WhatMatters

Though California is a relatively safe place for transgender youth, LGBTQ advocates warn that efforts to eliminate policies safeguarding transgender kids — led by right-leaning states and the Trump administration — may change that. As CalMatters’ Carolyn Jones explains, a handful of California’s policies may be at risk of being reversed or undermined as lawsuits […]

Facing insurance claim delays, revolving doors of claims adjusters and payouts that don’t cover the cost of repairs, survivors of last year’s devastating Southern California wildfires still struggle not only with the aftermath of the disaster but also with their insurance companies. In response to their hardships, some California lawmakers are drafting new bills this […]

Can artificial intelligence replicate one of the most complex human art forms — dancing — and is it a threat to dancers and their profession? CalMatters reporters set out to answer those questions by first testing four commercially-available AI video-generation models: OpenAI’s Sora, Google’s Veo, MiniMax’s Hailou and Kuaishou’s Kling. The models were prompted to […]

More than a year after the Eaton Fire ripped through Los Angeles County’s Altadena neighborhood, small businesses in the area still face various hurdles as they struggle to recover from a disaster that killed at least 19 people. As CalMatters’ Levi Sumagaysay explains, the wildfire destroyed more than 9,000 structures, wiping out about half of […]

Scheduling note: WhatMatters is taking Monday off to honor Martin Luther King Jr. and will be back in your inboxes Tuesday. In 2024, California and Google made a deal to spend $175 million over five years on local journalism. This deal came after Google spent $11 million lobbying against two bills that would have required […]

“@grok put her in a bikini” Writing nothing but a short prompt, users on the social media platform X can quickly generate nonconsensual and sexually explicit images of women and children — a disturbing trend that has prompted California to launch a probe into X’s artificial intelligence tool. As CalMatters’ Khari Johnson explains, California Attorney […]

Riding the momentum of a handful of successful pro-housing bills last year, some Democratic lawmakers are advancing a $10 billion bond proposal that aims to ease California’s housing crunch, writes CalMatters’ Yue Stella Yu. Last week the Senate Housing Committee progressed a bill that would place the housing bond before voters during this year’s primary […]

From CalMatters politics reporter Maya C. Miller: State lawmakers are already taking legislative steps to “Trump-proof” California’s elections, starting with a bill designed to keep President Donald Trump off of California’s ballot in 2028. The bill from Sen. Tom Umberg, a Santa Ana Democrat and chairperson of the Senate Judiciary Committee, would make it illegal […]

Days after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a U.S. citizen in Minneapolis, Californians across the state took to the streets to voice their opposition against federal immigration enforcement tactics and President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign. Over the weekend thousands of demonstrators gathered in Sacramento, San Francisco and the Bay […]

Gov. Gavin Newsom will deliver his preliminary state spending plan today — his final budget proposal as California’s governor. On his plate: A projected $18 billion budget gap for 2026-27; the loss of some federal funding; and continued economic uncertainty under President Donald Trump. During his State of the State address Thursday, the governor dropped […]