On May 2, President Trump released a budget blueprint for the next fiscal year that would take a chainsaw to social, environmental and education programs. Some of the sharpest cuts are directed at housing programs that are meant to serve the poor, housing insecure and unhoused. In California, millions are served by these funds and […]
Ben Christopher, CALmatters
Posted inNews
Why California Housing Costs Are So High
California is an expensive place to call home. It’s such a fundamental part of California life it almost feels silly to say. Along with good weather, sunny beaches, Hollywood and the Golden Gate Bridge, the sky-high cost of housing has become part of the state’s national identity. The high cost of housing touches virtually every […]
Posted inNews
Can this Plan Fix California’s Insurance Crisis? What You Need to Know
A week after negotiations to rescue California’s floundering home insurance market stalled out in the Legislature, the state’s top insurance regulator put out his own rescue plan that effectively amounts to a trade for the state’s major insurers. Under proposed regulations Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara announced Thursday, major insurers will be required to cover a […]
Posted inNews
California Homelessness: Where are the State’s Billions Going? Here’s the New, Best Answer
In Sacramento, there’s a word that keeps popping up during discussions about the state’s homelessness crisis: “accountability.” Gov. Gavin Newsom has scolded cities and counties for failing to get more people off the street, hundreds of millions in state spending notwithstanding. “Californians demand accountability and results, not settling for the status quo,” the governor said […]
Posted inNews
‘Close to the Line:’ California’s Top Campaign Finance Watchdog Wants a Deeper Look at Donor Network
California’s campaign finance regulator will not investigate a complaint into Govern For California, the subject of a CalMatters investigation that explored the nonprofit’s role influencing legislative elections and “pushing the envelope” of state campaign finance law. But the chairperson of the Fair Political Practices Commission said he would seek to develop new regulations more clearly […]
Posted inNews
California Legislature: Slouching Toward Sine Die
California lawmakers have less than two weeks to wrap up their work before the end of the legislative session on Aug. 31. And so begins the final legislative traffic jam, as bills line up for final votes. A piece of legislation’s particular place in that line is the complex product of political horse-trading, the competing […]
Posted inNews
Suspense File: Which Bills did California Lawmakers Kill?
On most days, California lawmakers deliberate, debate and decide bills out in public for every Californian to see. Aug. 11 was not one of those days. In simultaneous marathon hearings, the appropriations committees in the Assembly and Senate rattled through hundreds of bills in a single discharge of rapid-fire legislating. Many proposals lived to see […]
Posted inNews
Supreme Court Ruling Puts Target on California Concealed Carry Law
Today, the U.S. Supreme Court issued one of its most significant gun law rulings in more than a decade, tossing out New York state’s tight restrictions on who can carry a concealed gun in public. Gun rights activists are celebrating the 6-3 decision, while advocates for stricter gun laws decry it. Both agree that California’s […]
Posted inNews
Topsy-turvy Top-two: Is California Primary System Keeping Its Promises?
If you need an example of just how befuddling California’s top-two primary system can be, consider the case of the $50,000 mailer sent to voters across 13 California counties in early June. The mailer’s message: In the crowded race for a state Senate district that sprawls from Modesto to Truckee to the Owens Valley, the […]
Posted inNews
Can a Conservative Break Through for California Attorney General?
The last time California voters elected a Republican to statewide office, Gavin Newsom was the youthful mayor of San Francisco, Mark Zuckerberg had just opened up Facebook to non-college students and Donald Trump was a Democratic celebrity tycoon wrapping up the sixth season of “The Apprentice.” That was 16 years ago. Now Newsom is the […]
Posted inNews
Full Speed Ahead on Overhauling California Recalls
With the wreckage of the failed recall attempt against Gov. Gavin Newsom still smoldering, California Democrats have reached a new consensus: They really don’t want to do that again. On the morning after voting ended and recall candidates conceded, the chairpersons of the election committees in the state Assembly and Senate said they’re kicking off […]
Posted inNews
The California Recall: The 2022 Campaign Starts Now
Gov. Gavin Newsom is poised to keep his job after months spent lambasting the recall as a Republican power grab; feverishly fundraising, wooing likely supporters and wrangling fractious progressive activists; sweating the odd, unexpectedly close poll; fusing policymaking and politicking; and calling upon big-name D.C. Democrats to come stump out west. And after all that, […]