This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. Lifelong hunter J.R. Young of San Jose rushed to an online ammunition dealer last week after a federal court decision overturned a California gun law that required background checks in person at every point of sale. “Is this...
As Trump Cuts Education, Candidates Line Up for California’s Top Schools Job
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. As California intensifies its fight with the Trump Administration, the race for the state’s top schools job is becoming ever more crowded. Former Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon formally entered the race Monday to succeed Tony Thurmond as State...
What’s Behind California’s Frozen Housing Market?
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. The national housing market is stuck in a post-pandemic rut. Prices and interest rates have stalled out at unaffordable highs, keeping buyers at bay. Sellers, unable to fetch the still-higher prices they want, are backing out of the...
What Does Trump Crackdown on Homelessness Mean for California?
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. President Donald Trump’s new law-and-order approach to homelessness bears several striking resemblances to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s. Trump wants cities to enforce laws that make it illegal for homeless people to sleep outside. So does Newsom. Trump threatened to...
California May Soon Ban Selling New Glocks Like Kamala Harris Owns
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. The Democrats who control California’s Legislature are poised to ban the sale of one of the most popular types of handguns, like the one owned by arguably the state’s most recognizable Democrat, Kamala Harris. Assembly Bill 1127 aims...
Key Player in California’s Water Wars Embraces Controversial Newsom Plan
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...