Sure there are those ambitious climate goals, the shuttered prisons, the state’s ever-worsening homelessness crisis and the three-year COVID state of emergency. But among the many changes that will define Gov. Gavin Newsom’s legacy as political leader of California, one of the most enduring, if under-appreciated, is his reshaping of the judiciary. 

According to new judicial appointment data his press office promoted this week, Newsom has added 288 new members to the state bench. On its face, that number isn’t all that remarkable. Over the course of his two final terms as governor, Jerry Brown appointed 644. Before him, Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed more than 600.

Instead, these are the statistics that Newsom wanted to highlight:

• 146 (51%) of his judges are women;
• At least 169 (59%) are people of color.

As of last year, 40% of sitting judges and justices were women and roughly two-thirds were white.

As my colleague Byrhonda Lyons has written, gender and ethnic diversity on the bench has been a growing emphasis for California governors. Nearly 40% of Brown’s appointees were people of color, compared to just 27% of Schwarzenegger’s. 

Newsom has gone out of his way to make demographic “firsts” with his appointments. On the state Supreme Court, Newsom picked Patricia Guerrero as chief justice, a Latina, and appointed Justice Martin Jenkins, who is openly gay. 

Two more firsts: Alex Padilla is the first Latino to serve as a U.S. senator from California and Shirley Weber is the first Black Secretary of State — both Newsom picks before he won reelection in 2022. 

State judicial appointments don’t generate the same attention or controversy as they do at the federal level. But if Newsom ever were to run for president — which, he has repeatedly stressed, he has no intention of doing — he might point to statistics like the ones above as more proof that, as he is so fond of saying, California doesn’t just tolerate diversity, we celebrate it.

But he probably won’t be pointing to this statistic: 70% of registered California voters in a new survey said they do not want Newsom to run for president in 2024.

That number, from a Quinnipiac poll conducted in late February, shouldn’t be all that surprising. After all, Newsom isn’t running, most Republicans surveyed are sure not to support a Newsom presidential run and among Democrats, 86% approved of President Biden and are therefore less likely to support replacing him after a single term.

Other polling tidbits:

• 22% of respondents named homelessness as the state’s “most urgent” problem
• More voters than not had no strong feelings about any of the three Democrats running for U.S. Senate — Rep. Adam Schiff (38% said they “haven’t heard enough”), Rep. Katie Porter (59%) and Rep. Barbara Lee (71%)
• Two-thirds said they would oppose allowing incarcerated Californians to vote from prison, a state ballot measure proposed by Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, a Culver City Democrat.

The coronavirus bottom line: As of Tuesday, California had 11,127,153 confirmed cases and 100,424 total deaths, according to state data now updated just once a week on Thursdays.CalMatters is also tracking coronavirus hospitalizations by county.California has administered 88,208,666 total vaccine doses, and 72.7% of eligible Californians have received their primary vaccine series.

Other Stories You Should Know

---

1 The coming Medi-Cal cliff

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, enrollment in Medi-Cal, the state’s health insurance program for low-income people, has ballooned from a little more than 13 million in 2019 to 15.4 million today, more than a third of the state’s population. 

But as CalMatters health reporter Ana B. Ibarra explains, that balloon may be about to pop.

That’s in part for obvious reasons: During a pandemic, demand for health care was especially high and many of the people who lost jobs in the first months of the public health emergency suddenly found themselves eligible for the state’s free or low-cost coverage.

But there was another, technical reason for the surge in numbers: One of the first COVID relief bills passed by Congress in March 2020 prohibited states from kicking people off government-sponsored health plans during a public health emergency.

Now that the national public health emergency is coming to an end, California is going to restart the annual process of checking whether Medi-Cal enrollees still qualify for the program — kicking them off if they don’t.

Public health advocates are worried that as many as 2 to 3 million Medi-Cal patients are going to be caught off guard by the transition and could fall through the cracks.

• John Baackes, CEO of L.A. Care: “It’s just unfathomable to me that the state thinks that this is all going to happen without huge confusion on the part of the people we’re trying to serve.”

