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Good morning, Inequality Insights readers. I’m CalMatters reporter Wendy Fry. You may remember it as a hot labor summer. Los Angeles-area hotel workers might remember it as history in the making.  After repeated strikes since summer, workers at nearly three dozen Los Angeles-area hotels have secured $1 billion in wage increases in a recently ratified […]

California’s higher minimum wage for fast food workers kicks in Monday. But which restaurants have to follow the law is still a moving target. Just this week, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a carve-out for fast food places at airports, convention centers and hotels. According to emails obtained by CalMatters Capitol reporter Jeanne Kuang […]

It’s a battle over millions in gamblers’ money that pits some of the most influential Native American tribes in California against card rooms that also spend lavishly to curry favor with politicians.  With neither side going down without a fight, millions of dollars are being spent campaigning for and against a bipartisan bill backed by […]

Presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr. chose Oakland to announce his vice presidential pick on Tuesday, so it wasn’t too much of a shocker that his pick was Nicole Shanahan, a Bay Area tech attorney and philanthropist. Like Kennedy, she’s a “disillusioned Democrat” (party leaders have “lost their way”) who has never held elected office. […]

Legislators may be off for spring recess, but debates about their bills are still happening outside committee rooms. One spicy intra-party exchange between Democratic Assemblymembers focuses on a measure about retail theft — underscoring the difficult balance for lawmakers responding to public concerns about crime, while not over-policing historically targeted communities. Los Angeles Assemblymember Wendy […]

More people are dying in California jails than they did before the pandemic, and it’s not because of COVID-19.  On the surface, the number of deaths is confusing: California has fewer people in jails than at any point in the last two decades. Yet between 2021 and 2023, people died at rates that exceed some […]

Black women disproportionately are crowded into roles with less security, predictability, and economic remuneration. 

Thursday marked the final day for the Legislature before its starts a week-long spring break. So lawmakers were busy proposing and hearing some bills on contentious issues with deadlines coming up in late April and early May for them to advance. Before leaving Sacramento, legislators also approved two pressing measures and sent them to Gov. […]

How should California treat criminals who have done their time? It’s a thorny question for lawmakers, especially when many Californians are taking a harsher stance against crime. In recent years, the Legislature has passed laws to make it easier for Californians to clear their criminal records and get a fresh start, writes CalMatters reporter Jeanne […]

From CalMatters Capitol reporter Sameea Kamal:  Two weeks after voting ended in California’s primary, there are 166,000 ballots left to be counted, and a dozen congressional and legislative races remain too close to call, along with Proposition 1.  While the uncounted ballots are only about 2% of the 7.7 million cast, readers have again asked […]