Statewide Region Resilience Digest

To cover a budget gap in Medi-Cal — which provides health insurance for roughly 15 million disabled and low-income Californians — Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration is borrowing $3.4 billion from the state’s general fund.

California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara said today he will grant State Farm’s request to raise home insurance premiums by 22% on average if the company agrees to certain conditions — and wins approval at a public rate hearing next month.

California is spending more than it expected on Medi-Cal and Republican lawmakers are pointing to coverage expansions that benefited immigrant households.

The governor’s planned $20 billion tunnel to divert more water south and bypass the Delta would bring years of construction noise, pollution and traffic. Residents worry their rural farm towns will never be the same.

California Assembly Bill 247 would significantly raise the hourly wage of inmate firefighters. Read on to learn more.

Five years ago, as COVID-19 hit the state, legislators cancelled a hearing to discuss a state audit that found the state’s office of emergency services and at least three California counties weren’t prepared to help vulnerable people during natural disasters.

The governor has proposed spending climate bond money dedicated to wildfire mitigation in various ways. Some lawmakers think a focused strategy would be more effective.

Ricardo Lara said he will look at information provided by State Farm before revisiting his previous decision to reject the company’s emergency rate hike.

Each year, legislation aimed at better wildfire mitigation fails – often due to cost or conflict with environmental regulations.

THE RECENT SPREAD of devastating wildfires in Los Angeles has underscored the importance of Watch Duty, the wildfire mapping app that provides early warning of fires and tracks their spread. And it is also casting a spotlight on the work of two volunteers, Danilla Sands of Mendocino County and Sara Paul of Sonoma County, both of whom play critical roles in ensuring the app has the latest fire information.

California has known for years that it must pay extra attention to people with disabilities and limited mobility during natural disasters. Will it put the lessones of the L.A. fires to use for the next emergency?

In the days and weeks following the January Los Angeles County wildfires, Gov. Gavin Newsom and his office moved quickly to manage the response and begin recovery efforts after the blazes were contained. Since then, the governor has been singularly focused on the region, describing his approach as “an extended period of engagement” with L.A. during a press conference in Altadena last week.

In the wake of the Los Angeles fires, State Farm asked for an “emergency” premium increase of 22% on average for California homeowners. Lara today denied the request pending more information.

Sen. Kelly Seyarto is the only former career firefighter currently serving in the Legislature. But as a Republican in a Democratic supermajority, he says it can be challenging to make progress on wildfire policy.

State Farm, which already has rate increase requests pending, asked state officials to approve more insurance price increases.

Roughly a month after deadly wildfires erupted in Los Angeles County, killing at least 29 people, lawmakers in the state Senate have introduced a proposal to bolster Cal Fire staffing, and Gov. Gavin Newsom is meeting with President Donald Trump over disaster aid.

For the past three years, more than 200,000 western monarch butterflies spent their winters along the California coast — huddling together in tall tree groves, finding respite from the wind from November to February.

The statewide count of overwintering monarch butterflies shows a sharp drop in number. Read on to learn more.

Insurance companies have paid out $4.2 billion in claims so far to survivors of the Los Angeles County fires, the state Insurance Department said Thursday.

In the wake of the fire earlier this month at Vistra Corporation’s Moss Landing Power Plant and Energy Storage Facility, the California Public Utilities Commission has proposed new standards for battery energy storage facilities.

Energy demands from big tech, including for AI, has elected officials giving an old power source a second look.

Damages in the ongoing Southern California wildfires are topping $250 billion, on track for the costliest disaster in US history. Read on to learn more.

With President Donald Trump bound for Los Angeles today and once again threatening to withhold wildfire aid to California unless the state abides by his water policies, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed two bills Thursday to provide $2.5 billion in state funding for wildfire response and preparedness.

At the Pasadena City College disaster resource center, the long, methodical work of putting lives back together is underway.

A look at how the rebuilding effort is going in the California town of Paradise, wiped out in a 2018 fire, and how it offers insights for the tough road ahead for residents in neighborhoods destroyed in the fires of Southern California.

Some schools destroyed years ago in the Sonoma and Butte fires are just now reopening. The long, expensive process of rebuilding in LA may eat up much of the money voters approved in November for school repairs statewide.

As wildfires ravage southern California, state mandated defensible space requirements legislated in 2020 haven't been encoded into enforceable regulations. Read on to learn why.

Robert MacKenzie is an assistant fire chief — but not the kind who works for your local fire department. As the Palisades Fire bore down on Southern California last week, the private fire crew he oversees headed out to help defend homes for their customers: insurance companies that offer wildfire protection to wealthy homeowners and others with the coverage built into their policies.

The LA fires have left domestic workers and day laborers jobless. They may soon be hired for wildfire cleanup work, where they can be exposed to ash and other toxins.

Describing the active wildfires in Southern California as a “catastrophe at an unprecedented scale,” Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas of Salinas gathered with dozens of Assemblymembers on Thursday in Los Angeles to introduce new bills that seek to quicken rebuilding efforts and lift development restrictions.

Three days after immensely destructive and deadly wildfires broke out in and around Los Angeles, Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed a $322.3 billion state budget with a positive revenue forecast “based on an assumption of continued but slowing economic growth.”

Jennielynn Holmes stood in the middle of a make-shift evacuation center when the scope of the crisis hit her.