• Judge keeps state hospital records of transgender minors away from Trump administration

    San Francisco Chronicle
    June 9, 2026

    President Donald Trump’s Justice Department initially filed lawsuits seeking the records from hospitals nationwide, but nearly a dozen federal judges rejected their suits. In response, attorney Shannon Minter of the National Center for LGBTQ Rights said, the department then quietly opened criminal investigations and threatened to prosecute hospitals that did not release their records by this Wednesday.

  • When reality is in doubt, news editors ask this Berkeley professor: Is it AI?

    San Francisco Chronicle
    June 9, 2026

    Farid, a UC Berkeley computer science professor who recently departed to teach at Dartmouth, is best known for his work as a deepfake detective, analyzing videos and images for traces of manipulation by digital or AI tools. Over the past year, deepfake content has grown at a rate of roughly 900%, according to the cybersecurity firm Deepstrike, driven by the rise of generative AI apps like ChatGPT, Gemini, ElevenLabs and Google’s Veo 3.

  • Man Not Freed From Mortgage by Assigning Debts to Wife

    Metropolitan News-Enterprise
    June 9, 2026

    Div. One of the First District Court of Appeal has held that although a marital settlement agreement provided that the wife would be awarded the marital home and would be responsible for “all debts thereon,” there was no implied obligation that the husband’s name be removed from the mortgage.

  • C.A. Overturns Arson of Grasslands Conviction Where Case Involves Residential Patch of Turf

    Metropolitan News-Enterprise
    June 9, 2026

    Div. One of the First District Court of Appeal yesterday upended a defendant’s conviction for arson of “grassland” where the fire in question was set to a green patch adjacent to a sidewalk on a busy residential street, saying that the presence of natural turf is insufficient to trigger the enhanced criminal sanctions applicable where the blaze affects certain types of natural features.