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It’s the final week of the 2023 legislative session, so anyone connected to the state Capitol — lawmakers, staffers, lobbyists and, yes, reporters — will be super-busy.  Key dates: Thursday (or early Friday) — the Legislature is set to end its session with about 740 active bills to get through. And today — the final […]

With adjournment edging ever closer next Thursday, legislators are continuing to push through bills to beat the deadline.  On Thursday:  Gun tax: After years of failed efforts, the Legislature sent Gov. Gavin Newsom a measure to tax firearms and ammunition to fund gun violence prevention in California, CalMatters’ Alexei Koseff reports. Assembly Bill 28 by […]

State lawmakers are passing many, many bills before they end the legislative session next Thursday. But under California’s system of direct democracy — and happening at the same time — advocates for various causes are trying to go straight to the voters when their elected representatives won’t do what they want. Tuesday, victims’ families filed […]

From CalMatters state Capitol reporter Sameea Kamal: After many twists and turns  — intra-party drama, xenophobic comments against its author and division among some South Asian communities — the first-in-the-nation bill to ban caste discrimination in California’s housing and employment laws completed its journey through the Legislature Tuesday with a 31-5 vote in the Senate.  […]

Did you mask up during public gatherings over the holiday weekend? Or is the COVID-19 resurgence really not that bad? It can be confusing, explains CalMatters’ health reporter Kristen Hwang. Though testing data has become less reliable because access has decreased, we know that COVID-19 hospitalization rates have been steadily ticking upwards, and wastewater surveillance […]

Calendar note: WhatMatters is taking a break from work for the Labor Day holiday and will return to your inboxes on Tuesday, Sept. 5. It looks like Aliso Canyon can ramp up operations after all. On Thursday, the state’s five-member Public Utilities Commission unanimously voted to increase the capacity of the natural gas storage facility […]

Despite warnings from the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office and concerns from some labor-friendly Democrats, the Senate budget committee on Wednesday approved two bills to fund new contracts for three-fourths of the state’s rank-and-file workers.   The misgivings? Extra goodies in the tentative deal for prison guards, the lack of time to review the contracts negotiated by […]

From Justo Robles of CalMatters’ California Divide team:  Dozens of domestic workers laid banners on the state Capitol grounds Tuesday that spelled out the words “racist” and “injustice.” Then they cleaned them up.  It was all part of a rally of several hundred domestic laborers to urge state lawmakers to pass more workplace protections. Aminta […]

The battle over LGBTQ+ students in California public schools and parental rights is heating up again — and this time Attorney General Rob Bonta is going to court. Bonta on Monday announced that he has filed a lawsuit against Chino Valley Unified School District Board of Education over its recent policy to require district teachers […]

California is struggling with the intertwined crises of homelessness and mental illness. But are Gov. Gavin Newsom’s new CARE Courts the right prescription? That depends largely on whether county courts and mental health departments succeed as they roll out the program starting in October. And as CalMatters’ Jeanne Kuang details, that’s definitely a work in […]