Economy

From lost homes to mounting debt, workers from across the state share how they were impacted by payment delays, fraud panic and mass confusion about unemployment benefits.

The EDD is getting a rebuild from the likes of Salesforce and Amazon as pandemic payment disputes drag on and fraud hits other state benefit systems. Workers, advocates and tech experts are hopeful, but wary.

One California family is haunted by their youngest son’s increasingly frantic — and futile — attempts to break through the EDD’s jammed unemployment lines.

Scammers pulled off one of the biggest suspected frauds in U.S. history while laid-off workers scrambled to survive. A CalMatters investigation finds that the EDD missed red flags and failed to make long-promised changes before the pandemic — and that once the twin crises hit, the state and its top contractors kept making money but were slow to deliver relief.

The state’s unemployment insurance debt, which ballooned as a result of the pandemic, is in dire straits with no clear path forward.

A recent incident in San Francisco spurred the Department of Motor Vehicles and the California Public Utilities Commission to suspend the licenses for Cruise’s driverless cars.

A new California law will ban over two dozen chemicals from fragrances and cosmetics. It’s another first-in-the-nation law — and another instance of California following European Union regulators.

Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara unveils a plan to shore up the California insurance market for homeowners. Insurers would return to wildfire zones, but would have an easier path to rate increases.

Unions won major victories this session on pay for fast food and health care workers, benefits for strikers and bargaining rights. Business groups say that labor has too much power at the Capitol.

Climate activists and some lawmakers want two of California’s pension funds to shed about $15 billion of fossil fuel holdings. They say the move would reduce oil and gas companies’ political power, but opponents say it would be a bad move financially.