The ONME Network · Julia Ann Dudley Najieb

Listen to part one of the '2023 Summer Review California Headlines' featuring top news

October 30, 2023·1 hr·4 clips

Bitwise CEOs defrauded employees, didn't pay wages for two months, and filed for bankruptcy with $239 million in claims.

Julia Dudley Najib opens with the dates and the sheer amount of news California packed into that summer. The headlines come from inside the state, across the country, and beyond, but the episode keeps its feet on the ground. This is a civic catch-up: illegal lapses, corporate trouble, missing money, climate pressure, hurricanes, and statehouse changes all competing for attention in one crowded season. The strongest stretch is housing. The host spends time on the ways wealthy California suburbs can use local rules and official-sounding process to keep multifamily housing, townhouses, and extra lots out. Woodside is the strange, telling example: the town tried to describe itself as mountain lion habitat so it could avoid a California law that lets single-family homeowners split lots for more housing. Atherton gets an even harder look. With about 7,000 residents and a median home sale price around 7.5 million dollars, it becomes the clearest case here of exclusion dressed up as tidy local control. The zoning talk has a point. Dudley Najib is not only saying rich towns cost too much. She is showing how large-lot single-family rules can keep middle-class people out across race and background. When a handful of properties were considered for rezoning to allow townhouses, objections came from notable local residents. The host treats that pushback as part of the system, not as a weird California footnote. Small cities, in other words, can have very large power. Then the episode shifts back to practical policy. The closing section covers state bills, including changes to the MECO program for home-based food businesses. Food sellers get more room, with a higher meal cap and more items allowed, including appetizers, beverages, desserts, and foods that were previously off limits where counties adopt the program. The catch is local adoption. Over 40 counties have not opted in, so the reform still depends on follow-through close to home. The episode ends by naming five bills the show sees as necessary in California, especially for African-American populations and other residents watching policy turn into daily life.

As heard by us

A wide California summer headlines tour that turns policy fights into everyday stakes.

This California roundup follows the 2023 summer headlines from June 21 through September 22, when the state sat squarely in the middle of attention.

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Why you'd press play

When California headlines need context, not just speed.

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