WhatMatters

Give to CalMatters today and your gift will be doubled! Your support helps keep our nonprofit journalism free and accessible to all Californians. Donate now. Hundreds of thousands of women seeking abortions could soon flood into California, and the state should maximize access for both in-state and out-of-state patients by helping cover the cost of […]

Give to CalMatters today and your gift will be doubled! Your support helps keep our nonprofit journalism free and accessible to all Californians. Donate now. Anti-crime initiatives won’t be alone in receiving “an exponential increase of support” in the budget proposal Gov. Gavin Newsom is set to send to state lawmakers in January. Dyslexia screenings […]

It’s election season in California, and the resignations, announcements and endorsements are coming in fast and furious. The state’s political scene got a major shakeup on Monday, when Rep. Devin Nunes, a high-profile, powerful and controversial Republican who’s represented the San Joaquin Valley in Congress since 2003, announced that he plans to give up his […]

Equity. That’s one of the buzzwords that will likely dominate conversation in California’s capitol next month, when state lawmakers return to Sacramento to consider, among other things, possible legislation to remove the personal belief exemption from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s student COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Stressed school leaders have mixed feelings about that, with some warning it […]

As concern over the omicron variant mounts in California — with the state’s second case confirmed Thursday in Los Angeles County — another public health crisis is lurking in plain sight: the drug epidemic. A jaw-dropping report released Wednesday by the UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy found that nearly 1,500 people, the vast […]

What a difference a year makes. On Wednesday, not long after the country’s first known case of the omicron COVID-19 variant was confirmed in San Francisco, Gov. Gavin Newsom held a press conference to promote vaccines and booster shots — and to reassure weary Californians that more lockdowns are unlikely. Newsom: “There’s more panic than […]

As California tries to crack down on crime, it secured a sizable victory for its strict gun control laws on Tuesday. That’s when a federal appeals court reinstated California’s bans on the sale and possession of high-capacity magazines that can funnel more than 10 rounds of ammunition into a single firearm. The 7-4 ruling from […]

President Joe Biden on Monday reassured Americans that the omicron variant “is a cause for concern, not a cause for panic” — raising questions about the strategy Gov. Gavin Newsom will employ to respond to a form of COVID-19 about which much remains unknown. The governor, who returned to California late Sunday night after a […]

The omicron variant has just entered the U.S., and California is already bracing for a surge in COVID cases.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday that Californians could expect to see “substantially more” law enforcement officers near “highly trafficked” retail stores starting immediately, as businesses prepare for hordes of holiday shoppers after a weekend wave of Bay Area robberies that saw thieves abscond with thousands of dollars of merchandise. He directed the California Highway Patrol […]