The Brief

For years, Gov. Gavin Newsom has staunchly opposed increasing taxes on wealthy Californians even when the issue repeatedly reared its head during recent tough budget years. But faced with deep federal cuts to social services programs, labor and health care groups are asking voters to circumvent the governor — to tax a very small number of people.

Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West and St. John’s Community Health in Los Angeles want voters statewide to approve a “billionaires tax” to help prop up the state’s health care and education systems.

The proposed ballot initiative would levy a one-time, 5% tax on the approximately 200 billionaires in the state, generating roughly $100 billion in revenue, according to proponents.

Going to the ballot is a common move for advocacy groups frustrated with Sacramento politics, which, while dominated by Democrats, can still be factious. Dave Regan, president of SEIU-UHW, said at a news conference the ballot initiative is the “only solution anyone can see.”

“We are facing literally a collapse of our health care system here in California and elsewhere,” Regan said. “This will help us keep health care facilities open. It will stabilize premiums and coverage for all Californians, protect health care jobs, and also improve public education.”

The proposed initiative would tax the 2025 net worth of billionaires residing in California, allowing them to pay off the obligation over five years. The revenue would go into a special fund with 90% reserved for health care spending and 10% reserved for K-12 education spending.

It needs 874,641 signatures to be placed before voters on the 2026 ballot, a number that the groups are confident they can reach. Getting voters to ultimately approve the tax, however, could be a hard sell.

While California has taxed the income of millionaires, lawmakers have never successfully passed a wealth tax. Instead of targeting earnings, the state would levy such a tax on the net worth of an individual, everything from investments to property value and even other assets, like jewelry and paintings.

The governor is a big reason why. Newsom has never supported a wealth tax, at times angrily rejecting conservative efforts to link him with one as “shameful.” He quashed the most recent legislative effort last year.

Democratic lawmakers this year had considered raising revenue to help support the state’s social services programs, which receive billions in federal funds annually, but pivoted to focus on Newsom’s Proposition 50 redistricting fight.

Regan said there are no plans to cut a deal with state lawmakers and pull the initiative from the ballot.

President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax reform and budget bill — the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — is projected to cut nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid over a decade. California is estimated to lose roughly $30 billion in federal Medicaid funds annually as a result. The state’s Medicaid agency estimates 3.4 million people will lose coverage as a result of federal eligibility changes.

The bulk of cuts won’t take effect until 2027. But states, including California, are already taking steps to shrink their health insurance programs for low-income and disabled individuals.

California lawmakers facing a $12 billion deficit earlier this year made cuts to the state’s insurance program for immigrants without legal status, including a partial enrollment freeze that starts Jan. 1. They also reinstituted the Medi-Cal asset test, which limits how much enrollees can have in property value and savings.

Susan Shelley, vice president of communications with the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, said most Californians will probably assume that the tax will not affect them, but establishing a wealth tax in the state could create a troubling precedent.

“We tax income at a very high level, but we don't tax wealth and assets,” Shelley said. Nearly half of the state’s personal income tax revenue comes from just 1% of the state’s earners. Over time, she added, a wealth tax “could come all the way down to the middle class and they say you have too much equity in your house and we’re taking it.”

Shelley also said the proposed initiative would incentivize billionaires to leave the state, creating a “huge hole in the state budget” that would hurt the economy in the long term.

Proponents of the measure disagreed with that characterization of the proposal. They said that it would not levy taxes on the middle class nor would it affect businesses because it targets the net worth of ultrawealthy individuals.

Emmanuel Saez, an economics professor at UC Berkeley and supporter of the proposal, said the tax is structured to prevent billionaires from avoiding the bill simply by leaving the state.

It would tax their wealth established in 2025, and any billionaires who moved to the state in 2026 would not be subject to the levy.

“California billionaires are not going to be able to avoid the tax by moving their assets outside of California,” Saez said.

Supported by the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF), which works to ensure that people have access to the care they need, when they need it, at a price they can afford. Visit www.chcf.org to learn more.

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

Apple and Google are warning some U.S-based employees on visas against traveling outside of the country to avoid the risk of getting stuck coming back, as the Trump administration toughens vetting of visa applicants, according to recent internal memos from the tech companies that were reviewed by NPR.

U.S. consulates and embassies have been reporting lengthy, sometimes months-long delays, for visa appointments following new rules from the Department of Homeland Security requiring travelers to undergo a screening of up to five years' of their social media history — a move criticized by free speech advocates as a privacy invasion.

For Apple and Google, which together employ more than 300,000 employees and rely heavily on highly-skilled foreign workers, the increased vetting and reports of extended delays were enough for the companies to tell some of their staff to stay in the U.S. if they are able to avoid foreign travel.

