@levisu
Economy reporter for CalMatters. Bay Area-based. Covered tech, business at MarketWatch and Mercury News. Rhymes with Chevy. Signal: levisu.36 https://levisu.me/ https://calmatters.org/author/levi-sumagaysay/ Mastodon: @levisu@sfba.social
Yusen Terminals at the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro on Feb. 11, 2025. Photo by Joel Angel Juarez for CalMatters
California and 23 other mostly Democratic states on Thursday sued the Trump administration over its new justification for the president’s wide-ranging tariffs. bit.ly/3P5bDb7
📸 Joel Angel Juarez
NEW: Former tech entrepreneur Ethan Agarwal will challenge @rokhanna.bsky.social for his South Bay House seat, hoping to ride Silicon Valley's anger with Khanna over his support of a proposed wealth tax
www.sfchronicle.com/politics/art...
An aerial view of the Yolo causeway highway connecting Sacramento and Davis on July 12, 2024. Photo by Fred Greaves for CalMatters
For more than a month, Republican lawmakers in California have blasted a legislative proposal to study alternatives to the state’s gas tax, declaring it a dishonest ploy by Democrats to hike taxes on drivers. bit.ly/4aNhXwA
📸 Fred Greaves
James Cordero, water drop coordinator for Al Otro Lado, in the Jacumba Hot Springs area of San Diego on Feb. 7, 2026. Cordero is concerned about the use of new automated license plate readers along the U.S.-Mexico border in California. Photo by Zoë Meyers for CalMatters. Quote: “There’s no transparency, that’s the worst part.” James Cordero. He is concerned about the use of new automated license plate readers along the U.S.-Mexico border in California.
California residents are noticing new license plate readers that appear to be operated by the Border Patrol. Some have had confusing encounters with agents. bit.ly/3ON0YBI
Uber wants voters to decide what happens after any vehicle crash in California. Lawyers and doctors are pushing back. As we're being asked to sign proposed ballot initiatives outside the grocery store, here's my story about what it all means.
A charred vehicle sits outside a damaged supermarket in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, on Feb. 22, 2026, after the reported death of Jalisco New Generation Cartel leader Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho.” Photo by Alejandra Leyva, AP Photo
The killing of one of Mexico’s most-wanted cartel leaders triggered violent reprisals across the country and experts warn it could lead to prolonged destabilization that pushes more people to flee for the U.S.-Mexico border. bit.ly/46J74JN
📸 Alejandra Leyva, AP
Here's my story on the Supreme Court ruling on President Trump's tariffs, including about their effects on California.
CATO: “.. In short, seven independent research teams have now examined the “who’s paying” question and have reached essentially the same answer: We are.”
@cato.org @scottlincicome.bsky.social
www.cato.org/blog/white-h...
Cristina Guevara, 78, embraces Julia Sedana, 82, at the Lincoln Heights Senior Center.
Research shows social isolation poses serious risks to older adults’ mental and physical health. Senior centers provide community support, yet despite their role, both older adults and the programs that serve them largely remain underrepresented in media. bit.ly/3MhAmYX
📸 Isadora Kosofsky
The executive jet that DHS says it needs has a “bedroom with a queen bed, showers, a kitchen, four large flat-screen TVs and even a bar ..”
@nbcnews.com
www.nbcnews.com/politics/imm...
Newsom achieved universal preschool. But at what cost to child care providers?
The governor tripled early childhood funding and expanded TK to all 4-year-olds. But preschools are closing, making infant care harder to find.
Worried about first amendment rights? Want to make a difference?
Support a newsroom.
Here’s a few I pay to support:
@404media.co
@wired.com
@washingtonpost.com
@calmatters.org
@npr.org
And I pay for my paper delivery of the @nytimes.com because I still love the smell of a newspaper.
I started in newspapers in the 1990s. I remember newsroom editors and reporters' dismissive attitudes when they talked about Jesse Jackson.
i think jesse jackson was one of the most important american political figures of the post-war era and i think that his 1984 and 1988 campaigns for the democratic nomination still have a great deal to teach about forging a path to a more egalitarian world. RIP.
A truck driver prepares to leave after receiving a shipping container at Yusen Terminals at the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro on Feb. 11, 2025. Photo by Joel Angel Juarez for CalMatters. Hed: Trump scraps a cornerstone climate finding, as California prepares for court
Breaking: The Trump administration formally rescinded the legal foundation of federal climate policy Thursday — setting up a new front in California’s long-running battle with Washington over emissions rules. bit.ly/3MsR8Er
📸 Joel Angel Juarez
Steve Bannon says the federal government is planning to send ICE officers to patrol polling stations during the midterms.
"We're going to have ICE surround the polls come November."
"We're not going to sit here and allow you to steal the country again." www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...
