In summary
In our first decade, CalMatters journalism has brought communities together, inspired lawmakers to create a better California and made the state more accountable to Californians.
Today marks 10 years of CalMatters’ nonpartisan, independent journalism that Californians depend on to build a better future.
It also marks a decade of Californians using CalMatters journalism to spark real, demonstrable change: Lawmakers cracked down on private colleges profiteering on students. Communities came together to save Christmas for families facing eviction. State law has expanded worker compensation for first responders experiencing post traumatic stress. The state launched a “robust statewide” mental health hotline. Federal courts said Border Patrol actions in the Central Valley were likely unconstitutional. Republicans and Democrats called for an investigation into financial aid fraud at California’s community colleges, and so much more.
CalMatters is a member-supported nonprofit newsroom. We exist because we believe journalism keeps our government transparent and our leaders accountable. We also believe that our journalism gives Californians — community members, businesses, nonprofits, regulators and lawmakers — the information they need to make critical decisions.
Here are a few ways that CalMatters’ journalism has made a difference, and is still making a difference, for people in California and beyond.
Through our work with you:
- We bring people together, literally.
- We make the state more accountable to Californians.
- We make local government more accountable to Californians.
- We inspire lawmakers to create a better California.
- We also hold lawmakers accountable for their actions.
- We make the federal government more accountable for how it impacts Californians.
- We make companies and nonprofits more accountable to the people they serve.
- We generate more government transparency.
We bring people together, literally.
Two California families were reunited in 2025 after seeing loved ones who are homeless quoted in CalMatters articles.
One woman found her sister after losing contact with her in 2019. Another woman found her father, who she’d been searching for without luck. In addition to sharing the stories of these two families, CalMatters also created a resource on what to do if your loved one is homeless.
At CalMatters’ voter guide events, Californians with polar opposite views listened to one another and some even changed their minds.
During a series of events CalMatters hosted to help community members connect and debate the many propositions on the ballot during the 2024 elections, we saw: community members with polar opposite views passionately and respectfully argue for what they believe; community college students say they changed their minds (and how they’re going to vote) on a proposition after listening to each other’s experiences; and neighbors who had been arguing for months on social media meet each other in-person and walk away with mutual respect. One community member described the conversations as: “Democracy at its best.”
Evictions in several parts of California were cancelled, and local communities helped families that CalMatters profiled.
After CalMatters’ pandemic-related series on the more than 2 million Californians who were behind on rent and subject to eviction without the temporary moratorium, evictions in several areas in the state were canceled and communities started helping the families we profiled by paying their rent and sending them gift cards to buy Christmas presents.
We make the state more accountable to Californians.
Nearly 200 drivers, who had all been convicted of killing someone with their vehicle, have had their driving privileges suspended or revoked.
In 2025, CalMatters reporters had identified about 400 cases from 2019 to 2024 in which the drivers’ convictions weren’t listed on their driving records, largely because the courts failed to report that information. After reporters asked county courts across the state about these cases, 32 courts so far have reported more than 275 missing convictions to the DMV. Afterward, nearly 200 drivers who’ve killed had their license suspended or revoked, according to updated DMV reports. Our now-published story reveals that California courts have failed to report hundreds of vehicular manslaughter convictions to the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles over the past five years, allowing deadly drivers to improperly keep their licenses.
Class action lawsuit filed against California’s health insurance exchange website. California Congressman asks HHS to investigate the site for HIPAA violations.
After our forensic testing in 2025 found that Covered California shared with LinkedIn visitors answers to sensitive questions, such as whether they were pregnant, blind or disabled, or used a high number of prescription medications, the organization said it has now removed all advertising tags across its site. The website removed its LinkedIn trackers as we reported our article. Days after publication, the website admitted that it also shared the last four digits of people’s social security numbers, a class action lawsuit was filed, and Rep. Kevin Kiley, citing our story, asked the Department of Health and Human Services to launch an investigation into whether Covered California violated HIPAA.
Fraud in California community colleges triggered call for a Trump investigation.
Citing CalMatters reporting, in 2025, nine Republican U.S. representatives called on U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate financial aid fraud at California’s community colleges. In a separate letter, state Assemblymember Blanca Rubio, a West Covina Democrat, asked the state to conduct its own audit on the matter. This rare moment of bipartisan concern came soon after CalMatters reported that fake community college students have stolen more than $10 million in federal financial aid and more than $3 million in state aid in the last 12 months. That’s more than double what they stole in the previous year.
