The Brief

It’s finally feeling like Fall in Southern California, but we just sweated through the hottest summer on record. The recent hotter, longer heat waves caused power outages across the region.

But some people avoided them — and even helped prevent more widespread outages across the power grid.

In a place of relatively frequent power outages: A power island

Joe and Teresa Tortomasi were one of those households whose power never went off during an extended extreme heat wave in early September. They live in Sierra Madre, a small city nestled against the foothills of the San Gabriel mountains.

“We're in what they call the Upper Canyon,” Joe told me when I visited them at their quaint, light blue painted home with white shutters. “This is very un-L.A. No offense to L.A., it's just very rural.”

“He's saying that because we live right next to the mountains, so as we sit here outside, we feel like we're in the mountains,” added his wife Teresa. “And every time people visit us from anywhere in the L.A. area, they say ‘is this L.A.?’”

Joe and Teresa Tortomasi outside their home in Sierra Madre. Solar panels that connect to a battery are on their roof.

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The house is in a neighborhood full of whimsical cabins along winding canyon roads. Bobcats, coyotes, bears and other critters are frequent visitors.

The retired teachers have lived here for nearly 40 years. This area has long had relatively frequent power outages because of where it’s located on the broader grid — when circuit breakers or distribution lines are overloaded, there aren’t options for Southern California Edison (SCE) to reroute power here through other lines. Basically, the canyon is at the end of the line.

While doing their part to cut pollution was a big factor in the Tortomasis' decision to install solar panels and battery storage, the power outages plus rising energy costs were also major reasons.

“We tend to have blackouts up in the canyon and we were just getting tired of it,” said Joe.

In their years living here, despite the work SCE has done to fortify the lines serving the canyon, the Tortomasis said power outages have gotten more frequent.

“Mostly because of the warming temperatures,” Teresa said. “30 years ago, it wasn't like this. We can really see the difference and the climate change. When we had that excruciating weather a couple of weeks ago, we were the only ones in our little corner of the canyon [who] still had power.”

That’s because they now have solar panels and a battery. In early September, temperatures here reached as high as 110 degrees and much of the canyon lost power for hours.

“All our neighbors always check with each other, so we were getting texts saying, 'do you have power? Do you have power?’ And we just told everybody, ‘If you need anything, just come over here, because we have power,’” Teresa said.

Teresa and Joe Tortomasi stand beside their 13 kilowatt hour battery, which stores energy from their solar panels to support their whole home, and can also offload excess power to the broader power grid.

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More energy use, lower bills

This summer was also the first time the Tortomasis can remember having to keep their air conditioning going at night.

“We had no cool air at night — our night time was still 85 degrees outside, and it was the first time in our almost 40 years here that we actually did not open our windows at night,” said Teresa.

Rising nighttime temperatures are one of the clearest fingerprints of how fossil fuel pollution is changing our climate. To be able to sleep, they turned on the A/C, using power from their battery, which stored energy that their solar panels had absorbed during the day.

The Tortomasis have a smartphone app to monitor their solar panels and battery storage.

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Even though the Tortomasis had to use more electricity, that increased use didn't further strain the power grid we all rely on because they were using power from their battery.

And instead of their costs going up because they have to use more energy due to hotter days and nights, the Tortomasis' electricity bill is in the negatives.

They had to dig into their savings to pay for the solar and battery — as well as install a new roof for the panels and upgrade their electric panel — but they’re now saving money because of the excess power they sell back to the grid.

“We're really making our money back," Joe said. "I mean, we don't have to pay any electric bills."

Plus, living in a high-risk fire area, they don't have to worry about SCE shutting off their power to prevent fires during high-risk weather.

“We feel safer,” said Joe.

“I don't have that stress of always being worried that the power might go out,” said Teresa.

Policy changes have slowed solar-plus-battery market

The Tortomasis have essentially negative electric bills because they got their solar panels before cuts to state rooftop solar incentives went into effect last year.

