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Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a landmark bill that would give a financial boost to California’s struggling newsrooms.

Assembly Bill 2222 will create refundable tax credits for California local news organizations based on the number of journalists they employ. It passed through both houses. It marks an innovative yet controversial attempt to slow the decline of local journalism.

The bill, called the Community Newsroom Employment and Workforce Sustainability Act, works by assigning a “job retention credit” of $20,000 per journalist for up to five positions, and after that $15,000 for every additional journalist. Part-time positions will be awarded half-credits. It also stacks an additional $15,000 credit for each new hire, to incentivize expanding journalist head counts.

Before signing the bill Wednesday morning, Newsom spoke about what he called the “assault on the free press and the First Amendment..coming from Washington D.C. and Donald Trump.”

“It’s journalists that need to report those stories and local journalists that need to uncover and sort of peel back the facade if democracy is going to survive, let alone thrive,” Newsom said.

The bill was supported by the California News Publishers Assn., of which the Los Angeles Times is a member and a wide range of other community news boosters. Backers said it could be a lifeline to local news organizations, many of which have struggled to maintain staffing levels over the past two decades.

California has lost more than 12,000 of its local journalists since 2002, according to nonprofit advocacy group Rebuild Local News. And almost 40% of all local U.S. newspapers have vanished, according to an annual report on the state of local news put out by Northwestern University’s Medill journalism school.

To pay for the credits, the bill would amend California’s tax code to align with a little-discussed component of President Trump’s “Big Beautiful” tax bill that expanded taxes on some companies by eliminating a deduction for executive salaries of over $1 million annually.

It is common practice for the state to consider aligning its tax code with the federal structure to make filing taxes easier and administering them more cheaply. But California has not yet sought to adopt this federal tax change, a move which would increase tax revenues to the state.

The California Taxpayers Assn. and groups representing business interests such as the California Chamber of Commerce oppose the bill because it raises taxes on employers that they argue already face billions of dollars in new taxes.

They contend that the higher costs will be passed along to consumers.

The governor’s finance office issued an analysis opposing the bill for not including a cap on the tax credits, thus creating “unlimited fiscal liability to the state,” and argued the bill mainly subsidizes existing activity rather than encouraging the creation of new jobs.

While speaking with reporters on Wednesday, Newsom acknowledged some of the concerns that have been raised about those who will receive benefits from the bill’s funds, specifically hedge funds and billionaire owners and outlets who he says spread propaganda.

“It does subsidize those that don’t need to be subsidized,” he said. “We have hedge funds in this space. We have billionaires in this space. We have people that are profiteering in this space by gutting the newsrooms and extracting value out of the space that also are the beneficiaries.”

Newsom said he chose not to veto the bill because he believes its benefits outweigh the liabilities. He added that he hopes the legislature and next governor can work to narrow down who benefits most from the legislation.

“We should not be subsidizing hedge funds,” he said. “We should be focused on where the need is the greatest, in my humble opinion, and I do think when you have no cap, the limitlessness of this…to some of the most well-heeled organizations, where now they simply could pull from this bill the benefits that they didn’t even ask for or need, is self-evident.”

Assemblymember Chris Ward (D-San Diego), who authored the bill, said the governor’s signature shows California’s commitment to the free press at a time when newsrooms are shrinking and misinformation is rampant.

“Local journalism is the backbone of an informed democracy, and today California made clear that the people doing this essential work are worth investing in,” Ward said in a statement. “This historic investment will help keep reporters in our communities, strengthen nonprofit and public media, and ensure Californians continue to have access to trusted, fact-based local news.”

In signing the bill, Newsom emphasized the role of journalism in uncovering scandal and wrongdoing.

“The L.A. Times to their credit did a big investigative piece on Bell, and people getting paid a million dollars in some cases, local government officials, a million damn dollars a year. No one would have known had it not been for local journalism. How many more Bells are out there, not just in this state, but all across the country?”

Olympic bronze medallist Alice Kinsella says it is “completely surreal” to have been named in the Great Britain team for the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships just a year after giving birth.

She has been selected to compete in Rotterdam between 17-25 October alongside world medallists Abigail Martin, Ruby Evans, Becky Downie and Alia Leat.

The 25-year-old, a two-time European champion, became the first British artistic gymnast to resume competition after giving birth when she finished fourth in the beam at the British Championships in March.

“I can’t put into words with how I’m feeling right now, my goal was always to be ready to compete properly next year and to now say I’m going to the World Championships just feels completely surreal,” said Kinsella, who also got married over the summer.

“I feel so incredibly proud of this achievement. To think I’m going to the World Championships just over a year postpartum is insane.

“It’s been a tough year but I don’t regret my decision in coming back to elite sport at all, it was always the goal of mine and there was nothing stopping me from reaching that goal.

“I can’t wait to tell this story to Parker when he’s all grown up, it’s a big one to tell!”

Double world champion Jake Jarman will participate in the men’s event in the Netherlands along with Olympic bronze medallist Harry Hepworth.

Scotland’s Reuben Ward, three-time world medal winner Joe Fraser and double world medallist Courtney Tulloch will also feature for Britain.

Nearly every summer, Tove Lo finds herself itching for a change.

Typically, the sweltering season will prompt the Swedish singer-songwriter to do something new, like dye her hair black or switch up her personal style. But even in the midst of this annual metamorphosis, she tends to find her way back to the same place: a small Swedish fishing village called Torekov.