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a proposal to make an under-utilitized financial aid program more accessible for students.
A CalMatters report in 2023 showed that thousands of Californians are missing out on federal student aid and that even though several other states pushed to fix the issue, the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office didn’t make such a push, even after education advocates put forward a proposal five years ago. Soon after our story, state leaders decided it was time to look into that proposal again, and Gov. Gavin Newsom and Sonya Christina, the new chancellor Newsom appointed, announced financial aid reforms. Newsom’s office estimated that “four million Californians without a high school diploma will have access to federal financial aid to attend college classes.”
After repeated questions from CalMatters, California Department of Social Services announced $95 million in emergency aid to flood victims.
The money will go to flood victims in a long-awaited program to assist undocumented residents suffering hardship and damage from months of storms. The 2023 announcement followed weeks of enquiries from CalMatters and others about assistance to undocumented residents affected by the storms. Two months earlier, Gov. Gavin Newsom promised flood victims that help would come from the state’s Rapid Response Fund, however, his office had provided few details despite repeated queries and criticism.
California Secretary of State reversed course and will no longer reduce the number of languages in which election ballots are required to be translated.
One week after a CalMatter’s story that California was reducing the number of languages for translation of ballots and voter information, the Secretary of State reversed that decision, expanding the number of languages from 10 back to 27 for the 2022 election, starting with the June 7 primary.
State Department of Health Care Services found $20 million to help pay for new crisis hotline.
After a CalMatters story in 2021 on the state’s inability to fund the newly created 9-8-8 mental health hotline system, the state Department of Health Care Services announced that it would spend $20 million to help support the 9-8-8 network, a move that surprised even those advocating for the funding. The 9-8-8 network is billed as a “robust statewide call center” designed to be an alternative to 9-1-1 calls.
The state’s largest pension board lowered its expected rate of investment return three months after an investigation about the exploding debt levels.
A 13-part series done in collaboration with the Los Angeles Times in 2016, found that the state’s unfunded liability in its largest pension fund had grown to $241 billion, requiring annual payments exceeding the cost of environmental protection, wildfire suppression and drought response combined. The stories traced the gap to a 1999 bill that was supposed to expand pension benefits at no additional cost to the state. Former Gov. Gray Davis acknowledged for the first time in the series that he should not have signed the bill. Lowering the expected rate of return forced state and local governments to increase their pension contributions, but reduced the likelihood that the gap would continue to grow.
We make local government more accountable to Californians.
Fremont backed down after proposing a ban on ‘aiding and abetting’ homeless encampments.
In 2025, Fremont’s city council revised a new city camping ordinance, removing what had become a controversial clause — first reported on by CalMatters — that could have punished those “aiding and abetting” encampments. The ordinance makes it illegal to camp on streets, sidewalks, parks, and other public property, but what separated it from other efforts was explicit language that would make anyone “causing, permitting, aiding, abetting or concealing” an illegal encampment guilty of a misdemeanor. Local homeless advocates feared this could be enforced against workers and volunteers providing aid to unhoused people in Fremont.
Los Angeles worked with the LA Black Worker Center to get 88 people waiting for employment hired quickly.
With many Black workers retiring and a high city-job vacancy rate, Los Angeles promised to hire 200 Black trainees through a partnership with the L.A. Black Worker Center. After CalMatters reported in 2024 that the partnership was failing short of its goal, Mayor Karen Bass’s office appointed Deputy Mayor Brenda Shockley to work with the center to get 88 people waiting for employment hired quickly.
After being contacted by CalMatters, a local water agency admitted its lobbying reports had inaccuracies and bills that did not exist that session, and corrected the errors.
CalMatters’ story and analysis in 2023 revealed that local governments, using taxpayers’s money to lobby the Legislature and state agencies, are not subject to disclosure requirements for why a city lobbies on a particular bill or what position it’s taking. Instead, they are only required to file reports with the Secretary of State’s office each quarter when they spend money on lobbying.
We inspire lawmakers to create a better California.
Lawmakers advanced a new bill to increase homeless shelter oversight, citing our reporting as the catalyst for action.