"We recommend avoiding international travel at this time as you risk an extended stay outside of the U.S.," Berry Appleman & Leiden, a law firm that works with Google, wrote to employees.

The law firm Fragomen, which works with Apple, wrote a similar message: "Given the recent updates and the possibility of unpredictable, extended delays when returning to the U.S., we strongly recommend that employees without a valid H-1B visa stamp avoid international travel for now," the memo read. "If travel cannot be postponed, employees should connect with Apple Immigration and Fragomen in advance to discuss the risks."

Apple and Google declined to comment on the advisories, which were first reported by Business Insider.

It's the latest sign of how the Trump administration's aggressive immigration policies are affecting the foreign-born workforce in the U.S.

Earlier this year, the White House announced that companies will be subjected to a $100,000 fee for all new H-1B visas, a type of visa popular among tech companies eager to hire highly skilled workers from abroad.

H-1Bs typically last three years, and applicants have to return to an embassy or consulate in their home country for a renewal, but reports suggest such a routine trip could lead to people being stranded for months as a result of the Trump administration's new policies.

On Friday, The Washington Post reported that hundreds of visa holders who traveled to India to renew their H-1Bs had their appointments postponed with the State Department explaining that officials needed more time to ensure that no applicants "pose a threat to U.S. national security or public safety."

At Google, the Alphabet Workers' Union has been campaigning for additional protections for workers on H-1B visas. Those workers would be particularly vulnerable in the event Google carried out layoffs, since losing employer sponsorship could jeopardize their legal status, said Google software engineer Parul Koul, who leads the union.

The need to support H-1B holders at Google, she said, has "only become more urgent with all the scrutiny and heightened vetting by the Trump administration around the H1B program, and how the administration is coming for all other types of immigrant workers."

Copyright 2025 NPR

The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing in Agoura Hills isn’t slated to open until fall 2026, but there’s already been a wild discovery near the forested overpass.

National Park Service biologists recently captured and collared a female mountain lion, now named P-129, inside the construction site of the forthcoming crossing.

She is the third mountain lion to be captured through the crossing site, and the first since construction started.

Anaerial view of the Wildlife Crossing site in progress taken on December 6, 2025.

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“The mountain lion was captured and tracked and traveling right around the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing — right inside of it,” said Beth Pratt, Regional Executive Director of the National Wildlife Federation, one of the organizations that's managing construction of the project.

“To actually capture one right in the site of the crossing being built was pretty special,” she added.

A Puma’s path

P-129 was captured as part of the National Park Service’s Puma research project.

Scientists with the service have been studying mountain lions in the Santa Monica Mountains and the surrounding region since 2002. It’s one of the longest continuous urban mountain lion studies.

“The knowledge that the Park Service has gleaned from these decades of research [has] helped us understand how they travel and use the landscape in the Santa Monica Mountains,” Pratt told LAist.

The soon-to-be-completed wildlife crossing that will go over the 101 freeway was set in motion because of research done by the Puma project.

Although the crossing is intended for all wildlife, mountain lions are the ones most at risk from isolation caused by the freeway, said Pratt. The discovery of genetic degradation among mountain lions is what raised alarm bells that prompted the construction of the overpass.

In 2020, birth defects began manifesting in tracking data. Kink tails, only one descended testis and the degradation of sperm quality all pointed to the next inevitable development: sterility.

Indeed, Pratt said a major goal of the crossing is to bring "dates" — mating partners — for these mountain lions who are living in the Santa Monica Mountains.

Coming next Fall

Construction workers for the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing continue work on the project.

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The crossing has been under construction since 2022 and is on track to open next fall. The main structure over the 101 has been completed, with a habitat of native plants growing on top.

Right now, Pratt said a massive utility relocation of electricity, water and gas lines is underway.

“We have to move those utility lines out of the way, and then the secondary structure over Agoura Road is being constructed as well,” she said.

With the big unveiling in sight, the team is now taking bets on which animal will make its maiden passage next year.

“It could be [P-129], or it could be the dominant male in the area," Pratt said. "Or it could be a new cat that we don’t even know.”

It's easy to lose our critical thinking skills around the holidays. In a frenzy of last-minute gift shopping and travel bookings, we can be more anxious, more distracted and more vulnerable.

"There's a lot of hustle and bustle during the holiday season, so there's a lot more opportunities for scammers to steal from us," says Amy Nofziger, senior director of Fraud Victim Support at the AARP Fraud Watch Network, a fraud prevention service.

