This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla of California will not run for governor in next year’s highly watched race to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom, the senator unexpectedly announced in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday. The decision comes after months of...
California Prisoners Sleep With ‘One Eye Open.’ Should They Have Their Own Cells?
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. If you’re serving hard time inside a California prison, you’ll often find yourself stuck in a cramped cell with a complete stranger. You hang a bedsheet to manufacture the semblance of privacy between bed and toilet. Any little...
California Dems Made Prop. 50 About Trump. Polls Show It’s Working
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. A day before voting ends for Proposition 50, California voters appear poised to approve Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to gerrymander the state’s congressional districts in Democrats’ favor. Recent opinion polls show strong support for the Yes side. Newsom’s...
Groups Spent $26 Million to Sway Voters Over Prop. 50, More Than Any Ballot Measure in State History
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. Voters in Sacramento got a mailer in recent weeks declaring that "California's landmark election reform — under attack by Sacramento politicians.” Orinda residents have received flyers that shout “Fight back against Trump — Vote Yes.” The narrator on...
The Six Reasons for California’s Deadly Failure on Drunk Driving
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. Masako Saenz didn’t just lose her 5-year-old son to a repeat drunk driver. Two decades later, the Sacramento mother lost her own life after being hit by a driver with a blood alcohol level twice the legal limit....
15 DUIs, Still Driving: California’s Failure to Take Repeat Drunk Drivers off the Road
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. The state of California gave Sylvester Conway every opportunity to kill. He already had two DUI convictions by 2019, when the California Highway Patrol arrested him for driving drunk in Fresno County. The jail released him three days...
California Wants to Overhaul High School Learning. CART in Clovis Leads the Way
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. At CART High near Fresno, there is no gum stuck to the floor. The saffron-yellow walls are unmarred by graffiti. Toting laptops, students file calmly down spacious, light-filled hallways to classes like biotechnology and digital marketing. There’s no...
California Latinos Take Pride in Casting Ballots in Person. ICE Could Deter Them
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. As in-person voting begins in California’s special election on redistricting, Gov. Gavin Newsom has repeatedly asserted that the Trump administration could send immigration agents to polling places in an attempt to intimidate voters and depress turnout. The governor’s...
Should Billionaires Pay More? Unions Want California Voters to Decide
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. For years, Gov. Gavin Newsom has staunchly opposed increasing taxes on wealthy Californians even when the issue repeatedly reared its head during recent tough budget years. But faced with deep federal cuts to social services programs, labor and...
Trump’s DOJ Sending Election Monitors to California for Prop. 50 Voting
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. The Trump administration’s Department of Justice will deploy election monitors to five California counties on Election Day, the department announced Friday, in what it describes as an effort to “ensure transparency, ballot security, and compliance with federal law.”...