The Brief

Gov. Gavin Newsom is pushing for an eleventh-hour legislative proposal that would give an environmental carve-out to a Santa Monica developer who is a Newsom appointee to state commissions and longtime donor.

The draft proposal, obtained by CalMatters, would effectively exempt a mixed-use project on Santa Monica’s oceanfront, designed by the late architect Frank Gehry, from the state’s environmental regulations of coastal developments, unless the city adopts its own land use policies by Jan. 1, 2028.

The project belongs to Jeff Worthe, who, along with his wife Kristin Worthe, has donated more than $274,000 to Newsom’s campaigns and inaugural fund between 2018 and 2022, according to state campaign finance records. Newsom appointed Worthe to the California Privacy Protection Agency Board in 2023, and then to the California High-Speed Rail Authority last year.

The Santa Monica City Council and the California Coastal Commission both approved the $350 million project a few years ago after Worthe agreed to pay millions of dollars toward low-cost housing and city infrastructure. But the approvals lapsed, and the project never broke ground despite Worthe’s promise to start building in early 2025.

The new last-minute proposal shocked and angered a coalition of environmental advocates, who for months have urged state leaders to reject any backdoor deal to exempt any project from the California Coastal Act, a 50-year-old law that set the environmental standard for coastal development.

In May, the coalition successfully fought off a legislative proposal that would have expedited Worthe’s project. In June, they fended off another proposal from Newsom’s office that would have exempted most housing developments along Santa Monica’s shoreline from the act. About 90,000 people live in the city, which is known for its famous pier and a long stretch of beachside restaurants and hotels.

The specific carveouts in the latest proposal would set a precedent of overriding coastal environment protections for the interest of wealthy developers, said Susan Jordan, executive director of the California Coastal Protection Network.

“Every other developer is going to want the same treatment,” Jordan said. “It sends the message: If you have deep pockets, you get a big payoff.”

Assemblymember Rick Zbur, a Democrat representing Santa Monica, said he received the proposal Monday night. He said he opposes it because it would undermine Assembly Bill 1740, which he authored this year to set a deadline for Santa Monica to develop its land use plan — known as a “local coastal program” — by Jan. 1, 2029. The bill passed 76-0 in the Assembly Tuesday and is headed to the governor’s desk.

The city is one of 14 in California without such a plan, which means developers must obtain individual permits directly from the California Coastal Commission, which often takes longer.

Both area lawmakers oppose it

Newsom’s proposal would fast-track Worthe’s project if the city fails to develop a plan by 2028 — a soft deadline the city had set for itself in a June agreement with the coastal commission.

“This isn’t about the project,” Zbur told CalMatters. “It’s about the precedent of exempting a project and about doing something that is in conflict [with] and undermines a bill that I just worked so hard to bring all the parties together on.”

Sen. Ben Allen, an El Segundo Democrat who also represents the area, similarly opposed the proposal, arguing it would incentivize developers to delay the city from creating a local coastal plan. Allen said he supports Zbur’s legislation instead.

“I … am not interested in unwinding that work,” he said in a statement Wednesday.

Newsom has been critical of the coastal commission and appointed several pro-housing commissioners in recent years to speed up coastal development.

His proposal comes as President Donald Trump has sought to weaken California’s environmental regulations and push for offshore oil drilling. The Trump administration has launched an investigation into the Coastal Commission’s authority, which environmental activists, the commission and Newsom himself see as a power grab intended to undermine the state’s environmental protections.

But environmental advocates called Newsom hypocritical for criticizing Trump while pushing a regulatory carveout for the Santa Monica project.

'He’s carving up the Coastal Act. He’s selling it to the highest bidder.'

Marce Gutiérrez-Graudiņš, founder of the climate justice advocacy group Azul, said it would be dangerous to “weaken our law instead of strengthening it” now.

Susan Jordan, executive director of the California Coastal Protection Network, said Newsom is following Trump’s playbook.

