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Gavin Newsom is the Democratic Governor of California, where he signs or vetoes state legislation, including bills on technology and privacy.
Four academics who drafted California's Prop. 40 are some of its loudest defenders against opponents who outspend them more than 5-to-1. Critics call the one-time billionaire tax a lab test. The vote will say whether California voters want to run it.
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Gov. Gavin Newsom endorsed Prop. 42, which voids the Prop. 40 billionaire tax if both pass and Prop. 42 gets more yes votes. SFGATE reports polls consistently lean toward Prop. 42, so a Prop. 40 majority would not settle the question.
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Trump administration favors enforcing existing liability laws over a new federal AI regime, according to a report citing Bloomberg. Limits would be defined in lawsuits after harm occurs.
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California's Prop 40 would levy a one-time 5% tax on the assets of residents worth over $1 billion, raising $100 billion by its union backer's estimate. Its lasting effect on a top-heavy, market-sensitive budget turns on repetition, the very spread opponents predict when they call it a Trojan horse.
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Opponents of California's one-time 5% billionaire tax have raised more than $300 million, about ten times what its backers have. For the few hundred people in scope, residency was fixed on Jan. 1, 2026, so payment and a rival nullifying measure are what remain open.
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Researchers warn an internal Kelvin wave from this year's super El Niño could lift California sea levels by up to 30 cm once it reaches the coast. The raised water would add to winter storm surges, though the oceanographer quoted expects it to distort tides for weeks.
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Trump said on Truth Social that he would stand up an AI Force modeled on the Space Force and name an AI czar soon, while still calling the backlash against data centers a hoax created by the left. Industry figures told Politico they had no advance word.
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California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB 690, ending private suits that sought up to $5,000 per violation under CIPA's pen-register provision. For companies running ad and analytics scripts, that removes the class-action threat behind thousands of demand letters.
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SB 947, signed by Governor Gavin Newsom on September 30, puts a human reviewer on firings and discipline decided primarily by AI from July 1, 2027. Its cost to employers depends on how 'primarily', and SB 951's 'in substantial part', end up being read.
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Dave Regan, the union leader behind California's Proposition 40 billionaire tax, says he would like a Florida vote in 2028 even if California says no. That makes wealth-tax and residency planning for the very rich a question about more than one state.
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OpenAI has already paused some internal training runs and says it would slow its most advanced work if rivals matched it. Anthropic, in the same week, counted five attempts to use Claude for biological weapons research.
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Property magnate David Reuben has moved to Monaco about 18 months after the UK put long-term residents' global assets under its 40% inheritance tax. In California, where Prop 40's residency date has passed, opponents of the 5% levy are outspending supporters almost six to one.
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Gavin Newsom signed a law barring California employers from firing or disciplining workers on an AI system's judgment alone, effective July 1 next year. A human sign-off is cheap to add, and the costlier duty is the written notice explaining to each affected worker what data the system used.
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Elon Musk says SpaceX will rename its AI unit from SpaceXAI to SpaceXSI to match Trump's preferred term, 'super intelligence'. The pledge came without a date or any disclosed contract or revenue showing the merged SpaceX-xAI business moving closer to Washington.
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California voters will decide in November on Proposition 40, a one-time 5% tax on the net worth of the state's 250 billionaires, who hold $2.3 trillion. Whether any of them pays turns on a three-way vote count, since two rival amendments on the same ballot can undo it.
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California's AB 1930 makes companies notify the Attorney General and wait seven business days before producing abortion or gender-affirming care records. The law takes effect January 1, 2027, so legal teams have about three months to put a coverage check in front of every subpoena response.
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Gavin Newsom signed laws that bar California employers from relying on AI to fire workers and require written notice when AI is responsible for mass layoffs. Effective dates and definitions went unreported, so HR teams know what is restricted before they know when.
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Gavin Newsom signed California's SB 1246, under which robotaxi operators can be penalized when a car blocks police or firefighters for more than 30 minutes. By July 2028, Waymo, Tesla and Zoox have to know how fast their own staff can reach a stalled car in each city.
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Sergey Brin has given $102 million to defeat California's Prop 40, a one-time 5% billionaire tax that could cost him about $13 billion. The state's $100 billion estimate depends as much on how many of its 200 billionaires stay resident as on the November vote.
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California's SB 1246 makes robotaxi firms send technicians to stuck cars, with fines up to $10,000 a vehicle when one blocks responders over 30 minutes. For operators, clearing a stuck car now takes paid field staff in every California city they serve.
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