The Brief

Gov. Gavin Newsom faces a huge deficit this spring, and he has one especially big money-saving option that he’s not using.

California’s rapidly falling inmate population could allow Newsom to close as many as five more prisons, analysts say, saving $1 billion a year at a moment when he’s pulling from reserves to bring the state budget into the black.

Instead, Newsom wants to take a more cautious approach to trimming prison beds. His new budget proposal calls on the corrections department to close 46 housing blocks inside 13 state prisons.

Prison yard closures save money and decrease the need for staffing, but not to the extent of a prison shutdown. Newsom’s proposal would save about $80 million.

Saying his administration had been “scrutinizing” the prisons budget, Newsom said “We’re mindful of the direction we’re going as it relates to public safety.”

California prison status

At the inmate population’s peak in 2006, California locked up 165,000 people in state prisons. Today, after a decade of sentencing changes, federal court intervention and a surge of releases tied to COVID-19, California’s prisons house about 93,000 people.

Because of that trend, Newsom has already moved to close four prisons over the course of his administration. He projects that those shutdowns will save the state $3.4 billion by 2027.

He suggested on Friday that the forces fighting prison closures – labor unions representing prison employees, the communities dependent on prison jobs, legislation and litigation intended to slow or stop the closures – forced him to take smaller steps than shuttering entire facilities while he crafted his plan to close a projected $27.6 billion deficit.

“Prison housing unit deactivations can happen much sooner than prison closures and provide us more flexibility,” Newsom said. “Legislative leaders have asked me, are we considering collectively reducing the larger footprint in the state? The answer is yes.

“But we want to do it in a pragmatic and thoughtful way, we want to be mindful of labor concerns and community concerns, we want to be mindful of trends and we want to be mindful of the unknown, meaning there are proposals to roll back some of our criminal justice reforms that could have significant impact on the census and population.”

California cities fight prison closures

So far, Newsom closed the Deuel Vocational Institution in Tracy in 2021 and the California Correctional Center in Susanville in 2023. He ended a lease with a privately run prison called the California City Correctional Facility, and the corrections department is shutting down Chuckwalla Valley State Prison near the Arizona border.

Newsom at Friday’s budget press conference said he would accelerate the proposed March 2025 closure of Chuckwalla prison in Blythe to November, although his office hasn’t yet provided details on how much money that would save the state.

That news surprised leaders in Blythe, where city officials had attempted to save the prison as one of the community’s major employers.

“This news is disheartening to say the least,” said Blythe interim city manager Mallory Crecelius. “Expediting the closure was not discussed with the city prior to it being included in the May (revised budget), and we learned about it with everyone else. Our hearts are heavy for the employees and inmates at (Chuckwalla Valley State Prison) whose lives will be directly impacted as this prison is shuttered.”

Because of the declining inmate headcount, California can close up to five more of its 33 prisons and eight yards within operating prisons while still complying with a federal court order that caps the system’s capacity, the Legislative Analyst’s Office found last year. The report estimated the potential savings at $1 billion.

The costs of incarcerating prisoners, meanwhile, is more than ever, rising to $132,860 per inmate.

Those numbers have prompted Democratic lawmakers over the past several years to press for more closures, particularly as they try to protect social services from budget cuts or to put money into inmate rehabilitation programs.

“If the people you’re serving in the department continues to go down, why is the cost going up?” Democratic Assemblyman James Ramos of San Bernardino asked corrections department officials at an April budget hearing.

Prison union sees safety risks in closures

Amber-Rose Howard, executive director of Californians United for a Responsible Budget, which advocates for reducing the number of prisons and cutting the prison population, said Newsom’s proposal to close yards instead of whole prisons misses an opportunity for bigger savings.

“The truth is, it doesn’t go far enough,” Howard said. “When only a single yard is closed, then that means that there’s still tens of millions of dollars being spent on operational costs (and) administrative staffing.”

She noted that the state still has 15,000 empty prison beds.

“These yard deactivation will save $80 million annually,” she said, “and that’s not even equal to the cost savings of one prison closing.”

Newsom has previously said he wanted to maintain some capacity in the prisons to provide more space for rehabilitation efforts.

