WhatMatters

As tropical storms and El Niño usher in heavy rains to California, a new report finds that 57 dams across the state are in poor or unsatisfactory condition — posing a hazard to nearby communities, reports CalMatters’ Rachel Becker.  The state auditor’s report, released Monday, said that aging dams “continue to pose a risk to […]

Roughly a mile north of San Francisco, on Alcatraz Island, thousands gathered in the early hours of Monday to celebrate Native American resilience, reports CalMatters’ Melanie Henshaw. The event, which took place on Indigenous Peoples Day, commemorates the 19-month occupation of Alcatraz from 1969 to 1971 by the Indigenous advocacy group, Indians of All Tribes. […]

Scheduling note: WhatMatters is taking Indigenous Peoples’ Day off and will return to your inboxes Tuesday. With more e-bikes on roads and sidewalks, Gov. Gavin Newsom last week signed three new laws that aim to strengthen safety for riders and pedestrians. One of the laws sets sidewalk speed limits and another cracks down on electric […]

Are election deniers and affiliated groups gathering evidence for a potential Stop the Steal 2.0 campaign in California? That was the question CalMatters reporters set out to answer earlier this year. We made requests in a sampling of geographically and politically diverse counties for logs from their elections offices that detail who’s seeking election records […]

Do clinics spend enough on patient care? The union behind Proposition 44 says no, and they want voters to decide. As CalMatters’ Kristen Hwang explains, Prop. 44 would require community health clinics to spend 90% of their revenue on “program services” that provide charitable care to low-income and uninsured patients. Clinics that don’t comply could […]

Was it the second question on the Gray Davis recall that sealed the Democratic governor’s fate? That’s the question that asked who should replace Davis if voters gave him the boot. State law barred him from competing on that question. And that made him practically roadkill for the international supercelebrity who headlined that second question, […]

With the election less than a month away, California county elections officials are beginning to send out mail ballots today. Five of the 14 statewide ballot measures are related to taxes, and if that sounds like a lot, you’re not imagining things: It’s the most tax measures voters have been presented with during a general […]

A whistleblower pointed state investigators to an unnamed, high-ranking law enforcement officer who was using California’s statewide law enforcement telecommunication network to find the home addresses and vehicle information of a deputy district attorney, a county supervisor and six of his employees.  The officer’s illegal use of the network was among the findings in a […]

It’s official: Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed and vetoed his last bills as California governor.  Wednesday was the final day for Newsom to weigh in on 1,160 bills that were sent to him by state legislators.  The governor, widely understood to be gearing up for a run for president, wanted the spotlight on some bills […]

The rent, as we all know, is too damn high. So is California’s poverty rate. The two things are related. That’s the not-so-surprising finding of a new analysis published by the Pew Charitable Trusts: If California’s rents dropped to the national average, the state would slash its poverty rate by 30%. The child poverty rate […]