“He’s carving up the Coastal Act. He’s selling it to the highest bidder. And we don’t need a governor to be doing that, and we certainly don’t need our next president to do that,” she said.

When asked about his link to Worthe and why he’s pushing for the proposal late in the session, Newsom declined to comment. But he said he spoke with one state lawmaker who represents the area two days ago — without identifying who — and received “healthy feedback.”

“It’s a work in progress,” Newsom said at a Wednesday press conference in Vallejo. “We are in the process of negotiating and discussing it with them.”

The last-minute proposal comes after a Worthe-linked company spent $270,000 between January and June lobbying the Legislature and the governor’s office on Zbur’s legislation and other budget issues, according to state lobbying records. Lobbyist Bob Giroux reported receiving the payments from Catalina Media Development LLC, which is affiliated with Worthe’s real estate company.

Worthe did not respond to an email inquiry from CalMatters, and Giroux could not be reached immediately for comment.

What the bill would do

Under the proposal, only housing projects in Santa Monica that meet a narrow set of criteria would benefit from the coastal act exemptions.

The measure would only apply to a residential or mixed-use development, and would not apply to a hotel or residential inn. Qualifying housing projects must meet certain labor standards and sustainability requirements. The sites must be in urban areas and must not be near wetlands, environmentally sensitive areas or too close to the ocean.

But one criterion stands out: The qualifying project must include a museum honoring Gehry’s work with written authorization from Gehry’s trustees.

The only project that seems to check all the boxes is Worthe’s proposed mixed-use development at the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and Ocean Avenue.

The previously approved plans included a 120-room hotel, 100 apartments that would include some affordable units, more than 70,000 square feet for commercial and “cultural use,” a 5,000-square-foot rooftop observation deck and nearly 300 parking spaces.

In an agreement with the city council, Worthe agreed to pay $6 million toward city transportation, parks and recreation, affordable housing, early childhood programs and economic development initiatives in exchange for building the project. In 2023, at the coastal commission staff’s suggestion, he also agreed to contribute another $6.5 million to a youth hostel next to the project site to provide lower-cost housing in the area.

Newsom’s proposal would only kick in if the city fails to certify its local coastal plan by 2028.

Under the measure, the coastal commission must publicly hear the project application within 90 days and make a decision within 30 days. The proposal assumes that the project complies with environmental regulations unless the commission proves the development would “result in a specific, adverse and unavoidable impact” to the environment.

But the state should not try to rush the design of complicated land use policies, Jordan argued.

“If that means you need to go six months over a deadline, then you should do that, and you should not be penalized by making the correct decision,” Jordan said.

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

A judge on Wednesday suspended criminal charges against a former U.S. Marine arrested at President Donald Trump’s Los Angeles-area golf course with ammunition and a gun in his vehicle. He is undergoing a psychiatric evaluation.

Los Angeles County Judge John Lonergan Jr. sent Jeanine John Taele, 38, to a mental health court in Hollywood based on statements he made in a pretrial evaluation indicating he wasn’t mentally fit to stand trial. In the evaluation, Taele falsely insisted he had been a State Department official for 14 years.

When Taele was arrested earlier this month, he was seen wearing an earpiece and taking pictures of the golf course where Trump was scheduled to attend a Republican National Committee dinner. The event was at Trump National Golf Course Los Angeles in Rancho Palos Verdes, just south of L.A.

A search of his pickup truck in the golf course parking lot at the time turned up a loaded 9 mm pistol, binoculars and a badge that read “security protection agent,” according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles.

Lonergan expressed particular concern over the 200 pages of Taele’s writings that investigators found following his arrest. The writings included schedules for first lady Melania Trump and members of the president’s Secret Service, as well as detailed lists for surviving “off the grid.” The judge did not say whether the writings included any specific political motives or ideologies.

“This case itself is alarming in this day and age with the violence that is creeping into our everyday lives, especially with our partisanship in the political environment” ahead of the midterms, Lonergan said.

