Day Around the Bay: Valencia Street’s Artists’ Television Access Threatened by Massive Back Rent Debt

Local:

In a move that was totally expected, Trump’s Justice Department has joined the lawsuit to block the enactment of the California redistricting measure Prop 50 that would likely hand Democrats five more US House seats. The lawsuit was already filed last week by the California Republican Party, and now the Trump administation is joining in, claiming that the new state district map unfairly favors Hispanic voters. [NBC Bay Area]
The 40-year-old Valencia Street art gallery and screening room Artists’ Television Access (ATA) is financially on the ropes, with a back rent debt of $45,000. That said, they’ve apparently already raised $35,000 of that from their fans and devotees, and their crowdfunding campaign remains ongoing. [SFGate]
Now it appears that East Bay congressional rep Eric Swalwell will join the many, many Democrats who want to run for Gavin Newsom’s governor seat when Newsom’s term expires. Swalwell confidants say he has “all but decided he is running for governor,” and this despite Trump’s vendetta going after Swalwell on alleged mortgage fraud charges. [MSNBC]

The woman who was a 17-year-old when Matt Gaetz allegedly solicited sex for cash from her is speaking out (well, through her attorney, at least), saying she was in and out of homeless shelters at the time, working at a McDonald’s, and was just trying to save up to get braces that her family couldn’t afford to get her. [NY Times]
In other news about Republicans having sex with underage women, House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson has conceded that he will allow a floor vote on the release of the Epstein files, as a bipartisan groundswell of representatives has left him no other options. [CNN]
Cantankerous Pennsylvania Democratic Senator John Fetterman was hospitalized again Thursday after a fall outside his home, a fall likely related to his heart problems of having an irregular heartbeat. [CBS News]

Today is Whoopi Goldberg’s 70th birthday, so of course they threw a little party for her on her talk show The View. But what do we see featured in this TV party but the hot dogs from Berkeley’s famed hot dog joint Top Dog! Whoopi called them “my favorite hot dogs,” and the broadcast featured their Louisiana style hot link, mango with jalapeno dog, and German bratwurst.

Image via Google Street View