This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. California Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to tap at least $2.5 billion from the state’s climate fund to pay for state firefighting crews and the long-troubled high-speed rail project. In his budget proposal unveiled last week, Newsom announced that...
Despite Budget Woes, Gov. Newsom Wants More Tax Credits for Hollywood
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. Staring down a $12 billion budget deficit, Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed steep cuts to California's health care services and public universities — all while promising more dollars to Hollywood. Newsom on Wednesday doubled down on his proposal to...
Is the Secret to CA Housing Affordability Buried in the Building Code?
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. As lawmakers scramble to turbocharge post-fire recovery efforts in Los Angeles and to tackle a housing shortage across the state, a new addition may be coming to California’s building code: A pause button. Assembly Bill 306 would freeze...
Can Middle Schoolers Handle College? This San Jose School Is Finding Out
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. By 2:45 p.m. the regular school day at August Boeger Middle School had already ended, but one class is about to start. More than 20 eighth graders drop their backpacks and settle into desks — not for extra...
Trump Tariffs, Rising Health Care Costs Knock CA Budget Back Into Deficit
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. Facing a long horizon of budget deficits, California officials stretched and scrimped and massaged the numbers to stabilize the state’s finances last year. But an unforeseen economic downturn, spurred by President Donald Trump’s chaotic tariffs strategy, has knocked...
California Released 15,000 Prisoners Early During COVID. New Data Reveals What Happened to Many of Them
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. Nearly one-third of California prisoners released early during the pandemic by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration ended up back in prison, according to California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation data. The records, obtained and analyzed by CalMatters, offer the...
State Farm Wins First-Ever Emergency Rate Hike in California
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. State Farm can raise homeowner and other rates starting next month, becoming the first insurance company to win approval to do so on an emergency interim basis in California. The state's largest insurer made the unprecedented request for...
Caltrans’ Response to Homeless Encampments Is Lagging, Cities Complain
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered state agencies to clear homeless encampments from their properties last summer, holding up the California Department of Transportation as an example of how it should be done. But in the more than nine months...
How Real ID Can Exclude ‘Real’ Americans From Flying, Voting and More
This commentary was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. At 98, my father’s paper trail was long — in addition to his U.S. birth certificate, there were his discharge papers from his service in the Army Air Corps during World War II, his house deed, his children’s...
Floods Exposed Weaknesses in California Prisons’ Emergency Plans. They Still Aren’t Ready
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. In 2023, amid record-breaking rain and snow, two prisons in the southern San Joaquin Valley faced a serious risk of flooding. But neither prison, California State Prison, Corcoran or the Substance Abuse Treatment Facility, had a robust evacuation...