(Closing a Second Time)
LOS ANGELES — When everything shut down in March as the coronavirus took off in California, Canter’s Deli, a mainstay in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles, laid off dozens of employees.
A few months later, it called them back to work. By then, the state appeared to have emerged from the initial virus crisis in much better shape than other parts of the country.
But now California’s caseload is exploding, with rising deaths and hospitalizations. As quickly as things had opened up, they have shut down again.
"To have to call those people up so many times, starting March 15, to say, ‘I’m sorry, we have to lay you off, we have to furlough you,’” said Jacqueline Canter, 59, among the third generation of her family to run the restaurant. “Then call them back: ‘Oh, guess what, we’re opening again, come back.’ Then call them back: ‘Guess what, you don’t have a job anymore.’ It’s just a devastating experience for me.
“It’s an emotional roller coaster,” she added. “It’s emotional whiplash.”
If America is now experiencing a sense of national déjà vu, with coronavirus deaths rising and hospitalizations at a level similar to the spring peak, that feeling is perhaps nowhere more intense than in California.
In the Northeast, the crisis that was so acute this spring in places like New York and Connecticut has now abated and shifted to the Sun Belt, where states like Texas and Florida had managed at first to escape the worst of the virus. But California is now in the unwelcome position of having found itself at the center of the pandemic twice over.
California was the first state to issue a stay-at-home order this spring, helping to control an early outbreak. But after a reopening that some health officials warned was too fast, cases surged, leading to a new statewide mask mandate and the closure of bars and indoor dining again. With more than 420,000 known cases, California has surpassed New York to have the most recorded cases of any state, and it set a single-day record Wednesday with more than 12,100 new cases and 155 new deaths.
And as California struggles once again to contain the virus, the multitude of challenges playing out across America has collided in every corner of the state, as if it were a microcosm of the country itself.
Gov. Gavin Newsom is wrestling with how to convey a consistent message while dealing with local officials who have resisted both new shutdowns and enforcing a mandatory mask order. Some rural areas of the state remain relatively unscathed with low case counts, while cases in Los Angeles are skyrocketing. The city’s mayor, Eric Garcetti, has warned that a new stay-at-home order could come down in the coming days.
In many parts of San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Los Angeles, people do not leave home without a mask. In Huntington Beach and across Orange County, residents have openly defied mask orders and protested against them.
In Los Angeles and San Diego, classrooms will be empty this fall, after public school officials decided they were unwilling to risk in-person instruction. But in Orange County, a recommendation by the Board of Education that children return to school without masks became political fodder for debate, even as the governor announced that most California schools would not be able to teach in person.
The contradictions span the state, creating a sense of regional dissonance. In Imperial County, on the southern border with Mexico, hospitals have been so overwhelmed with virus cases that patients have had to be airlifted elsewhere. But in the northernmost tip, the virus has yet to hit Modoc County, an agricultural community of around 9,000, where there were zero known cases as of Thursday.
“It’s a small town,” said Cynthia Peña, owner of Java Doc, a coffee shop in Alturas, California, where seasonal fires were the most pressing issue for local officials. “Everyone is pretty much social distancing; we already know a cow’s length.” Still, she has shut down her dining room and asked her employees to wear masks when customers arrive at the drive-thru window.
In recent weeks, Newsom has walked a fine line between justifying the state’s reopening and imploring Californians to stay home and refrain from gathering. He has pleaded with residents to wear masks and chided them for allowing their children to hug their cousins or grandparents.
He has repeatedly pointed out that conditions across a huge state are varied, saying, “None of us live in the aggregate; it’s a very different picture you can paint depending on where you live in the state.”
It is in some ways California’s sprawling nature, with 40 million residents spread across urban downtowns and rural areas, liberal strongholds and conservative alcoves, that has aggravated the feeling of back and forth. What applies in one area may not feel necessary in another, even as residents live under statewide orders. And the sense of confusion is often made worse by conflicting political messages from local leaders, the governor and the White House.
“It’s very hard to go backwards,” said Jonathan Fielding, a professor of health policy and management at UCLA and former public health director for Los Angeles County, who worried that a lack of consistent messaging had allowed many Californians to choose which message they wanted to hear at various points in the pandemic.
