LOS ANGELES — California broke a record Sunday with more than 7,400 coronavirus hospitalizations as counties statewide prepared for stricter COVID-19 restrictions to take effect amid surging cases and Thanksgiving travel. Health officials are preparing for a wave of cases in the next two or three weeks that could be...
Real Reforms Needed to Deal With Affordable Housing
California’s housing costs have been rising for decades, making buying a home a dream very few families can afford. The California State Auditor’s scathing report about the $2.7 billion in wasted affordable housing funds demonstrates yet again that the Democrats’ attempts to spend our way out of the housing crisis will not...
After This Year’s Wildfires, California Must Spend to Manage Forest Health
By Robert Dugan and Jeff Harris, Special to CalMatters The uncontrolled wildfires that raged across California this year devastated lives, homes, forests and entire watersheds. We set a dubious record for most acres burned in a single year: 4.1 million and counting. It takes a long time to recover from such intense fires....
California Adopts Stricter Workplace Pandemic Safety Rules
SAN FRANCISCO — California officials on Thursday approved new regulations requiring employers to implement safety measures aimed at limiting the spread of COVID-19 in the workplace, the latest state to adopt stricter rules. The state’s Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board heard testimony on an emergency temporary standard that requires businesses to...
GM Flips to California’s Side in Pollution Fight With Trump
DETROIT — General Motors is switching sides in the legal fight against California's right to set its own clean-air standards, abandoning the Trump administration as the president's term nears its close. CEO Mary Barra said in a letter Monday to environmental groups that GM will no longer support the Trump...
How California Reached Historic Voter Turnout Despite Pandemic, Distrust
Californians faced the naysayers and voted by mail in record numbers this election, potentially avoiding a pandemic super spreader event and showing the nation it could be done. CalMatters interviewed voting officials in most of the state’s 58 counties and their verdict is in: The experiment with voting by mail...
Some California Counties Winding Down Hotels for Homeless
SAN FRANCISCO — Some California counties are pushing ahead with plans to wind down a program that's moved homeless people into hotel rooms amid the coronavirus pandemic despite an emergency cash infusion from the state aimed at preventing people from returning to the streets in colder weather as the virus...
Change in Food Bank Distribution Service Sets off Alarm Bells
COVID-19 has meant many Californians are struggling to stay healthy, keep their jobs and put food on the table. In this moment, organizations that provide food to the needy are serving more Californians than ever before. So why has the state chosen now to dramatically change the way commodities are distributed to...
Poll Confirms Californians’ Sour Mood on Higher Taxes
Proposition 15 would have been the largest tax increase in California history and its defeat this month was, by any definition, a huge setback for its sponsors, primarily public employee unions. They had been yearning for decades to crack Proposition 13, the 1978 ballot measure that limits property taxes, and...
Feinstein to Step Down as Top Judiciary Dem After Criticism
WASHINGTON — California Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Monday she will step down from her role as the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, giving up the powerful spot after public criticism of her bipartisan outreach and her handling of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation hearings. Feinstein, 87,...