The billionaires behind the new Bay Area city are hiring power brokers in California

If you fail at first in your plan to build a new city from scratch, try again with a pair of the most famous Capitol merchants of this century.

That’s basically it a new tactic group of tech billionaires is using in its decades-long effort to turn an undeveloped stretch of Solano County into a city the size of Cleveland, CalMatters’ Kate Wolf and Yue Stella Yu write.

California Forever, the development group, is counting on former Senate President Darrell Steinberg and former Senate Majority Leader Bob Hertzberg — both Democrats with records steeped in environmental legislation — to make their case as they seek expedited reviews of their plans in the Legislature.

The current plan focuses on building a manufacturing center on the outskirts of Suisun City and allowing that community to annex the land that California Forever has already acquired. This will take advantage of Suisun City’s existing industrial plans and potentially accelerate development.

Supporters say billions of dollars in investment and tens of thousands of jobs are at risk.

• Steinbergwhy bypassing lengthy environmental reviews is important: “The state and county need the ability to say yes now to these multiple opportunities.”

But environmentalists are in the game, working in their own alliances to protect the Bay Area’s outer greenbelt.

• Princess WashingtonSuisun City Council member: “It’s unheard of to get the project done as quickly as they want it done.”

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U.S. Postmaster General David Steiner told U.S. senators on Wednesday that the Postal Service will limit the delivery of mail-in ballots to states that do not disclose their voter rolls, reports A politician.

It’s another milestone in President Donald Trump’s effort to curb mail-in voting in blue states ahead of this fall’s midterm elections. The Republican administration has has already requested the California voter rollsand lost in court when the state pushed back.

Trump has frequently denounced, without evidence, mail-in voting as fraud and cited it as part of the reason he lost the 2020 presidential election.

Democratic lawmakers have questioned whether Steiner’s agency has the constitutional authority to enforce the rule, given that the power to monitor elections rests with the states.

Meanwhile, a federal judge declared a loss for the Trump administration on Wednesday, issuing a ruling that permanently blocks key provisions of Trump’s 2025 executive order requiring voter identification. The order also would have authorized states to ignore ballots received by mail after Election Day and would have cut off federal funding to states that did not comply.

• The solution: “There is no evidence in this record of the widespread “illegal voting, discrimination, fraud, and other forms of abuse and error” in American elections that the Executive Order purports to protect against.”

In a statement, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the ruling “reaffirms that the power to regulate elections is reserved for the states and Congress.” Bonta is leading a coalition of 18 other attorneys general to sue the administration over the order.

California’s best effort in years to renovate aging mobile home parks — an important but often overlooked component of the state’s affordable housing — is underway without money and unlikely to get much more, CalMatters’ Ben Christopher writes.

The Legislature in 2023 launched the Housing Opportunity and Revitalization Program to help repair dilapidated mobile home parks and their infrastructure.

That was a huge relief for communities like Shady Lane Estates Mobile Home Park in Thermal: Along with city and county money, the park was able to get a new electrical system, pave its roads, connect to local water and sewer facilities and buy new, sturdier units.

• Joel Beltranresident of Shady Lane: “It used to be a rough, tough place. Now it’s like Disneyland.”

Shady Lane is one of 28 parks that received a total of $140 million in renovations. Housing advocates say spending under the program isn’t enough to cover needs in a state with more than 4,600 mobile home parks. The fund currently has $27 million and no new funding is expected from next year’s budget.

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Although homelessness improved slightly last year, California is still home to approximately 182,000 homeless people. The issue is at the forefront of many state lawmakers’ minds, pushing various bills that would fund sober housing, dump RVs and create a homelessness prevention plan. Read more by Marissa Kendall of CalMatters.