Under the new rules, the state cut how much solar users get paid back for the excess energy they generate. Instead, people who install solar and battery storage will get a better deal when they sell excess energy from their batteries during high-demand times of the evening.

The white Tesla box is the battery gateway, which orchestrates the home's energy sources and loads, including automatically switching to offload power to the grid during critical times.

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In the decision, which only applies to investor-owned utilities, the California Public Utilities Commission argued the previous incentives for rooftop solar were leading to higher costs for people without solar — a claim that solar advocates and some economic models refute — and that it was time to instead incentivize solar-plus-battery storage.

That’s because we now have more solar power during the day than we can use, so we need to be able to store more of that power for when the sun goes down.

But batteries are still really expensive. Vic Aguilar, who installed the Tortomasis' system, said the cost for a solar-plus-battery system ranges from about $15,000 to more than $120,000.

Vic Aguilar has been in the solar business for 18 years.

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“The upfront capital expenditure with the new rules is significantly greater because it involves the batteries,” Aguilar said. “The batteries generally double the cost of an average project.”

And, under the new rules, the timeline for breaking even on that investment is now eight to 12 years, instead of six to eight years.

Solar panels on a home in Ladera Heights, a community southeast of Los Angeles.

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Aguilar — better known as Solar Vic by Sierra Madre locals — has been in the business for 18 years and owns the company Sustainergy Advisors. While his clients in new housing developments and large households have grown, Aguilar said he’s seen a big decline in his middle and lower-income customers since the new state rules went into effect last April.

“There’s still a compelling economic argument that can be made, especially with the larger households — they use so much energy that even under [the new rules] they’re saving ginormous amounts of money,” Aguilar said.

Industry decline outpaces growth of battery installs

Since the new rules went into effect last year, the solar market has dropped 60% and about 17,000 solar jobs have been cut, said Bernadette Del Chiaro, director of solar industry trade group California Solar and Storage Association.

Ken Wells founded O&M Solar Services, a small residential solar company in South Los Angeles.

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“More people that are going solar today are adding a battery, which is good, but the overall decline in the market does not make up for the growth in storage,” said Del Chiaro. “So we've actually set ourselves back with energy storage, contrary to what the policymakers say their intentions were.”

Del Chiaro said fewer people are now installing solar, let alone batteries too. That's hurt local businesses.

Ken Wells founded South L.A.-based O&M Solar Services in 2018, and had both solar and solar-plus-storage clients. But after the new rules went into effect he had to close his business and lay off his 30 employees.

“There was just this huge drop and I went from doing 20 to 30 projects a month to just seven or one a week,” Wells said. “I was already facing barriers financing my company and getting the capital to scale, so most of what I was doing was bootstrapping. I was taking my money and putting it right back into my business.”

“So when this happened,” Wells added. “I was unable to sustain any longer and I unfortunately had to close my doors, let all my guys go.”

Wells said he’s working to build back his company, but has since shifted into consulting.

Ken Wells walks outside a home with solar panels in Ladera Heights.

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Why more "distributed energy" matters for the whole power grid

Many solar advocates say the change in policy hurts the grid overall.

Rooftop solar-plus-battery storage systems — called "distributed energy" — have already helped the grid avoid widespread blackouts despite recent summers being the hottest in more than 150 years.

The Tortomasis, for example, are part of what’s called a virtual power plant. It’s made up of their home, along with nearly 3,000 other homes that also have solar and batteries.

The app connected to the Tortomasis solar and storage system also shows the virtual power plant they're part of with other Southern California Edison customers.

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“You're aggregating them into a fleet so they can all work in concert, like a flock of birds, on demand,” Aguilar explained.

Southern California Edison can pull energy from this residential battery fleet to support the grid when it’s most strained, particularly during hot summer evenings.

That not only helps the utility avoid widespread power outages, but it also reduces the need to power up highly polluting backup generators when extreme, prolonged heat risks brownouts or blackouts.

Joe Tortomasi looks at the 13 kilowatt hour battery that is installed on his home in Sierra Madre.

