WhatMatters

Tucked inside the sweeping budget bill that President Donald Trump signed earlier this month is a provision to slash the amount of money medical school students can borrow in federal loans. While the new rule will directly affect medical students, it could also have substantial impacts on Californians across the state seeking medical care. As […]

When thimble-sized mussels were first detected last year in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, biologists quickly rang the alarm over how severely this invasive species could threaten the state’s water supply systems.  Now, nine months after the mollusks’ appearance near Stockton, officials are in a race to rein in golden mussels as their larvae spread through […]

The surprise win of a progressive candidate in the New York City mayoral Democratic primary is serving as an indication for some California progressives that they could have a shot at winning key offices in upcoming elections. As CalMatters’ Yue Stella Yu explains, earlier this month New York Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani defeated eight other candidates […]

To spur more housing in California, Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature carved out notable exceptions to California’s 54-year-old environmental review law as part of the state budget deal they hammered out last week. But rolling back parts of the landmark statute might have not happened had it not been for one particular construction union. […]

Days after President Donald Trump signed his sweeping budget bill into law last week, a federal judge on Monday issued a temporary injunction to block one of the bill’s provisions to ban Planned Parenthood clinics from receiving federal Medicaid payments. With 115 clinics across the state and a million Californians using Planned Parenthood each year, […]

By 2029, eyeshadows, nail polishes and other cosmetics that shimmer and shine from plastic glitter could be banned in California. In the latest push to curb the prevalence of microplastics in the environment, the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday unanimously approved a first-in-the-nation bill that would ban the sale of personal care products that contain […]

The end of a temporary exemption to a state law requiring many employers to classify their independent contractors as employees is leading some nail technicians to say they are being targeted by a policy that lawmakers intended to protect them, writes CalMatters’ Jeanne Kuang. California has over 6,000 nail establishments, and from 1987 to 2023, […]

Following the shooting death of a Democratic Minnesota lawmaker in June, Assemblymember Mia Bonta wants to beef up a state law that would allow elected officials and candidates to spend an unlimited amount of campaign funds toward private security. The Oakland Democrat is introducing legislation today that would temporarily remove through 2028 the $10,000 lifetime […]

Scheduling note: WhatMatters is celebrating the Fourth of July and will return to your inboxes on Monday. Faced with steep budget cuts, phone lines that provide free mental health support to tens of thousands of residents across California have begun layoffs and the elimination of crucial services, reports CalMatters’ Jocelyn Wiener. These so-called “warm lines” […]

The number of homeless students in California has risen in the last year. As CalMatters’ Carolyn Jones explains, schools are required by federal law to count their homeless students. In the most recent data published in June, the state had 230,443 homeless students — a 9.3% increase from the previous year. For the purposes of […]