Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

If the 36 people are all charged with participating in the same crime, then it would be legal to try them together.

Whether or not that's practical is another matter. With 36 defendants and their lawyers in the same courtroom, plus the prosecutors, judge and court staff, where would the jury sit? There may also be circumstances where some evidence might be admissible against one defendant, but not others, so there might be a need for multiple juries.

The prosecution is probably hoping many of the defendants will accept plea bargains before trial; otherwise, either the prosecution or the defense will probably ask the judge to sever (separate) the cases.

Newspapers are entitled to report on court cases. Most of the time, they are careful to say "Joe Blow is allegedly a gang member" or attribute statements like that to the police. If they made a false statement with reckless disregard for the truth, you could sue the paper. However, you would have to prove you aren't a gang member, which might be hard to do. If you're charged in this case, it's better to focus on your defense instead of worrying about what's in the newspaper.