This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. As firefighters battled catastrophic fires in Los Angeles last January, one question reverberated across the country: Where was the water? The question came from wealthy developer Rick Caruso and then-President-elect Donald Trump, from reporters and residents. It prompted...
California Unemployment Agency Paid $4.6M in Monthly Fees for Unused Cellphones
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. California’s unemployment agency kept paying cellphone bills for four and a half years without checking whether its workers were actually using the devices. That’s how it racked up $4.6 million in fees for mobile devices its workers were...
40,000 People Died on California Roads. State Leaders Looked Away
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. At a California State Senate committee hearing this year, the director of CalTrans, Tony Tavares, showed a simple chart that might have caused the assembled lawmakers some alarm. It was a series of black bars representing the death...
California Cities Pay a Lot for Water, but Some Ag Districts Get It Free
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. California cities pay far more for water on average than districts that supply farms — with some urban water agencies shelling out more than $2,500 per acre-foot of surface water, and some irrigation districts paying nothing, according to...
‘We May Be Deporting the Wrong People’: New Poll Shows Doubts About Immigration Crackdown
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. If you found out your neighbor had a past criminal conviction, your knee-jerk reaction might be that you’d want them relocated. But what if that person committed a burglary in their late teens, served years in state prison,...
CA Students With Disabilities Face ‘Terrifying’ Special Ed Cuts After Trump Changes
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. Sleep is a rare commodity at Lindsay Crain’s house. Most nights, she and her husband are up dozens of times, tending to their daughter’s seizures. The 16-year-old flails her arms, thrashes and kicks — sometimes for hours. But...
Who’s Running for California Governor? A Look at the Current Field
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. The game of musical chairs in the race to be California’s next governor lost another player last week. After Democratic businessman Stephen Cloobeck — who was polling at below half a percent — dropped out of the race...
Young California Democrats Are Challenging Veteran House Members in Safe Blue Seats
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. California’s battleground House districts might get the lion’s share of national attention for their role in deciding which party rules Congress’s lower chamber. But in a handful of California’s deep blue districts, an intra-party battle over the future...
California Court Tosses Wonderful Co. Lawsuit Over Farmworker Unionization Law
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. California ag giant the Wonderful Company suffered a setback on Tuesday in its bid to overturn a new farmworker unionization law when an appeals court tossed its lawsuit against state labor regulators. The decision by a three-judge panel...
California About to Cut Power Company Profits to Historic Lows. Your Bill Will Barely Drop
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. With California electric rates stuck at nearly the highest in the nation, the state’s utility regulator is poised to lower the payout shareholders can receive from California’s three large investor-owned power companies. In a proposed decision, the California...