THE BUZZ — PELOSI PREVAILS: Speaker Nancy Pelosi managed to steer her caucus from another embarrassing defeat to a long-sought victory on Friday.

Democrats defending battleground House seats were staring down the bleak possibility of returning to their constituents empty-handed, fueling a narrative of dysfunction that Republicans would be thrilled to amplify. But Pelosi and other House leaders held Democrats together just well enough — with some help from Republicans and the president himself — to get the infrastructure bill to President Joe Biden’s desk. Now California’s most vulnerable Democratic incumbents can tout a concrete accomplishment.

Although it will be some time before voters see tangible changes in the form of new projects, California elected officials from Gov. Gavin Newsom on down hailed the funds as a badly needed boost for water infrastructure, roads and bridges, electric vehicle charges and public transit — including a possible infusion for the state’s politically troubled high-speed rail project. Here is the White House’s breakdown of what California will get.

The vote couldn’t have been more starkly partisan for Californians in Congress. Not a single California Democrat defected and opposed the bill, and no California Republicans joined the dozen or so GOP lawmakers who broke with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield to vote in support. You can count on hearing more about that from Democrats looking to unseat frontline California Republicans, particularly those in districts Biden carried in 2020 (although those districts will look different in 2022 thanks to looming redistricting).

SWAN SONG? It’s no secret that Pelosi is approaching the end of her time in Congress. And even with the infrastructure triumph behind them, Democrats are bracing for a brutal midterm cycle that could hand the House back to Republicans and topple Pelosi from the speakership. Either way, the infrastructure breakthrough — and the fate of Democrats’ sweeping but still TBD spending bill — will together cap the San Francisco Democrat’s legacy.

Pelosi was in constant contact with the White House on Friday, per our D.C. Playbook colleagues. She pressed Biden to make an appeal to wary progressives and left a slew of voicemails on members’ phones so they would emerge from meetings with messages from their leader, according to the New York Times. By the end of the day, the combined pressure campaign from Pelosi and Biden moved enough of the left wing of the party to carry the bill to passage, even if a half-dozen members still withheld their votes.

“This is the Democratic Party,” Pelosi told reporters when it wasn’t clear if the fractious caucus could unify enough to pass the bill. She argued that the process hasn’t changed so much as the media spotlight, taking what was once hammered out behind closed doors and making it public 24/7, on “platforms where there are opinions going out, characterizations going out before anybody even knew what was going on.”

Despite it all, Pelosi shepherded Democrats to a successful infrastructure vote. As for the larger “Build Back Better” bill? We should know soon enough.

BUENOS DÍAS, good Monday morning. A state Senate panel is holding a hearing today on data breaches and online security, starting at 1:30 p.m. — you can follow along on the Senate’s website.

Got a tip or story idea for California Playbook? Hit [email protected] or follow me on Twitter @jeremybwhite.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “It is incredibly hard to run a place with such narrow majorities, but what compounds it is, there’s no overlap. When I first got here, there were liberal Republicans and conservative Democrats. Now, the most liberal Republican is well to the right of the most conservative Democrat, so you’re trying to draw to an inside straight.” Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) on intra-Democratic politics, via the NYT.

TWEET OF THE DAY: National Review editor @philipaklein is not pleased with Republicans who backed the bill: “Every Republican who voted for this monstrosity who is not already retiring, should be primaried and defeated. It also is not too soon to be asking whether Rep. Kevin McCarthy should be ousted from leadership.”

WHERE’S GAVIN? Nothing official announced.

HIATUS ALERT — California Playbook will be off the week of Nov. 15-19.

— California balks at buying out coastal properties as risks rise, by POLITICO’s Anne C. Mulkern: A large majority of the Democratic-controlled Legislature voted to pass a bill allowing cities to borrow state money to buy homes and rent them out to repay the loan. Then, when the houses become too dangerous to inhabit, the cities would tear them down.

POLICING REVERSAL — “Pomona defunded school police. But after a shooting, campus officers are coming back,” by the LA Times’ Hayley Smith: “Just four months ago, community activists celebrated a milestone decision in the Pomona Unified School District: The Board of Education defunded school police, removed officers from high schools, and brought in proctors trained to de-escalate tensions. But prompted in part by a recent shooting near a campus, the board has reversed course and brought back police, saying that student safety is paramount.”