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In 2022, that’s exactly what happened: The state’s grid operator sent out flex alerts — those urgent texts to conserve energy — after a gas-fired peaker power plant generator unexpectedly went offline. To avoid massive blackouts, the state pulled energy from batteries attached to homes, schools and businesses across the state.

“If you take these millions of small systems — they're all highly coordinated, highly technical systems that we're putting up in our garages — they can act like a coordinated power plant and turn on a dime to provide value to the state,” Del Chiaro said.

How much distributed energy storage does the state have?

Currently, the state has more than 2,000 megawatts of distributed battery storage on homes, schools, businesses and government buildings, according to the California Public Utilities Commission. That's about as much energy generated by two typical nuclear reactors.

More than half of that battery storage is from homes with solar and batteries, and most of it is coming from L.A. County.

Batteries played a huge role in the grid’s resilience this past summer: Despite it being the hottest summer on record, we didn't experience flex alerts or major rolling blackouts.

“This last summer they were a big part of our resiliency,” said Aguilar. “They really were what saved the grid. And not just on the big utility scale where there are container fields of these giant batteries. A lot of it is happening on a distributed basis.”

A map of where distributed battery storage is across the state. The majority is in Southern California.

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And it’s all automated. The Tortomasis don’t have to do anything — they just know where their power’s going via a smartphone app.

“People say, ‘oh the technology is not ready yet,’ Aguilar said. “And they have no idea the robustness, the incredibleness of what we have right now. The renewable revolution is just in time. We are at the stage to implement, implement, implement.”

A graph showing how California's distributed battery storage has increased over time. Most of the growth is in the residential sector.

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Most of the distributed battery storage in California is on people's homes.

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Tips if you're considering solar-plus-battery storage

Solar panels are made to last at least 25 years, so you want to make sure you’re making a good investment.

Here are some tips from installer Vic Aguilar of Sustainergy Advisors:

• Talk to friends and neighbors who have solar about what they wish they’d known and their experience
• Talk to at least two or three installers before choosing one
• Have your roof checked out before going all in because you may need to re-roof
• Consider your total electric use and future use — you will likely need to upgrade your electric panel (a contractor can help with this)
• Find a contractor who knows the rules for the specific electric utility you pay your bills to, as well as the financial incentives available for the install
  
  • On that note, also do your own research on the rules for solar and storage from your electricity provider. For example, Pasadena Water and Power has different rules from Southern California Edison.
  • Check out our guide on financial incentives for going electric
• Consider if you want your whole home to be backed up, or just critical functions
• Consider your main reasons for going solar because no single system can do it all: do you want to save on bills? Do you want to maximize resiliency? Do you want to eliminate your carbon pollution? 
• Consider a contractor who values ethical and sustainable sourcing of panels and batteries 

Additional resources:

• Find a certified contractor here 
• Find financial incentives here
• Find trusted financing options here 

In November, California voters may have to referee a multimillion-dollar battle among Uber, attorneys and doctors. The outcome could have far-reaching implications for anybody who uses the state’s roads and highways.

Uber last fall filed a proposed ballot measure that would cap personal injury lawyers’ contingency fees and limit medical damages for all vehicle crashes in California, even those not involving an Uber. The company paints its effort as a way to rein in attorneys who take advantage of those who get hurt in a crash. Crash survivors often hire attorneys on a contingency basis, meaning the lawyers only get paid if they win the case.

That got attorney groups fired up: They responded by proposing three ballot initiatives that would expand the ride-hailing giant’s liability for passenger injuries; increase its liability for sexual misconduct against riders or drivers; and ban new state laws that interfere with people’s ability to retain lawyers.

Doctors and other medical providers also got organized and formed a political action committee, Providers for Patient Care, last October to oppose Uber’s initiative.

Despite the substantial opposition, legal experts acknowledge Uber’s proposed ballot initiative could appeal to Californians.

