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Presented by UPS: Jeremy B. White and Lara Korte’s must-read briefing on politics and government in the Golden State | | | | |  | | By Jeremy B. White, Lara Korte, Ramon Castanos and Matthew Brown | Presented by UPS | THE BUZZ: The tech industry won reprieves from Sacramento and the U.S. Supreme Court Thursday, but you don’t need an algorithm to predict more political pressure ahead. In Washington, the highest court deflected a challenge to a core content liability shield by declining to take up cases accusing social media giants of culpability for terrorism. In Sacramento, a bill to curb artificial intelligence faltered in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. The tech industry group Net Choice hailed the “huge win” from SCOTUS. “Did the industry win today? I think so,” Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan said of her bill to business opposition. But we’re certain to see more legal and political struggles over social media’s harms and AI’s scope, including in a California Legislature where both Republicans and Bay Area Democrats are showing an increasing willingness to rein in Silicon Valley. Prosecutors could sue social media companies for harms to kids under a bill that cleared Senate Appropriations Thursday and is headed to a floor vote. The measure has already been scaled back as tech lobbyists rally against it, with state Sen. Nancy Skinner stripping out an allowance for lawsuits. But the proposal is on the move despite formidable opposition. The industry is in court challenging a new law passed last year regulating online products used by kids. Bipartisan anxiety over algorithms has for years built the political momentum for stronger social media safeguards. The seeming ubiquity of AI tools like ChatGPT is a more recent development that has lawmakers racing to catch up. OpenAI founder Sam Altman warned senators in Washington this week that the technology he has pioneered could “can go quite wrong” and “cause significant harm to the world” without appropriate regulation. Lawmakers in OpenAI’s home state would love to get ahead of those dire prognostications, Bauer-Kahan said, to ensure “we get the positive benefits and not the scary parts that Sam Altman was warning about.” Her bill isn’t the first time California has grappled with the downsides of potentially discriminatory algorithms — those worries helped torpedo a cash bail ban that would have relied on risk assessments — but it likely won’t be the last. ONE MORE — Airbnb hasn’t been embroiled in California clashes over worker classification or social media ills like its Silicon Valley brethren. But the company is facing a fight over a bill, sponsored by the Trades, imposing an occupancy tax on short-term rentals and channeling the funds to low-and-middle-income housing construction. The measure is also set to hit the Senate floor in the next couple of weeks. BUENOS DÍAS, good Friday morning. Gov. Gavin Newsom is set to unveil his promised permitting reform push today. And Vice President Kamala Harris will return to Los Angeles to tout the administration’s mental health efforts. Got a tip or story idea for California Playbook? Hit us up at jwhite@politico.com and lkorte@politico.com or follow us on Twitter @JeremyBWhite and @Lara_Korte.
| | | | A message from UPS: Full-time UPS delivery drivers receive an average of $95,000 per year. Plus, UPS contributes another $50,000 annually to health, welfare and pension benefits. After four years in the position, a full-time UPS driver makes on average $42 an hour in wages. Offering the best benefits in the industry may be why more than 50,000 drivers have been with the company for over 5 years. Learn more | | | WHERE’S GAVIN? In Stanislaus County, talking up his plans for “the most ambitious streamlining and permitting and judicial reforms in our state in a half century.” QUOTE OF THE DAY: “So many of my friends say, ‘What's happened to California?’ I say, ‘I know, it's amazing, right? Elon coming back — how great we're growing.’” Newsom on old friend Elon Musk. TWEET OF THE DAY:
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Twitter | WE’RE HIRING — POLITICO is embarking on an exciting expansion in the Golden State and looking for another journalist to join our growing team as a California Playbook author. More in the job description here.
| | | | DON’T MISS POLITICO’S HEALTH CARE SUMMIT: The Covid-19 pandemic helped spur innovation in health care, from the wide adoption of telemedicine, health apps and online pharmacies to mRNA vaccines. But what will the next health care innovations look like? Join POLITICO on Wednesday June 7 for our Health Care Summit to explore how tech and innovation are transforming care and the challenges ahead for access and delivery in the United States. REGISTER NOW. | | | | | |  | TOP TALKERS | | DIFI DRAMA: Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s return to the Senate has done little to dispel concerns about her health and its impacts on California’s Senate race. POLITICO’s Rachael Bade wrote Thursday about how Feinstein has been escorted by Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s daughter, Nancy Corinne Prowda — fueling inferences about Pelosi’s motives, since Feinstein’s departure could undermine Pelosi-endorsed Rep. Adam Schiff’s Senate bid (A Pelosi spox told the San Francisco Chronicle that her friendship with Feinstein was “personal, not political.). And The New York Times detailed the medical complications that exacerbated Feinstein’s shingles recovery. One notable detail: Per The Times, a recuperating Feinstein didn't take a call from Newsom or from Sen. Alex Padilla. They also had San Francisco-based megadonor Susie Tomkins Buell calling again for Feinstein’s resignation, as she did in the Los Angeles Times. Read the story here. — Feinstein’s return leaves her party on edge, by POLITICO’s Katherine Tully-McManus and Nicholas Wu: As relieved as Democrats are to have her back to break the logjam on party-line judicial nominees that her absence created, they’re loath to openly discuss her condition beyond generic well wishes. Fellow senators say they aren’t hearing much from her at all. — “She had multiple abortions as a child. She confronted her abuser years later,” by the San Francisco Chronicle’s Raheem Hosseini: “It was a 15-minute drive from the police station to the apartment complex where Ruth was staying with her brother. Battaglia scanned the buildings until she saw Ruth wave from a second story, then parked under a carport. Ruth met her at the older, unmarked Ford sedan, with search lights fixed to the side mirrors.”
