The nation’s largest public four-year university is presently incapable of affording itself. A 70-page report nearly a year in the making by leaders of the California State University details the massive gulf between the money the system currently generates from tuition and receives in state support and the actual costs...
Is CA’s New Way of Taking Out the Trash a Failure?
Reuse, reduce… recalibrate? According to one watchdog agency, California is “falling short” in its ambitious organic waste recycling efforts and may need to hit the pause button until state agencies and local governments can sort themselves out. But that rankled the state officials in charge, who considered the very suggestion,...
Can Fresno Bridge Its Economic Divide? A Look at DRIVE’s $4 Billion Effort
When Monita Porter moved from Atlanta to Fresno to help the Fresno Metro Black Chamber of Commerce run a program investing in Black-owned businesses, many in the community worried there wouldn’t be enough Black entrepreneurs and business owners in Fresno to participate. New to the Central Valley, Porter wanted to prioritize listening...
Police Shooting Investigations Will Move Faster, Says AG Bonta
Although he’s eyeing to one day become California’s governor, for now, Rob Bonta is the state attorney general. Today, that means preserving reproductive rights, preventing gun violence, enforcing housing laws — and investigating fatal police shootings of unarmed civilians. CalMatters’ criminal justice reporter Nigel Duara is tracking these cases and recently talked to families who have...
Why the ‘Science of Reading’ May Be the Next Dyslexia Battleground
State lawmakers plan to require that all students be tested for dyslexia and other reading challenges, but the hurdles ahead point to a bigger problem with how California’s public schools teach reading. Before teachers can screen their students, they themselves need to be trained both in how to use the...
Will Legislature OK Newsom’s Attempt to Accelerate Housing Projects?
If the Legislature approves the sweeping proposals to reform a landmark environmental law that Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed Friday, industry groups and developers may have one less roadblock to face in constructing ambitious projects, including affordable housing and critical infrastructure. But if the concerns of environmentalists go unaddressed, the state...
California Has Tried to Cut the Cost of Insulin for Years. Why It Might Finally Succeed
The high cost of insulin has been a niggling thorn in the side of regulators and patients for decades: Prices for the 100-year-old drug have increased more than 600% in the past 20 years, and stories of patients rationing doses abound. Even the most conservative economists point to it as an example...
Who Are the Winners and Losers as CA Lawmakers Kill Hundreds of Bills?
The big day where legislators decide the fate of more than 1,000 bills held in the “suspense file” has come and gone. On Thursday, the Assembly appropriations committee killed 220 bills and passed 535, while the Senate committee killed 90 and approved 326. The bills that survived still must advance through floor...
Donor Funded Trips for CA Lawmakers Remain Shrouded in Secrecy
Japan, Portugal, Switzerland — this is just a small sample of the many far-flung locations where California legislators travel, paid for by interest groups and nonprofit organizations. For the sake of transparency, lawmakers must submit trip reports to the Fair Political Practices Commission every year. The groups that pay for...
State DOJ Probes of Officer-Involved Killings Proceed at Snail’s Pace
Spurred by public outcry for more police accountability following the 2020 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the Legislature ordered the California Department of Justice to investigate police killings of unarmed civilians. At the time, legislators who introduced the bill — including then-Assemblymember and current Attorney General Rob Bonta —...