Department of Health Care Services headquarters in Sacramento on Sept. 15, 2022. Photo by Rahul Lal, CalMatters
Close to four thousand employees of the California Department of Public Health were told they must use the federal E-Verify system to keep federal funding. Unions are pushing back. bit.ly/49Mp8V8
📸 Rahul Lal
Statement from FPF Chief of Advocacy Seth Stern: “The government’s arrests of journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort are naked attacks on freedom of the press. Two federal courts flatly rejected prosecuting Lemon because the evidence for these vindictive and unconstitutional charges was insufficient, and Lemon has every right to document news and inform the public. Instead of accepting that humiliating defeat, the government has now doubled down. “These arrests, under bogus legal theories for obviously constitutionally protected reporting, are clear warning shots aimed at other journalists. The unmistakable message is that journalists must tread cautiously because the government is looking for any way to target them. Fort’s arrest is meant to instill the same fear in local independent journalists as big names like Lemon. “The answer to this outrageous attack is not fear or self-censorship. It’s an even stronger commitment to journalism, the truth, and the First Amendment. If the Trump administration thinks it can bully journalists into submission, it is wrong. We’ve recently seen that even in the Trump era, public pressure still can work. It’s time to do it again. News outlets across the political spectrum need to loudly defend Lemon’s and Fort’s rights. Journalists are not making themselves the story, Trump is.”
The government’s arrests of journalists @donlemonofficial.bsky.social and @bygeorgiafort.bsky.social are attacks on freedom of the press.
Two federal courts flatly rejected prosecuting Lemon, but instead of accepting that humiliating defeat, the government has now doubled down.
Read our statement:
CN The FBl's arrest of our former CNN colleague Don Lemon raises profoundly concerning questions about press freedom and the First Amendment. The Department of Justice already failed twice to get an arrest warrant for Don and several other journalists in Minnesota, where a chief judge of the Minnesota Federal District Court found there was "no evidence" that there was any criminal behavior involved in their work. The First Amendment in the United States protects journalists who bear witness to news and events as they unfold, ensuring they can report freely in the public interest, and the DO's attempts to violate those rights is unacceptable. We will be following this case closely.
Statement from CNN on the Don Lemon arrest:
Members of Unión del Barrio gather by flashlight in the predawn hours before patrolling the Linda Vista neighborhood in San Diego on Jan. 13, 2026. The group by alerts residents to the presence of ICE agents in the community. Photo by John Gastaldo for CalMatters. Hed: Immigration arrests quietly surge by 1,500% in San Diego: ‘I feel the temperature rising’
While the Trump administration’s immigration blitz hit Midwestern cities like Chicago and Minneapolis, a quieter escalation unfolded in San Diego late last year with agents making thousands of arrests in and around the city. bit.ly/3NEmCrw
📸 John Gastaldo
Tesla’s ‘unsupervised’ Robotaxis vanish a week after pre-earnings announcement
After President Trump issued his permitting EO yesterday, I asked the White House if he would support supplement disaster aid for the Los Angeles fires.
“Newscum doesn’t need more money, Californians need relief,” a spokesperson said.
www.sfchronicle.com/politics/art...
Gravel covers a five-foot non-combustible buffer in front of a model home in the Dixon Trail neighborhood of Escondido on April 24, 2025. The buffer zone helps reduce the chances of a home being ignited by the embers from a wildfire. Developer KB Home is marketing Dixon Trail as the first “wildfire resilient neighborhood” in the U.S., constructed using fire-resistant materials and methods. Photo by Adriana Heldiz, CalMatters
As fire survivors continue to navigate life after disaster, California lawmakers roll out new bills attempting to further regulate insurance companies like State Farm.
📸 Adriana Heldiz
ICE agent asked why he's taking pictures of a legal observer's car, replies: "Cuz we have a nice little database and now you're considered a domestic terrorist. So have fun with that."
This week I wrote about how small businesses in Altadena are faring one year after the Eaton Fire as they deal with insurance, red tape and varying levels of support from the government. Some are striving to rebuild, while others just don't have it in them.
A teenage boy with dark hair and a black and gold football jersey holds his helmet, standing on the side line of a green football field
I’m one of the ProPublica reporters who has been documenting the aggressive tactics federal agents are using against immigrants & U.S. citizens
All eyes are on Minnesota right now, but I want to tell you about Arnoldo Bazan, a 16-YO citizen in Houston who was choked by immigration agents in October
Attorney General Rob Bonta during the swearing-in ceremony for Senate President pro Tempore Monique Limón in the Senate chambers at the state Capitol in Sacramento on Jan. 5, 2026. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters/Pool. Hed: ‘They’re escalating’: A Q&A with Rob Bonta on Trump’s immigration crackdown
California Attorney General Rob Bonta has sued the Trump administration more than 50 times. CalMatters spoke with Bonta this week about those cases and how he views the Trump administration’s current focus on Minneapolis. bit.ly/45LulKl
📸 Miguel Gutierrez Jr.
The Supreme Court only cleared the way for Kavanaugh Stops four months ago and ICE now openly engages in violent racial profiling, snatching anyone who looks non-white and treating them as presumptively guilty of a crime. Remarkable how quickly our liberties can be crushed when courts go along.
The mainstream media believes the only opinion that counts is conservative. When a democrat wins the presidency they talk to conservative voters, when a republican wins they… talk to conservatives.