“This measure could backfire for Uber, but it’s certainly possible that California voters will approve (the company’s) initiative because it has a ‘bumper sticker quality’ to it,” said Stanford University law professor Nora Engstrom, a litigation expert. She said she has no formal role in the opposition to Uber’s initiative, but she has researched contingency fees’ effects on competition and has written an op-ed opposing the measure.

Engstrom told CalMatters the measure might look good because it seems “unthreatening”; who would oppose crash survivors keeping more of their settlements? But capping contingency fees is equivalent to a price control, and economists generally agree that price controls hurt consumers, she said. She and other lawyers say the initiative could discourage attorneys from taking on cases and helping crash survivors secure compensation for any losses or injuries.

Arriving passengers walk with their luggage as they prepare to board vehicles at the 'LAX-it' ride-hail passenger pickup lot at LAX.

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A very expensive battle

Uber has put about $32.5 million into its effort since last fall, according to campaign finance records. The opposition has committed about $55 million to fight Uber as well as to promote its own competing initiatives. Consumer Attorneys of California, whose members are lawyers who represent consumers, has led the way with $30 million so far, while more than 400 other attorneys and law firms have spent a combined $20 million to fight the Uber initiative and promote their three measures. The medical providers have raised about $5 million so far and are aiming to raise a total of $10 million, said Pamela Lopez, a campaign representative.

As each side collects signatures to try to get their initiatives on the ballot, they have also spent that money on two different TV commercials that aired during the Super Bowl.

The last time Uber spent tens of millions of dollars on a California ballot measure was on Proposition 22 in 2020, when the state’s voters approved a law written by Uber and other gig companies, which allowed them to create a carveout from labor law and continue to treat their drivers and delivery workers as independent contractors instead of employees. Top spender Uber — along with its Postmates subsidiary — funded more than $70 million out of the total $205 million the winning campaign.

Veena Dubal, a law professor at UC Irvine who focuses on labor and opposed Uber’s Prop. 22 five years ago, said: “Uber is trying once again to misuse the democratic process and to disclaim legal responsibility — this time, not just towards their drivers but also towards consumers.”

The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office wrote that if Uber’s ballot measure passes, the state could be on the hook for tens of millions of dollars of increased Medi-Cal costs, such as for health care that the state wouldn’t be able to recover. On the other hand, the state could save tens of millions of dollars a year in court costs because there could be fewer auto accident cases, the LAO wrote.

Uber’s ‘expansive’ measure

Uber’s proposed initiative calls for victims of vehicle crashes to retain 75% of any settlement they receive. In addition, it limits how much can be awarded for medical expenses and raises the burden of proof for recovering them. For liens and future medical expenses, the limit would be 125% of the Medicare reimbursement rate for a service, and 170% of the Medi-Cal reimbursement rate. The measure would also ban law firms from referring clients to a health care provider in which they have a financial interest.

The company says it’s necessary to stop lawyers from inflating crash victims’ medical costs then pocketing a big chunk of a settlement. Uber has sued lawyers and medical practices in California, New York and Florida over such allegations.

“Californians deserve a system that prioritizes victims over ambulance lawyers, and that’s exactly what this measure does,” said Nathan Click, a spokesperson for Uber’s campaign, in a statement.

Opponents of the measure said that if it qualifies for the November ballot and voters approve it, accident victims may not be able to sue for the compensation they deserve because lawyers will not have enough incentive to take on their cases if they know they will get only 25% of the settlement — or less — as opposed to the average 33% or more.

“Uber wrote it to be expansive, to keep victims from finding attorneys,” said Doug Saeltzer, president of the Consumer Attorneys of California, which is spearheading the opposition to Uber’s initiative and proposed the competing ballot measures.

Lawyers and Uber are also battling over legalese about who would be responsible for paying medical bills after a crash. The lawyers say Uber’s initiative would require medical expenses to get paid from the attorney’s share of the settlement. Uber says the medical bills are likely to get paid by the client.

