This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. After decades of deterioration and ecological collapse in the heart of California’s water system, state regulators are embracing the Newsom administration’s controversial plan to overhaul how farms and cities take water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and rivers that feed it....
Trump Admin Releases After-School Grant Money, but There’s a Catch
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. California after-school and summer programs will get some of their funding back after the federal government said last week that it would restore grants it had previously withheld. But the money is contingent on states complying with Civil...
Behind the Masks: Who Are the People Rounding Up Immigrants in California?
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. They appeared in plain clothes outside a San Diego hotel, wore camouflage as they raided a Los Angeles factory and arrived with military gear at a Ventura County farm. The presence of thousands of hard-to-identify federal agents is...
Federal Immigration Crackdown Threatens California’s Historic Housing Reforms
This commentary was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. California has finally made real progress on one of its most stubborn problems: the housing crisis. After decades of paralysis, the state has begun to unwind the bureaucratic thicket that made it almost impossible to build new homes...
A New Invader Threatens California Water Supplies. Can State Stop Its Spread?
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. One of the state’s best investigators was on the hunt for golden mussels — a dangerous new invader in California’s waters, with a reputation for destruction. Wearing a collar and a tongue-lolling grin, Allee, a Belgian Malinois, sniffed...
Heinous, Heartbreaking, Expensive: California Schools Face Avalanche of Sex Abuse Claims
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. When Samantha Muñoz was a second grader at Fancher Creek Elementary in Clovis, her teacher told her she “wasn’t that bright” and needed extra help with schoolwork. He’d make her stay in the classroom at recess, or tell...
Sick of Loud Ads on Netflix? A Proposed California Law Turns Down the Volume
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. Ever been streaming a show or a movie and been jolted out of your entertainment reverie by an ad so loud it felt like it rattled the windows? If California’s lawmakers have their way, those blaring commercials on...
California, Epicenter of the Nation’s Housing Crisis, Is Finally Getting a Housing Agency
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. After years of soaring rents, increasingly out-of-reach home prices and an enduring homelessness crisis that touches every corner of the state, California is finally creating a state agency exclusively focused on housing issues. You might wonder what took...
Zohran Mamdani Jolted Progressives. Can California Candidates Replicate His Success?
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. For California progressives, Zohran Mamdani’s New York City mayoral bid offers something of a formula to follow. When the 33-year-old democratic socialist pulled off a historic upset in the primary last month, Golden State progressives rejoiced. Some deemed...
Higher Premiums and Lost Coverage: How Trump’s Budget Will Change Health Care in California
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. The new federal budget signed into law by President Donald Trump is expected to raise some health care insurance premiums and force millions off coverage, reverberating the most in lower-income families and communities that are already struggling. Trump’s...