The California Correctional Peace Officers Association, the union representing prison guards, has argued that shuttering prisons puts guards and inmates in danger. It’s a heavyweight in the Capitol, and it has supported Newsom. It contributed $1.75 million to help Newsom defeat a recall campaign in 2021, and it gave $1 million to back Newsom’s mental health ballot measure that voters approved in March.

Writing in opposition to a bill that would limit the number of empty beds the prison system can maintain, the union said prisons are still holding more inmates than they were designed to.

“Higher densities of inmates pose substantial risks to CCPOA’s membership, as well as other staff and inmates. The denser the population, the greater the risk of assaults and other acts of violence,” the union wrote.

Artist Betye Saar, whose work reflects Black identity, culture and spirituality, died Sunday morning in Los Angeles at 99.

Saar’s death was confirmed Monday by relatives. She would have turned 100 this week.

A central figure of the 1960s Black Art Movement, Saar pioneered assemblage boxes, or sculptures made of found objects, and reclaimed Jim Crow-era memorabilia as powerful totems of Black liberation.

“Her symbolically rich body of work has evolved over time to demonstrate the environmental, cultural, political, racial, technological, economic and historical context in which it exists,” according to Roberts Projects, the Los Angeles gallery that represents her.

Saar began her career in design and shifted to art at age 35. She continued to make art into her 90s. She grew up in Pasadena and was part of a community of Black artists in nearby Altadena; she often cited Simon Rodia’s Watts Towers as an early source of inspiration.

Saar’s practice incorporated painting, printmaking, sculpture and found objects including dolls, washboards and other antiques. Boats, clocks, cages and altars recur in her practice, as well as symbols of the occult and cosmology. She often referenced her astrological sign of Leo in the form of lions, punctuating many works.

“Her appropriation of Black collectibles, heirlooms and utilitarian objects are transformed through subversion,” the gallery said. “Among the older generation of Black American artists, Saar is without reproach.”

Made in 1969, “Black Girl’s Window,” was groundbreaking. Still, it wasn’t widely celebrated until decades later, and it was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2019.

“There weren’t that many galleries in Los Angeles at the time and there certainly weren’t any for Black artists,” she once said in an interview.

“The Liberation of Aunt Jemima,” created in 1972, is one of her most important works. It features memorabilia she collected that denigrated Black people, included a “mammy,” or 19th century minstrel character who smiled while serving white slave owners.

In Saar’s hands though, the figure is reclaimed: She smiles, but holds a rifle and has a hand grenade.

It came in response to the 1968 assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee. Saar said King’s death “triggered a rage within me, and the mystic transformed into the warrior.”

“I had a lot of hesitation about using powerful, negative images such as these — thinking about how white people saw Black people, and how that influenced the ways in which Black people saw each other,” Saar said. “What saved it was that I made Aunt Jemima into a revolutionary figure.”

After more than 130 years, Quaker Oats announced it would retire its Aunt Jemima brand in 2020, acknowledging the logo and its origins were “based on a racial stereotype.”

Saar taught and mentored generations of Black artists, including painter Kerry James Marshall.

Though Saar’s work was exhibited in a 1975 solo show at the Whitney Museum of American Art, in the decades that followed large institutions have exhibited her work only sporadically. In 2019 though, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and MoMA mounted concurrent solo shows.

In spring 2026, Saar was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

“She had boundless energy for making art. I think she had a lot to say and was tired of the art world being dominated by white males,” said Angela Robinson Witherspoon, who produced and directed a documentary in 2023 on Saar’s life. “Betye Saar: Ready to Be A Warrior” features interviews with John Legend, Tina Knowles and other prominent voices.

“She was raising her three young daughters and she wanted to be part of the Civil Rights Movement,” Robinson Witherspoon said.

“Let’s Get It On: The Wearable Art of Betye Saar,” which focuses on costume design, is currently on view at Roberts Projects in Los Angeles, and there are 26 of an eventual 100 dolls on view at The New York Historical in Manhattan.

Associated Press writer Anna Furman contributed reporting from Los Angeles.