The way Saeltzer and other opponents of the measure read it is that medical expenses from a vehicle accident must come out of an attorney’s 25% share of a settlement. Jamie Court, president of consumer advocacy group Consumer Watchdog, said it’s because of the language that a victim must retain 75% of the total amount recovered, and this part: “Medical expenses, including liens incurred by the automobile accident victim… are not deductible disbursements or costs.”

Uber spokesperson John Finley told CalMatters in an email that the company strongly disputes the lawyers’ interpretation. He said medical bills are likely to be paid by the client, “which is why the client needs a guarantee that they’ll have enough to pay those bills instead of being left with little to no portion of their recovery.”

Engstrom, the Stanford law professor, said: “No doubt, the language is pretty convoluted… If Uber wanted to create a clear medical bill carveout, it surely could have. They have lots of smart lawyers. You have to wonder why they didn’t.”

Changing medical-cost recovery

Mary-Beth Moylan is a University of the Pacific law professor and an expert on California initiatives. When she read that Uber’s measure also proposes limits for medical costs for crash survivors, she said: “I mean, what?”

Moylan said the many details in Uber’s initiative could have unintended consequences. “This is the danger of this particularized policy-making by initiative,” she said.

Lopez, the Providers for Patient Care representative, said uninsured or underinsured survivors of vehicle crashes may not get the medical care they need because the limits mean providers may decline to treat some patients out of fear they will not be reimbursed for most of the costs.

“This is an attempt by Uber to get out of paying for patient care,” Lopez said, adding that such care could be needed long term and that limiting what a responsible party would pay would affect those without health insurance. That could help drive up medical costs for everyone else, she said.

“This will affect you, me, anyone who’s ever injured in an auto accident in California,” Lopez said.

Uber based its proposed limits on a state law that caps payments to out-of-network providers at 125% of Medicare reimbursement rates, said Uber spokesperson Zahid Arab in an email.

“The current system creates incentives to overbill and overtreat auto accident victims, which increases legal costs and raises premiums statewide,” Arab said.

Because it would be a constitutional amendment, Uber’s measure requires a higher threshold to qualify for the ballot: more than 874,000 signatures by June 8. By the first week of February, it had collected at least 25% of that number, according to the California Secretary of State.

Lawyers’ initiatives

Two of the attorney groups’ proposed measures would treat Uber and other ride-hailing providers like other common transportation carriers such as taxis, buses and trains.

One initiative would expand Uber and other ride-hailing companies’ liability for sexual misconduct against riders or drivers. It would require additional background checks for drivers; monthly reports of sexual assaults and misconduct; disclosure of a driver safety-risk assessment score based on the driver’s history of sexual misconduct to customers; and more. As an initiative statute, it needs to collect 546,651 signatures by July 1 to get on the ballot and reached the 25% threshold a couple of weeks ago.

Another measure would expand the ride-hailing giant’s liability for passenger and public injuries. It would hold the companies responsible for harm to their riders and the public, regardless of the classification of drivers as independent contractors.

The third measure would prohibit new laws that interfere with people hiring lawyers of their choice. It would be a constitutional amendment, and would void Uber’s initiative if both that one and this one are approved by voters.

Uber by the numbers

Uber’s top executives have told investors during their most recent earnings calls that they expect the company’s lower insurance costs to help drive higher revenue growth. The San Francisco-based company brought in more than $14 billion in revenue last year. The executives have mentioned “legal abuse” and their legislative efforts in different states to drive Uber’s legal and insurance costs down.

The company has tried to enact measures similar to the one it’s pushing in California elsewhere. Last year, the Nevada Supreme Court found that Uber’s description of the effects of a measure that would have capped attorneys’ contingency fees in civil cases to 20% was “misleading and confusing.” The company and lawyers in that state later reached a deal on a bill related to insurance liability.

