Statewide Region News & Analysis Articles


Image caption: Hurricane Hilary formed off the coast of Mexico, quickly intensifying from a tropical storm to hurricane status.
Climate Change Brings Rare Tropical Storm to California

Climate change has warmed Pacific Ocean waters, causing storms to rapidly intensify, leading to the first tropical storm watch in Southern California ever as Hurricane Hilary prepares to make landfall.

Image caption: Loud noise created by other people is a form of pollution that can put a stop to housing projects, a court has ruled.
Housing Advocates ‘Infuriated’ as Human Noise Pollution Blocks Projects

Two different state courts have ruled recently that the human noise created by future tenants in housing projects are a form of pollution that cities must address. Lawmakers and the governor are working to reverse that novel interpretation of environmental …

Image caption: Statements recorded by police body cameras may not substitute for an actual witness.
Police Body Cam Can’t Replace Witness Testimony, CA Supremes Rule

More California police departments are deploying body cameras. A new court ruling restricts how prosecutors can use footage of witness accounts at trial.

Image caption: The AES Alamitos Generating Station in Long Beach, and natural gas plants in Huntington Beach and Oxnard, will remain operational.
Southern California Natural Gas Plants Will Stay Open Through 2026

Three fossil fuel plants will stand by to provide emergency power for three more years despite California's mandate to switch to clean energy by 2045.

Image caption: The fate of three community hospitals may lie in the hands of California's largest health care chains.
Health Chains May Keep 3 Bankrupt California Hospitals Alive

Two of the three troubled California hospitals are especially vital to their communities because they’re the only emergency providers in their rural counties. Health care chains could keep them afloat.

Image caption: Almost 4 of 10 California Black women work at least two jobs and 62 percent say the second job is "essential."
Poll: California's Black Women are Overworked, Underpaid

A recent state survey reveals 2 in 3 Black women are breadwinners; 8 in 10 worry about discrimination or mistreatment and more like Gov. Gavin Newsom than Vice President Kamala Harris.

Image caption: Has the state allowed substandard water quality in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta region?
Feds Investigate California Water Agency for Discrimination

A discrimination complaint filed by Native American tribes and environmental justice groups alleges that California has failed to protect water quality in the Bay-Delta. The EPA is investigating.

Image caption: In several test programs throughout the state, Medi-Cal recipients are receiving healthy meals by prescription at "food pharmacies."
Medi-Cal Reform Proposal: Prescriptions to Cover Healthy Foods

Medi-Cal and other programs are testing food prescriptions that advocates say could improve chronic conditions, lower health care costs and reduce hunger.

Image caption: Unexplained land purchases surrounding Travis Air Force Base on three sides have raised national security fears among U.S. officials.
Why Is a Mysterious Company Buying Land Around Travis AFB?

Travis Air Force Base in Solano County is now surrounded on three sides by a Delaware company with millions of dollars and no public record of who is behind it. And the federal government hasn’t been able to solve the …

Image caption: Striking Hollywood actors and screenwriters are seeing support from other labor unions, such as the Domestic Workers Alliance.
California Summer Strikes Cut Across Wealth, Class Barriers

Showing solidarity with other social classes is a prominent union strategy in the so-called “hot labor summer” sweeping California. It’s too soon to say if the inter-union activity will get employers to bargain.

Image caption: Young actors and writers hoping to break into Hollywood say that current strikes will let them have viable careers.
Hollywood Strikes Vital to Livable Industry Careers, College Students Say

Strikes by the Writers Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild have shut down Hollywood. As workers demand fair compensation and regulations on artificial intelligence, college students aspiring to break into the industry are caught up in the historic moment.

Image caption: Science headlined its report on its study of Meta and Facebook "Wired to Split."
Is Facebook Trying to Drive Us Apart?

Recent much-hyped studies are inconclusive, but prove one thing: Facebook’s algorithm pushes hate.

Image caption: After a historic drop in enrollments due to the pandemic, community colleges are pouring money into marketing campaigns to get students back.
Community Colleges Use Flashy Marketing to Get Students Back

After a historic drop in enrollment during the COVID-19 pandemic, California community colleges are ramping up marketing efforts, spending more than $40 million in state and federal dollars to lure students back. Is it working?

Image caption: After an extensive and costly treatment process, sewage may help ease the state’s water crisis.
Sewage Could Be Converted to Drinking Water, State Plans

Waste would undergo extensive treatment and testing before it’s piped directly to taps, providing a new, costly but renewable water supply. The state’s new draft rules are more than a decade in the making.

Image caption: Will voters be willing to keep borrowing money, even to address critical issues?
Voters Asked to OK $35 Billion Debt to Attack Housing Crisis

Three of the biggest housing bonds in state history are bound for the 2024 ballot. But with no shortage of crises facing the state, California can only borrow so much and voters may succumb to “bond fatigue.”

Image caption: Data shows that homelessness immediately decreased once renter protections were put in place.
Here's How California Policy Makes Homelessness Worse

Renter protections and eviction bans put in place for the COVID-19 pandemic have expired. By keeping them in place, California could slow the spread of homelessness. But that's not happening.

Image caption: Doctors and psychiatrists say they are the "linchpin" of California's prison medical system, but working conditions are driving away staff.
Despite Six-Figure Pay, CA Prison Doctors Authorize Strike

Almost half of the jobs for doctors and psychiatrists in California prisons are unfilled. Now, their union says it’s ready to strike over pay even as the state faces a steep budget deficit.

Image caption: School board meetings about educating children have deteriorated into battles over hot-button culture war issues in some districts.
State Moves to Stop Culture Wars Upending California School Boards

California grants school boards much local control, but recent events have pushed the state to take steps to stop local school board meetings from turning into potentially dangerous culture war battlegrounds.

Image caption: Women workers face an ongoing pay gap with men, but undocumented women earn the least of all.
Undocumented Women Face Widest Pay Gap of Any Workers

A new study shows women without legal residency face a lopsided pay gap. In California they take home 44 cents for every dollar that white, non-Latino men make and 87 cents for every dollar undocumented men make. Would raising the …

Image caption: It's a “complicated time for health care" in California, says the executive director of the state exchange,
Covered California Announces Steepest Premium Hike in 5 Years

California still offers generous subsidies, but the rate hike signals that runaway health care costs are back after five years of low premium increases.

Support California Local

$10 • $25 • $50 • Our Impact
News & Analysis

Breaking news article about a local or state topic.

Join Us Today!