Rural California Voted Red. Now It’s Bleeding Green.

The federal axe is swinging with alarming precision, and California is on the chopping block. This week: rural forest towns get ghosted by Uncle Sam, clean energy funding gets selectively snipped, wildfire insurance goes full Kafka, and Gov. Newsom is moonlighting as a trade diplomat. Plus: snowpack celebration, UC admission rates, and the invisible rich town that wants to stay that way. It's all here — policy, politics, and the gauzy outline of the global economy we once knew fading rapidly into the distance…

Here we go!

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FOREST TOWNS GET CHOPPED

Across rural California, federal cuts are landing like a boot to the neck—especially in forest towns where Uncle Sam is landlord, employer, and emergency fund. Layoffs, frozen grants, and vanishing services are hitting hard in counties that voted red but run on federal green. In places like Mount Shasta, where recreation and wildfire prevention hinge on federal staffing, locals are suing, scrambling, or stoically shrugging. Some cheer the deregulation, others brace for economic fallout. It’s the rural paradox: fiercely anti-government communities, now blindsided by the absence of the very government they disdain.

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🤫 Everything you should know

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🪓 🪫 😡 -  RED LIGHT FOR GREEN ENERGY — President Trump’s DOE is quietly sharpening the axe for nearly a billion in clean energy cuts, and surprise: blue states are the bullseye. A leaked list suggests California and other Democratic-leaning hubs—despite leading in innovation and scoring highest—are facing the brunt of slashed hydrogen and renewable project funding. Red states, meanwhile, walk away largely unscathed. Officially, it's just a “review.” Unofficially, it's politics dressed in a lab coat, armed with a chainsaw. LA Times

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🔥 📈 🫤  -  ASH CASH CRASH — California’s “insurer of last resort,” Fair Plan, is melting down under unprecedented and unrelenting wildfire pressure. Originally a fallback for hard-to-cover homes, it’s now the only option for many after major insurers fled. Policyholders like Susan Spira are battling lost checks (to the tune of $562,500), toxic homes, and Kafkaesque customer service. Coverage is capped, payouts delayed, and smoke damage often dismissed. The system, jury-rigged and underfunded, wasn’t built for this scale — yet here we are, watching bureaucracy fumble in the ashes. Wall Street Journal

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🌎 💰 🤝  -  TARIFF TIGHTROPE ACT — Governor Newsom is stepping up to shield California from the collateral damage of Trump’s tariff spree, pursuing international agreements to keep the state’s economy — the fifth largest in the world — on stable footing. With trade central to California’s recovery from wildfires and vital to sectors like agriculture, Newsom is leveraging the state’s market power to avoid economic whiplash. The feasibility of his actions notwithstanding, critics say he should stay local, but Newsom’s making a case for pragmatic leadership in a massively volatile moment. Axios

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🎧 🔊 🎧 ON THE POD: CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST

Capitol Weekly is a publication of Open California, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization founded in 2012 to inform, enlighten and educate Californians about public policy and state governance, and to provide a platform for engagement with public officials, advocates and political interests. Cap Weekly’s eponymous podcast provides an insider’s guide to Sacramento’s movers and shakers. Capitol Weekly Podcast

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❄️ 📏 👍 - SIERRA SNOWVERLOAD!

California’s snowpack strutted into April like it owned the place — 96% of the statewide average, propped up by late-season storms. That’s three years of near-normal snow, a hat trick not seen since the Clinton era. Reservoirs are flush, skiers are euphoric, and water managers are cautiously optimistic. But here’s the catch: a fast melt could turn lush fields into tinderboxes by summer. In short, the Golden State’s frozen bounty is both a blessing and a ticking time bomb. - KQED

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🧑‍🎓 😬 🤷🏼 - AD-MISSION IMPOSSIBLE?

Ever wonder how hard (or easy) it is to get into a UC from a particular high school in California? The San Francisco Chronicle has you covered with a nifty piece of interactive data journalism. Just plug in the UC campus you’re interested in along with the high school (public or private) you’re coming from and bam! You’ll see the acceptance rate and the total number of applicants from that high school. San Francisco Chronicle

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🏃‍♂️ 💨 ✋ FAST FIVE

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1. One of California's wealthiest cities doesn't want you to know it exists - SFGate
2. Altadena foundation pours $55M into rebuild - LAist
3. One dry winter gutted California’s trout and salmon stocks - UC Berkeley
4. Trump’s $16B DEI-or-die deadline looms for CA schools - LA Times
5. There’s a new proposal to upzone SF and YIMBYs love it - SF Examiner

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