Dan Morain

Inmates clean prison cells at Las Colinas Women's Detention Facility in Santee, California. (Photo by Sandy Huffaker/AFP/Getty Images)

California prisons are COVID hotbeds despite billions spent on inmate health

June 30, 2020 at 6:11 a.m.

From Corcoran and Avenal state prisons in the arid Central Valley to historical San Quentin on the San Francisco Bay, California prisons have emerged as raging COVID-19 hot spots, even...

A healthcare worker at a Kaiser hospital in San Francisco on April 9, 2020. Today, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that the state would make hotel rooms available to care providers in regions with high rates of COVID-19 infections who need to self-isolate. (Anne Wernikoff for CalMatters)

Amid pandemic, Gavin Newsom faces scrutiny over $1 billion face-mask deal

April 14, 2020 at 8:40 a.m.

California legislators have demanded more details about Gov. Gavin Newsom's coronavirus spending and a recent news report raised questions about the company contracted to make the masks.

The art of the deal: California’s alliance could solve the nation’s mask shortage

April 10, 2020 at 6:19 a.m.

The governor has overhauled the supply chain to purchase 200 million masks per month for health workers battling the coronavirus.

Attorney General Xavier Becerra announcing a lawsuit against for-profit Ashford University at San Francisco State University, November 29, 2017. (Photo by Ben Christopher for CALmatters)

How California’s abortion rights law ended up bankrolling anti-abortion forces

November 6, 2019 at 1:49 p.m.

California lawmakers knew Assemblyman David Chiu's reproductive FACT Act had constitutional issues, but passed the NARAL-sponsored bill anyway.

Capitol News Briefs

September 19, 2019 at 6:04 a.m.

SACRAMENTO Battle lines drawn on clean air President Trump is expected today to revoke California’s 50-year-old authority to set tougher auto emissions standards to combat smog, setting up what will...

(Photo courtesy CALMatters) E-cigarettes use among middle and high schoolers rose 78 percent last year.

Capitol Tracker: News Briefs from the state

September 18, 2019 at 6:11 a.m.

SACRAMENTO Newsom responds to reports that Trump administration will announce a rollback of California’s clean car waiver Governor Gavin Newsom released the statement below after reports that the U.S. Environmental...

(Courtesy CALMatters) California lawmakers enter the last week or session with a to-do list that ranges from broadly felt issues such as school vaccinations to a couple of very narrowly targeted lobbying fights.

What to watch as CA lawmakers wrap up, from gators to the gig economy

September 10, 2019 at 6:29 a.m.

SACRAMENTO— Endangered species, gig workers, children, universities, privacy, parolees who want to vote, people who want straighter teeth, and alligators. As California lawmakers return for the final week of the...

(Dan Morian/CALMatters) Gov. Gavin Newsom and crowd at signing ceremony for police use-of-force legislation. Photo by Dan Morain for CalMatters

Newsom signs landmark police use-of-force bill

August 20, 2019 at 6:44 a.m.

SACRAMENTO— California will soon have a tougher new legal standard for the use of deadly force by police, under legislation Gov. Gavin Newsom signed today that was inspired by last...

Gavin Newsom signs landmark police use-of-force bill

August 19, 2019 at 12:44 p.m.

Under the new law, which takes effect January 1, police may use deadly force only when "necessary in defense of human life."

Photo Courtesy CAL matters. After an ad by Marshall Tuck, left, the state prison officers’ union has backed Tony Thurmond, right, for the state’s top education post.

Prison officers’ union jumps into race for schools chief

September 22, 2018 at 6:48 a.m.

In a departure from its usual pattern of campaign giving, the union representing California’s prison officers emerged as a player in the race for the state schools chief on Wednesday,...

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