California Divide

Most college students don’t qualify for CalFresh, California’s food stamps program, despite high rates of food insecurity. A pandemic-era rule that made it easier to get aid ends soon.

The state already pays some legal bills in immigration court – but not for those with serious or violent felony records. If they can’t afford a lawyer, they face deportation alone. Assembly member Reggie Jones-Sawyer says that’s not due process.

California has sometimes moved to help victims of emergencies who are excluded from federal aid‚ such as undocumented workers and cannabis businesses.

Studies say 1 in 4 Californians lacks full access to banks and many pay big fees. A state commission is weighing how to provide public banking options, such as no-fee checking accounts.

California farmworkers marched 335 miles last year to pressure Gov. Gavin Newsom on a law that would help them unionize. Then the union agreed to give back a key win.

A state-appointed panel inching toward recommendations for reparations wants a new state agency to handle compensation and services to Black people.

Workers who clean houses or take care of children and the elderly are in a class by themselves; they are not covered by state or federal workplace safety regulations. The exclusion has racist origins, advocates say.

During the interstate highway construction boom, urban neighborhoods were sliced apart, often isolating the homes of minorities and low-income residents. California lawmakers are exploring ways to undo some of that harm by reconnecting neighborhoods.

One of the world’s richest regions has some of its starkest divides, with its top 10% of households holding two-thirds of its wealth.

January’s rains flooded farm fields and orchards. Many California farmworkers lost weeks of pay. Advocates say the state should help them weather such crises. A leading proposal would pay $300 a week to undocumented workers.