END OF PG&E MONOPOLY? — “PG&E has destroyed enough California communities. It’s time for a public takeover,” via The Sac Bee’s editorial board: “What will it take to finally end PG&E’s criminal negligence? How many more acres burned, how many more homes and businesses destroyed, how many more lives lost to decaying infrastructure and the profit motive?”

RAISING MONO LAKE — “Vexed by dust pollution, officials around Mono Lake call on Los Angeles to cease water diversions,” by the LA Times’ Louis Sahagún: “For those who live near the briny shores of California’s Mono Lake, October can be a dreaded month. That’s when turbulent winds scour Mono’s exposed lake bed, or ‘bathtub ring,’ and launch clouds of fine dust that blanket homes, ranch lands and scenic trails.”

STRENGTHENING SEAWALL — “S.F.'s Embarcadero needs to be raised as much as 7 feet to prepare for sea level rise, city says,” by the SF Chronicle’s John King: “San Francisco will need to elevate portions of the Embarcadero as much as seven feet in coming decades to prepare itself for rising bay waters, according to a shoreline defense strategy taking shape at the Port of San Francisco.”

EXEMPT — “Judge rules Anaheim’s living-wage law doesn’t apply to Disneyland,” by the LA Times’ Gabriel San Román: “A Superior Court judge ruled against Disneyland Resort workers in a class-action lawsuit challenging the company’s exemption from an Anaheim living-wage law.”

‘HERCULEAN PROMISE’ — “One of America’s Toughest CEO Jobs: Fixing PG&E,” by The Wall Street Journal’s Katherine Blunt: “Patti Poppe surprised her own board with a multibillion-dollar plan to bury the utility’s fire-prone power lines. Bold action — and compassion — is needed to stabilize the company, she says.”

— “An LAPD-caused explosion cost them their home. After months of limbo, they went to the desert,” by the LA Times’ Brittny Mejia: “The explosion’s aftermath underscored a painful truth about life in sprawling, expensive Los Angeles, a region where formerly working-class neighborhoods are rapidly gentrifying as the population grows but the available housing stock does not. This divide between rich and poor became even more apparent to the many displaced by the summer disaster when they were temporarily housed in a luxury downtown hotel.”

NEW MATH — “California Tries to Close the Gap in Math, but Sets Off a Backlash,” by NYT’s Jacey Fortin: “Proposed guidelines in the state would de-emphasize calculus, reject the idea that some children are naturally gifted and build a connection to social justice. Critics say math shouldn’t be political.”

SUPPLY SOLUTION — “Here’s what California could do to help fix the supply chain,” by CalMatters’ Grace Gedye: “Global supply chain problems have led to a massive backup at Southern California ports. California lawmakers are asking experts about what the state could do to help — including locating temporary storage, growing the truck driving and warehouse workforces, suspending regulations and creating a new inland port.”

— “As UN tackles twin climate threats, California struggles with them, too,” by CalMatters’ Rachel Becker and Julie Cart: “UN nations have pledged to reduce climate-changing methane and forest destruction within 10 years. California has been trying to handle both problems, with limited success.”

CONFLICT OF INTEREST — “Railroaded: Behind the Scenes of SMART’s Freight Takeover,” by Pacific Sun’s Will Carruthers: “Two Press Democrat owners deeply involved in North Bay rail politics.”

POLICING — "LAPD ended predictive policing programs amid public outcry. A new effort shares many of their flaws," by The Guardian's Johana Bhuiyan: "Documents show how data-driven policing programs reinforced harmful patterns, fueling the over-policing of Black and brown communities."

FORCED FALLOWING — "To fight off a California dust bowl, the state will pay farmers to reimagine idle land," by the SF Chronicle's Dustin Gardiner: "Farmers are being forced to fallow — a term for plowing land and leaving it unplanted — their fields and orchards in unprecedented numbers due to two factors exacerbating the water shortage: droughts are becoming longer and more severe due to climate change; and the state has begun to implement the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, new restrictions designed to stop growers and other users from depleting aquifers."

— “L.A. Councilwoman Nithya Raman could lose 40% of her district under new redistricting plan,” by the LA Times’ David Zahniser: “A Los Angeles City Council committee prepared a new map of the council’s 15 districts Friday, one that would make major changes to the Hollywood Hills district represented by Councilwoman Nithya Raman.”

