A row of uniforms for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation hang at Halby’s in Blythe on May 8, 2023. Photo by Pablo Unzueta for CalMatters
A row of uniforms for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation hang at Halby’s in Blythe on May 8, 2023. Photo by Pablo Unzueta for CalMatters

From CalMatters deputy editor Adam Ashton:

Gov. Gavin Newsom shouldn’t expect much pushback from the next city in line to lose a state prison. 

Norco in Riverside County for years has been lobbying to close the California Rehabilitation Center, arguing the city can find a better use for the site. It was an art deco hotel before it was a state prison.

Now, the prison is on track to close in 2026. Newsom’s corrections department said on Tuesday that the prison is no longer needed because of the state’s falling incarcerated population. 

It’ll be the fifth to close during Newsom’s administration.

Other prison cities fought the closures by suing the state 或者 lobbying to hold on to the jobs.

Not Norco. It posted a statement on social media saying officials look forward to the “adaptive reuse” of the former hotel.

About 1,200 people work at the prison. They won’t necessarily be laid off when the prison closes because some will be able to transfer to other sites.

More on California prisons: An effort to display a large-scale piece of artwork inside the walls of California’s once infamous prison brings hope and a sense of community to an often overlooked population据 CalMatters 报道 乔·加西亚.

In 2023 Newsom unveiled a multimillion-dollar plan to reorganize and rebrand the state’s oldest prison into a facility focused on rehabilitation. Renamed the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center, the plan included new educational buildings and turning the former Death Row housing unit into living quarters for the general prison population.

But these changes did little to address the dull exteriors that still signified confinement to its inhabitants, writes Joe. Joe worked with Kai Bannon, an incarcerated person and co-founder of the nonprofit San Quentin SkunkWorks, to help commission and raise money for a mural for the facility, which was completed in July.

Read more here.


聚焦内陆帝国: 每周三,CalMatters 内陆帝国记者 黛博拉·布伦南 调查了加利福尼亚州那部分地区的重大新闻。阅读 她的时事通讯在此注册 来接收它。



Thousands of CA immigrants to lose health coverage

A cubicle wall decorated with posters and artwork. The main poster features a hand-drawn illustration of three diverse people with monarch butterflies around them and the words “DREAMERS WELCOME!” in colorful letters. Next to it is a drawing of a pink flower, and to the right is a printed flyer reading “FREE IMMIGRATION LEGAL SERVICES for students, faculty, & staff.” Below the posters are pinned newspaper clippings and articles.
Artwork created by students hangs on the walls at the Dream Resource Center at Pierce College in Woodland Hills near Los Angeles on Jan. 28, 2025. Photo by Alisha Jucevic for CalMatters

About 2,300 undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children are poised to lose their health care coverage by Aug. 31 — a change that could potentially destabilize the insurance marketplace, writes CalMatters’ 安娜·B·伊瓦拉

Since the 2015 inception of the Affordable Care Act, immigrants living in the country illegally have been barred from buying health coverage through state- and federally-run marketplaces. But last year under the Biden administration, recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA), who are allowed to stay in the U.S. and legally work, were permitted to buy insurance through the marketplaces.

President Donald Trump’s administration reversed this policy in June, however, in an effort to “stabilize the risk pool, lower premiums, and reduce improper enrollments.” But experts say the reversal risks doing the opposite: Because most DACA recipients are ages 35 and younger, eliminating them from the pool means they can’t help offset the costs of covering more expensive individuals who are sicker and older.

Read more here.

The ‘payoff’ of CA community colleges

The Laney College campus in Oakland on Oct. 3, 2022. Photo by Martin do Nascimento, CalMatters
The Laney College campus in Oakland on Oct. 3, 2022. Photo by Martin do Nascimento, CalMatters

From CalMatters higher education and workforce reporter 亚当·埃克尔曼:

Community students at Cañada College in Silicon Valley can earn back all the money they spent on school in a matter of weeks. Nearby, at Laney College in Oakland, it takes the typical student over six years to recoup the costs of college. 

This analysis, released today by the College Futures Foundation and the HEA Group, shows the return on investment of over 300 institutions in California offering associate degrees and professional certificates. The analysis looks at the average wages of graduates at each school and the cost of tuition, minus any grants or scholarships. Researchers compared those numbers with the amount of money that students would have earned if they only had a high school degree.

The Bay Area had a high concentration of schools that delivered a quick return on investment. Other regions had numerous schools, especially private and for-profit schools, that took students over 10 years to recoup the costs of college. Some schools yielded no return on investment, ever. 

In 2023, the Biden administration passed a new set of rules requiring colleges to demonstrate that their graduates earned more than someone with only a high school degree. In the federal budget passed this summer, the Trump administration will impose its own requirements starting next year.

And lastly: Increased wages for incarcerated firefighters?

People wearing orange jumpsuits and brown hat stand in line and look towards their right while surrounded by other people in a legislative room.
Incarcerated youth from the Pine Grove Youth Conservation Camp are honored at the state Capitol for their fire protection efforts on March 28, 2025. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters

The state Legislature has approved a bill that would pay California incarcerated firefighters $7.25 an hour during active fires starting next year. CalMatters’ 凯拉·米哈洛维奇 and video strategy director Robert Meeks have a video segment on this historic shift in pay 作为我们与 PBS SoCal 合作的一部分。 点击观看.

SoCalMatters 于工作日下午 5:58 播出 在 PBS SoCal 上.



其他值得你花时间的事情:

有些故事可能需要订阅才能阅读。


CA could slash five GOP US House seats to counter TX // 美联社新闻

Newsom just signed 26 new bills into CA law. Here’s what they do // 弗雷斯诺蜜蜂报

Schwarzenegger ready to fight Newsom on redistricting // 政治报

CA home insurance: Latest rates and ratings // 旧金山纪事报

San Mateo County navigates immigrant fears as it attempts to improve water issues // 水星报

Gifford Fire chars more than 72,000 acres with 7% containment, warm week ahead // Santa Maria Times

Trump establishes LA Olympics security task force, threatens to redeploy National Guard // 拉伊斯特

Documents reveal LA County’s meager budget for disaster response // The Washington Post

Lynn La 是 CalMatters 的新闻通讯撰稿人,每周一至周五关注加州的头条政治、政策和国会大厦新闻。她制作并策划 CalMatters 的旗舰每日新闻通讯 WhatMatters...