Statewide Region Local News

Backers pulled a $20 billion affordable housing bond off Bay Area ballots today, amid fears that it wouldn’t pass.

The EPA must grant a waiver before the diesel truck measure can be implemented. It’s one of California’s most controversial measures to clean up air pollution and greenhouse gases.

Proposition 32 to increase the minimum wage from $16 isn’t as far-reaching as when it was first proposed. Fast food workers are already making more, and health care employees are on track. But worker groups are already pushing for more.

Some California agencies are offering incentives and hosting workshops for school districts that want to build affordable housing for teachers.

The state’s landlords see rising insurance costs, so they say they’re going to have to raise rents. But they complain about laws that limit how much they can do so.

Sky-high rent is among Californians’ biggest concerns. Nearly 30% of tenants spend more than half their income on rent; and the median rent is $2,850 a month, 33% higher than the national average.

Two propositions on the Nov. 5 ballot address this issue — though one does so in a rather roundabout way.

Legislators are pushing ahead with a retail theft bill package in their continued opposition of Proposition 36 — a November ballot measure backed by law enforcement groups and Republicans (and some Democrats) that would roll back parts of 2014’s Prop. 47.

The chemical, used for decades, can harm babies’ developing brains. Farmworkers and people living near fields are most at risk. The EPA issued a rare emergency order.

The Senate appropriations committee sent dozens upon dozens of bills — that have a price tag of at least $50,000 to $150,000 and that may also be politically dicey — to the dreaded suspense file, where many could die quickly on Aug. 15.

A critical new federal audit calls out California for doing too little to prevent fraudulent spending of homelessness funds. Nearly $320 million was at risk.

So many intense wildfires all at once require an intricate chess game for maneuvering firefighters and equipment around the U.S.

Many landlords in California can only raise the rent a certain amount. On August 1, they — and their tenants — found out how high.

Legislators and Gov. Newsom are working behind the scenes to draft energy legislation before the end-of-the-month deadline.

About 80 Californians die every year after contracting Valley fever, a fungal disease that typically affects the lungs. A recent outbreak was traced to a music festival in Kern County.

A voter at a polling center at Santa Ana College in Santa Ana on March 5, 2024. Photo by Lauren Justice for CalMatters

Whether they mean to or not, people are responsible for about 95% of the state’s wildfires. While arson accounts for about 10% of the fires, others can start in a myriad of ways.

Although the initiative process — proposing new laws via ballot measures — has been in California’s constitution for more than a century, its use was fairly uncommon until the 1970s.

The official Watch Duty incident page for the massive Park Fire burning in Butte and Tehama Counties.

“This doesn’t build public trust. Where is the evidence?” said Jeff Wenninger, a former Los Angeles Police lieutenant who oversaw use of force investigations.

When California emerged from its colonial beginnings nearly two centuries ago and began coalescing into a distinct society, its towns and villages tended to be located either on navigable rivers, such as Sacramento, or around the 21 missions that Spanish explorer priests had established, such as San Diego.