In a recent AARP survey of nearly 2,000 U.S. adults, nearly 9 out of 10 reported being targeted by or falling for some type of scam during the holiday season in the past year. Common schemes included fake shipping notifications, stolen packages and fake charity and donation requests.

Being aware of the tactics that scammers use this time of year can safeguard you from falling victim to fraud, Nofziger says. She shares four types of scams her team has seen this season.

Fake retail ads on social media

Scammers open stores on social media platforms for a limited period of time. They sell fake branded clothing or jewelry and use stolen logos or similar domain names to appear authentic. The store might disappear shortly after you've placed your order.

How to protect yourself: "If you're using a vendor that you haven't normally used, take the name of the vendor, put it in a new search, type the words 'scam,' 'fraud' and 'complaint' after it, and use other shoppers' experiences with the company to guide your own," Nofziger says.

She recommends always using a credit card to pay for online goods. "You have greater consumer protections," she says, meaning, in the event you fall for a scam, you can have an easier time getting your money back.

Fake gift cards

If you're looking to buy a gift card for someone, know that it is possible for scammers to get the gift card number and PIN before you buy it.

"They actually remove stacks of gift cards off of the card carousels, log every gift card number and PIN into their system, then load those gift cards back onto the carousels," says Nofziger.

If you add money onto one of these cards, scammers are notified and able to instantly withdraw it. "You could not even have left the store yet and that money could be drained," she says.

How to protect yourself: Nofziger recommends buying gift cards that are close to the front of the store and might have had more eyes watching them. She also suggests purchasing electronic gift cards instead of physical cards that can be tampered with.

Fake delivery texts

It's more common to receive unexpected packages around the holidays, and scammers will use that to their advantage, says Nofziger.

"They'll send out fake notifications saying that they're from a shipping company and that there's a problem with your account," like a missing piece of your address, she says. "But most of the time, if there's a problem with a package, you will hear directly from the vendor."

How to protect yourself: If you receive an unexpected text message from a shipping company like UPS or FedEx asking for your personal information, Nofziger's advice is to reach out separately to the company's customer service line and confirm that a package is indeed coming your way. You can also verify your address directly through their website.

Usually, "this is nothing but a phishing scam," she says, or an attempt to dupe you into sharing personal information.

Travel deals too good to be true

Travel prices can get expensive around the holidays, leading some to search online for better deals. But Nofziger says to be wary of suspiciously cheap fares and travel websites you haven't used before.

Nofziger's team receives a lot of reports about car rental scams. "People think they're getting a great deal, but they have to prepay with a prepaid gift card," she says. "Then they get to their location and there's no car."

How to protect yourself: She recommends sticking to vendors you have a preexisting relationship with and vetting any new travel website you might use.

Ultimately, if you fall for any of these scams, know that it's common. "Be proactive and report it as quickly as possible," says Nofziger. You can report the incident to local law enforcement, the Federal Trade Commission and the AARP Fraud Watch Network.

The digital story was edited by Malaka Gharib, with art direction by Beck Harlan. We'd love to hear from you. Leave us a voicemail at 202-216-9823, or email us at LifeKit@npr.org.

Listen to Life Kit on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and sign up for our newsletter. Follow us on Instagram: @nprlifekit.

Copyright 2025 NPR

With Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi not running for reelection, San Francisco is about to experience its most spirited congressional race since 1987, when Pelosi beat 13 candidates to fill the seat left open by the death of Rep. Sala Burton.

The 85-year-old Democrat leaves behind a historic record of accomplishment — from the power she achieved as a caucus leader and Speaker to delivering significant legislative victories, including passage of the Affordable Care Act, and her unparalleled ability to criticize President Donald Trump.

“Nancy Pelosi was the most effective speaker of the modern era, a legendary political thinker and strategist,” said Brian Hanlon, co-founder and CEO of California YIMBY, a pro-housing group. “And San Francisco punches way above its weight in terms of both national and state politics. So, who is San Francisco going to put in this seat?”

So far, three very different candidates have emerged as the top contenders to represent Pelosi’s district, which encompasses most of the city, except a southern slice that includes the Excelsior, Visitacion Valley and Oceanview neighborhoods.

The leading candidates

Connie Chan

San Francisco supervisor, District 1

The 47-year-old Democrat represents the northern section of San Francisco, including the Richmond District. Chan, who was born in Hong Kong and came to the U.S. as a teenager, is leaning into her biography as the basis of her candidacy.

“As a first-generation immigrant, I have the lived experience, understanding the challenges that immigrant community faces, and most definitely during this time, when we see the Trump administration sending ICE agents to our streets and also in courtroom, firing our immigration court judges so that they can detain our immigrants illegally,” Chan told KQED. “That is, first and foremost, one of our top priorities.”

