By Carolyn Jones, CalMatters This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. President Donald Trump has promised to keep special education intact, even as he dismantles the federal department that has overseen it for nearly a half century. But some experts and parents in California fear...
Special Interests Pour More Than Half a Billion Into CA Lobbying
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. Lobbying groups spent more than half a billion dollars to influence the state government in 2024, the most ever, according to a CalMatters analysis of data recently filed with the secretary of state. Lobbying by Google, oil companies and...
Steeply Discounted OD-Reversal Medicine Now Available to Any Californian
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. Any Californian can purchase naloxone, an opioid overdose reversal medication, directly from the state at a discounted price, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office announced Monday. The medication is available online for $24 for a two-pack of the nasal spray,...
What Happens After a Homeless Person Is Arrested for Camping? Often, Not Much
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. Wickey Two Hands sat at the defense table on a recent Thursday morning, holding in his lap the red baseball cap he’d doffed out of respect for the judge. The 77-year-old homeless man was supposed to be the...
Commercial Salmon Season Is Shut Down Again. Will CA’s Iconic Fish Ever Recover?
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. Facing the continued collapse of Chinook salmon, officials today shut down California’s commercial salmon fishing season for an unprecedented third year in a row. Under the decision by an interstate fisheries agency, recreational salmon fishing will be allowed...
What To Know About California Reparations: Is State’s Apology the Beginning or the End?
Some five years after the police murder of George Floyd, shifting political winds at both the state and national level raise the question of whether California will ever enact reparations or if the effort is destined to stall out. Efforts to implement some legislation fell short during last year’s legislative...
7 Takeaways: How the DMV Allows Dangerous Drivers to Stay on the Road
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. Ervin Wyatt’s history behind the wheel spreads across two pages of a recent court filing: Fleeing police. Fleeing police again. Running a red light. Causing a traffic collision. Driving without a license, four times. A dozen speeding tickets....
Oil Company Fined Record $18 Million for Defying CA Orders to Stop Work on Pipeline
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. The California Coastal Commission fined an oil company a record $18 million last week for repeatedly defying orders to stop work on a corroded pipeline in Santa Barbara County that caused a major oil spill nearly a decade...
Why Is It So Expensive to Build Affordable Homes in CA? It Takes Too Long
This commentary was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. The spiraling cost of housing in California has affected virtually every facet of life. California has the nation’s largest unsheltered homeless population and among the highest rates of cost-burdened renters and overcrowded homes. One reason for the seemingly...
California Sets Aside $170 Million to Thin Vegetation, Forests to Help Prevent Wildfires
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. Gov. Gavin Newsom today signed new legislation that will provide more than $170 million in state funding to help prevent wildfires while signing an order aimed at speeding up the work by easing environmental permitting. The funding —...