In California, Uber recently won a bid to reduce its costs by going not to the voters but through the Legislature. Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill that reduced how much insurance ride-hailing companies are supposed to carry for crashes involving uninsured and underinsured motorists, from $1 million to $60,000 per person and $300,000 per incident. State Sen. Chris Cabaldon, the Napa Democrat who authored the law, said he wanted to help lower fares for rides.

Fares for Uber rides in California have generally risen in the past several years. From 2019 to 2025, the average Uber fare in the state rose from $14.11 to $27.15, according to Gridwise, which makes an app that allows gig workers to track their earnings and expenses. Gridwise says its data encompasses more than 800 million trips and more than $8.5 billion in tracked driver earnings.

That aligns with the trajectory of the data from Obi, an app maker that allows users to compare ride-hailing and taxi fares, which shows that from 2021 to 2025, the average Uber fare in California rose from $26.96 to $29.93. Obi’s data is based on information it collects from its 1 million users.

President Donald Trump will address a joint session of Congress tonight for his first State of the Union address since returning to the White House just over one year ago.

It's an opportunity for the president to tout his agenda and shape his party's messaging ahead of this year's midterm elections.

But the prime-time address comes at a moment when the president has seen his agenda complicated on multiple fronts. That includes trade, where his tariff policies were dealt a rebuke last week by the U.S. Supreme Court, and immigration, where Trump and congressional Democrats are deadlocked over funding the Department of Homeland Security.

Plus, Americans are divided on whether Trump's first year has been a success. Six in 10 believe the country is worse off than last year, according to the latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll, and a majority think the state of the union is not strong.

Here's what you need to know ahead of tonight's speech.

What time is the address?

The president is expected to begin at 6 p.m. PT., and if history is any indication, prepare for a long night. Last year, in what was technically not a State of the Union speech, Trump addressed Congress for over 90 minutes, breaking records as the longest joint address in at least 60 years.

NPR will be covering all of it with live special coverage and analysis. You can listen on NPR.org, on many public radio stations, in the NPR app or by telling your Alexa device to "Ask NPR to play Special Coverage" starting at 6 p.m.

Why does this happen every year? 

This is part of the gig for every president. The Constitution requires that the president "shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union." It's intended to be a recap of sorts of their previous year in office.

So it's a formality, yes, but there are political stakes. Trump's speech comes at the start of a crucial election year, and his party is on the defensive. GOP lawmakers are fighting to maintain control of the Senate, where they currently hold a 53 to 47 majority, and the House, where their margin is even smaller, 218 to 214. Trump is battling low approval numbers, which are often seen as a warning sign, given that since World War II the party controlling the White House historically loses an average of 27 House seats in the midterms and four in the Senate.

What will Trump talk about?

Expect a big focus on immigration, which has been a key pillar of Trump's second term. The administration has defended its enforcement agenda, arguing it's aimed at removing people living in the country illegally who have committed dangerous crimes. However, lawmakers have raised concerns about the tactics used by federal immigration agents in cities around the country, especially after two U.S. citizens were killed in Minneapolis last month.

It will also be worth watching how Trump talks about tariffs. He has long defended imposing import taxes on foreign goods as a way to strengthen American manufacturing, but in a major ruling last Friday, the Supreme Court struck down the main lever the president has used to carry out this policy.

The tariff ruling is part of a broader economic messaging challenge facing the White House. A majority of Americans already say they think tariffs are more likely to hurt than help the economy. Trump has also dismissed affordability concerns as a Democratic "hoax," even though voters report struggling to keep up with the cost of living.

Tonight's address is also happening at a crucial moment in U.S. foreign policy. Trump is pressuring Iran to disband its nuclear program, and he has not ruled out using force to make that happen. In recent days, the American military has expanded its presence in the Middle East, sending additional fighter jets and a second aircraft carrier to the region.

It's the latest move by Trump in what has been a more muscular approach to foreign policy compared to his first term. The president has approved strikes on countries around the world, announced the U.S. will "run" Venezuela after arresting the country's leader and has threatened to buy Greenland. At the same time, Trump has repeatedly labeled himself a peacemaker, despite facing steep challenges in achieving his goals of rebuilding Gaza and brokering an end to Russia's war in Ukraine.

