prize winners - CalMatters

Waiting for justice: Defendants locked up for years awaiting trials, sentencing

by Robert Lewis March 31, 2021April 13, 2021

Across California, 44,241 people are being held in a county jail without being convicted or sentenced for a crime. That’s three quarters of all inmates. At least 1,317 people have been waiting in county jails for more than 3 years. For 332 of them, it’s been longer than 5 years. In 32 counties that gave […]

Rickishia Crockett holds an urn with her mother's remains near her home in Vallejo on Dec. 22, 2020. Photo by Anne Wernikoff for CalMatters

A Year of Loss: Reflections on the pandemic in California

by CalMatters December 30, 2020January 7, 2021

Mary Nichols, who has been chairwoman of the California Air Resources Board since 2007, poses for a portrait outside her home in Los Angeles on Dec. 15, 2020. Photo by Kendrick Brinson for CalMatters

Legacy of a clean-air czar: Clearer skies, bold alliances and bitter controversy

by Rachel Becker December 23, 2020January 4, 2021

A Western Snowy Plover walks near tire tracks at Oceano Dunes on Dec. 21, 2017. The speed limit near the plover habitat is marked at 15 MPH, intended to give the birds time to evade vehicles. Photo by David Middlecamp, San Luis Obispo Tribune

Battle at the Beach

A 40-year conflict over a state park: Has it finally reached a breaking point?

by Julie Cart November 23, 2020November 23, 2020

Stephanie Moore sits with her eight-month-old dog Spooky at a local park in Lawndale, CA, on Nov. 17, 2020. Photo by Tash Kimmell for CalMatters.

How Bank of America helped fuel California’s unemployment meltdown

by Lauren Hepler and Stephen Council November 20, 2020November 20, 2020

Legislature campaigns: Did big political spenders get what they paid for?

by Ben Christopher November 20, 2020November 20, 2020

California's Toxic Legacy

What happens when a rural area’s only well is contaminated?

by Rebecca Sohn November 19, 2020November 21, 2020

A water tank serving Buena Vista Migrant Center near Watsonville on Nov. 10, 2020. The tank stores water from a well that exceeds state guidelines for a chemical called PFOA by 3 parts per trillion--the state's new threshold is 10. Photo by Anne Wernikoff for CalMatters

California's Toxic Legacy

Well water throughout California contaminated with ‘forever chemicals’

by Rachel Becker November 19, 2020December 4, 2020

The Trumpiest and most anti-Trump counties in California: Where does yours rank?

by Ben Christopher November 17, 2020December 28, 2020

A pattern of blue waves atop an undercurrent of red waves. As Californians chose their new representatives to Congress, the Democratic "blue wave" of 2018 was followed by the red riptide of 2020/ Illustration by Anne Wernikoff for CalMatters; iStock

After California’s ‘blue wave’ to Congress in 2018? A GOP red riptide in 2020

by Ben Christopher November 15, 2020November 16, 2020