“When people have been isolated and in some cases lost a job and are hearing all of these different things, what is the message?” he said. “What is the message when you are hearing, basically, a cacophony?”
In Los Angeles — which has seen the most cases in California and where hospitals are filling up — parts of the city feel under siege, and in other areas, there is little palpable sense of the severity of the situation. Unlike in New York City during the height of the outbreak, most Angelenos have not had to absorb the piercing wail of ambulance sirens at all hours, a sound that came to define the pandemic there.
California’s numbers are in part a reflection of its vast population, about double that of New York state, and testing is far more available now than in the spring. Antibody tests suggest that far more people than previously reported were infected in New York City at its peak. But because Los Angeles is so less dense than New York City, there are parts of Los Angeles where the reality of the virus at this stage of the pandemic can go unnoticed.
“It feels as normal as it always did,” said Michael Lee, the owner of a hair salon, Bang Bang LA, in the Los Feliz neighborhood.
For Lee, the past several months have been turbulent in the extreme. He was set to open his business just as the pandemic gained a hold in the country, forcing shutdowns.
“We opened March 19 and got shut down March 20,” he said.
Lee, who rents space to other hair stylists, did not collect any rent for the first months of the shutdown. Now he is charging tenants just 35% of their rent “just to keep the doors open for when we can go back to work.”
He was allowed to open for about five weeks beginning in early June, but many of his clients stayed away, saying they feared another coronavirus wave. “They were right, I guess,” he said.
The salon shut down again last week, and Lee has been spending his time cleaning it, touching up the paint on the walls and researching business loans to help him stay afloat. “I’ve just been watching the numbers every day, hoping to see them start dropping,” he said.
For essential workers, many of whom are people of color who have faced the risk of the virus on a daily basis for months, the latest upticks were especially worrisome.
“It’s scary,” said Christina Lockyer-White, a nursing assistant at a nursing home in Kern County, who watched as dozens of patients and fellow employees fell ill in April. “Nobody should have to go through or see what I experienced.”
As cases rise, Lockyer-White, who said she tested negative this spring, once again worries about contracting the virus and taking it home to her son. “You always wonder if a second wave can come back, because you hear that they can,” Lockyer-White said Thursday during a break from a shift at the nursing home. “It’s always, make sure you don’t let your guard down.”
-The New York Times Company-
LOS ANGELES - Some retailers in California, including bookstores, flower shops and clothing stores, will be allowed to reopen for business at the end of the week, the state's governor announced on Monday.
"Millions of Californians answered the call to stay home and thanks to them, we are in a position to begin moving into our next stage of modifying our stay at home order," Governor Gavin Newsom said. "But make no mistake -- this virus isn't gone. It's still dangerous and poses a significant public health risk."
His announcement came following protests across the state last week to demand the lifting of restrictions that have kept the majority of Californians at home and crippled the state's economy, one of the largest in the world.
Under the second phase of the reopening process outlined by the governor, some retail stores can open on Friday for pickup only, while manufacturing and logistics businesses will also be able to get back to work.
Newsom said other sectors that fall into this second phase, such as offices and dine-in restaurants, will open at a later date.
The Democratic governor said that some counties can move quickly through Stage 2, but they must first prove that they meet the state's readiness criteria for hospital beds, testing kits and contact tracing.
Other counties in the Bay Area, which were the first in the country to order lockdowns and which have experienced a high rate of infection, will likely start lifting restrictions at a later date, Newsom said.
He said Stage 3 of lifting restrictions would begin in months and include the reopening of hair salons, nail bars, gyms and sports competitions without fans. The final stage would amount to the lifting of all restrictions and allow for the opening of movie theaters and sporting events.
That stage, however, is not expected before a vaccine is discovered and made widely available.
California as of Monday had recorded nearly 55,000 cases of COVID-19 and 2,211 deaths.
Los Angeles County alone has recorded nearly 26,000 cases and 1,229 deaths.
Agence France-Presse
SACRAMENTO, California - California will step up enforcement of coronavirus-related public health restrictions after crowds jammed beaches over the weekend, Governor Gavin Newsom said on Monday.
Newsom's announcement came after local officials in Orange and Ventura Counties allowed access to their beaches even as state parks remained closed, prompting families and groups to head to the ocean on a warm spring weekend.
