Kern County

California Divide

Kern County’s 2020 free speech violations trigger new safeguards. Will they work?

Kern County agrees to better protect free speech in a deal with the state Justice Department — inspired by the county’s’ 2020 squashing of COVID contracts to organizations that advocated defunding police.

By

Nicole Foy

• December 28, 2023

Amy and her adopted children inside their home in Pine Valley on Apr. 1, 2023. Photo by Kristian Carreon for CalMatters

California Divide

California child welfare agencies under fire for pocketing foster kids’ Social Security money

A California grandmother fights to retrieve $30,000 taken by San Diego County from her grandchildren's survivor benefits. Counties take millions of dollars in federal benefits from foster children, says a lawmaker trying to stop it.

By

Jeanne Kuang

• April 5, 2023

A guard tower at Kern Valley State Prison on Nov. 15, 2022. Photo by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local

Justice

Mentally ill prisoners in California are three times likelier to get shuffled around

Newly acquired state data shows that the Corrections Department transferred patients with serious mental illnesses an average of five times over a six-year period, underscoring a CalMatters’ investigation this year that revealed the practice and raised questions about the harm it could cause.

By

Byrhonda Lyons

,

Jocelyn Wiener

and

Erica Yee

• November 21, 2022

An alleyway with tagging from local gangs near the intersection of Rosewood and Clinton Avenues in east Bakersfield on Nov. 16, 2021. Photo by Larry Valenzuela for CalMatters

Justice

‘A perfect storm of bad’: Report finds incarceration rates highest among rural Californians

A new report from a prisoners’ advocacy group finds Kings and Shasta counties have the state’s highest rates of residents incarcerated for crimes.

By

Nigel Duara

• August 31, 2022

A memorial is set up on the corner of Foothill Road and Morning Drive for 17-year-old Jose Flores in east Bakersfield on Nov. 16, 2021. Flores was stabbed and killed in a fight near Foothill High School in January of last year. Photo by Larry Valenzuela for CalMatters

Justice

‘Devil on the loose’: What’s behind Kern County’s soaring homicide rate?

Kern County has had state’s highest homicide rate since 2016, with rival prison gangs warring on its rural northern border.

By

Nigel Duara

• December 1, 2021

Judges stand for a portrait outside the Imperial County Superior Court on April 29, 2021. Photo by Shae Hammond for CalMatters

Justice

California judges don’t reflect the state’s diversity — how that could change

Whites make up a little more than a third of California’s population but nearly two-thirds of its Superior Court judges. Advocates are devising ways to get more people of color into law and onto the bench.

By

Byrhonda Lyons

• June 23, 2021

In late January, thousands of vaccine appointments were cancelled at an OptumServe clinic in the Rohnert Park Community Center in Sonoma County due to a scheduling glitch. Photo by Christopher Chung, The Press Democrat

Coronavirus

A dozen counties criticized OptumServe for vaccine clinic problems, documents show

California authorized paying OptumServe up to $221 million. But the company has helped with only 1% of the state’s vaccinations since January.

By

Caitlin Antonios

and

Bianca Fortis

• May 25, 2021

People with and without masks walk along Santa Monica Pier on May 13, 2021. In Los Angeles County, about 45% of the eligible population — or a little over a third of the entire county population — was fully vaccinated as of last week. Photo by Marcio Jose Sanchez, AP Photo

Coronavirus

Herd immunity? Only two counties are even close

Less than half of eligible people in 45 of the state’s 58 counties have been fully vaccinated for COVID-19. Marin and Alpine rank at the top with 69%, while Lassen, Mariposa and Kings are at the bottom with 25% or less.

By

Ana B. Ibarra

• May 18, 2021

Oildfield infrastructure dominates the landscape at the densely developed Kern River oil field just outside of Bakersfield on Feb. 20, 2020. Photo by Jay Calderon, The Desert Sun

Environment

Newsom orders ban on new oil fracking by 2024

The move comes after environmentalists lambasted Newsom for failing to tackle California’s oil and gas production. The oil industry called it an “illegal mandate” and vowed to fight it. Fracking accounts for only 17% of California's oil production.

By

Rachel Becker

and

Laurel Rosenhall

• April 23, 2021

Gov. Gavin Newsom tours a vaccination site at Our Lady of the Rosary Church in Union City on April 15, 2021. At a press conference following the tour, Newsom said the only challenge for vaccine distribution for the state is “manufacture and supply.” Photo by Anne Wernikoff, CalMatters

WhatMatters

California hits huge vaccine milestone

Good morning, California. It’s Friday, April 16. Nearly halfway there California is at its pandemic best. No counties are left in the state’s most restrictive reopening tier. California has the lowest coronavirus positivity rate in the country. And 49% of eligible residents are at least partially vaccinated — a number sure to have crossed the […]

By

Emily Hoeven

• April 16, 2021