| | | | A message from UPS:   | | | | | CALIFORNIA AND THE CAPITOL CORRIDOR | | APPROPRIATIONS ICYMI: A few key takeaways from the Thursday’s rapid-fire Suspense File culling: It was the end of the line for a bill making oil companies liable for illnesses contracted by people living near wells — this as a 2022 law barring new wells near schools and homes, carried by the same senator, faces a referendum — and for a bill pushing utilities to connect new buildings. A major housing streamlining bill would now require projects to seek the skilled-and-trained labor workforce that the Trades insist upon, but they needn’t use it if they don’t get enough bids. — “Walt Disney Company cancels relocation of thousands of California workers to Orlando's Lake Nona,” by Fox 35 Orlando: “In an email to its team members obtained by FOX 35, Disney said they've decided not to move forward with the construction of its Lake Nona Campus. The company said they will individually speak to employees who have already made the move to Florida — where they may have a possibility of moving back to California.” — “This law should reveal who's paying for California legislators' travel. It's only been used twice,” by CalMatters’ Alexei Koseff and Jeremia Kimelman: Yet in the seven years since the law took effect, disclosure forms have been filed for only two events — despite legislators reporting millions of dollars in sponsored travel and dozens of trips during that period. — “200 people could be left homeless after Sacramento County closes two emergency shelters,” by The Sacramento Bee’s Ariane Lange: “The Board of Supervisors said that as Project Roomkey “ramped down,” new housing navigators would take a more hands-on approach in helping residents find permanent housing. However, more than a month after the supervisors passed the new funding, Field said, those navigators had not begun contacting residents.” — “California prisons closing hurts students, colleges,” by CalMatters’ Adam Echelman: “The corrections department said in a statement that it is committed to preventing prison transfers during the semester, but that it does happen. The corrections department also said that the special credits awarded for classes — the ones which can give people who are imprisoned years off of their sentence — will transfer to the new prison, too.” — “I attended a secretive anti-trans dinner in San Francisco. And then I puked,” opines Soleil Ho for the San Francisco Chronicle: “In the coda of her presentation, meanwhile, Friday displayed a photo of a trans person’s bare chest, healing after top surgery, and pointed to the self-inflicted scars on the person’s arms.”
| | | | GET READY FOR GLOBAL TECH DAY: Join POLITICO Live as we launch our first Global Tech Day alongside London Tech Week on Thursday, June 15. Register now for continuing updates and to be a part of this momentous and program-packed day! From the blockchain, to AI, and autonomous vehicles, technology is changing how power is exercised around the world, so who will write the rules? REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | SILICON VALLEYLAND | | — Twitter, Google win big at Supreme Court, by POLITICO’s Josh Gerstein and Rebecca Kern: The two decisions mark a major win for the tech industry, which has argued that narrowing Section 230 could be disastrous for the internet if platforms could be sued over content-moderation decisions. But the resolution leaves the door open to future showdowns —- potentially in Congress — over the breadth of the legal protection the internet firms enjoy.
| | MIXTAPE | | — “PG&E to Pay $150 million for Zogg Fire,” by NBC Bay Area’s Jaxon Van Derbeken. — “The 101 best California experiences,” by the Los Angeles Times’ Christopher Reynolds. — “Did a former 49er threaten to kill Rep. Swalwell?,” by the San Francisco Chronicle’s Shira Stein. — “Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy accused of beating 5-year-old son in Lancaster,” by the Los Angeles Times’ James Queally and Keri Blakinger.
| | IN MEMORIAM | | — “Sam Zell, business tycoon whose purchase of L.A. Times led to financial disaster, dies,” by the Los Angeles Times’ Elaine Woo.
| | | | A message from UPS: Full-time UPS delivery drivers receive an average of $95,000 per year. Plus, UPS contributes another $50,000 annually to health, welfare and pension benefits. After four years in the position, a full-time UPS driver averages $42 an hour in wages.
Offering the best benefits in the industry is a big part of why so many UPSers stay at UPS. More than 50,000 drivers have been with the company for over 5 years. And 90,000 part-timers have been with us for over 2 years.
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