In summary
Highlighting all of CALmatters’ work over the past week
Recent Articles
Special interests win as lawmakers cut last-minute deals to pull initiatives off your ballot
By Laurel Rosenhall
An optimist might cheer the fact that lawmakers were doing their jobs. Others label it legal extortion.
Gimme Shelter podcast: The rent control war
By Matt Levin
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CALQuiz: More lawsuits against Trump, a new California budget and the homeless crisis
By Trevor Eischen
Do you consider yourself an expert on California news? Let’s see if you’ve been paying attention this week to the big stories on politics and policy in the Golden State.
Brace yourself, Californians: Here are the 12 ballot measures you get to decide in November
By Ben Christopher
After months of signature gathering and legislative wrangling, here’s the final list of propositions that made the cut for the November election.
A walk along Skid Row in Los Angeles—block by bleak block
By Dan Morain
Nowhere is California’s homelessness crisis more evident than here, where some 2,000 people hunker down for the night on sleeping pads, cardboard, or nothing.
Check-up: How health care fares in California’s new spending plan
By Antoinette Siu
California has been a national leader in the effort to expand health care coverage, but some advocates say this year’s state budget marks a step backward in the quest to reduce and ultimately eliminate the number of uninsured people.
Homeless in California—what the data reveals
By Victoria Cabales
As California struggles to confront a crisis of homelessness, these numbers help illuminate the depth and breadth of the problem.
Watch us break down California’s new budget in under 2 minutes
By Byrhonda Lyons
The state’s new budget weighs in at a record-setting $201 billion. Here are the highlights.
Ontario ready to pull out of carbon market, leaving California in limbo
By Julie Cart
California’s cap-and-trade program is under threat by the withdrawal of Ontario from the bi-national carbon-trading market.
Emotional fight over conversion therapy: Should California limit services meant to turn gay people straight?
By Robbie Short
Scientists and LGBTQ groups want California to become the nation’s first state to ban what they see as a harmful, prejudice-driven practice. But First Amendment purists and some religious conservatives argue that would curtail liberty.
WhatMatters
Initiatives you won’t and will vote on this November
By Dan Morain
California legislators averted costly initiative wars on privacy, lead paint and soda taxes. But voters will decide daylight savings time and gas tax repeal in November. San Francisco Mayor-elect London Breed urged legislators to expand car for mentally ill homeless people.
Privacy deal comes together; What’s next after Janus
By Dan Morain
California labor worries about the impact of Janus v. AFSCME, but vows to battle on. Privacy initiative funder Alastair Mactaggart agrees to drop his initiative in exchange for broad privacy legislation. Business opposes the bill but sees it as the lesser of two evils.
Struggling over care for mentally ill homeless people
By Dan Morain
California Senate Democrats watered down legislation to expand treatment for mentally ill homeless people. U.S. Supreme Court struck down a California abortion rights bill in NIFLA v Becerra. The ruling will undermine legislation to regulate conversion therapy.
Cannabis’ toll on endangered wildlife
By Dan Morain
Humboldt martens are nearing extinction, in part because of impact of illegal cannabis farms in the redwood forests of the North Coast. Why vets can’t discuss animal cannabis use with pet owners.
Can California regulate faith-based crisis pregnancy centers?
By Dan Morain
California Senate Democrats blocked legislation intended to help low-income people avoid losing their cars because of high-interest pink slip loans. Legislators push a bill to declare conversion therapy fraudulent. Critics say it raises constitutional free speech questions.
Commentary
Supreme Court voids California law, upholds free speech
By Dan Walters
The U.S. Supreme Court struck a blow for free speech when it struck down a California law that requires anti-abortion clinics to tell their clients about the availability of abortion services.
Billionaire Soros was a big loser in California vote
By Dan Walters
International financier George Soros has had some success in his dabbling in California politics. But he “hit a brick wall,” as he terms it, in trying to unseat three California district attorneys this year, and his support for challengers may have backfired.
California can’t sidestep federal tax impact
By Dan Walters
California will get hit hard by a new federal tax law that limits deductions for state and local taxes. California politicians had hoped to sidestep the law, but the Internal Revenue Service has squelched that notion.
Is Los Angeles Unified too big to fail?
By Dan Walters
Los Angeles Unified, the state’s largest school district, faces a financial meltdown and the question is whether all California taxpayers should bail it out.
Resistance State
Executive order or not, California sues over family separations
By David Gorn
Why sue now? Among the reasons: The executive order did not require that roughly 2,300 children be returned to their parents, or directly state the practice will end.