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Lynn La

Newsletter Writer

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Lynn La is the newsletter writer for CalMatters, focusing on California’s top political, policy and Capitol stories every weekday. She produces and curates WhatMatters, CalMatters’ flagship daily newsletter with more than 150,000 subscribers.    

In the newsletter, Lynn analyzes the state’s policy issues for a broader audience, through original reporting and by summarizing and compiling stories from CalMatters and other news sources. Recently, she has reported on bills to address California’s worsening fentanyl epidemic, tackle retail theft and legislate happiness. She also reveals more about lawmakers by interviewing them for an occasional series on first-term legislators in 2023 and new committee chairpersons in 2024. 

Through WhatMatters, Lynn also plays a crucial role in CalMatters election coverage, helping to keep track of daily developments in key campaigns, including legislative and congressional races and ballot measures.  

Prior to joining CalMatters in March 2023, she wrote for the education technology startup Guild and was a senior editor at CNET. She also covered public health at The Sacramento Bee as a Kaiser media fellow and was an intern reporter at Capitol Weekly. 

Lynn is based in the Bay Area. She graduated from UC Davis and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Other languages spoken: Vietnamese (basic)

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Latest Stories

A computer screen shows a Turnitin similarity report with a 38% match score. The Match Overview panel on the right lists four top sources: student papers and one internet source, with the highest match at 16%. The blurred background reveals sections of a document highlighted in red to indicate matching text.
WhatMatters
CA colleges pay millions every year for faulty plagiarism detection
To identify student work written by artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT, many California colleges and universities rely on Turnitin, a plagiarism detection service. But the company’s tools aren’t always accurate, and when it falsely flags work done by humans as AI-generated, students are caught in the crossfire. As CalMatters’ Tara García Mathewson explains, in […]
By • June 26, 2025
A person sits at a gravesite, looking solemnly toward the camera. They wear a white sleeveless top and an orange patterned skirt, with hands folded in their lap. Behind them is a memorial headstone featuring a portrait of Joseph R. Ramirez, along with flowers and decorations. A stone wall and greenery surround the cemetery setting.
WhatMatters
Courts across CA aren’t telling the DMV about deadly drivers
California courts have failed to report hundreds of vehicular manslaughter convictions to the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles over the past five years, allowing deadly drivers to improperly keep their licenses, a CalMatters investigation has found. Drivers like Marvin Salazar. Salazar was convicted in May 2023 for felony vehicular manslaughter after a crash that killed […]
By • June 25, 2025
WhatMatters
Honey bees in CA are dying. Can a bipartisan bill help save them?
Honey bees across the country are under attack from tiny, eight-legged parasitic mites. These mites burrow between the segments of the bees’ adult bodies or invade their larvae and infect them with viruses — deforming their wings and leaving them flightless. That’s not only problematic for the bees — whose entire colonies can collapse from […]
By • June 24, 2025
A person in a green tracksuit holding up a sign saying, “IMMIGRANTS UILT THIS NATION,” while next to a guard railing over a highway in downtown Los Angeles. In the background, cars can be seen driving on the road while crowds of protesters hold up signs and flags on both sides of the highway.
WhatMatters
CA once supported anti-immigrant measures. What changed?
As immigration raids continue to rattle California small businesses, farms and communities, CalMatters’ Ben Christopher and Mikhail Zinshteyn take a look at how public sentiment towards immigration has changed dramatically in California over the past few decades — and what that could mean under a federal administration that pledges to conduct the largest deportation campaign […]
By • June 23, 2025
A close-up view of dark purple round banners displayed at the top of a room filled with attendees at a conference. The banners include text that say, "to value fast ..." and "AI, data, and ..."
WhatMatters
Newsom’s new AI report could shape legislation
Scheduling note: WhatMatters is taking Juneteenth off and will return to your inboxes on Monday. From CalMatters technology reporter Khari Johnson: When Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed California’s most high-profile artificial intelligence regulation last fall, he simultaneously asked the state’s deep bench of AI researchers to recommend guardrails that balance safety and innovation. The result of […]
By • June 19, 2025
A lawmakers, wearing a gray suit, stands overlooking other lawmakers sitting in front of wooden desks in a legislative room at the state Capitol. The room is decorated with cream-colored columns, red curtains and gold accents.
WhatMatters
How Trump’s win changed CA Dems’ thinking on the Constitution
From CalMatters Capitol reporter Jeanne Kuang: The California Senate voted this week to reverse course on the state’s calls for a constitutional convention, one of which many Democrats supported just two years ago at Gov. Gavin Newsom’s urging.  With the President Donald Trump administration at the helm and Republicans running Congress, Sen. Scott Wiener, a […]
By • June 18, 2025
A line of uniformed National Guard members wearing helmets and face shields stands in formation behind clear riot shields labeled “California National Guard.”
WhatMatters
Showdown in court today over Trump’s National Guard deployment
It’s been more than a week since President Donald Trump deployed the California National Guard in Los Angeles without the consent of state officials, and the battle over who has control of the troops is still winding its way through the courts, reports CalMatters’ Mikhail Zinshteyn. Three judges from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of […]
By • June 17, 2025
A wide-view of a crowd of protesters holding signs as they gather in front of a legislative building during a protest. The signs contain various phrases such as "no kings" and "dump Trump."
WhatMatters
Californians hit the streets after Trump’s LA deployment
A week after President Donald Trump sent the military to Los Angeles, tens of thousands of Californians took to the streets Saturday to protest his policies on his birthday. Known as No Kings Day, the rallies took place in the northern part of the state including Shasta County, as well as Sacramento, the Bay Area, […]
By • June 16, 2025
Three people grab a person as they push them out of a room during a press conference.
WhatMatters
Federal agents subdue, handcuff Sen. Alex Padilla
During a news conference held by U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem in Los Angeles on Thursday, California Sen. Alex Padilla was forcibly removed by federal agents after entering the press briefing and attempting to ask Noem a question. He was later forced to the ground and handcuffed, but was not detained. At his […]
By • June 13, 2025

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Lynn La - CalMatters
Lynn La is the newsletter writer for CalMatters, focusing on California’s top political, policy and Capitol stories every weekday.
CalMatters
California, explained
Lynn La
Lynn La is the newsletter writer for CalMatters, focusing on California’s top political, policy and Capitol stories every weekday. She produces and curates WhatMatters, CalMatters’ flagship daily newsletter with more than 150,000 subscribers. Prior to joining CalMatters in March 2023, she wrote for the education technology startup Guild and was a senior editor at CNET. She also covered public health at The Sacramento Bee as a Kaiser media fellow and was an intern reporter at Capitol Weekly. Lynn is based in the Bay Area. She graduated from UC Davis and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Other languages spoken: Vietnamese (basic)