accountability

Municipalities and school districts can't legally spend tax dollars pushing ballot measures. But many do anyway, calling its outreach "information".

After a 144-year-old newspaper war, a bankruptcy and the internet gobbling its ad revenue, the Sacramento Bee is deeply cutting its staff, its owners announced.

The governor will appoint new state education leadership. But three bills to hold the state more accountable just died in the state senate.

If Prop 43 succeeds, local tax increases will need two-thirds approval from voters to pass. Some cities and counties have put tax increases on the current ballot.

Budgets can gloss over key trends, such as how much government has grown in size and cost under Gov. Gavin Newsom. These sources reveal the data.

Since 2000, the state has issued nearly $200 billion in bonds, but it hasn’t always measured the effectiveness of programs the bonds fund.

Most immigrant detention centers are privately run and shrouded in secrecy. A bill would make records of 911 calls from the centers public.

Giving agencies more time to fill records requests would likely delay families getting details on how their loved ones died in custody.

Southern California Democratic lawmaker Blanca Pacheco’s bill would have added high fees to records requests submitted for a “commercial purpose” and allowed counties more avenues to deny records and take people to court.

Lawmakers proposed a suite of bills in response to a series of CalMatters investigative stories.