WhatMatters

From CalMatters economy reporter Levi Sumagaysay: California homeowners who fireproof their homes would get guaranteed insurance coverage under a ballot measure filed this week by Consumer Watchdog. The consumer advocacy group filed the initiative in response to a competing measure that seeks to repeal Proposition 103, which Watchdog’s founder wrote in the late 1980s and […]

Immigration arrests at federal courthouses have taken up most of the national attention since Donald Trump became president, but across California, U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement agents are showing up at state courts and arresting undocumented immigrants, CalMatters Nigel Duara reports.  It happened this summer in Fresno: A judge reportedly congratulated a man for completing […]

Do you like your representative in Congress and don’t want to lose them? Did you vote yes on creating an independent redistricting commission to mitigate the role of partisan politics in drawing congressional maps more than a decade ago? All of that can change on Nov. 4. That’s when Californians will be asked to vote […]

Rural hospitals across the state — and country — are in trouble, urgently. Labor and supplies are getting more expensive. Federal Medicaid cuts are projected to cut into their revenues.  And places like Inyo County, on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada, face the prospect of having to close key medical facilities. Southern Inyo […]

Modoc County, meet Marin County. It might be your new political boss.  A ranching region along the Oregon border with just 8,500 residents, Modoc flies flags advocating secession from California. Now, if Gov. Gavin Newsom’s new redistricting plan goes through, Modoc would instead get pulled into the heart of liberal California.  CalMatters political reporter Jeanne […]

Gov. Gavin Newsom has a lot of decisions to make over the next month.  His desk is stacked high with hundreds of bills recently passed by the state Legislature in the session that just ended this weekend. With the stroke of his pen, those bills would become law.  Our reporting team has created this tracker […]

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has vocally pushed a fight against chronic health issues like obesity and heart disease. Yet, because of federal cuts, most county health departments will shut down nutrition programs focused on teaching low-income families how to stretch their food stamp dollars and cook healthier food. As Kristen Hwang reports, Kern County eliminated […]

The California Legislature’s long, busy and contentious session drew to a close this weekend. Here’s what you need to know:  The Legislature is now out of session until January.  For a review of the entire session, read Yue Stella Yu and Jeanne Kuang’s rundown of how lawmakers delivered major wins on climate, housing and labor […]

After a summer characterized by masked federal agents detaining immigrants in Los Angeles, the California Legislature passed two measures Thursday that seek to force law enforcement officers to identify themselves. Senate Bills 627 and 805 were among the most controversial to pass in the final days of this year’s legislative session. They would ban local, […]

California Democrats and Republicans alike offered their condolences following the news that Charlie Kirk, a 31-year-old conservative activist and supporter of President Donald Trump, died Wednesday after being shot at a university event in Utah. Gov. Gavin Newsom — who spoke with Kirk in March on the first episode of his “This is Gavin Newsom” […]