CalMatters

Calls to California’s Employment Development Department disability insurance call centers surged to 12 times their normal volume in late 2021 and early 2022 as the department dealt with fraud. Many went unanswered, leaving some Californians in the lurch for months.

California will offer food assistance to undocumented people over 55. Advocates want more. They say younger people need help, too.

Cal Fire faces a mental health crisis. As wildfires intensify, thousands of overworked California firefighters carry a heavy load of trauma, pain and grief.

After 10 years, the top-two California primary system is under fire again, but the problems may have more to do with political gamesmanship. A strategy in a state Senate district appears to have backfired.

A bill that passed the Assembly would create a “community campus” on prison grounds where inmates cook their own food and secure jobs before their release.

Over a nine-hour meeting, car owners, environmentalists and industry representatives showed up in droves to voice concerns about ramping up electric car sales and banning new gas-powered cars in 2035. Board members asked for more strategies to help low-income residents.

California schools received more than $33 billion in COVID stimulus money. Some districts won’t say how they’ve spent it.

Laptops, masks, even an ice cream truck — California schools rush to spend COVID relief money, but no database exists to detail the spending.

While San Francisco voters recalled progressive DA Chesa Boudin, other criminal justice reform proponents did well in the California primary. The message sent by voters was far more nuanced than the national narrative.

California law requires the Department of Justice to investigate police shootings of unarmed civilians. Not every candidate for attorney general thinks it’s working.

California’s climate change plan fails to provide substantial evidence that capturing carbon will meet ambitious greenhouse gas goals, critics say. The plan “does California a disservice,” one state advisor said.

Tony Thurmond faces little opposition for a second term as California schools superintendent, but critics question how much he has accomplished. He points to task forces that are influencing education policy and says he wants to help public schools rebound from the pandemic.