Here are the morning’s top stories on Wednesday, July 2, 2025…
A soon-to-be reopened private prison in California City, about two hours north of Los Angeles, is expected to become California’s largest immigration and detention center. CoreCivic, a corrections company based in Tennessee, operates the facility. However, residents of California City have mixed feelings about the plan.
With wildfire season approaching, Governor Gavin Newsom is urging President Donald Trump to increase the federal government’s investment in wildfire prevention in California.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The announcement is nearly a year later than expected.
Planned ICE Detention Center Draws Praise, Critics
A soon to be reopened private prison in California City, about two hours north of Los Angeles, is expected to become the largest immigration and detention facility in the state. Tennessee-based prison and detention contractor CoreCivic reached an agreement with U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement to convert the more than 2,500 bed facility and hold immigrants arrested in ICE sweeps.
On a recent call with company investors, CoreCivic President Patrick Swindle talked about what was being done to get the California City facility ready for the arrival of undocumented immigrants. “We have begun preparations. Our facility leadership team is now in place and they are preparing the facility to receive an ICE population. We posted jobs listing for Cal City on April 7th and we received 2,500 applications already,” he said.
The detention and processing center is expected to be an important part of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. But residents in California City have mixed feelings about the plan. Some who support President Trump see it as a positive and a reminder of his agenda. But others feel the wrong people are being taken into custody, especially those who haven’t committed serious crimes.
With the worst of the wildfire season ahead, Gov. Gavin Newsom urged President Donald Trump on Tuesday to direct the federal government to significantly increase its investment in forest management.
At the Mount Howell lookout tower in Colfax, Newsom spoke to reporters about a model executive order he sent to the White House, which he said would align federal firefighting and forest management efforts with California’s. He said the requests come at a critical time because of Trump’s cuts to the US Forest Service and what Newsom called the “illegal federalization of California’s National Guard troops,” which has taken some of them away from firefighting missions.
“The Trump administration needs to step up, and they need to fund these efforts, not just here in California, but throughout the Western United States,” Newsom told the crowd. “Lives and property are on the line.”
While California is doing its part, “the federal government is not meeting this call,” the proposed order stated. Over the next year, the state has set aside more than $4 billion for wildfire mitigation and forest resilience. In comparison, Newsom stated that the Trump administration has appropriated $7 billion for the entire country’s 238 million acres of federal lands this fiscal year.
Diocese Of Fresno Files For Bankruptcy
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Tuesday.
The bankruptcy filing comes in response to over 150 allegations of sexual abuse of minors filed against the diocese. Last August, the diocese announced plans to file for bankruptcy.
In a letter to parishioners, Bishop Joseph V. Brennan of the Diocese of Fresno stated, “Our Church must address the suffering that victims of clergy sexual abuse face.” “We know the sin; it will always be with us,” he stated.
Rick Simons is an attorney who represents survivors of alleged sexual abuse. And he claimed that all of those cases came to a halt last year after the suggestion of bankruptcy. They could have kept going if they had known how long the actual filing would take. “During that time, these people could have had their cases tried. They could have had a public hearing, a day in court, and had a jury impose responsibility on them, but they lost those rights, according to Simons. The Fresno Diocese is the fifth in Northern California to declare bankruptcy in the past year.