What will the response from Democrats look like?

Newly sworn-in Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger is slated to provide the party's official rebuttal. Spanberger was one of several Democrats who won their races last November, delivering some of the most high-profile victories since the party's bruising losses across the country in 2024.

She may also provide a potential preview of how Democrats may approach their own midterm messaging. On the campaign trail, Spanberger centered her message on affordability concerns and criticized the administration's treatment of federal workers through mass layoffs and the longest government shutdown in history.

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger speaks after being sworn in to office at the Virginia State Capitol in January. Spanberger will deliver the official Democratic response to President Trump's State of the Union address.

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California Sen. Alex Padilla is tapped to deliver the Spanish-language response for Democrats. It's another notable pick for Democrats as they refine their election message, particularly on immigration. Padilla has been an outspoken critic of Trump's immigration agenda and was forcibly removed from a Homeland Security press conference over the summer.

There's also a group of roughly a dozen House and Senate Democrats who plan to boycott Trump's speech and instead hold a counter-rally dubbed the "People's State of the Union." It comes as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., has urged lawmakers to either "attend with silent defiance" or skip the event.

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Last month, Colleen Fagan was observing an immigration enforcement operation at an apartment complex in Portland, Maine, when federal agents scanned her face with a smartphone and appeared to record her car license plate number.

In a social media video she recorded, Fagan can be heard asking why the agent was taking her information. What the agent said next made the video go viral.

"Cause we have a nice little database," the masked agent said. "And now you're considered a domestic terrorist."

Fagan, who is a social worker, has now joined a federal class action lawsuit that argues the Department of Homeland Security and a number of its sub-agencies are violating the First Amendment and are taking actions "designed to chill, suppress, and control speech that they do not like."

"A federal agent called me a domestic terrorist just because I recorded agents operating in public in my community. But I have a right to do that, and so do others," Fagan said in a statement. "I want people to know how important it is to use our First Amendment rights to observe and document what is happening. Peaceful dissent is not a crime."

Though Fagan's video went viral, her full name had not been widely publicized until this lawsuit.

The suit, filed by the legal nonprofit Protect Democracy and the law firms Dunn Isaacson Rhee and Drummond Woodsum, alleges federal agents are unconstitutionally retaliating against people who are lawfully observing and recording federal immigration enforcement operations by gathering their personal information and labeling them domestic terrorists.

"Plaintiffs must either abandon their constitutional rights or accept being cataloged and branded as 'domestic terrorists,'" reads the lawsuit, which was filed in federal district court in Maine on Monday. "That is a choice the Constitution does not require Plaintiffs, or anyone, to make."

DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment. DHS officials have denied the existence of a database of alleged domestic terrorists since Fagan's video was widely shared.

"There is NO database of 'domestic terrorists' run by DHS," the agency's spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin (who has recently departed) told CNN last month about the video. "We do of course monitor and investigate and refer all threats, assaults and obstruction of our officers to the appropriate law enforcement. Obstructing and assaulting law enforcement is a felony and a federal crime."

After federal agents fatally shot two U.S. citizens in Minnesota last month, DHS officials labeled both of them domestic terrorists in the immediate aftermath.

Federal agents have access to facial recognition tools that can be used to identify people in the field, as well as the mobile app Mobile Companion, which allows agents to use a smartphone to scan license plates.

These kinds of surveillance tools have allowed federal agents to intimidate observers and protesters by revealing they know their names and addresses, the lawsuit says. Several Minnesota observers who have followed federal agents in their cars have described the experience of agents leading them to their own homes to show they know where they live. The lawsuit names other Maine observers who have had the same experience.

It is legal for observers to film and follow federal agents at a safe distance, Scarlet Kim, senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, told NPR earlier this month. But dozens of people in Minnesota said in declarations collected by the ACLU that they were observing federal agents but were told they were impeding, interfering or acting illegally.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said at a press conference in July that violence against DHS agents "is anything that threatens them and their safety," and went on to say that included "doxing them" and "videotaping them where they're at when they're out on operations."