2 A new nuclear lifeline

Federal regulators gave California’s last nuclear power plant a new lease on life on Thursday.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission ruled that Pacific Gas & Electric can keep running the Diablo Canyon plant under its current license past its scheduled expiration date of 2025 while the utility seeks a longer-term extension. 

According to CalMatters’ environment reporter Nadia Lopez, PG&E is seeking a 20-year extension, a customary duration for nuclear power plant applications, though the Legislature only extended the plant’s legal life until 2030.

What to do about Diablo is an increasingly pressing concern as California commits to ever-more ambitious goals to decarbonize its grid and electrify the vehicles on its roads. The nuclear power plant near San Luis Obispo provides roughly 10% of the state’s electricity — and in a steady and reliable flow needed to balance out intermittent wind and solar power.

Gov. Newsom, who pushed the Diablo extension, visited the plant on Wednesday, without any public notice. 

• Newsom, in a press release Thursday: “As we experienced during the record heat wave last September, climate change-driven extreme events are causing unprecedented stress on our power grid — the Diablo Canyon Power Plant is important to support energy reliability as we accelerate progress towards achieving our clean energy and climate goals.”   

Though the 38-year-old plant serves as a linchpin for California’s green grid goals, environmental groups are divided about keeping it open:

• Dan Richard, president of Carbon Free California: “Diablo Canyon is providing vital carbon free energy at a stable price and can do so for many years to come.”
• Hallie Templeton, legal director of Friends of the Earth: The decision is “an ominous warning sign for how independent the NRC will be in evaluating the earthquake risk and the overall operational integrity of the Diablo Canyon reactors.”

3 Another big snow for CA

When it rains, it pours…and hails and sleets and snows.

That’s been the story of California’s relentlessly stormy winter. Now another wet winter storm is barreling into the state.

Across the central and northern Sierra, from Grass Valley up to Shasta County, the National Weather Service is forecasting as much as five feet of fresh snow between Saturday and Monday, with winds gusting up to 60 mph. 

With all that snow, there’s good news and bad news.

The bad news:

The good news:

But no, the drought still isn’t over — especially not in the parched parts of California where water is most desperately needed. The bulk of the Central Valley is still considered “abnormally dry.” 

On Thursday, state water regulators rejected the groundwater plans of six local water agencies across the San Joaquin Valley, deeming them inadequate at stopping wells from drying up and land from subsiding.

As CalMatters’ Alastair Bland explains, the long-awaited decision by the Department of Water Resources marks a major test of a landmark law from 2014 meant to end a crisis of groundwater generations in the making.

Other things worth your time

---

Some stories may require a subscription to read

Businesses issuing paper receipts will be fined in new California bill // San Francisco Chronicle

Will California sue oil companies over high gas prices? // Sacramento Bee

Sen. Scott Wiener forms exploratory committee for Nancy Pelosi’s seat // San Francisco Standard

Constitutional amendment would make schools superintendent appointee // EdSource

Offices as housing? New bill could make that a reality in Bay Area // Mercury News

Judge to fine California each day it fails on prisoner suicide prevention // AP News

Could California require Tesla charging stations to open to all EVs? // San Francisco Chronicle

Legislative analyst opposes Newsom’s plan for more high-poverty school funding // EdSource

UC Riverside research center should be investigated, say faculty, students // Press-Enterprise

State finds no conflict stops DA Jenkins from prosecuting SF cop // San Francisco Standard

California regulators find Diablo Canyon nuclear plant needed through 2030 // Utility Dive

Bill would extend rent caps to RV owners // Voice of San Diego

Shipping companies reach $97M California oil spill agreement | AP News

New owners of SF hotel sued over $730,000 in unpaid wages // SFist

Hidden, illegal casinos are booming in L.A. // Los Angeles Times

State to consider dismantling I-980 to repair Black neighborhoods // Mercury News

Opinion: Newsom talks tough on CEQA. Let’s see some action // San Francisco Chronicle