This legislative session offers some new tests of the theory that California legislation could spread to other parts of the country. Here\u2019s a summary from The Times reporters who covered it: <\/p>\n
You’re reading the Essential California newsletter <\/p>\n
L.A. Times reporters guide you through the most important news, features and recommendations of the morning.<\/p>\n
By continuing, you agree to our Terms of Service<\/a>, which include arbitration and a class action waiver. You agree that we and our third-party vendors may collect and use your information, including through cookies, pixels and similar technologies, for the purposes set forth in our Privacy Policy<\/a> such as personalizing your experience and ads. <\/p>\n Data centers<\/p>\n Gov. Gavin Newsom surprised some<\/a> by signing several bills aimed at protecting<\/a> consumers from growing electricity costs and tracking data centers\u2019 immense energy and water consumption. Data centers have become a huge grassroots political issue<\/a> across the country that, in some places, has united Democrats and Republicans. Will California lead the way on regulating them? <\/p>\n Online safety<\/p>\n Tech is a home industry in California, and regulation can sometimes be tricky. This year, Newsom signed more than 10 bills aimed<\/a> at keeping young people safe from the potential harms of social media sites, artificial intelligence, addictive autoplay and more.<\/p>\n Immigration enforcement<\/p>\n California has long battled the Trump administration over immigration<\/a>. This year, more than 20 bills <\/a> aimed at curbing immigration enforcement became law, including bans on electric shock gloves and law enforcement face coverings. The laws<\/a> make it easier to sue federal officials and attempt to put limits on immigration detention facilities.<\/p>\n Wildfires<\/p>\n California created first-in-the-nation standards<\/a> to test and remediate homes damaged by wildfire smoke and to require insurance companies to pay for associated costs. It comes two years after the L.A. firestorms and marks the latest effort to deal with the heightening threat of wildfires. There was also some insurance reform<\/a>.<\/p>\n AI and workers<\/p>\n AI was also a target in this year\u2019s Legislature. New laws would bar employers<\/a> from \u201csolely\u201d using automated decision-making systems to discipline or fire employees and require employers to provide a 60-day advance notice to workers and local and state governments before AI-related layoffs.<\/p>\n Local news<\/p>\n In what is being called the largest journalism relief plan<\/a> in the U.S. to date, California is going to create refundable tax credits for local news organizations based on the number of journalists they employ. It comes at a time of steep declines<\/a> in local news outlets.<\/p>\n California has been<\/a> a trailblazer<\/a> for more than a century<\/a>. But as any historian of the state will tell you, even the most monumental achievements come with challenges their designers could never imagine.<\/p>\n California defied nature by moving water. It fueled spectacular wealth and growth, but also created an insatiable appetite that in drought years make the state feel perilous. <\/p>\n In her new definitive history of the University of California, \u201cCalifornia Dreams,\u201d<\/a> Miriam Pawel chronicles one of our best ideas \u2014 creating a world-class system of higher education. But her book shows that building the campuses was the easy part.<\/p>\n So is California still the world\u2019s laboratory? Get back to us in 10 years.<\/p>\n The week\u2019s biggest stories Burlesque performer Haylee Holiday performs at Uncle Ollie\u2019s Penthouse in downtown Los Angeles.<\/p>\n (Roger Kisby \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n Today\u2019s recipe (Myung J. Chun\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Make no mistake: Queso fundido is not \u201cqueso,\u201d the creamy dip, often based on Velveeta, eaten with chips. Queso fundido, which translates to \u201cmelted cheese,\u201d is just that: It\u2019s melted cheese to which you can add saut\u00e9ed mushrooms, poblano peppers or chorizo.<\/p>\n It must be eaten the moment it\u2019s done, when the cheese is warm and stretchy. Here\u2019s how to make it<\/a>.<\/p>\n Photo of the day (Arwen Clemans \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Games Here\u2019s today\u2019s mini crossword<\/a>, plus our other free, daily crossword puzzle, sudoku, word search and jigsaw games<\/a>.<\/p>\n Have a great day, from the Essential California team<\/p>\n Jack Dolan, investigative reporter How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com<\/a>. Check our top stories<\/a>, topics<\/a> and the latest articles<\/a> on latimes.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the California Legislature ends its session each fall, as it did this week, the state\u2019s boosters like…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483956,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,2299,1085,891,2300,2297,340,2303,63,2302,1086,1459,2301,2298,74,225,315,688],"class_list":["post-483955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-civic-revolt","tag-covid","tag-covid-19","tag-days","tag-essential-california","tag-israel","tag-l-a","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-may","tag-pandemic","tag-part","tag-president-biden","tag-red-county","tag-san-diego","tag-state","tag-time","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"illustration](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791036489_213_.png\")
<\/a> California 2026 electionSoCal\u2019s intense weatherCrime, courts and policingMore newsEditor\u2019s pickMore picksThings to do ![\"Burlesque](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791036490_39_.jpeg\")
<\/a> <\/p>\n![\"Queso](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791036490_439_.jpeg\")
<\/a> <\/p>\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791036491_176_.jpeg\")
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Hugo Mart\u00edn, assistant editor, fast break desk
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Andrew Campa, weekend writer
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters<\/p>\n