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A person with short, curly hair sits indoors near a window, hands clasped in their lap, with a calm expression. Sunlight falls across part of their face and shoulder, while the rest of the room remains in shadow. Small potted plants sit on a ledge beside them, and shelves with framed items and greenery are visible in the softly lit background.

WhatMatters

How Bay Area cops changed their approach to mental health calls

A mental health clinician with a bullet-proof vest is helping change the way a Bay Area city responds to some of its emergency calls. That’s what CalMatters’ Cayla Mihalovich found when she visited the San Mateo Police Department earlier this month to check out a new approach for mental health calls. The city was one […]

By

Lynn La

• December 23, 2025

A wide-view of people standing in front of a building while they hold signs and photos of people who have been killed by drunk drivers. One person holds a sign that reads "no diversion for vehicular manslaughter."

WhatMatters

How a speeding ticket can be worse than running someone over

You can kill someone with your car in California and not even have a point on your license. A criminal justice reform bill passed in 2020 allows judges to effectively erase a misdemeanor case from existence, shielding people accused of “low-level” crimes from the stigma of having a conviction on their record, something that can […]

By

Lynn La

• December 22, 2025

Silhouette of a person standing in front of a window looking out with the sunlight shining in. The photo is shot with a blurred effect, giving the image a dreamlike feeling.

WhatMatters

Why CARE Court has struggled to help homeless Californians most in need

Gov. Gavin Newsom introduced CARE Court in 2022 in part as a way to bring people with serious mental illnesses off of California’s streets. But data from the state and counties, as well as interviews with service providers, CARE Court participants and their family members, highlight the ways in which the program is struggling to […]

By

Lynn La

• December 19, 2025

WhatMatters

Three years in, Newsom’s CARE Court leaves many disappointed

In 2022 Gov. Gavin Newsom floated a new concept to get seriously mentally ill individuals the help they need, and get them off the street. Many Californians, especially family members of people that need extra help, felt buoyed by this promise. Newsom’s idea became CARE Court, and it rolled out to a few counties at […]

By

Lynn La

• December 18, 2025

A worn outdoor sign for a law office reads “Fitzgerald, Alvarez & Ciummo – A Professional Law Corporation, Administration,” mounted in front of a low building with bushes and a small parking area in the background.

WhatMatters

How justice gets sold to the lowest bidder in rural CA

The law firm Fitzgerald, Alvarez and Ciummo has earned a nickname: The WalMart of public defense. Over three decades, the firm has won county contracts to provide poor people with criminal defense in the state’s rural stretches. It’s done so by making aggressively low bids. Old iterations of the firm’s website asked local politicians what […]

By

Lynn La

• December 17, 2025

A medical personnel member places a blood pressure cuff on a person's arm while the person faces away. In the background, a mobile medical unit is inside an equipment barn on a farm. Another medical personnel member is watching as the other puts on the meter.

WhatMatters

CA hires former CDC officials to lead new public health org

From CalMatters health reporter Kristen Hwang: Gov. Gavin Newsom has tapped two prominent former U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials with jumpstarting a new public health initiative — though details of what precisely the initiative will accomplish in the coming months are sparse. Former CDC Director Dr. Susan Monarez and former chief medical […]

By

Lynn La

• December 16, 2025

WhatMatters

EDD racked up $4.6m in fees for cell phones nobody used

I’m CalMatters investigative editor Andrew Donohue, and I’m subbing for Lynn today. The state Employment Development Department acquired 7,224 cellphones and wireless hotspots in the pandemic so call center employees could work from home. Then it forgot to cancel them once nobody was using them. As CalMatters editor Adam Ashton reports, that’s how the agency […]

By

Lynn La

• December 15, 2025

A person wearing a sweatsuit and sneakers is sitting on a set of bleachers in a dark gym, with light coming from one side of the room, creating a silhouette of the person and darkening their face to protect their identity.

WhatMatters

Trump’s visa policy hampers CA schools

Since September, American employers have been required to pay a $100,000 sponsorship fee for new H-1B visas, one of several policy shifts under President Donald Trump to restrict who gets to come in and out of the country. But while much attention has been paid to what this means for applicants in California’s tech industry, […]

By

Lynn La

• December 12, 2025

On the steps of a building at night, two people hug beside a microphone, while rows of small orange traffic cones and string lights line the stairs, each cone paired with a photo of a person, creating a memorial-like display.

WhatMatters

CA leaders look away as road deaths skyrocket

Over the past decade, the number of people dying on California’s roads have shot up dramatically. Nearly 40,000 people have died and more than 2 million have been injured. And California’s leaders have done little about it. CalMatters investigative reporters Robert Lewis and Lauren Hepler have spent the year detailing how the state allows dangerous […]

By

Lynn La

• December 11, 2025

The back of a sheriff officer is viewed through a doorway while they observe a cell block inside a correctional facility.

WhatMatters

CA prisons handle complaints against employees poorly, audit finds

A state audit examining how California prisons handle complaints about its staff members found flaws with how the majority of cases were handled, and some facilities were slow to deal with sex assault cases filed against officers. As CalMatters’ Nigel Duara explains, the state prisons’ inspector general released its latest audit last week, scrutinizing the […]

By

Lynn La

• December 10, 2025