The crowds put at risk the state's progress in slowing the advance of the novel coronavirus and possibly could delay a possible loosening of restrictions that was just weeks away, said Newsom, a Democrat.
The beach crowds exemplify the tension that officials throughout the United States are dealing with as residents chafe under stay-at-home orders and some states begin to loosen them.
Newsom said he would not direct state police or park rangers to issue citations to individuals who were just out quietly with their children or walking their dogs.
"I don’t want to be punitive," he said. "They just want to take a rest on the beach and all of a sudden they get a citation - I don’t want to see that. But if there are people thumbing their nose and taking a risk… I think we may have to do a little bit more."
The two counties that opened their beaches are reconsidering their plans after people thronged their shoreline spots, prompting criticism from public health authorities, Newsom said.
Two additional states, Nevada and Colorado, have joined with California, Oregon and Washington to develop a Western regional plan for re-opening the troubled economy and allowing residents to begin at least some more typical social interactions.
But Newsom warned that fatalities and new cases were still ongoing in California, where 45 people died of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours and 1,300 additional cases were diagnosed.
"The virus is as transmissible as it’s ever been," Newsom said. "It doesn’t take the weekend off. It doesn’t take any time off. It is ubiquitous, it is invisible and it remains deadly." (Reporting by Sharon Bernstein; Editing by Sandra Maler and Dan Grebler)
-reuters-
LOS ANGELES - Governor Gavin Newsom tightened California's coronavirus lockdown Monday, shutting parking lots at beaches and parks in the most populous US state after tens of thousands flouted social distancing rules over the weekend.
The state is already under orders to stay home, but images of record crowds flocking to beaches such as Malibu and Santa Monica went viral on Sunday.
"I had a little anxiety, as all of you did, watching the news of all those folks and crowds in our parks, out there on the beautiful California coast," said Newsom.
"We're going to shut down all state parking lots" immediately, he added, saying "we can't see what we saw over the weekend happen again."
California, one of the worst-hit US states, has more than 1,700 confirmed cases, including at least 27 deaths.
Last week Newsom ordered all residents to stay home, barring essential activities, and to maintain social distancing.
But the order will likely not be enforced by police, Newsom said, expressing hope that people would self-regulate.
"We need to help you help yourself, a little bit more, those folks that were making their way out" at the weekend, Newsom said Monday, calling the new measure a "soft closure."
"To recognize when you're on a single-track trail out in our beautiful wilderness, that single track means going up the mountain, and down the mountain -- which means it's almost impossible to socially distance.
"When you're out there and you can't even find parking at a beach, it suggests you're not going to practice social distancing, and it may suggest you may want to find a new location."
Meanwhile, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti loosened restrictions on restaurants delivering alcohol to people in their homes. Other US jurisdictions have made similar moves.
"This will not only be something nice for the people of LA, but good for those businesses to keep them alive, so that when this crisis is over your favorite neighborhood watering holes and restaurant will still, we hope, be there," he said.
Governor Newsom also praised entrepreneur Elon Musk for delivering 1,000 new ventilators to Los Angeles from where they will be distributed to hospitals, with fears that US medical facilities will not have enough of the crucial machines to cope with a surge of people sick with the COVID-19 illness.
amz/it
Agence France-Presse
SAN FRANCISCO, United States—Facebook said Tuesday it was devoting $1 billion during the coming decade in affordable housing, most of it in its home state of California.
The leading social network has partnered with Governor Gavin Newsom and others on projects intended to result in as many as 20,000 new housing units for teachers, nurses, first responders and other "essential workers," according to Facebook chief financial officer David Wehner.
"Access to more affordable housing for all families is key to addressing economic inequality and restoring social mobility in California and beyond," Newsom said in a statement.
"State government cannot solve housing affordability alone, we need others to join Facebook in stepping up—progress requires partnership with the private sector and philanthropy to change the status quo and address the cost crisis our state is facing."
Facebook has previously teamed up with community groups and local officials on affordable housing initiatives in the San Francisco Bay area and in the Silicon Valley city of Menlo Park, where it has its headquarters.
In San Francisco, a family of 4 with a household income of $100,000 per year is considered low-income, according to Wehner.
"We've learned that the production of affordable housing across the income spectrum is a problem throughout California and must be addressed through partnerships that bring companies, communities, non-profit organizations and policy makers statewide together to find creative solutions," Wehner said.