DHS has crafted a wide definition of doxing. McLaughlin told The American Prospect in September that "videotaping ICE law enforcement and posting photos and videos of them online is doxing our agents."

A memo issued by Attorney General Pam Bondi in December lists "doxing" law enforcement as domestic terrorism.

Elinor Hilton, another resident of Portland, Maine, is also listed as a plaintiff in the new lawsuit. Federal agents captured her face and license plate with their phones on Jan. 21, after she began recording them conducting an immigration enforcement operation at a Home Depot, the lawsuit says.

She says one told her, "I hope you know that if you keep coming to things like this, you are going to be on a domestic terrorist watchlist. Then we're going to come to your house later tonight," according to the lawsuit.

Hilton did not stay at her home that night for fear the agent would make good on the threat, the lawsuit says. She has reduced how often she observes federal agents and no longer uses her own car when she observes. She now parks her car several blocks away from her home and those of family members "out of concern that federal agents might recognize her car and trace it to her home." She says on a recent trip she left her personal phone at home out of concern that if she was placed on a government list, federal agents might detain her and search her phone.

Fagan is concerned about being placed on a "no-fly" or similar list, the lawsuit says, and worries her current or future employment could be affected by any labels DHS gives her.

Less than a week before Hilton's interaction with federal agents, Tom Homan, President Donald Trump's immigration adviser, told Fox News host Laura Ingraham that he wanted to create a "database" of people who impede ICE.

"These people who want to say follow ICE and film ICE, you know what, you can protest, they have that right." Then he added that for those who cross a legal line, "We're going to create a database where those people that are arrested for interference, impeding, and assault, we're going to make them famous," Homan said. "We're going to put their face on TV. We're going to let their employers, in their neighborhoods, in their schools, know who these people are."

But in other public appearances, federal officials have denied a database of protesters exists.

At a congressional hearing earlier this month, U.S. Rep. Lou Correa (D-Calif.) asked Todd Lyons, acting director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to respond to what the federal agent in Maine said about "a little database" in the video Fagan recorded.

"I can't speak for that individual, sir," Lyons said. "But I can assure you that there is no database that's tracking United States citizens."

The lawsuit says, "If Defendants' denials are true—and the actions captured on video simply involved federal agents pretending to add observers to a database—then they are deliberately lying about domestic terrorist watchlists or databases to unlawfully intimidate observers."

The lawsuit is asking a federal judge to stop DHS from collecting records on people and from "threatening, harassing, and otherwise retaliating against" them for exercising their protected first amendment rights, and to expunge records that have already been collected.

JoAnna Suriani, counsel at Protect Democracy, said the lawsuit will "ensure that the federal government can no longer use unconstitutional surveillance tactics to silence its critics and sideline the observers who protect our communities."
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Gavin Newsom is in his final year as governor of California, but lately, he's been touring the country to energize voters ahead of the midterm elections.

"I think it's really important for the Democratic Party not to give up on red states and rural parts of the country," he told NPR at an event organized by local Democrats in the town of Manning, South Carolina. Newsom is also widely considered a potential presidential candidate for 2028 — a possibility he has not ruled out — and he sees himself as a leader of Democratic opposition to President Donald Trump, often mocking his brash style on social media.

"I'm putting a mirror up to President Trump and I'm fighting fire with fire and I am punching a bully back in the mouth," he told NPR.

At the same time, Newsom has embraced conversations with major right-wing figures such as Steve Bannon and Ben Shapiro on his podcast, drawing criticism from members of his own party. The governor sat down with All Things Considered for an interview ahead of the release of his memoir, Young Man in a Hurry. He discusses how his struggles with dyslexia shaped his childhood and career, his strategy for dealing with President Trump, and how he thinks the Democratic party should meet this political moment.
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