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As California Governor Gavin Newsom, flanked by top union and Democratic leaders, pledged to a raucous crowd he would push back against President Donald Trump, a group of armed federal agents stood outside the Los Angeles venue where the rally was taking place. 

The episode underscored the growing tensions between Trump and Newsom, who said it was “no coincidence” US Border Patrol agents were stationed there simultaneous with his event and that they were sent to intimidate — an allegation that later drew a rebuke from the Trump administration.  

The governor and his supporters were gathered in LA to unveil a ballot measure called the Election Rigging Response Act, which would give California lawmakers temporary authority to redraw the state’s congressional maps through 2030. The proposal would push the nation’s most populous state to join a redistricting fight that erupted in Texas, where Trump has been spurring Republicans to redraw district maps to add as many as five GOP seats in Congress. 

The new California map, which would need to be approved by at least half the state’s voters in a special election on Nov. 4, could reduce Republican-held seats from nine to four. The changes would only go into effect if Texas approves its own new map.

Along with ballot language, the governor unveiled a new television ad and a fundraising effort in what is expected to be a costly advertising blitz. The effort will be a key test of Newsom’s ability to lead the opposition to Trump and raise money in the effort. 

“Wake up America. Wake up,” Newsom said. “You will not have a country if he rigs this election.”

Governor Gavin Newsom speaks about the “Election Rigging Response Act” at a press conference in Los Angeles on Aug. 14. Photographer: Mario Tama/Getty Images

The Latest

Up Front

Five years before January’s wildfires razed through the Pacific Palisades and Altadena, California passed a law mandating certain fire resistance initiatives that investigators say could have saved homes and lives. But regulators missed a 2023 deadline to implement those protections, and they are only now finishing the job.

Called Zone Zero, the regulations mandate that homeowners remove plants, wooden gates and other combustible material within five feet of their dwellings to create ember-resistant zones that could curtail the spread of fires through neighborhoods. Scientists say this is one of the most effective ways to avert climate-driven urban firestorms.

But as LA burned, Zone Zero remained in limbo amid disputes among state agencies, the governor’s office and the insurance industry, according to documents Bloomberg’s Todd Woody obtained in a public records request. They struggled to agree over how strict to make the regulations and the cost homeowners should bear. Meanwhile, homeowners resisted changing the look of some of California’s most iconic and privileged communities, from the Berkeley Hills to Beverly Hills.

In the aftermath of the LA catastrophe, Newsom has ordered the regulations to be finished by the end of this year. Independent investigators who sifted through the ruins of Altadena and Pacific Palisades concluded that had Zone Zero been in place as the law required, it would have spared at least some of the incinerated homes and hollowed out Teslas.

“There's no doubt in my mind that this level of damage would've been avoided,” said Steve Hawks, senior director for wildfire at the nonprofit Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety and a former official with Cal Fire.

Read the full story.

A palm tree burns during the Palisades Fire in Los Angeles in January 2025. Photographer: Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg

More From Bloomberg California

Opinion

Congressional redistricting is not supposed to look like what’s happening now in Texas and California, writes columnist Ronald Brownstein.  Post-2020 maps were actually less biased than in past decades, and this race to the bottom could throw off that equilibrium. 

More opinions:

• Will Silicon Valley’s Indian CEOs get the Intel treatment?: Mihir Sharma
• Supercharging ICE is a costly mistake: The Editorial Board
• The rise and fall of luxury brands in music: Andrea Felsted and Carolyn Silverman
• The White House’s AI plan has a fatal flaw: The Editorial Board

Today’s Big Number

Tech and Tinsel

The Trump administration is discussing a deal for a government stake in Intel to bolster an expansion in the chipmaker’s domestic manufacturing. The plan could boost Intel’s finances, and may suggest CEO Lip-Bu Tan will hang on to his job.

Apple is working on its AI comeback by cooking up a slate of devices that include robots, home-security cameras, a smart speaker and a lifelike