International students in Southern California say new visa time limits imposed by the Trump administration don’t square with the realities of trying to complete a degree in four years.

Under the new rules, there is now a limit to how long international students can remain in the country, as opposed to remaining in the U.S. for as long as it took to complete their degree program.

Department of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin said in a statement that the previous rules allowed thousands to become “forever students” by perpetually enrolling in courses to avoid departure. LAist has reached out to the department about how many of these students are in Southern California.

California State University spokesperson Amy Bentley-Smith said international students from over 160 countries “add to the rich diversity, voices, and perspectives that enrich our campuses.”

Rachel Zaentz, senior director of strategic and critical communications at the University of California Office of the President, told LAist in a statement that the new policy “significantly changes the way international students have studied in the U.S. for decades.”

“The prior Duration of Status rule provided international students and scholars with the time needed to complete their studies, conduct research, teach, train and work, provided they maintained their nonimmigrant status, in support of the country’s global competitiveness and innovation economy,” she added.

Studies have also shown that international students help boost colleges’ financial footing since they aren’t eligible for aid.

In a letter to DHS , the UC Office of the President said international students contributed $6.4 billion to California’s economy during the 2023-24 academic year and supported more than 55,000 jobs.

Katherine S. Newman, UC System Provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, wrote that the then-proposed visa limits would deter international students from pursuing doctoral programs in the U.S. and instead turn to countries like China, which has been heavily investing in doctoral programs.

Additionally, the letter highlights how students take varying times to complete their degrees. The new changes set limits to four years for visas with an option to apply for extensions. But Newman wrote that the graduation rate for almost 90% of incoming freshmen is six years.

Adding to worries 

Reva Kaneri, a graduate student from India pursuing a degree in data science from the University of California, San Diego, said the new rules affects her mental health.

Reva Kaneri, a graduate student from India, is pursuing a degree in data science from the University of California, San Diego.

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Courtesy Reva Kaneri

)

“It adds a layer of uncertainty and pressure that international students already live with,” she said. “As someone who simply came here to pursue an education, build a career, and experience a new country, that uncertainty can be scary at times.”

The new visa limits, she said, reduces the flexibility international students had to find a job.

Kaneri took out a loan to pursue her degree so she wouldn’t be a financial burden on her parents.

“At one point, I genuinely thought I’d have to give up on my dream because every door seemed closed,” said Kaneri, who also worked on campus as a teaching assistant to help cover some of her tuition.

But, she said, it’s worth it.

“I honestly didn’t want to settle for average. I wanted to learn from some of the best people in the world. The U.S. has an incredible tech ecosystem, from Silicon Valley to Seattle and beyond, and many of the world’s leading technology companies are headquartered here,” Kaneri said. “I wanted the opportunity to work with talented people, network with founders and innovators, and absorb as much as I possibly could. For the goals I had, I felt there wasn’t a better place.”

For Rohit Nair, an international student from India pursuing a master’s degree in business analytics at USC, finding a job is not optional.

Rohit Nair is an international student from India pursuing a master’s degree in business analytics at USC.

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Courtesy Rohit Nair

)

He took out a loan of around $87,000 to come to the U.S. to study. But if he doesn’t get a job in the U.S. after graduating, it would be impossible for him to pay it back in Indian rupees.

“ I would be in generational debt if I take that step,” he said.

The post LAUSD sets virtual meetings on the Lineage fire before students return to class appeared first on LA Local.

The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is inviting parents and guardians to virtual meetings on its plans for the new school year following the Lineage Logistics warehouse fire in Boyle Heights.

District officials will update families on what to expect on the first day of school and answer questions about preparations for students returning to campus.

According to a district statement, LAUSD’s Office of Environmental Health and Safety will monitor air quality in and around school sites, “with additional testing planned before the first day of school.” To improve air quality inside classrooms, the district said it is adjusting airflow “to limit outdoor contaminants” and upgrading or replacing HVAC filtration systems where needed. (Read more about the schools LAUSD will be monitoring).

Several LAUSD schools sit near the warehouse, including Eastman Elementary and Stevenson College and Career Preparatory Middle School, both less than a mile from the fire site. With the new school year approaching, many parents have questions about how the fire cleanup may affect students’ return to campus.

