Whatmatters

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How many big Newsom ideas will California Legislature fund?

Scheduling note: WhatMatters is giving thanks for our readers and other blessings, and will return to your inboxes on Monday, Dec. 2. I’m CalMatters Capitol reporter Alexei Koseff, subbing for Lynn. As a new legislative session gets underway in Sacramento next week, officials are sending mixed signals about the state of the state budget and []

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California crime policy takes conservative turn

I’m CalMatters politics reporter Yue Stella Yu, subbing for Lynn. Why do California voters keep electing progressive prosecutors and keep voting them out of office? That’s the question some criminal justice advocates are asking themselves after the defeats of two progressive district attorneys — Pamela Price in Alameda County and George Gascón in Los Angeles []

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California colleges grapple with free speech

As California public universities try to balance campus safety with students’ right to protest, community colleges are squaring off in court with students and staff who argue that the schools are violating their freedom of speech, explains CalMatters community college reporter Adam Echelman. Since 2020, there have been at least seven lawsuits filed by professors []

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What to do about slow CA election results

The complaints and questions surface after every election: It takes California way too long to count all the votes. It’s unfair to candidates and their supporters in close races to make them wait. Is there something nefarious going on? It’s all happening again, further eroding public confidence in elections: In California’s 45th Congressional District, Republican []

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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 []

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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 []

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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 []

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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, []

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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 []

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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 []

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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 []

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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 []

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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 []

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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 []

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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 []

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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 []

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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 []

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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 []