Facebook is devoting $250 million to a partnership with California for homes on excess state-owned land where housing is scarce, and will provide $225 million worth of land it has already bought in Menlo Park to be used for more than 1,500 units of mixed-income housing, according to Wehner.
About a third of the money, some $350 million, will be allotted to affordable housing projects across the US, Facebook said.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
LOS ANGELES - California rolled out the nation's first statewide earthquake warning system on Thursday, designed to detect seismic waves and alert residents through a mobile phone app even before the ground starts shaking.
Governor Gavin Newsom, who urged Californians to download the MyShake app on the anniversary of the devastating Loma Prieta earthquake on Oct. 17, 1989, boasted the program was more sophisticated than early warning systems already used in Mexico and Japan.
"The price of admission to live here is preparation," the governor told a news conference in Oakland, overlooking a freeway bridge built to replace one that collapsed during the Loma Prieta quake, which killed more than 60 people in the San Francisco Bay Area.
"If millions of people (download the app) we will have points of contact, the ability to crowdsource information the likes of which no country in world has advanced," Newsom said.
The governor did not explain how California's earthquake system is the world's most sophisticated.
The launch coincided with a Great Shakeout earthquake drill conducted at Biola University in Southern California, where students across campus practiced the "drop, cover, hold on" technique following a simulated 7.1 temblor.
Newsom said that the California Earthquake Early Warning System, which uses hundreds of seismic sensors to detect fast-moving seismic P-waves from major earthquakes, could give residents up to 20 seconds before the shaking starts.
That time could be used to shut off gas or utility transmission lines or open elevator doors, he said.
P-waves, which travel through the interior of the Earth, arrive before surface waves and at a higher frequency during a temblor. Many animals are able to feel P-waves, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).
In general, communities farthest away from the epicenter of a quake would receive the most advance warning.
Already, the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system in and around San Francisco has connected the early detection network to its rail service to automatically slow down its trains, and reduce the risk of a derailment in the event of a major quake.
The MyShake app, which was designed by University of California, Berkeley, seismologists and engineers, will initially alert users to earthquakes of a magnitude 4.5 or greater in their area.
Warnings are based on a computer program called ShakeAlert operated by the US Geological Survey that analyzes data from seismic networks statewide, calculates preliminary magnitudes, and then estimates which areas will feel shaking, according to the governor's office.
Japan developed the world's most advanced earthquake early warning system after the 1995 Kobe earthquake, based on the same principles of physics as California's.
Officials in Los Angeles County in January introduced a "ShakeAlertLA" mobile phone application that can transmit an early warning to residents who have installed the app, giving them extra seconds to take cover before a major quake hits.
The 6.9 magnitude Loma Prieta quake struck during a national broadcast of the 1989 World Series and experts have said the lighter-than-normal traffic because of the baseball game may have prevented a greater loss of life.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
LOS ANGELES - California has become the first state in the country to push back start times at most public schools in the hope the measure will help adolescents perform better in class.
The new law signed on Sunday by Governor Gavin Newsom calls for middle schools to ring in classes no earlier than 8:00 am and high schools no earlier than 8:30 am.
The measure would become effective by July 1, 2022 or when a school district’s three-year bargaining agreement that is operative on January 1, 2020, expires.
Most California schools currently start the day around 8:00 am and some require students to be in class before 7:30 a.m.
"The science shows that teenage students who start their day later increase their academic performance, attendance and overall health," Newsom said in a statement.
"Importantly, the law allows three years for schools and school districts to plan and implement these changes."
While the measure has received backing from several medical associations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the California Medical Association, the bill has run into opposition by some lawmakers and school districts.
"We can all agree that our students need a sufficient amount of sleep, and that sleep time is a significant and important factor in overall health, but improving sleep time for students requires more than just later start times," state senator Connie Leyva told the Sacramento Bee.
"I believe that school start times should continue to be determined at the local level, because it is inappropriate to say that a one-size-fits-all approach should guide all schools or all communities."
Leyva and other critics also noted that the time change will prove to be a hardship for many working parents who may not be able to adjust their schedules.
Janet Napolitano, president of the University of California, said the state would do better to carry out a pilot study on later start times before imposing it on school districts.
