Like so many California families, Karim Bayumi of Anaheim, his wife and two young children are doing everything they can to scrape by. Bayumi drives for a large rideshare company as his primary source of income. On March 11, Bayumi’s rate was cut from 80 cents a mile to 60...
When the Next Recession Hits, Will California Be Able to Count on Washington?
They don’t call it the Golden State for nothing, at least not lately. California’s fiscal health is in extraordinary shape. Income tax receipts surpassed expectations for the pivotal month of April. Projections of a $21 billion-plus surplus are not out of the question. Nearly 3 million jobs have been added since the depths of...
How Powerful Lawmakers are Killing California Bills—Without a Peep
Gun control, school spending, curbs on greenhouse gases: With Democrats holding more power at the Capitol than they’ve had since the 19th century, California’s legislative pipeline is full this year with big, blue-state ideas. In theory, no Democrat’s bill should be left behind. But that’s not what’s happening, and the...
For ‘Hard-to-Count’ California, 2020 Census Poses Huge Challenges and Carries Big Stakes
Diego San Luis Ortega was a toddler when his parents brought him to California from Veracruz, Mexico. Now 22 and a “Dreamer” who is protected from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, he is a political activist and a community college student in Visalia who hopes to...
California’s Public School Chief Says Education No Place for Competition
Tony Thurmond seems to be exactly the man that his most loyal backers hoped (and his opponents feared) he would be. In a discussion with CALmatters’ education reporter Ricardo Cano at San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club in March, he talked about how his mother, an immigrant from Panama, died when he...
Opinion: Date Rape Isn’t a Violent Crime in California. Seriously
Under current California law, more than 20 clearly violent crimes aren’t classified as violent, including rape of an unconscious person, trafficking a child for prostitution, assault with a deadly weapon and domestic violence. You can pimp a child for sex, beat a spouse or rape a young woman who passes...
Law Enforcement Backs Down on Deadly Force Standard—For Now, Anyway
The political landscape in California’s debate over how to curb police shootings shifted Tuesday as law enforcement groups agreed to drop the part of their bill that would lock in the current national standard for justifying the use of deadly force. The move—intended to sustain negotiations on what could be...
California’s War on Plastic Pollution Targets Tiny Hotel Toiletries
Sarah Enemark of Contra Costa County says she doesn’t travel often, but when she does, she typically forgets to bring her own toiletries. So on a recent weekend, chatting outside the bustling lobby of the Hyatt Regency in Sacramento, she sang the praises of those tiny hotel room amenities that...
Lawmakers and Landlords: More Than a Quarter of California Legislators Are Both
In a quiet neighborhood on the outskirts of south Sacramento, the property looks like any other on the block: a single-story house that could use a new paint job, a large front yard that could use a little tidying, a chain-link fence circumferencing the lot. The tenants inside have no...
Mental Health 'Catastrophe:' Vanishing Board-and-Care-Homes Leave Residents Few Options
This summer, Tom Gray will lose his home. A slim man with hunched shoulders and a halting voice, Gray, 72, has schizophrenia. Before he landed in Carmen Palarca’s board-and-care home 11 years ago, he spent 20 years living on the streets, many of them huddled in a doorway across from...