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Hot Topics News on Northern California Record

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA RECORD

Saturday, March 1, 2025

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Hot Topics

Lawyers for Chino Valley schools 'declare victory' in fight vs state over parents' rights to know

By Jonathan Bilyk |
CA Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta did not appeal by deadline a San Bernardino County judge's ruling letting the Chino Valley Unified School District enforce policies requiring schools to tell parents when students' records are changed, including for gender change or pronouns

Hot Topics

Lawsuit claims UCSF Health high school internship program discriminates vs white students

By Scott Holland |
The lawsuit asserts the CHAMPS program at Oakland's Benioff Children's Hospital is open only to minority applicants, which they said violates federal civil rights law and the constitutional rights of white applicants to equal protection.

Hot Topics

Maybe 'not act of defiance,' but Norwalk can't escape Newsom's lawsuit over homeless shelter moratorium

By Jonathan Bilyk |
A judge said Gov. Newsom can continue bid to use lawsuit to punish city of Norwalk for attempting to slow down construction of shelters and resettlement of homeless in their community

Hot Topics

Lawsuits: CA law banning certain workplace meetings unconstitutional, tramples free speech rights

By Jonathan Bilyk |
Two lawsuits - one from the California Chamber of Commerce and other business advocates, the other from the California Policy Center - assert Democrat-supported SB399 would violate the constitutional rights of business owners and others by subjecting them to lawsuits and fines for sharing their views with workers

Hot Topics

CA appeals court: State OK to go after Christian baker for refusing to bake 'plain, simple' cake for lesbian wedding

By Jonathan Bilyk |
The court said sincere Christian beliefs concerning marriage and lack of "ill will or malice" held by Cathy Miller, owner of Tastries Bakery in Bakersfield, don't shield her from the state's civil rights enforcement action. Miller's attorneys vowed to appeal to the state Supreme Court, saying the state is trying to "crush" her over her beliefs

Hot Topics

San Francisco, Santa Clara, others sue Trump to halt DOJ actions vs 'Sanctuary' cities, counties

By Jonathan Bilyk |
The lawsuit comes as a preemptive strike against the Trump administration, which has signaled its intent to use funding cuts, lawsuits and other actions to pressure 'Sanctuary' governments into complying with efforts to remove criminals and other illegal immigrants from the U.S.

Hot Topics

CA A/G Bonta threatens hospitals for complying with Trump's order blocking child gender transition procedures

By Jonathan Bilyk |
Attorney General Rob Bonta sent a letter to Children's Hospital Los Angeles and issued a public statement threatening state action vs hospitals and other medical providers who comply with President Trump's order forbidding federal funding and directing federal action vs those providing child gender transition procedures

Hot Topics

Appeals court: SF City Hall, fed judge wrongly crushed workers' religious Covid jab objections

By Jonathan Bilyk |
A federal appeals panel has ordered an Oakland federal judge to issue an injunction sought by ex-city workers who say they wrongly lost their jobs for refusing the city's Covid shot mandate for its workers. The appeals panel said the city and a federal judge were wrong to gloss over the workers' 'crisis of conscience'

Hot Topics

LA school district gets new chance to shut down lawsuit over Covid vax mandate

By Jonathan Bilyk |
The full Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals tossed out their colleagues' earlier holding that had allowed L.A. public school workers to sue L.A. Unified School District over its Covid shot mandate, because the Covid shots don't prevent infection. LAUSD said the effectiveness of the shot shouldn't matter to the court

Hot Topics

Judge: Profs can't challenge CA community college DEI rules, because rules haven't been enforced yet

By Jonathan Bilyk |
A federal judge has rejected, for now, a lawsuit brought by Fresno-area community college instructors challenging California's community college DEI regulations. The instructors said the rules are an unconstitutional threat vs professors who could be found to be insufficiently 'anti-racist'

Hot Topics

CA 'teen social media addiction' law remains on hold, for now, court says

By Jonathan Bilyk |
A federal appeals panel has blocked California from enforcing its new law restricting teen social media use while it weighs an appeal from social media and tech companies arguing the law is unconstitutional. The state says the law is needed to tame teen social media addiction

Hot Topics

California 'Clean Cars' waiver up in the air, as Trump asks SCOTUS to put challenge on hold

By Jonathan Bilyk |
The Justice Department asked the U.S. Supreme Court to pause the challenge launched by oil companies to the EPA's grant of a waiver that would allow California to move ahead with its 'Clean Cars' zero emissions rules. Energy companies say the waiver would allow California to unilaterally put them out of business nationwide

Hot Topics

CA Dems seek new law to let oil companies get sued for 'climate driven' fires, disasters

By Jonathan Bilyk |
Oil and gas industry and other critics say the legislation represents an attempt to use the Palisades and Eaton fire disasters to fuel a money grab and bankrupting of oil and gas companies in California and to distract from state and local government policy failures that likely made the fires worse

Hot Topics

Lawsuit continues accusing Newsom, top CA Guard general of 'railroading' Jewish general, wildfire specialist out of Guard

By Jonathan Bilyk |
The lawsuit from retired Brigadier General Magram claims Gov. Newsom signed off on Magram's removal, even though Newsom had been notified repeatedly that the state's current top Guardsman was retaliating against Magram for reporting his commander's alleged antisemitism. Lawsuit gained notoriety as state struggles to fight historic wildfires

Hot Topics

SF City Hall ends transgender 'guaranteed income' program, settles discrimination lawsuit

By Jonathan Bilyk |
The city of San Francisco has ended its funding and operation of the so-called Guaranteed Income for Transgender People program, ending a lawsuit brought by Judicial Watch and city taxpayers, accusing the city of running an illegal and discriminatory welfare program 

Hot Topics

PAGA lawsuits vs employers keep rising in CA, helping to fuel big class action payouts nationwide

By Jonathan Bilyk |
A new report from defense law firm Duane Morris said class action settlements again totaled more than $40B in 2024, with attorneys raking in many of those billions for themselves in fees. In California, much of the action was driven by thousands of "representative" lawsuits vs employers under the PAGA law

Hot Topics

Federal appeals court won't revisit decision upholding CA 'sensitive place' gun carry ban

By Jonathan Bilyk |
Dissenting judges warned the decision rested on strained legal reasoning, likely in defiance of the U.S. Supreme Court's holdings on Second Amendment rights and could tee up review and the risk of a loss before the Supreme Court

Hot Topics

Judge says BART can't escape $7.8M jury verdict for workers fired over Covid jab mandate

By Jonathan Bilyk |
A San Francisco federal judge said BART can't show the jury was unreasonable in awarding at least $1.1 million each to six workers who were fired when BART refused their requests for religious exemption from the agency's Covid vaccine mandate