"As much as I sympathize with sleepy students, we must also carefully consider how the change would affect families and schools," she said.
According to numerous studies, there is a link between the amount of sleep adolescents get and school performance.
The American Academy of Pediatrics says it "recognizes insufficient sleep in adolescents as an important public health issue that significantly affects the health and safety, as well as the academic success, of our nation's middle and high school students."
jz/to
source: news.abs-cbn.com
LOS ANGELES, United States —Much of California was on high alert Friday as wind-driven wildfires tore through the state's south, forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands of people and destroying multiple structures and homes.
News reports said an 89-year-old woman died in Calimesa, about 70 miles (115 kilometers) east of Los Angeles, when fire swept through a mobile home park overnight after the driver of a garbage truck that caught fire dumped his burning load nearby.
Another man in his 50s died Thursday night from cardiac arrest as he spoke with firefighters battling the so-called Saddleridge brush fire in the San Fernando Valley, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of downtown Los Angeles, fire officials said.
The fire grew from 60 acres to 4,700 acres overnight, prompting evacuation orders for more than 100,000 people in the area.
Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Ralph Terrazas said the blaze was being fuelled by dry conditions and high winds known as the Santa Ana winds.
"Do not wait to leave. If we ask you to evacuate, please evacuate," he urged residents.
He said some 1,000 firefighters were fighting the blaze that was zero percent contained in early morning and which forced the partial shutdown of several major highways. The metro line in the area was also shut down.
"We've calculated that the fire is moving at a rate of 800 acres per hour," Terrazas said, adding that it would probably take days to get it under control.
Some 200 firefighters and helicopters were meanwhile battling the brush fire -- dubbed the Sandlewood fire -- that tore through the mobile home park.
There were no immediate reports of injuries, but authorities ordered some 1,900 homes in the area be evacuated.
The Los Angeles Police Department said on Twitter it had declared a "citywide tactical alert."
Evacuation centers are open for those forced to leave their homes, said LA mayor Eric Garcetti.
IN THE DARK
Weather forecasters have warned of more strong winds and "extremely critical fire" conditions Friday and state authorities have issued their highest fire alert -- a red flag warning.
The wildfires erupted as California's largest utility, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), implemented rolling power blackouts that affected some 2 million people in Northern California this week.
About 312,000 customers remained in the dark Friday as a result of the shutoffs designed to reduce the threat of wildfire that can be sparked by lines downed in heavy winds.
Many schools and universities were also closed in northern parts of the state as people stocked up on gasoline, water, batteries and other basics, with frustration mounting at the blackouts condemned by some as "third world."
"We're seeing a scale and scope of something that no state in the 21st century should experience," Governor Gavin Newsom said Thursday, blaming decades of what he called neglect and mismanagement by PG&E.
"This is not, from my perspective, a climate change story as much as a story about greed and mismanagement over the course of decades," Newsom said. "Neglect, a desire to advance not public safety but profits."
PG&E has defended the outages as necessary for safety reasons and has said it will take days before power is restored to all customers as inspections must be conducted on power lines in all of the affected areas.
"This is not how we want to serve you but blackouts can happen again," Bill Johnson, the CEO of the company said Thursday.
Last November, PG&E's faulty power lines were determined to have sparked the deadliest wildfire in the state's modern history, which killed 86 and destroyed the town of Paradise.
FIL-AMS
Filipina Girlie Collado and her family had to evacuate their Northridge home Thursday night.
"We all kind of feel helpless. There’s nothing much else we can do but we feel fortunate that we are safe and we are with family... So we’re counting our blessings," she said.
Joe Arciaga, who lives a couple of miles from the fire line, said he and his family have been on full alert—ready for whatever may happen.
"It was hard to sleep last night because of all the fire trucks and police cars going up and down the street where I live," he said.
"The air is pretty acrid right now. This is a reality for us Filipino-Americans here living in the San Fernando Valley… Santa Clarita Valley."—With a report from Henni Espinosa, ABS-CBN North America
source: news.abs-cbn.com
LOS ANGELES -- The governor of California Gavin Newsom is spearheading a move to allow American college athletes be paid despite pushback from the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
Newsom signed a bill Monday to allow US athletes to hire agents and make money from endorsements but the California bill won't come into effect for 27 months.
Newsom is hoping the bill, called Fair Pay to Play Act, has a domino effect.