The judge also cited a previous arrest in November 2025 at an AT&T store where Taele accused an employee of spying on him with Meta Glasses, stole the glasses, and was found muttering to himself in the parking lot. He was charged with second-degree robbery following that incident.

Taele was charged with several felonies including possession of a short-barreled rifle or shotgun and receiving a large-capacity magazine. He was also charged with carrying a concealed firearm in a vehicle, a misdemeanor.

Taele appeared in the Torrance, California, courtroom Wednesday, weeks after his Aug. 5 arrest, wearing a vest designed to prevent self-harm or suicide attempts. Nearly a dozen family members and friends tearfully watched from the courtroom.

Lonergan declined to set bail for Taele, who will remain in jail until a Sept. 9 hearing at the Hollywood Mental Health Court.

Taele’s attorney, public defender A.J. Bayne, said it was too early to tell whether Taele’s mental health would play a role in his legal defense.

“He’s a veteran, he served our country, and I don’t know enough right now, but he has a family that loves him, that has huge support for him,” Bayne said, adding that “people assume too much” about Taele’s motives on the day he was arrested at the golf course.

Taele is a decorated U.S. Marine who served two tours in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2008 and 2016, according to a Marine Corps spokesperson. He was a corporal who received countless accolades, including two Marine Corps Good Conduct Medals, a Navy Unit Commendation, a National Defense Service Medal, and a Global War on Terrorism Service Medal.

A politically heated bribery case in Orange County came to an end Wednesday when a judge cleared Westminster Councilmember Amy Phan West of wrongdoing.

West was charged with a misdemeanor last year for allegedly using her clout as an elected official to coax parking officers not to tow her husband’s car. In lieu of a trial, the judge ordered her to take an ethics training course and do 20 hours of community service. In exchange, the charge would be dropped and her record cleared.

But earlier this month, just before Phan West was scheduled to complete her year under court supervision, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office asked the judge to revoke the deal. Deputy District Attorney Matt Bradbury alleged that Phan West hadn’t taken the criminal charge to heart and continued to violate ethics rules, including by allegedly using public resources for personal gain.

In court Wednesday, Bradbury tried to prove that Phan West improperly used her City Council office to do a campaign media interview, and that she and her supporters had handed out campaign literature at the city’s annual Tet parade. Phan West, a Republican, ran for Congress in the June primary, but did not advance to the upcoming general election.

Bradbury also showed a video from a candidate forum in which Phan West called the proceedings against her a “jungle court” and compared her legal problems to those of the president.

“Like how they’re doing it to Donald J. Trump — it’s the same thing they’re doing to take me out,” Phan West said in the video.

Judge Sherri Honer rejected the prosecution’s argument and said the evidence did not prove Phan West had broken any laws.

“People express dissatisfaction with the court all the time,” she said of Phan West’s comments during the candidate forum. “That’s not an ethical violation.”

After the judge’s ruling, Phan West’s husband, who was in the courtroom with the couple’s three sons, wiped away tears. Phan West’s youngest son shouted, “Thank you, judge.”

Outside the courthouse, Phan West said her faith in God had gotten her through the ordeal. She also said she thinks residents plotting her demise were behind the criminal charge, aiming to drain her “financially, emotionally, and spiritually.”

“ I don't know why they don't like me, but I believe I'm fighting for everyone who wants to have a voice to speak out even though people don't agree with them,” Phan West said.

The exterior of Westminster City Hall.

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Jill Replogle

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LAist

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Westminster City Council ‘dysfunctional’

Westminster’s five-member City Council has been roiled by infighting in recent years, and civically active residents have lined up on either side of a stark dividing line between a three-member council majority on one side, and Phan West and council ally NamQuan Nguyen on the other. That has led to shouting matches, name-calling, and long meetings.

In June 2024, the council held a discussion on whether to censure Phan West for behaviors, allegedly including improperly disclosing confidential information and lying. The meeting lasted more than 11 hours.

