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Scheduling note: WhatMatters is taking Juneteenth off and will return to your inboxes Monday. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s mandate for state workers to return to the office four days a week is back on, and many public employees are fighting to stop it with little time to spare. Dozens of them showed up at a Senate […]

As proponents of artificial intelligence insist that the AI future is inevitable, one California city is pushing back. It might not be the last. Earlier this month, residents in Los Angeles County’s Monterey Park overwhelmingly voted to permanently ban data centers in the city, becoming the first city in the U.S. to do so. The […]

Saying that he is “proud” to join the list of President Donald Trump’s political enemies, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday accused the U.S. Department of Justice of conducting a baseless investigation of the governor and first partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom. Newsom claims he’s in the crosshairs because he’s considering running for president.  As CalMatters reporters […]

The Legislature is expected to pass a state budget today to fulfill its state constitutional duty and to keep getting paid. But the final spending plan that will be approved by the start of the fiscal year on July 1 will almost certainly look different, as negotiations with Gov. Gavin Newsom continue. As CalMatters’ Yue […]

In certain parts of the U.S., you can buy a surprising number of things other than food from a drive-thru window: Guns in Texas, weddings in Nevada and margaritas in Florida, to name a few. And if one Assembly bill becomes law, marijuana could be on drive-thru menus in California. The state Senate’s committee on […]

Proposition 50 took some of the drama out of this year’s congressional elections — it’s just about certain that Democrats will gain seats here as they try to flip the House. But beneath that headline, last week’s primary election sets the stage for several contentious races, including ones that reflect generational tensions in the Democratic […]

From CalMatters justice reporter Nigel Duara: Do you remember the late spring of 2020?  It started with lockdowns, doomscrolling and Zoom birthdays. Then, George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer. Protests erupted across the state and the country. Protesters wanted changes: To how they were policed, to disparities in enforcement and to how […]

In a rare showing of bipartisan support, the state Senate in May overwhelmingly voted to pass a bill that would potentially help hundreds of thousands of California public employees combat obesity by requiring their health insurer to cover anti-obesity medications, or GLP-1 drugs, like Ozempic.  So why is CalPERS, the health plan for 1.3 million […]

It seems like every few weeks there’s news of Silicon Valley tech workers getting hit by wave after wave of mass layoffs. So why doesn’t it feel like the Bay Area is in a recession? After all, it’s just as hard as ever to buy a house in San Francisco and the region is still […]

When California adopted the top-two open primary system in 2010, proponents argued it would help make the state more moderate because candidates would be compelled to court voters across the political spectrum. But since then, most races still end in typical partisan fashion with one Democrat and one Republican duking it out to advance to […]