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I’m CalMatters politics reporter Yue Stella Yu, and I’m in for Lynn today. With each batch of bill signings and vetoes by Gov. Gavin Newsom, it’s becoming more and more noticeable: He isn’t approving many bills authored by state senators.  Is he holding their legislation hostage to get the Senate to play ball on his […]

I’m CalMatters higher education reporter Mikhail Zinshteyn, and I’m subbing for Lynn. If a rule isn’t followed in the forest and no one was there to enforce it, was it really broken? That tortured metaphor, compliments of a college philosophy class I took 20 years ago, is a central theme in my story today with […]

Good morning, Inequality Insights readers. I’m Wendy Fry. California’s inland regions are experiencing dangerous heat waves, exacerbated by rapid population growth. As more people move away from the expensive coastal areas to more affordable inland communities, these regions are seeing significant demographic changes and spiking electricity bills. CalMatters reporters Alejandra Reyes-Velarde and Arfa Momin covered […]

I’m Jeanne Kuang, CalMatters Capitol reporter, and I’m subbing for Lynn today. For five years, California officials responding to the homelessness crisis had to work around one big restriction imposed by the federal courts: Because they didn’t have enough shelter beds, cities generally couldn’t make homeless camps illegal.  It made getting people to leave encampments […]

From CalMatters Capitol reporter Jeanne Kuang:  When California lawmakers, Gov. Gavin Newsom, fast food corporations and the Service Employees International Union announced an agreement to raise fast food workers’ wages, all sides seemed to accept the deal.  Except, that is, independent franchised restaurant owners — the ones who have to pay the raises, who said […]

From CalMatters politics reporter Yue Stella Yu: In the first — and perhaps only — presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump Tuesday night in Philadelphia, the duo tussled over abortion rights, health care, border security, international relations and more for 90 minutes. They managed to not mention California even […]

An exclusive CalMatters analysis of the latest California homeless count reveals some good news and bad news: Though the growth rate of homelessness appears to be slowing, the overall number of unhoused Californians increased from two years ago. As CalMatters homelessness reporter Marisa Kendall explains, the data from the federally-mandated count that occurred in January […]

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s top health advisor during the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic plans to step down. The governor praised Dr. Mark Ghaly as the country’s “most transformative leader in the health space” in recent years after announcing that the secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency is leaving the cabinet position at the end […]

Good morning, Inequality Insights readers. I’m Wendy Fry. Last year, our California Divide reporting team covered how cities were responding to migrants arriving unexpectedly. While many of the 900-plus migrants who arrived in L.A. from Republican states quickly integrated into the community, the few dozen who went to Sacramento found an under-resourced support system, CalMatters […]

From CalMatters politics intern Jenna Peterson: Amid a Southern California heat wave, about 300 advocates for rent control — with two 10-foot “greedy landlord” puppets — rallied Thursday in downtown Los Angeles, chanting: “The rent is too damn high!” Many advocates, including representatives from the AIDS Healthcare Foundation and UNITE HERE Local 11, held signs […]