Between recovering from her first heartbreak and overcoming burnout from her debut album “Queen of the Clouds,” the remote town has offered her a seaside refuge ever since childhood. Yet, with the making of her latest studio album “Estrus,” Torekov officially solidified itself as a mainstay in the singer’s artistic process.

“It’s kind of an emotionally triggering place for me, both good and bad,” Lo said, as she sank farther into the booth at Thai Angel on a humid August afternoon. “I needed a second to be in a place without distractions, where I’m more like a person than an artist … It almost offers a creative force field that I need to enter every process now.”

Torekov, as Lo describes it, is what the neighborhood in “‘The Truman Show’ is like before they hit record.” It’s somewhat of an idyllic place where the seashore is lined with wooden houses; sheep graze along the grassy cliffsides and residents wander around the shops in bathrobes and clogs, right after their morning swims.

However, when Lo visited during the off-season, its emptiness was “ominous” — unintentionally stirring her inner want to cause chaos. In true Tove Lo fashion, the surrounding serene village made her turn to the familiar sounds of heavy club electronica, further building on the contradictory ethos that comprises “Estrus.”

“Every song feels different. It’s like every feeling I’ve ever felt condensed into 13 songs,” Lo said, in between sips of her iced tea. “[Listeners] are getting this horny, rolly, aggressive bass line, and these super intimate, knife-to-the-heart kind of emotions in a very intimate way. I feel like they’re going to be emotionally exhausted.”

Under the dim red light of the Koreatown bar, the singer exuded an air of comfort, as she’s somewhat of a Thai Angel regular. The Swede, who’s lived in L.A. for nearly a decade, hosts a secretive, recurring party at the bar called SOUP. Usually the bar is a rowdy reprieve filled with sweaty bodies and pounding bass lines, with Lo situated behind the DJ decks. But on that Monday afternoon, hours before the bar opens, she had the place almost entirely to herself.

Tove Lo outside Thai Angel, a Koreatown bar where she hosts a recurring party.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

With only the swirling sounds of an overhead air conditioning vent to cloud her thoughts, she explained that, at the beginning, “Estrus” was bogged down by an unprecedented wave of writer’s block. The singer had initially tried to get a head start on her sixth studio album at home in Los Angeles, but she felt a new kind of pressure hanging over her head.

“I had this feeling that this is my sixth album and I had something to prove, like I needed to have a message or some kind of advice,” Lo said.

She credits the newfound tension to her career’s longevity. The 38-year-old, raised in the suburbs of Stockholm, got her start in music as a songwriter in the early 2010s, earning credits on tracks including Ellie Goulding’s “Love Me Like You Do” and Lorde’s “Homemade Dynamite.”

She gave in to her pop-star ambitions in 2014, with the release of her debut album, “Queen of the Clouds.” The record featured her breakout hit “Habits (Stay High),” which details her getting the munchies, throwing up in a tub and going to sex clubs to get over a heartbreak. Lo said she likes to think that, with the early success of the rebellious anthem, she was “very clear from the start.”

“I’m a hot mess,” Lo remarked, between laughs. “Here you go.”

Since then, she’s continued to develop her raw pop sound by collaborating with DJs like Flume and SG Lewis, while adding to her library of cult-classic tracks like “disco tits” and “Glad He’s Gone.” But at this point in her career, she said it also felt like she “should’ve had all the answers” by now.

“I had this idea that I had to prove that I had become a better, bigger person,” Lo said. “But I’m just the same f— messy girl.”

And the sound of “Estrus” follows suit. Immediately, the opening song, “a lot of feelings, no solutions,” hits listeners with a punchy bass line and blatant lyrics about having no advice to offer. Throughout the 13-track record, she flip-flops between being vulnerable and playful while also being hedonistic and making sacrifices. For example, on “the bad one,” she takes accountability for being a “problematic” partner over staccato percussion and a cinematic synth, while also being grateful she got out of the relationship. Similarly, on “F.A.M.T,” she leans into her avoidant tendencies on top of a choir of high-pitched cyber chimes and resorts to sexual endeavors instead of looking inward.

Tove Lo is set to perform at the Greek Theatre on September 27 as part of the Estrus tour.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

“We suppress a lot to be respectful to other people, and there’s nothing bad in that,” Lo said. “But if you never let your vices drive you for a night or a day, I think you’ll go absolutely crazy. You just need to have moments where you don’t think about the consequences. Just be hedonistic for a second. Indulge.”

Like much of Lo’s music, the new project, named after a female mammal in heat, is centered around the age-old tension between the body and mind. On her previous album “Dirt Femme,” released in 2022, she opened up about being unsure if she wants children, while denouncing the societal expectations that come with being a married woman.

And it’s still something she’s trying to figure out on “Estrus.” The album’s final track, “source of life,” offers up a mantra of contradicting adjectives like “feral,” “euphoric” and “fragile,” while questioning if she ruined her chances of motherhood by “partying late.”

“My body [says] well, maybe we should just have like one baby, and my mind is like, absolutely not,” said Lo. “I don’t know who’s gonna win. But I do feel like I’m in the final boss of adventures.”

By the end of “Estrus,” it’s apparent that the tug-of-war between her body and mind isn’t over. And she’s not sure if there will be a resolution. It’s still an ongoing battle — and it’s precisely what Lo says she was aiming for.

“There’s no good advice on this album,” she playfully reiterated. “Just don’t ask me.”