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Foes of raising CA minimum wage declare victory
Two weeks after Election Day, the results on two of the 10 statewide propositions remain undecided. But opponents and supporters aren’t waiting around. Prop. 32 opponents declare victory: Despite no official call by the Associated Press, opponents said voters delivered a “historic” rejection of the statewide ballot measure to raise the hourly minimum wage from []
DACA recipients get more CA health care
A major rule change under the Biden administration allows certain undocumented immigrants to purchase subsidized health plans through California’s insurance marketplace. But with a Republican-led effort to halt this expansion, and President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge of mass deportations, California health leaders worry that the gains the state achieved in coverage could be undone, writes CalMatters []
Will Trump evict mixed-status families?
Good morning, Inequality Insights readers. I’m CalMatters housing affordability reporter Felicia Mello. One in five California children comes from a mixed-status family, in which at least one member is undocumented, according to the California Immigrant Data Portal. Concern is growing among housing advocates that those families risk losing access to federal housing assistance once President-elect []
California election trends so far
California is still counting votes (1.5 million yet to go), but some noteworthy trends are becoming clearer: Latino voters: Although the extent is still uncertain, polls show that support for President-elect Donald Trump among Latinos has grown nationwide. In California, a CalMatters analysis found that a larger share of votes in at least nine of []
How California is prepping for Trump administration
The incoming Trump administration will likely mean huge changes across a wide range of policies in California. CalMatters reporters are talking to officials, experts and advocates about many of them: Reproductive rights advocates and Democratic leaders are also concerned that a Trump presidency will severely restrict abortion access. The Markup, which is part of CalMatters, []
Google, union spend big to shape California Legislature
Between July and October last year, Google spent $120,000 on lobbying California’s government. In those same three months this year, the tech giant put in a lot more — $10.7 million. The big difference? The Legislature was debating a major bill with direct impact on Google’s bottom line — a media funding proposal — explain []
California workers could lose deportation protections
Immigration advocates are sounding the alarm over the prospect of mass deportations upending California immigrant communities, which Donald Trump has vowed to initiate when he returns to the White House in January. But smaller programs are also at risk, writes CalMatters Capitol reporter Jeanne Kuang. To ensure that labor laws are being enforced, a federal []
What Trump’s border policies mean for California
Good morning, Inequality Insights readers. I’m Wendy Fry. President-elect Donald Trump campaigned on implementing a sweeping border crackdown and undertaking the largest-scale deportation effort in history. If carried out, his proposed initiatives will have profound consequences in California, which shares a 140-mile border with Mexico. On day one, he has pledged to begin a massive []
Democrats move to ‘protect’ California from Trump
Scheduling note: WhatMatters is honoring our veterans on Monday and will return to your inboxes on Tuesday. California Democrats and their allies are battening down the hatches for Donald Trump’s return to the White House in January. On Thursday Gov. Gavin Newsom called for a special session to prepare the state for likely legal challenges []
What messages did CA voters send
Politicians and pundits are reading the tea leaves from the sweeping Democratic defeats nationally, as well as the California election results. To California Republicans, the passage of Proposition 36 — coupled with the recall of Alameda County’s district attorney and the defeat of Los Angeles County’s district attorney — offers clear evidence that voters reject []
What we know about CA election results so far
Election Day has come and gone, but the suspense is far from over. Voting went relatively smoothly, as election officials across California reported they were confident about counting votes in the face of minor technical challenges. A new survey by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies found that only 14% of Californians planned to []
Why California’s vote count will take days
There are only two more days to vote in California, and more than 7.6 million Californians have cast their ballots. But the counting will last for days, if not weeks, before news outlets declare all the winners or candidates concede. The delays and uncertainty — which have grown since California started sending mail ballots to []
Which cities might see big changes under Prop 33?
Good morning, Inequality Insights readers. I’m Wendy Fry. Local elected officials in San Francisco and Los Angeles have already shown interest in expanding rent control if Prop 33 passes, opening the door to such moves. CalMatters housing reporter Felicia Mello took a look this week at where the state ballot measure might have the most []
It’s crunch time for California’s election
Californians have five more days to vote, and as of Thursday, more than 5.8 million of the 22.8 million registered voters had returned their ballots. In the final stretch, campaigns are amping up outreach efforts and some of the stakes in the election are coming into sharper focus: Legislative races: Democrats hold two-thirds supermajorities in []
Meet Californians stumping in swing states
California is a sure thing for Democrats in the presidential race. So some supporters of Vice President Kamala Harris are heading to Arizona and Nevada — two neighboring states where the outcome is uncertain and could help determine who wins. CalMatters’ Ana B. Ibarra spoke with volunteers from Los Angeles who traveled to Las Vegas []
A wrongful death case focuses on California mental health insurance
Many California families are still struggling to get mental health treatment four years after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a landmark law requiring health insurance plans to provide enrollees with all medically necessary mental health and addiction treatment. A new investigation by CalMatters mental health reporter Jocelyn Wiener found the system for appealing mental health denials []
Will Prop 36 mean more deportations?
Good morning, Inequality Insights readers. I’m Wendy Fry. Proposition 36, appearing on California’s 2024 ballot, would reclassify some retail theft and drug crimes as felonies after multiple convictions. It aims to reverse parts of Proposition 47, a 2014 law that reduced such offenses to misdemeanors in an effort to decrease prison overcrowding. Proponents have raised []
California Republicans embrace mail voting
Voting ends in California on Nov. 5, and nearly 3.3 million ballots had already been returned as of Thursday. It’s not shocking that more than half of them are from voters 65 and older, the most reliable voters. What’s more noteworthy is that the turnout so far is higher among registered Republicans (16.5%) than Democrats []