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The city of Kalamazoo, Michigan has resumed private "small group" meetings between the city manager and city commissioners, a practice the Commission had unanimously ended in 2021 over transparency concerns, replacing it with public Committee of the Whole sessions. The meetings restarted in November 2025 under interim City Manager Patsy Moore and continued under current City Manager Malcolm Hankins, reportedly kept below the four-member quorum required by Michigan's Open Meetings Act. Topics have included budget, utility rates, zoning and call-in public comment rules. Legal observers note the practice, while not clearly illegal, raises "round-the-horn" deliberation concerns. Commissioners are divided, with some defending the sessions as informational and others questioning their transparency and public trust implications.

California lawmakers have sent Gov. Gavin Newsom a bill, AB 2222, that would create the nation's most ambitious state tax credit program for local news organizations. The measure would redirect revenue generated by conforming state tax law to a federal provision in Trump's tax legislation that eliminated corporate deductions for executive pay above $1 million. Newsrooms could receive an estimated $43 million in credits tied to journalists' wages, with tax credits ranging from $7,500 for part-time positions to $20,000 for full-time roles, plus bonuses for new hires. National outlets and partisan "pink slime" sites would be excluded.

The bill responds to a steep decline in local journalism: more than 12,000 California newsroom jobs have disappeared since 2002, and over 3,500 U.S. newspapers have closed, according to advocacy group Rebuild Local News. The McClatchy chain, which owns the Sacramento Bee, recently announced major layoffs. Newsom's finance department has opposed the bill, questioning its economic benefit, and the governor has not stated his position. Supporters argue the credits, though unable to reverse the industry's decline, would preserve local reporting jobs seen as vital to civic accountability and democracy.