Now in her second term on the Board of Supervisors, Chan, who once worked as an aide to former Supervisor Aaron Peskin, opposed Mayor Daniel Lurie’s Family Zoning Plan, which allows denser housing in neighborhoods like the Richmond, where single-family homes dominate. She also opposed a voter-approved ballot measure to close part of the Great Highway and create a public park, and supports sending the issue back to voters.

Scott Wiener

State senator 

Now in his eighth year in Sacramento, Wiener has championed landmark legislation to facilitate — even mandate — more housing construction in California, a position that has won him both support and criticism.

By any standard, Wiener, 55, is a prolific legislator. This year alone, 12 of his bills were passed and signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. In an evaluation of state lawmakers across the country, Wiener was ranked as the most effective member of the California State Senate by the nonpartisan Center for Effective Lawmaking, a project of the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University.

Wiener, who is openly gay, said it is “definitely time” for the city’s LGBTQ+ community to elect one of its own to Congress. He would be the first openly gay representative from San Francisco in the House.

Saikat Chakrabarti

Software engineer and political activist

Chakrabarti, 39, jumped into the race before Pelosi announced her retirement, saying it was time for a new generation of leaders for the Democratic Party. Wiener also entered the race before Pelosi made her plans public.

After making millions of dollars as one of the first software engineers at the payment processing company Stripe, Chakrabarti worked on Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign and later became chief of staff to progressive icon Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

“I think I’m the only one willing to challenge the Democratic party establishment,” Chakrabarti told KQED this week. “People know that the Democratic party needs a new direction, it needs new ideas and it needs solutions that are as big as the problems that we face. And that’s what I’m offering the voters.”

What voters care about

“Affordability” is the mantra for Democratic candidates across the country, and this race will be no different. Chan, who criticizes Wiener’s “Sacramento version of affordable housing” in her campaign announcement video, will emphasize affordability as it relates to housing, but also in health care and child care.

Chakrabarti, who said he is more pro-housing than Chan, supports the controversial plan to build 800 units of housing above a Safeway in the Marina.

As expected, all three candidates promise strong opposition to Trump’s policies, including ICE raids, mass deportations and federal budget cuts. Wiener, who authored a new law banning ICE agents from wearing face coverings and bills supporting trans students, is a frequent target of right-wing hatred. He wears it like a badge of honor, and even has a “Scott’s MAGA Fan Club” section on his campaign site highlighting attacks by Tucker Carlson, Marjorie Taylor Greene and other conservatives.

While housing is largely a local issue, defense spending is not — and U.S. funding for Israel could become a contentious topic. Wiener, who is Jewish, has been outspoken about antisemitism while trying to strike a balance between Israel’s right to exist and opposing its war in Gaza.

Chakrabarti has made Palestinian rights a centerpiece of his campaign.

“I’m opposed to military funding in Israel as long as the genocide continues,” he said.

Chan has also said she would not support sending “weapons of war” to Israel, calling the situation in Gaza a human rights violation that she believes meets the legal definition of genocide.

Money, endorsements — and Pelosi’s shadow

The success or failure of a campaign depends on many factors, including name recognition, their record, voter enthusiasm, endorsements and resources.

Chakrabarti is the least well-known of the candidates, but he has access to enormous personal wealth to self-fund his campaign. Since this is his first run for office, he mostly points to his work behind the scenes, including his role in helping promote the Green New Deal, which he said helped center climate change as the key environmental issue.

“It’s going to take a movement of candidates and people to make this happen,” he said. “But I think that’s what’s possible right now, and that’s why I’m running.”

Chan, who is running for the first time outside a relatively small district, could face fundraising challenges. But her relationships with local unions, such as Unite Here Local 2, which represents workers in the hospitality industry, could help with campaign cash and volunteers.

Wiener has been raising money for a potential congressional run since 2023, reporting more than $1 million raised through September, according to federal campaign finance data. He said fundraising accelerated significantly after Pelosi announced her retirement.

It’s not clear if Pelosi herself will put her thumb on the scale for one of her would-be successors. Among the candidates, she seems most aligned with Chan, who has appeared alongside her at recent public events.

An endorsement from the San Francisco Democratic Party could provide a major boost. But that’s a significant hurdle, as it requires support from 60% of local delegates.

Local party chair Nancy Tung, a leader of the party’s more moderate wing, thinks only one candidate could conceivably win an endorsement.

“It’s within the realm of possibility that Scott Wiener would actually get the endorsement,” Tung told KQED this week. “I think he’s probably got the best chance.”

In the June primary, voters will decide which two candidates will advance to the November general election in the race for this solid Democratic seat.