The council eventually censured Phan West, and later the city filed a lawsuit against her and Nguyen for repeatedly disrupting meetings and creating a rowdy atmosphere. A judge issued a default judgment against Nguyen last year, ordering him not to speak at council meetings without the mayor’s permission.

The case against Phan West is scheduled for trial in November, shortly after the election.

Ryan Bent, a trustee for the North Orange County Community College District and friend of Phan West, has attended many of the contentious meetings, even though he doesn’t live in Westminster. He said the City Council has stood out in recent years “as one the most dysfunctional” in the county. Phan West, he concedes, is part of the problem.

“In her case, she’s gone too far, too often,” he said. Still, Bent said, he has come to believe that Phan West has been unfairly targeted because of her outspokenness and staunch conservative politics.

“They’ve gone after her mercilessly,” he said.

He also called the city’s lawsuit against Phan West a waste of money at a time when the public budget is tight.

“I’ve never seen City Council members sue one of their own using city tax dollars,” he said. “It’s just not a good practice at all.”

The opposition, and the upcoming election

Terry Rains, a Westminster resident and one of Phan West’s most vocal foes, said she was disappointed with the judge’s ruling in the bribery case. “ This is the very essence of abuse of power by an elected official for personal gain,” Rains said of the towing incident.

“If I went out and said, ‘Don't tow my car away,’ and I'm just a resident, they'd just laugh,” she said.

Rains is closely following the city’s civil case against Phan West. She agreed the lawsuit is a waste of taxpayer money, but blamed Phan West. She said the city had to sue her “just to get her to adhere to the rules of meetings and her behavior during council meetings.”

Phan West declined to discuss the city’s lawsuit after Wednesday’s court hearing since it is ongoing. In the past, she has accused her City Council opponents of violating her right to free speech and waging a personal vendetta against her.

The upcoming election in November may turn out to be the best gauge of how Westminster residents feel about the ongoing drama. Two council seats are up for election — Phan West’s District 1 seat and Nguyen’s District 4 seat. Both face several challengers. The mayor’s position, which all residents vote on, is also up for election. Five candidates are vying for that seat.

Just days after the U.S. Supreme Court gave President Donald Trump a procedural win in his effort to limit mail-in voting, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a new lawsuit intended to protect the state’s power over how elections are administered.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Massachusetts on Wednesday, makes good on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s pledge to sue again over Trump’s mail-in voting executive order immediately after the Supreme Court decision.

California is able to sue despite the high court’s ruling because of developments that occurred after justices took up the previous case.

The court majority this week essentially ruled that California sued too early over the executive order and it noted that the administration had not yet handed down formal rules that would affect voting.

That changed late last week when the U.S. Postal Service issued final rules requiring states to turn over a list of eligible mail voters, redesign ballot envelopes with the Postal Service’s approval and include new tracking barcodes.

Under Trump’s order, the Postal Service would not deliver ballots to voters who are not in a federal database the administration wants to build, and would not deliver ballots in states that do not comply with its rules.

Bonta called the Postal Service rules a “clear violation of the Constitution,” which designates states as the primary authority over elections.

The Democratic-led states joining with California in the lawsuit argue that because neither the president nor the Postal Service have the constitutional authority to run elections, the latest changes are unlawful and will undermine mail-in voting — including the more than 89% of voters in California who used mail-in ballots in the latest June primary.

“President Trump doesn’t get to rewrite our voting system on a whim,” said Bonta during an online press conference Wednesday. “And the United States Postal Service cannot sidestep the laws that govern the postal service just to carry out the president’s agenda.”

Although Trump uses mail-in voting himself, he is an outspoken critic of the method, citing unsubstantiated claims that it increases voter fraud. Last year he said he wanted to “lead a movement to get rid of mail-in ballots.”

Given its challenges in court, it is unclear whether the Postal Service’s new rule will affect the November elections.

