Economy

Five things to know about sanctuary status for at-risk immigrants

How are cities across California responding to the ballooning cost of pensions in the state? CALmatters Reporter Judy Lin explores a case study in Richmond where priority police and library services are already being cut.

Many cities across California face rising costs for public employee retirement benefits. And for some, that’s laying bare a stark reality — it’s getting tougher to provide basic services and meet the pension obligations promised years ago.

Generous retirement benefits for public safety employees could help push the Bay Area city of Richmond into bankruptcy

On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a pact that involved 12 Pacific Rim countries to lower or eliminate tariffs and promote exports. He has also vowed to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, a deal between the U.S., Mexico and Canada to remove trade barriers.

The mayor of El Monte, a cash-strapped San Gabriel Valley city with many retired employees drawing two pensions, says there’s "no rational justification" for the double pensions.

On a recent rainy morning in Los Angeles, Maria Bernal’s stove clicks to life with a bright blue flame to toast bread on a griddle for her 9-year-old son Edwin to smear with peanut butter. As she scoops papaya chunks into the blender for a smoothie, she recalls her worry during all the years when […]

Rocio Zavala is doing her best to keep her daughter from eating her coupons. It’s 11:30 on a Friday morning and Zavala, 30 years old and unemployed, is sitting at a foldout table in her living room, snipping, sorting, and stacking the freshly clipped squares of paper, while cooing at 3-year-old Deysy. The mother’s hands […]

One in four El Monte residents lives in poverty. Yet taxpayers pay a steep price to fund bonus pensions and other perks for city workers.

Cities and states across the country are facing public employee pension debt that is challenging and, in some cases, crippling their budgets. But some municipalities are experimenting with ways to solve that problem.