WhatMatters

Good morning, California. It’s Monday, September 27. Law enforcement resists mandates California is preparing to roll out COVID-19 booster shots even as millions of residents have yet to receive their first vaccine dose and a dearth of rapid coronavirus tests threatens to fuel outbreaks across the state. On Friday, public health experts from California, Nevada, […]

Good morning, California. It’s Friday, September 24. Sequoias still under siege A dispatch from CalMatters environment reporter Julie Cart: In California, it’s possible to be hundreds of miles away from Hollywood and still find yourself in a place that looks for all the world like a movie set. Where better to illustrate the perils of […]

When it comes to organized labor, Gov. Gavin Newsom giveth and Gov. Gavin Newsom taketh away. The governor on Wednesday signed into law one of the most controversial union-backed bills of the year, which takes aim at warehouse speed quotas that became infamous when reports surfaced of Amazon workers urinating in water bottles due to […]

“The challenge is there is no water.” That bleak assessment from Karla Nemeth, director of the state Department of Water Resources, puts the devastating scope of California’s drought into perspective even more sharply than the sea of statistics released Tuesday and reported by CalMatters’ Rachel Becker: 90% of the state is gripped by extreme or […]

Good morning, California. It’s Tuesday, September 21. Big 2022 campaign issue Fires move fast, but politicians move faster. Early Monday, Assemblymember Marc Levine of San Rafael announced plans to challenge fellow Democrat and State Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara in 2022, charging that Lara hasn’t done enough to prevent Californians living in fire-prone areas from losing […]

The numbers are irrefutable: Many Californians aren’t going back to work. Although the Golden State created a whopping 44% of the nation’s new jobs last month, its unemployment rate remained the second-highest in the country at 7.5%, according to figures released Friday by the state Employment Development Department. That’s essentially unchanged from the 7.6% unemployment […]

Good morning, California. It’s Friday, September 17. Newsom takes new tack Actions speak louder than words. It’s a message that Gov. Gavin Newsom appears to be trying to send to voters after defeating an attempt to oust him from office — and with yet another election next year. Newsom on Thursday signed into law a […]

Democratic lawmakers unveiled plans to overhaul the recall rules enshrined in California's constitution — a move that did not go over well with Republicans.

Though county elections officials still have many ballots to count, media outlets quickly called the recall for Gavin Newsom to keep him in office. Candidates pivoted to the 2022 election.

Today is the last chance for voters to return their ballots or head to the polls in the California recall that will decide Newsom's fate.