CalMatters

The U.S. Supreme Court is about to hear a case that will have major implications on homelessness policy in California.

Water suppliers say the costs will be massive, with rates increasing for many consumers. Known as the “Erin Brockovich” chemical, hexavalent chromium is found statewide.

After an allegedly speeding driver killed four Pepperdine students last fall on the Pacific Coast Highway, a pending bill could add Malibu to a list of six California cities testing out automated cameras to ticket speeders.

The UC Native American Opportunity Plan seeks to make the system a viable option for Native students in California by offering them free tuition. But Native students enrolled at UC campuses report that strains on their budgets along with insufficient resources and faculty representation have been obstacles to academic success.

Rural Latino communities are divided about the project, which would capture carbon from an oilfield and power plant — and allow an oil company to keep operating as the state struggles to slash greenhouse gases.

The media personality and socialite is crusading against abuse of teens at treatment facilities and wants California legislators to pass a bill.

Folic acid reduces the risk of birth defects and the FDA requires that bakers include it in enriched bread. California could extend the mandate to tortillas and foods made with corn masa flour.

A California Republican’s bill would exempt low and middle income wildfire victims from solar panels requirements on rebuilt homes that didn’t have them when they burned down.

Though California’s Legislative Black Caucus filed a slate of 14 bills linked to reparations, a few lawmakers are floating their own proposals.

The nationwide cost to treat or replace contaminated drinking water is estimated at $1.5 billion a year. The ubiquitous chemicals, linked to cancer and other diseases, build up in people and the environment.

Public agencies are funding private security guards in homeless shelters and on the street, opening a new front in the state’s housing crisis — one ripe for violence and civil rights issues, but thin on oversight.

There’s so little data available, it’s impossible to even tell if several of California’s largest homelessness programs are working, according to a statewide audit released Tuesday.