— “Silicon Valley Rep. Ro Khanna’s campaign to pay $16K to FEC,” by San José Spotlight’s Lloyd Alaban: “The Federal Elections Commission (FEC) reached a settlement with Rep. Ro Khanna‘s campaign to pay for using information from the commission’s database to send people emails during his 2014 and 2016 runs for Congress. That included taking information, such as donor history, from the FEC’s donor lists to ask for donations—something that violates federal law.”

— “That rejected 495-unit complex in San Francisco is now a dividing line in Assembly race,” by the SF Chronicle’s Joe Garofoli: “The San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ controversial decision to reject a 495-unit apartment complex has become a key issue in what will become one of the hottest races in the Bay Area — and likely California — over the next few months: the special election to replace David Chiu in the Assembly.”

— “Inside Facebook’s decision to eliminate facial recognition — for now,” by The Washington Post’s Elizabeth Dwoskin: “The results were announced Tuesday, when Facebook surprised the world with news that it was shuttering the program and deleting the faces of more than a billion users from its databases, citing public “concern” over an unregulated technology.”

TESLA IN TEXAS — “Elon’s Texas Empire,” by Bloomberg’s Dana Hull and Sergio Chapa: “From a sprawling factory outside Austin to a property-buying binge on the Gulf Coast, Musk is making an imprint in a state that has long welcomed eccentric outsiders.”

FACEBOOK’S TOLL — “Is Facebook Bad for You? It Is for About 360 Million Users, Company Surveys Suggest,” by The Wall Street Journal’s Georgia Wells, Deepa Seetharaman and Jeff Horwitz: “Facebook researchers have found that 1 in 8 of its users report engaging in compulsive use of social media that impacts their sleep, work, parenting or relationships, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.”

TIME TO SELL? — “Elon Musk took to a Twitter poll to decide whether to sell a tenth of his Tesla stock. Twitter users said yes,” by WaPo’s Faiz Siddiqui.

TOO REAL — “Marilyn Manson’s accusers detail his alleged abuse. ‘He’s so much worse than his persona,’” by the LA Times’ August Brown and Suzy Exposito: “For three decades, goth rock singer Marilyn Manson reveled in his image as the ultimate pop-culture villain. In U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles, the British-born actor Esmé Bianco is waging a legal battle to prove that Manson’s menacing persona was all too real.”

— Investors sour on cannabis after Democrats fail to help industry, by POLITICO’s Paul Demko: Optimism soared in the cannabis industry after Democrats won control of the Senate. Investors flooded into the industry. Cannabis behemoths raised billions in capital to bankroll expansion plans. Stock prices soared. But Democrats haven’t passed any legislation in the ensuing 10 months — and the prospects for that changing anytime soon look remote.

— “Ericka Cruz Guevarra Becomes Host of KQED’s ‘The Bay’ Podcast,” via KQED.

— Kathleen Ronayne of the AP is moving off the California politics beat to cover climate change and the environment through a California lens.

— "Kamala Harris’ Senate replacement has picked his issue. How Alex Padilla is spending his time," by The Sac Bee's Gillian Brassil.

— “Fremont toddler killed by stray bullet during shooting on I-880 in Oakland,” by The Mercury News’ Harriet Blair Rowan.

— “Judge orders killer released after LA County prosecutor declines to present evidence at hearing,” by the Los Angeles Daily News’ Scott Schwebke.

— “LA utility worker is electrocuted in underground vault,” via the AP.

— “Dude, where’s my order? Tracing one container through a broken global supply chain,” by the LA Times’ Jon Healey and Samantha Masunaga.

— “How Desert Daze 2021 will happen in-person again with some new rules,” by The Press-Enterprise’s Charlie Vargas.

— “The Many Histories of Julia Morgan’s L.A. Herald Examiner Building,” by Curbed’s Alissa Walker.

— "How one of California’s cheapest cities became unaffordable: ‘the housing market is broken,'" by The Guardian's Dani Anguiano.

FRIDAY: Belatedly, J&Z Strategies’ Adam Robak

SUNDAY: Michael Kratsios … Beryl Weiner …

SATURDAY: Katie Rosborough … Keaton Bedell … Seth A. Radow ... Susan Downey

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