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

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, who splashed her signature polka dots on paintings, sculptures and museum installations around the world, has died, her studio said Thursday. She was 97.

Kusama died Aug. 14 at a hospital in Tokyo, Yayoi Kusama Studio said.

“She continued to paint until her final days, never setting aside her brush, and continued exploration of forever love and eternal soul,” the studio’s statement said. “We will carry forward Kusama’s wishes and, through art, continue to bring hope and strength for the future to people around the world.”

Kusama, one of Japan’s most respected contemporary artists, was widely exhibited around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

Repetitive motifs were her trademark, in various shapes, resembling netting, swirls or worms, but most often dots, dancing proudly on her canvases, or as sparkling balls or dots of light in her installations, in all their vibrant psychedelic glory.

“Polka dots are fabulous,” Kusama said in a 2012 interview with The Associated Press, appearing in her signature orange bobcut wig and polka dot-covered attire.

“I want to create a thousand paintings, maybe two thousand paintings, as many as I can draw,” she said in her childlike but matter-of-fact tone. “I will keep painting until I die.”

Kusama insisted she drew the way she saw the world -- covered with spots, part of the hallucinations she said she had from childhood. She was in and out of psychiatric institution for decades, although her sickness did not hold her back as she was one of the first Japanese women to go to New York to pursue her art, in 1957.

Although soft-spoken and shy in her mannerisms, she was always unabashedly bold in the assertion of her dotty vision, not only in sticking to the style for decades but also in making it accessible to the masses.

In her later years, as the times caught up with her art, she enjoyed fame. She signed on with fashion brands like Louis Vuitton as well as other licensed products like teacups, T-shirts and key chains with her illustrations, including replicas of her likeness that were used in show windows and other marketing.

In 2008, Christie’s auctioned her work for $5.8 million. In 2016, she won the most prestigious award Japan gives its artists, the Order of Culture.

Upon receiving the award, she told reporters she was more determined than ever to pursue her art, stressing that the sincerity and devotion she had demonstrated in her personal life were crucial parts of her artistic legacy.

“I feel there is little left in my life, but I am now still fighting to the death for my art,” she said. “I am giving all I have so that many people will continue to be interested in my art, even after I am dead.”

Kusama was called pop, avant-garde, feminist, just to name some of the categories thrown at her, most of which Kusama brushed off as not quite representative of her art.

She was born in a middle-class family but felt misunderstood, as her parents wanted her to simply get married. They wanted to buy her kimono, not paints and brushes. She knew she had to get away. She chose America.

When she arrived in New York, the fad was “action painting,” characterized by dribbles, swooshes and smears, not dots. She suffered years of poverty and obscurity. But she kept painting dots.

She put circles of paper on people’s bodies, and once a horse, in “happening” anti-war performances in the late 1960s, which got some people arrested for obscenity but helped get media attention for her art. While in New York, she befriended artists like Andy Warhol, Georgia O’Keefe and Joseph Cornell, who praised her innovative style.

Over the years, Kusama has made quirky but stunningly celebratory works like “Macaroni Girl,” a female figure plastered with macaroni, which expresses the fear of food; “The Visionary Flowers,” giant sculptures of twisting tulips, and “Mirrored Corridor,” a room with mirrors that delivers an illusion of a field of phallic protrusions speckled with dots.

Kusama, who has also made films and published several novels, said she wasn’t sure where she got her ideas. She just picked up her brush and started drawing. The process was so mysterious sometimes she surprised herself, she told AP.

“I think, ‘Oh, I drew that? I was thinking that,’” she said.

But she appeared happy to have her art be the focus of media attention and praise, reading one of her poems to a reporter or tackling her artworks with gusto for photos.

But she was also a charmingly disarming mix of vulnerability and defiance — at one moment, declaring herself “an artistic revolutionary,” and then the next, mumbling: “I am so afraid, all the time, of everything.”

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Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi contributed to this report.