CalMatters

State environmental experts worry that smashing old TVs, monitors and laptops in so-called ‘rage rooms’ may release hazardous waste or potentially harm customers’ health.

A judge rules that a proposition to raise the California minimum wage to $18 an hour can’t go before voters until 2024. The same judge gave backers of recalling Gov. Gavin Newsom more time to qualify, but in this case he backed the Secretary of State, who said proponents missed a key deadline to qualify in time for this November.

California counties regularly take the Social Security benefits of foster youth who are disabled or whose parents have died. Advocates say it amounts to children paying for their own foster care.

“How much longer are we going to ask these schools that serve a majority of students of color to make do?” asks a UCLA researcher.

California is acting later than many states in regulating neonicotinoids, but its rules would be among the nation’s most extensive. They would change how growers kill pests on nuts, citrus and other fruit crops.

Failure to file an answer within five days can result in an eviction. Tenant advocates and attorneys built an online tool to buy tenants some time.

For years, consumer advocates and some legislators have been battling to rein in escalating health care costs. Now the state has created a new agency to limit future growth in health care costs — and it will have the power to enforce that mandate.

While lawmakers are still gung-ho about Gov. Gavin Newsom’s CARE Court, county officials are worried they don’t have the resources to implement the idea.

In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade, opening up abortion appointments on university campuses could ease pressure on local clinics.

The way the Cal State system presents graduation rates obscures how the system is failing its Black students.

Californians who don’t file taxes — because they don’t earn enough to owe any — won’t receive the new round of state payments. That includes some seniors and disabled people, as well as some of the lowest-income adults.

The state funding is expected to make space for 7,300 students.