpability for his extensive and baseless effort to subvert the 2020 election, according to people briefed on its contents. — Don’t worry, be a majority: Dems shrug off Sinema’s switch , by POLITICO’s Burgess Everett: The Arizona senator’s decision to go independent will reverberate in Arizona and national political circles for months to come as Sinema’s potential reelection approaches. Yet when it comes to the daily operation of the Senate, it seems Democrats will still get something very close to the functional 51-seat majority they assumed they’d won — with perhaps a small asterisk.
| | | | A message from Solar Rights Alliance:   | | | | | SILICON VALLEYLAND | | — “ Music legend Elton John announces Twitter exit as hate speech rises on social media platform ,” by the San Francisco Chronicle’s Jordan Parker: “Twitter has lost one of its most prominent users after musical legend Elton John announced he was leaving the social media platform for good Friday. John, who has 1.1 million followers, announced his departure in a tweet Friday, saying ‘I’ve decided to no longer use Twitter, given their recent change in policy which will allow misinformation to flourish unchecked.’” TAKING ON TECH — “ The year labor organizing came to tech ,” by Axios’ Peter Allen Clark: “2022 saw an unprecedented rise in labor organizing in U.S. tech firms, with some workers pushing for collective rights just as a tanking economy changed the industry's dynamics.”
| | CANNABIS COUNTRY | | — “ Why legal weed is failing in one of California’s legendary pot-growing regions ,” by the Los Angeles Times’ Adam Elmahrek, Robert J. Lopez and Ruben Vives: “Boom-and-bust cycles are part of this county’s history, from gold mining in the 1800s to, a century later, the crash of the logging industry. Legal cannabis was going to be a lifeline for residents. But that promise has quickly collapsed.”
| | | | JOIN THURSDAY FOR A CONVERSATION ON FAMILY CARE IN AMERICA : Family caregivers are among our most overlooked and under-supported groups in the United States. The Biden Administration’s new national strategy for supporting family caregivers outlines nearly 350 actions the federal government is committed to taking. Who will deliver this strategy? How should different stakeholders divide the work? Join POLITICO on Dec. 15 to explore how federal action can improve the lives of those giving and receiving family care across America. REGISTER HERE . | | | | | | | MIXTAPE | | SNOWED IN — “ Snowstorm blankets Northern California, with hurricane-force winds and blizzard conditions reported ,” by CBS. — “ Strippers protesting at North Hollywood topless bar were unlawfully fired, NLRB says ,” by the Los Angeles Times’ Suhauna Hussain. — “ S.F.’s 911 dispatch struggling amid staff shortage: ‘We are bleeding,’ ” by the San Francisco Chronicle’s Mallory Moench. — “ UC Student Workers Agree To Mediation To Resolve Month-Long Strike ,” by LAist’s Adolfo Guzman-Lopez. — “ Coyote that attacked 2-year-old in Woodland Hills euthanized, officials say ,” by the Los Angeles Times’ Melissa Gomez.
| | | | A message from Solar Rights Alliance: A very successful solar program called “net energy metering” keeps rooftop solar growing and affordable in California. Net energy metering compensates solar consumers for the excess energy they produce and share back to the grid. Because of net energy metering, solar is growing fastest among working and middle class consumers.
But, big utilities like PG&E hate losing profits when more people go solar. Utilities are pushing a plan at the California Public Utilities Commission that would slash the value of net energy metering by 75% overnight.
The extreme attack on solar makes solar unaffordable for working class Californians, schools and churches. It risks green jobs and small businesses. And it slows California’s progress to 100% clean energy.
California needs a lot more rooftop solar, not less. Tell the CPUC to stop the attack on solar. Learn more and take action at savecaliforniasolar.org. | | | | | BIRTHDAYS | | Monday: Google’s José Castañeda (3-0) and Nick Pearson … Riley Nelson of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation … Kartik Das … (was Sunday): Kara Swisher … Peter True … Josh Morton … POLITICO’s Marianne LeVine … (was Saturday): Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) … Steve Johnston of Pioneer Fund … former Rep. Harley Rouda (D-Calif.) … Kip Wainscott … David A. Ulevitch CALIFORNIA POLICY IS ALWAYS CHANGING: Know your next move. From Sacramento to Silicon Valley, POLITICO California Pro provides policy professionals with the in-depth reporting and tools they need to get ahead of policy trends and political developments shaping the Golden State. To learn more about the exclusive insight and analysis this -only service offers, click here . Want to make an impact? POLITICO California has a variety of solutions available for partners looking to reach and activate the most influential people in the Golden State. Have a petition you want signed? A cause you’re promoting? Seeking to increase brand awareness amongst this key audience? Share your message with our influential readers to foster engagement and drive action. Contact Jesse Shapiro to find out how: jshapiro@politico.com. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Ottawa Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |  |
