Newsletters

One of the 2024 session’s big deadlines is staring California legislators in the face this week: By Friday, bills that cost money must pass their first policy committee to stay alive this year. So lawmakers of both parties are busy promoting their proposals with press events and trying to shepherd them through committees.  On Monday:  […]

Over the last ten years, California has been locking up fewer people in jail. But the number of people dying in them has increased, with the past few years being the most deadly. And as advocates continue to face setbacks for the additional accountability they seek, jail deaths in one county have sparked protests and […]

Good morning, Inequality Insights readers. I’m CalMatters reporter Wendy Fry. For the first time in decades, California’s Black population decreased, from 2.2 million people in 2000 to 2.1 million now. Also Black Californians have moved away from urban centers to places like the Inland Empire and Sacramento.  Why? Researchers cite the impacts of gentrification and […]

The long and winding road to indoor heat protections for California workers took another turn Thursday: Cal/OSHA officials announced that they plan to finish rules this summer, covering employees in industries such as warehouses and manufacturing. But as CalMatters Capitol reporter Jeanne Kuang explains, there’s a big exception: State prisons. The heat rule for correctional […]

From CalMatters justice reporter Nigel Duara: The California Justice Department announced Wednesday that it has found no cause to file charges against a Los Angeles police officer who, while aiming at a suspect, shot and killed a 14-year-old girl hiding in a department store fitting room.  Fourteen-year-old Valentina Orellana Peralta was picking out a quinceanera […]

California’s Legislature is getting crazy busy as key bill deadlines get closer — and we’re keeping track. Tuesday, some bills didn’t survive crucial committee hearings, while others were watered down to stay alive. CalMatters homelessness reporter Marisa Kendall watched the Senate Public Safety Committee kill a bill for a statewide ban on homeless encampments near […]

It was a somber, and at times tearful, gathering Monday as legislators and advocates promoted a bill to hold behavioral treatment centers for teens more accountable. Most of the attention was focused on one (some might say, unexpected) speaker: The hotel heiress, socialite and media personality Paris Hilton. Hilton is the latest celebrity to utilize […]

California is struggling to provide maternal health for its residents. But as one proposal aims to prevent birth defects, another has received hateful pushback that’s been condemned by both political parties. As CalMatters health reporter Ana B. Ibarra writes, Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula has introduced a bill that would require corn masa flour makers to add […]

Thousands of children and youth are enslaved in labor trafficking in California and other states, experts say. Here's one LA-area lawsuit.

Three months after the California Legislative Black Caucus unveiled a series of priority bills to address reparations, some advocates say the measures don’t go far enough to compensate eligible Black Californians for the lasting damage of slavery.  And some lawmakers are pushing legislation outside the bill package to extend the reach of reparations even further, […]