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A CalMatters investigation found that California Gov. Gavin Newsom has built a 24-person taxpayer-funded communications team costing at least $2.6 million a year, roughly double the 12 staffers his office had in January 2020. The expanded operation includes a full-time photographer paid $212,000 annually, event location scouts, and livestream camera operators, functioning as an around-the-clock content operation.

The growth comes even as Newsom rarely takes questions from Sacramento press and his agencies frequently decline interview requests; his office stopped issuing press credentials years ago, and only 10 to 20 reporters typically attend his press conferences. Observers note the only comparable staffing came under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who held weekly briefings and credentialed hundreds of reporters. Newsom's official accounts have increasingly used memes and mockery of political opponents, prompting criticism from Republican strategists that his communications team functions as a political and image-building apparatus. The scrutiny comes as Newsom is widely seen as positioning for a potential 2028 presidential campaign.

Plans announced by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to livestream the firing squad execution of Nidal Hasan, the former Army major who killed 13 people in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting, are drawing bipartisan criticism. The execution is scheduled for Dec. 3 at Fort Hood, the site of the attack; the U.S. military has not carried out an execution since 1961, and no public execution has occurred in the country since at least 1936.

Utah Sen. John Curtis became one of the first congressional Republicans to publicly oppose the plan, warning that broadcasting the execution "cultivates an appetite for executions as a form of entertainment" and urging Hegseth to reconsider. Sen. Thom Tillis called it "beyond disgusting" and compared it to practices in authoritarian states, while Rep. Austin Scott likened it to tactics used by jihadists. Democrats including Sen. Mark Kelly said Hegseth should be removed from his post over the plan. Vice President JD Vance cast doubt on whether the livestream would actually happen. Legal questions remain over whether social media platforms can or should carry the event live.

An Ocean County Superior Court judge has ruled that Toms River, New Jersey must livestream and preserve entire township council meetings, including the public comment portion, siding with the council majority against Mayor Daniel Rodrick's administration. Assignment Judge Francis H. Hodgson Jr. found the council acted within its authority when it adopted a January resolution mandating full livestreams on the township's YouTube channel, rejecting arguments from township attorneys that state open meetings law does not require broadcasting. The ruling followed a lawsuit by resident Philip I. Brilliant, later joined by the anti-Rodrick council majority, after the administration repeatedly cut livestreams once official business concluded.

The judge ruled against the council on a separate claim seeking to force the hiring of a records manager, but withheld judgment on a dispute over paying the council's outside law firm. The case reflects a broader power struggle over Toms River's Faulkner Act government structure and limits on mayoral versus council authority.