WhatMatters

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

From CalMatters homelessness reporter Marisa Kendall:  Workers tasked with helping California’s largest homeless population are sounding an alarm, saying a recent upheaval at the Los Angeles County agency where they work has them scared for their livelihoods.  In an open letter to the L.A. County Board of Supervisors, a handful of employees with the Los […]