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Lawmakers this year allocated $400,000 to a mime troupe in San Francisco, $250,000 to a San Luis Obispo nonprofit advocating for beavers and $500,000 to a nonprofit benefitting Los Angeles youth interested in filmmaking. It’s all part of an opaque budgeting process, known as pork-barrel spending, that’s shielded from public scrutiny, writes CalMatters’ Yue Stella […]

President Donald Trump’s efforts to limit mail-in voting could encourage something that election officials and voting advocates have struggled to do for years: Get people to vote earlier. As more than 20 states and the Trump administration continue their legal battle over whether Trump can force the U.S. Postal Service to restrict vote-by-mail ballots in […]

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law Thursday more than a dozen bills strengthening online protections for kids. One of the more controversial measures requires social media companies to make their platforms less addictive and another reins in artificial intelligence chatbots, writes CalMatters’ Colin Lecher. Assembly Bill 1709 requires companies to either omit addictive features on […]

You could be forgiven for thinking capital punishment is all but dead in California. In 2019, Gov. Gavin Newsom halted executions and removed the gas chamber chair from San Quentin.  Yet 546 men and 18 women are still sentenced to death in the state. A new analysis from The Marshall Project and CalMatters finds this […]

Saying “enough is enough,” Steve Hilton said he wants to get rid of the California Department of Motor Vehicles. Rallying in front of a DMV office in West Hollywood on Tuesday, the Trump-endorsed Republican candidate for governor said he wants to abolish the department by transferring its functions to a combination of online services and […]

With less than two months until Nov. 3, it’s time to get serious about the upcoming election. In addition to choosing the next governor, insurance commissioner and other state leaders, voters will decide on 14 statewide propositions, U.S. House representatives and most members of the state Legislature. It’s a lot to decide, especially considering that […]

Scheduling note: WhatMatters will rest Labor Day weekend and return to your inboxes Tuesday. We live in a blue state that elects Democrats year after year. But a slim majority of us would prefer a smaller government and lower taxes.  That’s one of the key findings from an August report by the Public Policy Institute […]

“We told you so.”  That’s what privacy and immigrant advocates are saying about a federal subpoena to a national clearinghouse of DMV records. This summer, they tried to warn Gov. Gavin Newsom that sharing data about California driver’s license holders could put noncitizens at risk. As CalMatters’ Wendy Fry and Khari Johnson explain, Newsom’s office, […]

With four months left of his last term, state lawmakers handed Gov. Gavin Newsom a string of losses at the end of session, including the rejection of Newsom’s proposal to minimize utilities’ liability for the wildfires they cause, writes CalMatters’ Maya C. Miller. The Assembly killed a contentious bill Tuesday that would have given wildfire […]

Gov. Gavin Newsom might get a sense of déjà vu as bill after bill comes to his desk this week. In a few instances, lawmakers are hoping he changes his mind when he sees proposals he’s rejected in the past.  In 2024, for example, Newsom spiked a measure that would have allowed students without legal […]