"It's going to initiate dozens of other states to do similar legislation. And it's going to change college sports for the better by having now the interest, finally, of the athletes on par with the interests of the institutions," said Newsom. "Now we're rebalancing that power arrangement."
The bill, which comes into effect in January 2023, threatens to disrupt the business model of American college sports and in June, NCAA President Mark Emmert said if the bill became California law, schools in the state could be prohibited from participating in NCAA championships.
"As a membership organization, the NCAA agrees changes are needed to continue to support student-athletes, but improvement needs to happen on a national level through the NCAA's rules-making process," an NCAA spokesman said on Monday.
"Unfortunately, this new law already is creating confusion for current and future student-athletes, coaches, administrators and campuses, and not just in California."
source: news.abs-cbn.com
LOS ANGELES - California's Democratic governor signed a law on Tuesday requiring U.S. presidential candidates to release five years of tax returns before they can appear on the state's ballot, a move aimed squarely at President Donald Trump.
The law, which passed both houses of the Democrat-controlled state legislature earlier this month, marks the latest effort by Democrats to expose still-murky details of Trump's financial empire.
"These are extraordinary times and states have a legal and moral duty to do everything in their power to ensure leaders seeking the highest offices meet minimal standards, and to restore public confidence," California Governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement announcing the bill signing.
Representatives for the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the measure, which was expected to face legal challenges.
Newsom's predecessor as California governor, Jerry Brown, in 2017 vetoed similar legislation passed by state lawmakers on the grounds that it might run counter to the U.S. Constitution and set a precedent for requiring presidential candidates to disclose personal information.
Despite suggesting during his successful 2016 run for the presidency that he would release his tax returns once an audit was complete, Trump has refused to make them public.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has rejected requests by the U.S. House of Representatives' Ways and Means Committee to the Internal Revenue Service to turn over six years of Trump's returns.
The committee sued Mnuchin and the Treasury Department last week to appeal Mnuchin’s decision.
Earlier this month, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, also a Democrat, signed an amendment to a state law requiring the Department of Taxation and Finance to release any returns sought by the appropriate congressional committees.
Last week Trump sued New York over the legislation, saying it was enacted to retaliate against the president because of his "policy positions, his political beliefs, and his protected speech, including the positions he took during the 2016 campaign." (Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; editing by Bill Tarrant and Tom Brown)
source: news.abs-cbn.com
SACRAMENTO, California - California Governor Gavin Newsom on Monday signed an order withdrawing more than two-thirds of the state's National Guard troops from the U.S.-Mexico border, calling claims of an illegal immigration crisis there nothing but "political theater."
Newsom said most of the roughly 360 National Guard members deployed to the border would be reassigned to other duties in the state, with about 100 remaining behind as part of a task force targeting drug trafficking and cartels.
"This whole border issue is a manufactured crisis. We are not interested in participating in this political theater," Newsom said at an afternoon news conference in Sacramento.
The governor, a Democrat who took office in January, said border crossings were at their lowest level since 1971 and that the state's undocumented population had dropped to a more than 10-year low.
"This is pure politics, period full stop," he said.
The move was a rebuke to President Donald Trump, who won election in 2016 partly on a populist pledge to build a wall on the southern U.S. border which he said in his campaign Mexico would pay for.
Trump's demand for $5.7 billion to help build that wall was central to a 35-day partial U.S. government shutdown that ended last month. He agreed to reopen the government for three weeks to allow lawmakers time to find a compromise and avert another shutdown on Feb. 15.
Newsom's predecessor, Governor Jerry Brown, agreed to send National Guard troops to the border last April after reaching agreement with the Trump administration that they would focus on fighting criminal gangs and smugglers and not enforce immigration laws.
New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham last week ordered the withdrawal of most National Guard troops deployed at the border by her Republican predecessor at Trump's request last year.
Trump has deployed an extra 3,750 U.S. troops on the border this month.
Newsom said some of the National Guard troops would be re-deployed to help fight what he said were mushrooming illegal marijuana farms following approval of a 2016 ballot measure to legalize recreational cannabis - legislation the governor helped champion.
"We have to hold accountable those who are not participating in the legal cannabis market," he said. "These illegal grows are manifesting, getting bigger."
source: news.abs-cbn.com