Alma Lagunas, an East L.A. resident, said her sons, 10 and 17, would typically spend the summer playing soccer or basketball and riding their bikes in the neighborhood. But since the fire broke out June 17, the family has been isolated behind closed doors and windows. Going outside has meant smoke, unhealthy air and now, being hit with the worsening smell of rotting food. Lagunas worries about what will happen if the warehouse is not cleared by the time her 10-year-old starts fifth grade at Eastman.

The first day of classes for LAUSD is Aug. 12 — two days before the 45-day cleanup deadline set by L.A. Mayor Karen Bass. At a town hall meeting July 9, Lineage said it would do its best to meet the deadline, which the company acknowledged was “aggressive.”

Below are the meeting dates and information on how to join.

Meeting Details

All meetings will take place virtually at 6 p.m. and can be found at bit.ly/LAUSDBHUpdates2026.

Meeting dates:

• Wednesday, July 29, 2026
• Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026
• Monday, Aug. 10, 2026

For more information and resources, visit https://east.lausd.org/apps/news/.

Boyle Heights Beat reporter Laura Anaya-Morga contributed to this story.

This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

A new California Supreme Court ruling on retirement pay for public employees centered on a small amount of money — just one week’s salary for a retired attorney — but it had the potential to be a much costlier decision for government agencies and taxpayers.

The question: How much accrued vacation time can retiring public employees cash out at the end of their careers in ways that boost their pensions? Former Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown took aim at that perk, among others, in his 2013 pension reform law, but it was unsettled in courts until now.

The California Supreme Court’s answer: Under Brown’s law, employees can count toward their pension formula whatever amount of vacation their contract allows them to cash out in a single calendar year.

That sounds simple, but some California government workers end their careers with two months or more worth of accrued vacation time — enough to cash out in increments over several years and increase their retirement pension by hundreds of dollars a month.

The case that reached the state Supreme Court turned on retired Ventura County Counsel Leroy Smith, who designated October 2019 to October 2020 as his final year of civil service and cashed out 240 hours of accrued time off over that period.

His contract allowed him to cash out only 200 hours a year and his pension plan, the Ventura County Employees’ Retirement System, would not count the extra 40 hours toward his retirement formula.

Smith and other retired Ventura County employees argued Brown’s law did not specify that the hours had to be in a single calendar year, and they should have been able to count leave cashed out over any 12-month period.

A state appeals court ruled against them two years ago. Two public safety unions appealed that decision, bringing the case to the high court. They argued that Brown’s pension law does not refer to a calendar year when it discusses cashouts.

“If the Legislature intended to restrict annual leave cashouts to a calendar year, it would have used the term “calendar year” instead of “each 12-month period,” attorneys for Ventura County attorneys and sheriff’s deputies wrote in a briefing to the court.

But the Supreme Court found otherwise, pointing to what justices described as the common meaning of a 12-month period and the broader context of what Brown and lawmakers were trying to accomplish when they passed the pension reform law.

At the time, California’s major pension funds were recovering from two successive blows — first the dot-com bust and then the Great Recession. The law Brown signed trimmed benefits, compelled employees to work longer to earn a full retirement and required them to kick in more money from their paychecks to fund their pensions.

The Supreme Court ruling conceded that Smith wanted just 40 additional hours to count toward his pension, but the justices noted that other employees could go much further if California allowed workers to “straddle” a calendar year with vacation cashouts. They could effectively double the pensionable cashout if they timed it correctly.

The justices wrote that it would be “perhaps not so inconceivable as to rank as absurd” to think the Legislature intended for that kind of pension boost in the pension reform law.

The new decision applies to workers and retirees enrolled in California’s county-run pension plans. They operate outside of the statewide pension funds, which are the California Public Employees’ Retirement System and the California State Teachers Retirement System.

A group of county pension funds wrote a brief to the court urging judges to limit pensionable cashouts to a single calendar rather than a movable 12-month period. They wrote it would be expensive for them to revise retiree benefits if the rules change.

“There is no reason to cause this confusion and undue burden to the (county retirement) systems,” they wrote.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.