Investigation
Eight bills related to License to Kill advance in the Legislature
Lawmakers proposed a suite of bills in response to a series of CalMatters investigative stories.
Accountability
Commentary
The CalPERS gamble: Why the push to invest in private equity alarms public employees
CalPERS shifted from stable, traditional assets to private equity and a private credit portfolio. Details about their investment risk and fees are secret.
Commentary
18 years after California voters approved the bullet train, progress and finances are still stalled
The bullet train project launched in 2008 with promises of completion by 2020. Now it's mostly concrete supports. No tracks or train.
Politics
What are they trying to hide? California lawmakers kill lobbying transparency bills
Good government groups backed legislation that sought to make every lobbyist letter public and online. Those proposals appear dead for the year.
Investigation
California has a public defender crisis. A new bill seeks to force the state to confront it
Counties would have to report their public defenders' workloads under the proposed legislation.
Politics
How to fix a ‘giant county bureaucracy’: San Diego County debates competing charter reform plans
San Diego County wants an ethics commission and fiscal watchdogs. LA County is adding more supervisors. Both want better budgets. How California counties are updating their charters.
Commentary
How LA County is trying to weaken its new ethics watchdog
The Ethics Commission is supposed to investigate the offices of the Board of Supervisors, the Executive and the Assessor — who are helping create it.
Investigation
Internal emails show how fringe groups fueled Sheriff Chad Bianco’s ballot seizure
Records reveal the investigation was based on the thinnest of evidence, raising alarms over how the November election could be disrupted.
Commentary
Mailed votes don’t cause California’s slow count. A glut of ballots does
Ending 2024 election week, California hadn’t yet counted 243,976 postmarked ballots — and 4.1 million ballots cast on or before Election Day.
Commentary
When criminal justice falls short, California’s civil courts must step in
An LAPD officer wasn’t charged for crashing into and severely injuring two elderly brothers. The city settled their lawsuit, agreeing to pay $18 million in total.