Newsletters

Today’s the deadline for bills to pass their first house in the California Legislature. The vast majority made it. A few failed. And a handful of intriguing bills that didn’t pass may resurface because their authors aren’t giving up.  Police dogs: On Wednesday, a bill that would curb the use of police dogs failed to […]

The end-of-week deadline to pass bills in their house of origin is only one day away, so legislators have been busy advancing a litany of measures. On Wednesday alone, the Assembly passed 242 measures and the Senate passed 59, after approving 213 combined on Tuesday, according to tallies kept by longtime lobbyist Chris Micheli. While […]

We’re getting down to crunch time at the state Capitol — with a Friday deadline for bills to pass their first house and a June 15 deadline for lawmakers to pass a budget and still get paid. Gov. Gavin Newsom will be a looming presence over both. The prospect of a veto is one factor […]

With the Sierra Nevada snowpack reaching historic levels this year, state officials and residents sounded the alarm that the snowpack melt could trigger “ghost lakes” to expand and cause devastating floods. The rising water levels at Tulare Lake garnered particular attention, prompting Gov. Gavin Newsom to stop by the area in April to discuss emergency […]

Just in time to go home for Memorial Day weekend, legislators bulldozed their way through a bunch of bills at the end of this week to beat the even bigger deluge next week, when there’s a Friday deadline to pass remaining bills through the house where they were introduced. Some of the bills that passed […]

On an average day in California, about 18 people die due to overdoses from fentanyl and other synthetic opioids. That works out to nearly four people every five hours. In that same five-hour period, legislators on Wednesday heard the sad account of a grieving mother, analyses from local officials and researchers and even one admission […]

Reuse, reduce… recalibrate?  According to one watchdog agency, California is “falling short” in its ambitious organic waste recycling efforts and may need to hit the pause button until state agencies and local governments can sort themselves out. But that rankled the state officials in charge, who considered the very suggestion, well, garbage — prompting a […]

Although he’s eyeing to one day become California’s governor, for now Rob Bonta is still the attorney general. Today, that means preserving reproductive rights, preventing gun violence, enforcing housing laws — and investigating fatal police shootings of unarmed civilians. CalMatters’ criminal justice reporter Nigel Duara is tracking these cases and recently talked to families who […]

If the Legislature approves the sweeping proposals to reform a landmark environmental law that Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed Friday, industry groups and developers may have one less roadblock to face in constructing ambitious projects, including affordable housing and critical infrastructure.  But if the concerns of environmentalists go unaddressed, the state may set off a new […]

From CalMatters’ housing reporter Ben Christopher: Ever since a California court ruled earlier this year that UC Berkeley violated the state’s premier environmental protection law by failing to account for “student-generated noise” at a proposed housing development, we knew this was coming. In response to that ruling, Gov. Gavin Newsom called the state’s environmental review […]