This one stings…

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This week serves up a buffet of policy plot twists: daycare costs still gobbling up paychecks, ICE raids poised for a SCOTUS rematch, and rooftop solar gets a judicial flicker of hope. Oh, and the LA flood prevention system may be overwhelmingly insufficient to handle a Texas-like cloudburst, putting thousands of Angelinos in the inundation zone. Plus: Boyarsky and Jeffe dig through the Golden State’s political morass on the mic, yellowjackets stake claim to your picnic, and a “fast five” speed-round of robo-bosses, canyon fires and quake maps.

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Strap in!

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CA’s CHANGING CHILDCARE LANDSCAPE

California’s 2020 “Master Plan for Early Care and Education” is rewriting the daycare ledger, but parents shouldn’t start budgeting for brunch, according to a new report from the Public Policy Institute of California. Full-time preschool now devours 6 – 18 percent of median county income — more if your kid still needs a bottle. Subsidy dollars have tripled since 2013, yet eligibility still outstrips seats, especially for infants, special-needs kids, and anyone whose parents work “weird” hours. Pandemic bailouts kept providers afloat, and Transitional Kindergarten’s rollout boosted overall capacity six percent, even as it cannibalized private preschools. The big picture remains troubling: higher reimbursements trail rapidly accelerating costs, and low-income regions remain service deserts.

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🤫 Everything you should know

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🧑‍⚖️ 🫸  🚚 - SUPREME COURT TO WEIGH IN ON ICE RAIDS — ICE’s Home Depot hunts slammed into a legal barricade last month when U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong issued a temporary restraining order last month in the Central District of California, citing “a mountain of evidence” that the government’s aggressive enforcement tactics likely violated people’s Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures. This week President Trump’s lawyers lobbed an emergency stay at the Supreme Court to blast it open. The administration’s appeal lands on the shadow docket, meaning no hearings — just a quiet yes or no that will decide whether armored trucks again roll through Latino neighborhoods before summer is out. — CalMatters

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☀️ ⚖️ 🔌  - SOLAR VERDICT: SUN NOT DONE — California’s high court just gave residential rooftop solar a second sunbeam. It told an appeals court to actually scrutinize the state’s 2022 net-metering haircut that slashed payments to panel-owning homeowners and cratered installations. The ruling leaves the stingy rates in place for now, but utilities can’t uncork the champagne: a fresh review could resuscitate generous credits and the industry they fueled. Translation: the decade-long street brawl over who foots California’s electric tab is far from over. — NY Times

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🌧️ 🌧️ 😟  - SOCAL FLOOD FEARS — Los Angeles’ concrete riverbed looks tough enough to handle a deluge, but a UC-Irvine study pegs 1.7 million residents and $265 billion in assets within splash distance if a century-scale storm unloads. Neighborhoods from Bell Gardens to Long Beach could see head-high water despite the vaunted floodworks. Add drought-hardened soil, fire-razed slopes, and warming-juiced cloudbursts, and the odds shorten fast. July’s Texas tragedy underscores the point: bureaucratic confidence isn’t a substitute for hydraulic headroom. “[The LA River] works really well for many of the floods we’ve seen the last several decades. But would it be big enough for the very largest floods? I think, is an open question,” said Daniel Swain, weather and climate scientist at University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources. — LA Public Press

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🎙️ 💬 🎧 - ON THE POD: INSIDE GOLDEN STATE POLITICS

Inside Golden State Politics pits Pulitzer-studded ex-LA Times editor Bill Boyarsky against USC politico-sage Sherry Bebitch Jeffe in a lively, no-spin cage match over power plays from City Hall to Capitol Hill. Decades of sourcing, zero fluff — just sharp California realism with occasional friendly fire. — Inside Golden State Politics

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🫢 🫣 🙅  - BEWARE THE TARANTULA HAWK!

Image: Robert Briggs/Shutterstock.com

Summertime in California typically means enjoying the great outdoors. That is, until the wasps come for you. Samuel P. Taylor state park in western Marin County, a popular getaway for Bay Area city dwellers, has been so overrun in recent weeks by swarms of persistent yellowjackets that officials have begun issuing warnings to visitors. “On average, we've been taking 250 and 400 yellowjacket calls per week, It's been a lot,” said Peter Bonkrude from Marin-Sonoma Mosquito and Vector Control District. The wasp extravaganza got us thinking; how bad could it be? Luckily, Kathryn Koehler of AZ Animals has compiled a helpful rundown of the types of wasps in California ranked by the pain of their sting. It’s a fascinating compilation. One piece of advice: Avoid the sinister monster pictured above. — AZ Animals

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🏃‍♂️ 💨 ✋ FAST FIVE

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1. 🤖 California bill takes aim at ‘robobosses.’ SF Examiner
2. 🔥 Canyon Fire explodes, thousands evacuated in LA, Ventura Counties LA Times
3. 🧐 16% of single-family houses in OC are owned by investors: SiliconValley.com
4. 🤦 CA Fire resilience projects thrown into chaos by DOGE cuts NorCal Public Media

🫨 Interactive map: How hard will an earthquake shake your CA address? SF Chronicle