David considers the limits of private equity in farming, United Farm Workers union fends off charges it ripped off farmworkers. Gavin Newsom celebrates another bold step for “clean energy” but admits it’s unlikely to stop blackouts. The Democrats’ infinite abortion money-machine revealed, and California’s largest teachers' union calls for an end to capitalism and Jews. Music by Metalachi.

The Supreme Court takes a swing and misses on West Coast homelessness in Grants Pass. Kamala celebrates SEIU, likely undermines elder care. The falling fortunes of California’s Tesla and Fisker. Bonus: hated illegal immigrants. Music by Metalachi.

The meaning of O. J. Simpson’s life and death. Google, USC, and UC Berkeley restore balance to the universe. Biden’s Health & Human Services secretary Xavier Becerra says he’s coming back to California to run for governor. Gavin Newsom finds a new way to make the state’s housing crisis even worse. Bonus! Will talks with California Policy Center’s Edward Ring about the siren call of “clean energy.” Music by Metalachi.

Beset by a historic state budget deficit, Governor Gavin Newsom is brushing back reports that he lied about his college baseball career in order to mask his privilege. In other news, California slides to No. 6 among the world’s economies but remains No. 1 for worst unemployment in the nation. The president of Pomona College tells student protesters that their careers at the school are finished. Bonus: Will talks with Lance Christensen about Edward Duplex, California’s first black mayor. Music...

Biden’s U.S. acting labor secretary Julie Su will force American taxpayers to pay off Covid losses Su caused while running California’s labor department. Buffy Wicks (D., Oakland) wants California to get into the concert business. Sacramento’s sanctuary for transgender people runs up against progressive policy. David’s modest proposal for managing the increasingly successful squatters movement. Music by Metalachi.

California’s unemployment rate is the worst in the nation, but state officials seem determined to do worse. Exploring the authoritarian impulses of “transgressive” art. A brief history of California’s integrated Winter League. Music by Metalachi.

First, he postponed release of California’s horrible financial audit until after Election Day. Now, Gavin Newsom is spending millions to “find the votes” of Democrats who might have supported Prop. 1, his imperiled state ballot initiative to end homelessness. U.S. Senate candidate Katie Porter underscores her stolen-election narrative. Bonus: Remembering the March 19 return of swallows to Capistrano. Music by Metalachi.

Voters in the City by the Bay support a pair of public-safety reforms backed by Mayor London Breed, reformers take over that city’s flagging GOP, and other primary news from California. Music by Metalachi

New evidence that California’s environmental movement is bad for Mother Nature -- and the people who live on planet Earth. Music by Metalachi.

On “Meet the Press,” Gavin Newsom promotes abortion and his red-state ad blitz but asserts that his ambition to replace Joe Biden is "a Republican canard." Trump trolls Newsom at CPAC. Four (or maybe five) March 5 races we’ll be watching. Parents and teachers win big in Temecula Valley schools case. Music by Metalachi.

Gavin Newsom plays politics badly in the face of the state’s financial crisis. State officials threaten Huntington Beach over local voter-ID measure, but are upbeat about the appointment of a noncitizen to over San Francisco elections. Will remembers California’s Chumash Revolt of February 21, 1824. Bonus: Julie Hamill talks with National Right to Work’s Mark Mix about union thuggery. Music by Metalachi.

Vice President Kamala Harris can’t decide whether questions about Joe Biden’s mental health are legitimate or politically driven. In either case, she’s ready to serve as president of the United States. Music by Metalachi.

Gavin Newsom gets tough on crime, Democratic state lawmakers abandon cash payments for reparations, and Newsom’s bid to link utility bills to income is on oxygen with vitals crashing. Bonus: We mark the birth on February 6, 1911 of California’s 33rd governor, Ronald Reagan. Music by Metalachi.

Vladimir Putin has his eyes on former Russian holdings, and that has Will thinking about California’s Fort Ross -- and, of course, John Sutter. Tips for football-ignorant Super Bowl partygoers. Pelosi tells pro-Hamas demonstrators to go back to China -- or maybe Russia. State senator Scott Wiener wants slower cars, and he wants them fast. Government union leaders say no one can make state workers go back to the office. California job-creation is among the worst in the nation. Bonus:...

The Satanic Temple opens a kids' club on the campus of an Orange County elementary school. A secret history of the United Farm Workers. Newsom hits South Carolina to tub-thump for Joe Biden. Los Angeles Times reporters and Cal State faculty strike -- with mixed results. A.B. 5 goes national. Bonus: Will talks with Liberty Justice Center president Jacob Huebert about his group’s legal battle with Attorney General Rob Bonta over parent rights in California schools. Music by Metalachi.

David and Will break down Gavin Newsom’s “Li’l Governor’s Broken-Budget-Fix-it-Kit,” the Biden administration’s adoption of California’s A.B. 5, and new state laws that will undermine California’s already troubled housing market. Bonus! We celebrate the creation in 1887 of the remarkable Chinatown Telephone Exchange. Music by Metalachi.

Despite an historic budget deficit, California now offers free health insurance to its menu of incentives for illegal immigration – and that triggers Republican-on-Republican fighting inside the statehouse. Governor Leland Stanford’s 1862 inaugural address placed California firmly behind Abraham Lincoln. Kamala Harris finds a political future in defending Hamas. Bonus track: Will talks with Reform California’s Carl DeMaio about the trouble with Republicans. Music by Metalachi.

In this special year-in-review episode, guest Rick Reiff joins Will to discuss some of the biggest California stories of 2023. Music by Metalachi.

California’s Civil Rights Department finds no wrongdoing at computer-game maker Activision Blizzard -- but still wins a $54 million settlement. Gavin Newsom warns all state agencies to stop spending ahead of a looming budget crisis. We celebrate two San Francisco anniversaries: the birth in 1916 of horror writer Shirley Jackson and the 20th anniversary of Gavin Newsom’s first ten-year plan to eliminate homelessness. Music by Metalachi.

Fresno officials raise the Palestinian flag -- and this question: Should city officials really intervene on outside issues? Shohei Ohtani’s $700 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers is a win for the tax man. Kevin McCarthy steps out of the House and into a flaming bag of poop of his own creation. Biden throws Newsom half a lifeline on California’s disastrous high-speed-rail project. Is that Kamala Harris’s gas stove? Looking back at Thomas Starr King, the golden-throated orator of...

Newsom shuts down the public Christmas tree lighting ceremony for fears of anti-Israel protests, faces a $58 billion budget deficit, and (if columnist Joe Mathews is right) may have a road to the White House in 2024. Also: Income-based utility bills are coming, the University of California erupts over calls to confront antisemitism, and Oakland’s teacher union proposes a new reading curriculum it calls “‘I’ is for Intifada.” Music by Metalachi.

Will breaks down the raucous Newsom–DeSantis debate with help from California Policy Center’s Lance Christensen and Representative Kevin Kiley. Music by Metalachi.

California Democrats’ state convention closed early after anti-Israel demonstrators crashed the party. LA mayor Karen Bass celebrates Gavin Newsom’s ability to “manage the world” while reopening the fire-damaged Santa Monica Freeway. Moving from Alameda County to Vegas, the Oakland A’s run from -- and directly into -- union trouble. Illegal immigrants literally risk life and limb to come to a country progressives hate. How the Biden administration made California’s water crisis worse, and how...

In this special Thanksgiving week episode, David and Will discuss your questions about Donald Trump, what football fandom can teach us about California politics, Gavin Newsom’s affection for surveilling the public, the politics of immigration, and how to “save” the Golden State. Music by Metalachi.