California Divide

State records obtained by CalMatters show that the employment agency made $22.5 million on unemployment debit card fees as the pandemic ravaged the job market, but it failed to track how much Bank of America earned off a debit card contract during the spike in benefits. Lawmakers are asking questions about the revenue-sharing deal as workers still missing money fight to survive.

A new study shows farmworkers say they have been left unprotected from COVID-19 by the very employers and agencies who wrote emergency regulations intended to keep them safe.

A year after the first COVID-19 case hit California, the state agency in charge of policing offices, warehouses, and other workplaces is understaffed and significantly undercounting the number of people in Fresno County and across the state who’ve fallen seriously ill with the coronavirus. Employers in Fresno County reported only 66 serious worker illnesses or […]

 Lea este artículo en español. The pandemic and stay-at-home orders have forced thousands of financially dried up California businesses to shut down, but for Dan Zhao, they became the reason to start a new one. “Before the pandemic, I just had a regular job,” said Zhao, a product manager at a San Francisco-based software company. But when […]

The U.S. was absent from the report’s section highlighting measures fighting pandemic-induced inequality.

With the state's eviction moratorium set to expire at the end of January, California lawmakers passed two bills extending it through June.

In April, the governor issued an executive order that barred water shutoffs for customers who don’t pay their water bills. State leaders are looking for ways to bail out struggling residents and smaller water systems alike, both buckling under $1 billion in water debt statewide.

Under a legislative agreement, California would extend its eviction moratorium to the end of June. Landlords would get an incentive to forgive back rent using an extra $2.6 billion from federal relief.

A fire last week left one man dead at a Fresno apartment complex that has long been the poster child for habitability issues in Fresno.

Many small business owners have taken legitimate operations underground during the pandemic. Owners say they’ve been unable to get by on government loans and stimulus checks.