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We’ve launched a partnership with PBS SoCal for two-minute video stories each weekday. While many will be based on prior CalMatters stories, some will be exclusive to SoCalMatters. The first aired Monday and it focuses on a crossing at the Mexico border near San Diego known as “Whiskey 8.” Migrants, sometimes by the hundreds, camp […]

California lawmakers voted for an official apology for the state’s role in supporting slavery and moved several other reparations bills. 

Scheduling note: WhatMatters is taking Memorial Day off and will return to your inboxes on Tuesday. California lawmakers started this week with more than 900 bills to wade through before today’s deadline for measures to pass their first house. They’re nearly done, advancing the vast majority of bills.  I wanted to catch up on some […]

Gov. Gavin Newsom has a lot of power over how state money is spent. He also makes a lot of sweeping promises. But sometimes, budget shortfalls get in the way. And other times, the governor must rely on others to fulfill his pledges.  Here are three different ways those realities are playing out: CalMatters on […]

With the Friday deadline for bills to pass their first house, state lawmakers are busy deciding the fate of dozens of measures that would change California policy on a wide range of issues. On Tuesday, the Assembly and Senate passed about 330 bills combined, leaving about 530 left to go. Some key developments: In other […]

It’s another big deadline week in California’s Legislature: To keep their bills alive for this session, legislators have until Friday to get them through the house where they were introduced.  At stake: 553 measures in the Assembly and 365 in the Senate, according to veteran lobbyist and legislative recordkeeper Chris Micheli. Already, the Assembly has […]

This is CalMatters politics reporter Yue Stella Yu, subbing for Lynn, who will return for Tuesday’s WhatMatters. Today, budget subcommittees in both the state Assembly and Senate will hold hearings on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s revised budget and — staring down a massive deficit — consider which departments or programs get a cut in funding. But […]

Recently a collision in Madera County resulted in seven farmworkers’ deaths, reigniting questions about farm transportation regulations.

How does it feel to have a proposal you care about get killed in California’s Legislature? For Sen. Scott Wiener, Thursday’s “suspense file” process — his 15th since he was elected to the Senate in 2016 — never gets “less stressful or anxiety-inducing.”  Though the San Francisco Democrat says he is grateful that nine of […]

Gov. Gavin Newsom released his revised budget proposal last week, but this week more details are emerging about how he plans to close the remaining shortfall — now pegged at $27.6 billion (though the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office is expected to issue a higher deficit number). To balance the 2024-25 budget, Newsom has proposed dipping […]