Under the new proposal, local governments would be required to perform annual inspections of taxpayer-funded shelters, and cities and counties could lose state funding if they fail to correct code violations or keep neglecting to file mandatory reports. The bill has passed the assembly and is on to the senate. The 2025 proposal followed a CalMatters exposé on homeless shelter failures, and our 2024 investigation revealing that cities and counties have been ignoring a state law requiring basic safety and sanitation checks in shelters. Watch lawmakers discuss this bill, and our reporting.
Lawmakers proposed bills to address worker wage theft.
After a 2022 CalMatters series documenting long waits and low payouts for workers who claim their employers have shorted them on wages, California lawmakers proposed bills in 2025 to try to ease the backlogs. One measure, Senate Bill 310 by San Francisco Democratic Sen. Scott Wiener, would allow workers to recoup more money through private lawsuits instead of filing claims through a heavily delayed system at the Labor Commissioner’s Office. Another bill, by Fremont Democratic Sen. Aisha Wahab, aims to push employers to pay up faster after workers have won their claims. SB 261 would require the Labor Commissioner’s Office to publicly post all its decisions against employers who have not yet paid claims. It would also allow the office to seek more fines against employers who do not pay within six months.
Lawmakers introduced a bill to protect a patient’s health insurance eligibility during the first 28 days of treatment.
Following a CalMatters investigation, Assembly Bill 669 was introduced in 2025 to keep health insurance plans from reviewing a patient’s eligibility for continuing substance use treatment until at least 28 days after they’ve been approved. Matt Haney, a Democratic state assemblymember from San Francisco who authored the bill, said his interest in the bill was inspired by the story of Ryan Matlock, whose story was featured in CalMatters in October 2024.
Lawmakers passed legislation requiring hospitals to notify county government 120 days before closing a labor and delivery or psychiatric unit.
When Sen. Dave Cortese, a Democrat from Campbell, first introduced the bill in 2024, he cited CalMatters’ reporting on the alarming rate of maternity ward closures. CalMatters found at least 56 maternity wards have closed across California since 2012. The closures have happened in both rural and urban areas, resulting in long drive times for patients and overwhelmed obstetrics departments in neighboring communities. At the same time, rates of maternal mortality and complications were increasing.
Lawmakers passed a bill expanding workers’ compensation coverage for California first responders experiencing post traumatic stress.
Following CalMatters’ series on the mental health crisis facing California’s firefighters, Sen. John Laird, a Santa Cruz Democrat, introduced a bill in 2023 that would expand workers’ compensation coverage for first responders experiencing post-traumatic stress. Laird said the CalMatters series “set the context” for his bill and other efforts to address the mental health crisis among first responders. The bill was signed into law later that year.
Lawmakers passed legislation requiring employers to disclose COVID-19 outbreaks.
Companies fearful about slowing production were failing to notify public officials or even their own employees about COVID-19 outbreaks. The CalMatters investigation in 2020 found six outbreaks at seven companies that were not properly disclosed, contributing to the sickening of more than 350 workers. Assemblymember Eloise Gomez Reyes credited CalMatters for revealing the severity of the problem, and introduced a bill that would require California employers to notify their employees of COVID-19 cases, as well as alert county public health departments. The bill was signed into law later that year.
Lawmakers introduced a package of seven bills to crack down on private colleges profiteering on students.
After a CalMatters investigation, in collaboration with the Sacramento Bee, found a backlog of more than 1,200 complaints about fraud at private colleges and a more than a year long delay in responding to problems, in 2019, Assemblyman David Chiu said he was inspired to work with colleagues on a package of bills to regulate for-profit colleges. CalMatters’ investigation had detailed promises made by colleges of lucrative jobs that never materialized, leaving students thousands of dollars in debt. Later that year, multiple bills, such as AB 1340 and AB 1344, were signed into law.
We also hold lawmakers accountable for their actions.
California’s political watchdog fined a former lawmaker $106,000, after CalMatters reporting.
A five-year Fair Political Practices Commission investigation into former Democratic Assemblymember Evan Low found that Low used his technology-focused nonprofit to pay actor Alec Baldwin more than $227,000 to appear at a tech event and a separate fundraiser for Low, then deliberately tried to conceal the payments. The FPPC opened its investigation in 2020, on the same day that CalMatters reported that he had stopped disclosing donors to a nonprofit organization affiliated with the Legislature’s technology caucus, which he chaired.
Grieving moms discovered that California lawmakers killed a popular fentanyl bill by not voting.
