Miriam Pawel

SLO County DA shares posts linking New York’s first Muslim mayor to 9/11 attacks When asked why he shared the posts, Dan Dow called Zohran Mamdani “an un-American socialist who wants to trample on the values and freedoms that millions of Americans have fought and died for.”

So this is not just any small county elected official engaging in good old gutter racism.

This is an official who wields enormous power over people’s lives and a community. Who gets charged, who gets held in a cage, how many years should be taken from a life…

www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/a...

Wait, Gavin Newsom's new CARB chair says the board will "rethink" the state's 2305 mandate to end sales of gas-only vehicles? As in, Newsom's crowning climate achievement and the biggest thing CA has done on climate in years?

This was reported a week ago and has gotten very little attention?

They deleted it!

This is wild egregious shit.

Incredible

A Guatemalan immigrant with no Massachusetts criminal record was arrested Monday on Tallman Street after federal agents shattered the glass on his vehicle as he and his wife waited inside the car for their lawyer to arrive.

Read story and view full video: newbedfordlight.org/lawyer-feder...

Plus, the photo…

“We are only in great national trouble when people violate or circumvent the Constitution ... Our country will survive this tragedy and will do so if an enlightened citizenry will give its attention to the affairs of government on all its levels.”

Earl Warren, May 1974

Border Patrol said it targeted known criminals in Kern County. But it had no record on 77 of 78 arrestees Border Patrol said it had a list of targets for its high-profile January raid, but it had a record for just one of the 78 people it arrested.

Such great and revealing reporting by @sergioolmos.bsky.social & @wendyfry.bsky.social: calmatters.org/economy/2025...

What a powerful testimony of how small investments from NEH lead to transformative outcomes. Read Chris’s entire thread (I appreciated the shout-out to NEH’s K12 teaching resource, Edsitement, which is where I first started working at NEH).

Why Gavin Newsom’s MAGA Play Is a Losing Game for Democrats Newsom cozies up to far-right extremists like Charlie Kirk. It's a deliberate strategy to alienate Democrats and boost MAGA extremism

To quote MAGA's favorite attack on Gavin Newsom: You can't trust a guy who screwed his best friend's wife.

Now, with his pivot to MAGA, Newsom is trying to screw the Democratic base that fueled his rise.

My take on Newsom's desperate, cynical & doomed strategy

www.theframelab.org/why-gavin-ne...

Totally worth it! And bean box coming soon so important to be keeping up ….

"Leaders in civil society shouldn’t be “demure” in the face of authoritarian attempts to align all power with a president’s agenda, civil society be damned…when they see the missions of their institutions—not to speak of the health of their country—compromised."

Chancellors: It’s time to speak up.

Exclusive: California's homeless population grew again this year, especially in these counties CalMatters found that while California’s homeless population grew again, the rate has slowed. But there are questions about the data.

Anyone looking to understand the homeless count numbers in CA, officially released today, should read this excellent @calmatters.org story from *September* (and beware of fuzzy math being thrown around-mixing percents/percentages/numbers/ etc)

calmatters.org/housing/home...

YouTube video by ShoutFactoryMusic Peter, Paul and Mary - Light One Candle (25th Anniversary Concert)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1cR...

Here's the link to get a free Los Angeles Public Library online library card, and with it, access to all kinds of collections and archives you didn't even know would enthrall you. You can use it anywhere in the world -- or live anywhere in the world. lapl.org/about-lapl/c...

Stephen Sherrill named D2 supervisor: Mayor Breed's parting shot Most District 2 residents are likely asking "Who's Stephen Sherrill?" But the more relevant question is "Why Stephen Sherrill?"

Mayor London Breed has named San Francisco's next District 2 supervisor: Stephen Sherill, a Michael Bloomberg protégé unknown to many D2 denizens.

Bloomberg put $1.5M into Breed's re-election. And come Jan. 8, she'll need a job.

via @esksf.bsky.social

missionlocal.org/2024/12/step...

Recommend Running in the Family, memoir about his childhood, and In the Skin of the Lion

Somebody did some great organizing in Merced — Dem’s winning margin comes down to UC Merced college kids who registered to vote *on election day*!

The Quiet Political Rise of David Sacks, Silicon Valley’s Prophet of Urban Doom Like his pals Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, Sacks is using his wealth and online clout to unite conservatives and former leftists in a reactionary movement against liberalism.

Trump just named David Sacks his “czar” for crypto and AI.

Read all about this “prophet of urban doom” in this excellent @jacobsilverman.com piece in @newrepublic.com

newrepublic.com/article/1681...

To Fight Trump, California Must Stop Fighting With Itself | Connecting California Top State and Local Officials Need 'War Zooms,' Weekly Barbecues—And Constant Cooperation

Let me talk to California's state and local leaders as if they were my three sons on a long car trip.

"Knock off all the stupid fighting. This is going to be a long, hard journey, and we need to stick together."

My new column. www.zocalopublicsquare.org/fight-trump-...

Democrats flip seat in California's Central Valley in nation's final outstanding House race Democrat Adam Gray has narrowly defeated Republican Rep. John Duarte in the race for California's 13th Congressional District

News: GOP Rep. John Duarte has conceded to Democrat Adam Gray in the #CA13 Congressional race in California's Central Valley. This is the final House race to be decided, and the third House seat that Democrats flipped in California this year.

More: www.latimes.com/california/s...

And interesting fodder for said story on this data analysis: Harris does worse across the board in every category than Biden 2020 [with almost 200K more registered Dems this year]
So bad that Trump flips Fresno county with *fewer* votes than in 2020!

www.sfchronicle.com/election/art...

So in her home state, Harris polled so much worse than Biden/2020 that Trump flipped Fresno with fewer votes than he received four years ago. The drop in Dem supports crosses all geo/pol/economic lines. Interesting implications going forward.
Gift link:

www.sfchronicle.com/election/art...

Love the serendipity of the stacks…

Looks like Dems are on track to flip the third CA seat, CA13 in the central valley. Will be interesting to see the final results, but some reports suggest ballot curing in Merced helped push Adam Gray into the lead

UC Santa Barbara police seek access to a vast trove of student data related to Gaza protests Civil liberties advocates are sounding the alarm after UC Santa Barbara police sought a sweeping search warrant for student data related to Gaza protests.

www.sfchronicle.com/politics/art...

They’ve made some smart hires and decisions and haven’t gone thru the layoff cycles others have, for the most part. (Albany too)

I haven’t made it but this looked interesting cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020...

Young Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery (Signed Book)|Hardcover From California Governor Gavin Newsom comes an intimate and poignant account of identity, belonging, and the defining moments that inspired a life in politics “Go slow,” his political el...

Gavin Newsom is apparently publishing a memoir next May, tracing his familial roots from County Cork to his parents' divorce, his tenure as mayor of SF, and becoming governor: www.barnesandnoble.com/w/young-man-...