Kate Cimini

Kate Cimini is a multimedia journalist for The Californian. This article is part of the California Divide project, a collaboration among newsrooms examining income inequality and economic survival in California.

Wearing mandatory masks and gloves, farmworkers pick green kale grown under a protective cover for Lakeside Organic Gardens in Watsonville, Calif., on Friday, May 1, 2020. Farmworker unions say the Supreme Court’s decision in Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassidwill make it harder for them to access workers and advocate for their rights. (Doug Duran — Bay Area News Group)

Supreme Court limits California union recruiting in favor of property rights

June 24, 2021 at 12:28 p.m.

Commercial growers celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision in Cedar Point Nursery v Hassid, but farmworker unions say this will make it harder for them to access workers and advocate for...

A sea of homes are photographed from Bayview Park in San Francisco, on Tuesday, March 9, 2021. The city saw rental declines, leaving some landlords struggling to make their mortgage. (David Rodrigues, The Salinas Californian)

Small landlords left struggling when renters stop paying

March 18, 2021 at 8:56 a.m.

Despite a federally mandated mortgage forbearance and $2.6 billion in rental relief from the state, some landlords who slip through the cracks wonder how much longer they can absorb the...

A fieldworker wearing a hat with the golden eagle, the official bird of Mexico, as he uses it to shield his face from the sun while he picks strawberries on Saturday, April 25, 2020.

Farmworkers say employers, Cal/OSHA don’t enforce COVID-19 safety regulations

February 4, 2021 at 6:27 a.m.

A new study shows farmworkers say they have been left unprotected from COVID-19 by the very employers and agencies who wrote emergency regulations intended to keep them safe.

Why few farmworkers isolate in California’s free COVID-19 hotel rooms

December 23, 2020 at 6:31 a.m.

Despite a heavy toll of COVID-19 among California’s farmworkers, who often live in crowded homes, Newsom’s Housing for the Harvest program has made just 81 hotel reservations for isolation or...

Isidoro Contreras Flores, sells an arrangnment of flowers in Seaside, Calif, on Tuesday, March 17, 2020. (David Rodriguez — The Salinas Californian)

California’s overcrowded homes fuel spread of coronavirus among workers

June 12, 2020 at 9:32 a.m.

The millions of Californians who live in overcrowded houses are more likely to be infected.

Black Lives Matter protestors gathered along Highway 29 in Middletown on Wednesday afternoon.

A portrait of California protests: same message, different motives

June 6, 2020 at 6:00 a.m.

Protests are, ultimately, a negotiation between those protesting and the government they’re seeking to reform.

How California farms can survive the post-pandemic world

May 29, 2020 at 6:21 a.m.

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, few industries have been quite as essential to the nation as agriculture.

WATSONVILLE, CA – MAY 1: Wearing mandatory masks and gloves, fieldworkers pick green kale grown under a protective cover for Lakeside Organic Gardens in Watsonville, Calif., on Friday, May 1, 2020. During the pandemic, Lakeside Organic Gardens is seeing an increase in demand for produce by working with grocery stores, unlike other large farming operations that have seen a drop in demand in the restaurant and hospitality industries. (Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group)

California’s farmers must diversify in a post-pandemic world, ag experts say

May 28, 2020 at 8:35 a.m.

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, few industries have been quite as essential to the nation as agriculture.

Maria Castellanoz is a third grade teacher at Sherwood Elementary School. (Photo by David Rodriguez/The Salinas Californian)

Teachers notice rise in homelessness among kids

February 25, 2020 at 6:07 a.m.

Every time Salinas third-grade teacher Maria Castellanoz gets a whiff of kerosene, it takes her right back to her childhood in a migrant labor camp. Her parents used to heat the house...

A road sign that says “Leaving California.” (iStock)

‘Not the Golden State anymore’: Middle- and low-income people leaving California

February 19, 2020 at 3:29 p.m.

U.S. Census Bureau numbers show that the middle- and lower-classes are leaving California at a higher rate than the wealthy. Many who have left in recent years say they simply...

All Stories