Recent Articles

After public outcry, lawmakers revive California’s gutted net neutrality bill

By Antoinette Siu

Democratic legislators said today they’ve settled their differences on net neutrality in California, advancing bills that, if passed, would create the most far-reaching internet regulation since the federal government abandoned its Obama-era regulations.

Is California’s legacy environmental law protecting the state’s beauty or blocking affordable housing?

By Ben Bradford, Capital Public Radio

The California Environmental Quality Control Act is the focus of heated debate, with environmentalists saying it’s a success but critics saying it’s been weaponized to impede housing.

California’s push to make people healthy—and save taxpayers money

By David Gorn

California is testing programs to promote healthy living, prevent disease and lower the cost of care for people in Medi-Cal, the publicly funded health system that covers a third of the state’s residents.

Narrowed world: Traffic and pricey housing conspire to shrink our sliver of ‘paradise’

By Meghan McCarty Carino, KPCC

Many of us are paying a higher price for an ever-shrinking sliver of California paradise—and losing some of the quintessential perks of life in the Golden State.

WhatMatters

Why judge upheld California’s ‘sanctuary state’ law

By Dan Morain

A federal judge upheld California’s sanctuary state law, saying the 10th Amendment doesn’t permit the federal government to force states to help enforce federal law.

What was left out of the privacy legislation

By Dan Morain

Why California’s new privacy legislation will allow consumers to sue over data breaches by business, but not by government.

Soda ducks one tax, but may face another

By Dan Morain

Thanks to legislation, the soda industry averted new local taxes, but it could face an initiative that would impose a new statewide tax.

A sorry piece of history; Framing gas tax initiative

By Dan Morain

California officials played an integral role in Japanese internment during World War II, as told in a new online exhibit. The gas tax initiative fight revs up.

Commentary

Did Brown fix California’s budget mess? Nope

By Dan Walters

Jerry Brown has signed his 16th and final state budget, bragging that he fixed California’s financial mess. But that claim, and his claim of securing the state’s fiscal future, are overblown.

Genteel extortion cancels three ballot measures

By Dan Walters

Three initiatives that had qualified for the November ballot were dropped last week after their sponsors negotiated deals with the Legislature. Was it extortion? Not in the criminal sense, perhaps, but it was the adroit use of leverage.

Supreme Court decision could hit unions hard

By Dan Walters

The U.S. Supreme Court has declared that compelling non-members of public employee unions to pay dues is unconstitutional. California’s unions are now scrambling to avoid an erosion of their memberships, their revenues and their political clout.

GOP’s long slide into irrelevance in California

By Dan Walters

California once had a strong and successful Republican Party but over the last few decades, it has shrunken to a small minority of voters and if ti loses several congressional races this year, Democrats will have achieved total domination.

Resistance State

Judge rules against Trump, for California sanctuary laws—with one exception

By David Gorn

A federal judge today ruled against the Trump administration’s attempt to immediately halt California’s <a href=”https://calmatters.

CALmatters Blogs

Five counties tried new voting method to turbo-charge turnout. Did it work?

By Byrhonda Lyons

In the June primary, five counties switched to a drastically new way of voting to boost turnout The result? Their average turnout shot up by 12 percent—but so did the state average.