California Divide

Lea este artículo en español. On Sept. 9, a mobile testing site rolled up to Huron Middle School in the 7,000-person rural city 50 miles south of Fresno. In four hours, only four people showed up for free COVID-19 testing. At five other coronavirus testing events organized by the Fresno County Health Department that month in […]

An estimated 750,000 Californians are set to lose federal unemployment benefits the day after Christmas, and 2.1 million could lose their homes weeks later when a statewide eviction moratorium lifts.

Lea este artículo en español. Just as people started adapting to the new normal and mariachi musicians began booking small events, positive COVID-19 cases soared again across California. The news fell like a bucket of cold water for several mariachis from LA’s Boyle Heights area. Many received cancellations over the weekend after Gov. Gavin Newsom announced […]

Lea este artículo en español. In front of pictures of essential workers who died of COVID-19, Food 4 Less employees and protestors gathered outside the supermarket in LA’s Boyle Heights neighborhood last week to demand the company reinstitute hero pay and adopt better protections as cases spike across the state. The request came as Gov. Gavin […]

Lea este artículo en español. In 2019, Monterey County sold more than five billion dollars worth of agricultural products, from cannabis to strawberries to leaf lettuce. It is, by far, the largest industry in the county.  However, that industry needs laborers on the ground. Tens of thousands of people plant, pick, and pack the produce that […]

For some students, it feels like the challenges have gotten even tougher.

After the Great Recession, California signed an exclusive contract with Bank of America to distribute unemployment benefits through prepaid debit cards. A CalMatters investigation reveals that to this day, no one knows how much the bank has made off the deal. Lawmakers are examining the bank’s role in mass account freezes and untold amounts of missing money for thousands of struggling jobless Californians — as well as where the bank may have failed to keep unemployment money safe from fraud.

Backed by the state’s attorney general and welcomed by labor advocates as better late than never, California's new policy will start to hold businesses accountable for protecting their workers, mandate reporting outbreaks and decrease crowding in housing for vulnerable guest farmworkers spotlighted in a California Divide investigation.

As the pandemic drags on into the winter, EDD blunders and slim unemployment benefits have left jobless Californians virtually fending for themselves.