Newsletters

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s top health advisor during the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic plans to step down. The governor praised Dr. Mark Ghaly as the country’s “most transformative leader in the health space” in recent years after announcing that the secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency is leaving the cabinet position at the end […]

Good morning, Inequality Insights readers. I’m Wendy Fry. Last year, our California Divide reporting team covered how cities were responding to migrants arriving unexpectedly. While many of the 900-plus migrants who arrived in L.A. from Republican states quickly integrated into the community, the few dozen who went to Sacramento found an under-resourced support system, CalMatters […]

From CalMatters politics intern Jenna Peterson: Amid a Southern California heat wave, about 300 advocates for rent control — with two 10-foot “greedy landlord” puppets — rallied Thursday in downtown Los Angeles, chanting: “The rent is too damn high!” Many advocates, including representatives from the AIDS Healthcare Foundation and UNITE HERE Local 11, held signs […]

For years even before the pandemic, California residents have been moving out of the state’s coastal regions and settling in other states or more inland. Populations in these inland areas have been steadily growing, as Californians look for more affordable and spacious housing. But as climate change renders heat waves more intense and common, living […]

California voters passed Proposition 22 four years ago. The ballot initiative, backed by Uber, Lyft and other gig companies, promised the state’s more than 1 million gig workers new benefits, such as guaranteed minimum earnings, health care stipends, occupational accident insurance and accidental death insurance. Gig workers have long turned to the state labor commissioner […]

It’s going to take a minute to sift through the avalanche of lawmaking in the long, final days of the Legislature.  And it isn’t over quite yet: Gov. Gavin Newsom called lawmakers back for a special session focused on gas prices, even though the state Senate isn’t playing along. As CalMatters Capitol reporters Sameea Kamal […]

Good morning, Inequality Insights readers. I’m Felicia Mello. Evelyn and Israel Avalos have shared the same studio apartment in San Rafael’s crowded Canal neighborhood for 18 years. Over their time living in one of California’s wealthiest counties, they’ve become familiar with the picturesque, mansion-studded enclaves surrounding them – places like Tiburon, Sausalito and San Anselmo. […]

Scheduling note: WhatMatters will be resting for Labor Day weekend and will return to your inboxes on Tuesday. Update: The Assembly bill to provide rebates to utility customers was pulled from consideration today and appears dead. In early August, there were rumblings that Gov. Gavin Newsom was working with legislators on a proposal to reduce […]

With Saturday’s deadline looming to pass the last flurry of bills before adjourning, legislators can see the finish line. But they might have more work ahead: Gov. Gavin Newsom is considering calling a special session to push legislation on gas prices and oil regulations. The idea, which Newsom discussed with legislative leaders in private meetings […]

California legislators are slammed trying to get through hundreds of bills before the clock strikes midnight on Saturday. They still have more than 700 bills to consider after Tuesday’s sessions, according to lobbyist and legislative observer Chris Micheli.  But they’re not too busy to fete departing colleagues — and they’re quite a few of them. […]