As a part of a 2024 CalMatters and CBS News investigation into how California democrats kill bills without voting against them, a group of grieving moms who fought for fentanyl legislation learned that a popular bill with 22 bipartisan senators signed as coauthors died in committee because four Democrat Senators opposed the bill and chose not to vote. Of the 1 million votes cast by current legislators since 2017, CalMatters’ Digital Democracy database revealed that Democrats vote “no” less than 1% of the time.
The Fair Political Practices Commission to update the regulations and laws that govern donations made to charities at a politician’s request.
Commission chairman Richard Miadich particularly cited CalMatters’ Sweet Charity series, which revealed that the amount of money flowing to nonprofits controlled by California legislators or their staff has skyrocketed over the last decade — from $105,000 in 2011 to $2.9 million in 2019 — and showed that much of the money comes from corporations and unions that lobby the Legislature.
We make the federal government more accountable for how it impacts Californians.
Federal courts said Border Patrol actions in the Central Valley were likely unconstitutional.
After Border Patrol agents swept through the Central Valley on a surprise immigration raid, CalMatters exposed as false the Border Patrol leader’s statements that the raids were targeted at criminals. In response to an ACLU lawsuit, the Department of Homeland Security told a federal court it will retrain more than 900 California-based Border Patrol agents on how to comply with the Constitution. Still, a federal court forced the Border Patrol to stop conducting warrantless immigration stops throughout a wide swath of California, including in its ruling reporting from CalMatters.
A judge stopped the immigration raids sweeping across Los Angeles.
With aggressive, masked agents upending life across Los Angeles, CalMatters’ reporting drew the clear connection between the Central Valley raids. Our reporters showed how people were being taken from the streets without warrants and not being allowed to speak with attorneys. Again civil rights groups sued, citing CalMatters reporting, and in July 2025, a judge ordered a halt to the immigration operations.
Trump administration restored the UC Davis dementia research it gutted as part of its DEI purge.
The National Institutes of Health reversed its termination of a $36 million grant to a UC Davis researcher studying dementia, one day after CalMatters reported on the cancelled grant and the researcher filed an appeal. The NIH cancelled the grant in March 2025, following the federal spending ban on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The research in question focuses on the role vascular health plays in causing dementia, such as injury to blood vessels in the brain and how that could relate to dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
We make companies and nonprofits more accountable to the people they serve.
Bank of America sued over EDD unemployment debit card fraud.
Citing CalMatters reporting, a 2021 class-action lawsuit accused Bank of America of exposing unemployed California workers to large-scale fraud and cutting off access to jobless benefits during the pandemic. A few months prior, CalMatters broke the story on how confusion over mass unemployment fraud during the pandemic led to finger pointing between the state and Bank of America, which has been contracted since 2010 to electronically pay out unemployment benefits.
US Justice Department launched a criminal investigation into a pandemic vendor — California had paid that vendor more than $450 million.
Blue Flame Medical LLC was three days old and run by two Republican operatives when CalMatters revealed through public record requests that they received a payment of $457 million from California for 100 million face masks. Within hours of the payment, California attempted to claw the money back. One day after the arrangement was revealed by CalMatters, the US Justice Department opened a criminal investigation into Blue Flame.
NAACP President resigned after CalMatters investigation linked controversial endorsements by the organization to $1.7 million in payments made to the president’s consulting company.
CalMatters revealed that Alice Huffman, president of the NAACP for 20 years, received payments to her consulting company of more than $4 million related to California ballot measures. Several Black leaders complained that NAACP positions were bad for African-American communities.
We generate more government transparency.
California Highway Patrol to equip all 7,600 officers with body cams.
Three years after CalMatters’ reporting revealed that only 3% of California Highway Patrol officers wore body cameras, one of the state’s largest police forces plans to equip all its officers with the technology by 2026.
CalMatters lawsuit forced LA officials to turn over secret homeless shelter complaints.
In 2025, Los Angeles officials began releasing thousands of internal records related to conditions inside homeless shelters in response to a CalMatters lawsuit challenging their repeated public records denials. The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, better known as LAHSA committed to releasing at least 175 incident reports every other week until the public records request is fulfilled. The agency estimated there are 5,000 such reports.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation started measuring the effectiveness of parole programs.
The move comes after a CalMatters investigation revealed the state had spent more than $600 million on the Specialized Treatment for Optimized Programming, but couldn’t say whether it helped participants. The Corrections Department did not collect data that would show how many participants found jobs or whether they went back to prison for another crime.