KQED's The California Report

It’s a common belief that music soothes the soul. But some researchers and healthcare companies say it can be used to heal the mind, and maybe the body. Reporter: Robert Garrova, LAist Lawmakers should hit the brakes on one of Governor Gavin Newsom’s signature programs for cleaning up homeless encampments. That’s according to a report out this week from the Legislative Analyst’s Office. Reporter:...

More and more tents are popping up along the sides of San Diego freeways, on state property managed by the California Department of Transportation, or Caltrans. City leaders call it a growing problem. Reporter: Katie Anastas, KPBS The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating the University of California for possible workplace discrimination. Leaders in Fremont have revised a controversial ban o...

The Los Angeles neighborhoods of Altadena and the Palisades are still a mess from the January fires. And some of the people out there struggling to clean it up are immigrant day laborers. They are dealing with toxic ash that can have lead and chemicals in it. What’s the best way to do that safely? One organization is training them. Reporter: Megan Jamerson, KCRW Former Los Angeles Fire Chief Krist...

An unhoused Bay Area woman and her advocates are claiming a big win after a judge stopped officials from clearing her elaborate shelter. It’s believed to be the first court victory of its kind since the U.S. Supreme Court last year made it harder to stop encampment sweeps. Reporter: Vanessa Rancaño, KQED California is rolling back its more flexible work from home policies that began during the pan...

On Sunday night, Hollywood had its biggest night of the year with the Academy Awards ceremony. But here’s a plot twist. None of the ten films that were up for the best picture Oscar were shot in Hollywood or the greater L.A. area. It’s just the latest example of how much film and television production now occurs outside of Los Angeles, costing local jobs and raising questions about the very future...

A federal judge in San Francisco has temporarily blocked a Trump administration directive to mass terminate thousands of federal employees. The ruling only covers some federal agencies, including Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense. Reporter: Farida Jhabvala Romero, KQED The Sierra Nevada Snowpack is about average for this time of year. Several storms expected in the coming days will li...

In Del Norte County, starting Thursday, teenagers in trouble will be held accountable by a true jury of their peers. Teen court is a diversion program run by teenagers for teenagers. Reporter: Jane Vaughan, Jefferson Public Radio California insurance commissioner Ricardo Lara says he'll make a decision soon on State Farm's request for an emergency rate increase. Reporter: Danielle Venton, KQED Lea...

California's homeless shelters are deadlier than the state's jails and only a fraction of the people in them end up in permanent housing. Those are just a couple of the startling findings in a new investigation out this week from our California newsroom partner CalMatters. Guest: Lauren Hepler, CalMatters More than 50,000 University of California workers are set to go on strike statewide starting...

You might think people whose homes survived the recent Los Angeles area fires might feel fortunate. But those homeowners are wrestling with their own problems, like how to make their homes livable again in largely destroyed neighborhoods. Reporter: Erin Stone, LAist Governor Newsom on Monday announced hundreds of millions of dollars in new homelessness spending, along with a new website meant to l...

Health care workers across California are attending crash courses on constitutional law. They’re preparing for possible encounters with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, who are now officially allowed inside health care facilities. Reporter: Jackie Fortier, KFF Health News After weeks of a fraying relationship, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has fired L.A.’s fire chief, Kristin Crowley....

California's long-delayed and over budget high-speed rail project is under threat again by the Trump administration. During his first term in office, Trump tried, without success, to claw back nearly a billion dollars in federal aid for the project, which one day is supposed to connect Los Angeles and San Francisco. Now this second Trump Administration is launching an investigation into high speed...

Former Vice President Kamala Harris has returned home to Los Angeles after losing to Donald Trump in the November election. The question now is what will she do next? Many pundits are speculating about a possible run for California governor. Reporter: Scott Shafer, KQED Insurers have already paid out around $7 billion in claims to people who lost homes or suffered property damage in the LA fires....

During Donald Trump’s first term in office, his administration pursued a controversial policy of forcibly separating migrant family members, including young children, at the U.S.-Mexico border. The Biden Administration then set up a task force to help reunite those families. But with Trump’s return to office, one of his first executive actions dissolved that Biden family reunification task force....

In recent decades, Dr. Bronner’s evolved from a niche soap company to a powerhouse home brand with a worldwide following. But a recent wrongful death lawsuit makes some troubling allegations against the San Diego County-based company. The lawsuit alleges the company has turned a blind eye to an internal culture of drug use. Reporter: Scott Rodd, KPBS Riverside County’s firebrand sheriff is the fir...

The tiny town of Scotia, California on the state’s remote redwood coast was built up entirely around a large sawmill. An attached biomass plant that burns the wood waste for electricity stands in the middle of a climate debate in the region. Reporter: Roman Battaglia, Jefferson Public Radio Some college aid experts in California are tying a recent drop in student aid applications to fears around i...

American society often feels divided. But sometimes, even the most surprising things can bring us together. For a small Central Sierra Nevada community, residents recently found themselves rallying around an unlikely source. Reporter: Rachel Livinal, KVPR Communities across California are waking up this morning to the damage left behind from Thursday's powerful storm system. The brunt of the damag...

Artificial Intelligence is being touted as the next big advancement to take almost every industry into a new direction, and at one of the world's largest agriculture expos, AI evangelists see the new tech as the next big advancement in farming. Authorities in Southern California have issued evacuation warnings for parts of Los Angeles County that were scorched by wildfires last month, as heavy rai...

Thousands of people are attending this week's World Ag Expo in Tulare County. There’s plenty to choose from, depending on what you’re looking for. And for many in the farming industry, a big issue right now is bird flu. Guest: Lucas Fuess, Senior Dairy Analyst, Rabobank California's FAIR Plan, the state's insurer of last resort, is asking for help paying customer claims due to the Eaton and Palisa...

The flames have died down at the Moss Landing battery storage plant in Monterey County, after a massive fire last month. But the environmental impacts may be just beginning. In neighboring Elkhorn Slough, a sanctuary for endangered wildlife, researchers have already found heavy metal concentrations up to a thousand times higher than before the fire. Reporter: Katherine Monahan, KQED Starting Tuesd...

There’s a growing club you don’t want to be a part of. They’re the people who’ve lost their homes and had their lives turned upside down because of natural catastrophes. But getting through these events, whether they’re fires or floods, also means you can be a source of hope for others in their moment of crisis. One group is linking these extreme weather survivors, the veterans with the newcomers....

After three straight years of growth, the rate at which Californians are buying electric vehicles is flattening. That’s according to data from the California Energy Commission. Slowing demand for EVs could be a big barrier to California reaching its ambitious EV goals. Reporter: Alejandro Lazo, CalMatters A major lithium project in Imperial County is moving forward again, after a judge rejected a...

How much water is too much for California’s levees? That’s the question many water experts have been asking since President Donald Trump ordered the release of billions of gallons of water from Central Valley dams – and as big storms produced by an atmospheric river drenched much of the state. Guest: Emily Zentner, The California Newsroom A UCLA report finds the Los Angeles area wildfires have cau...

More than 16,000 structures were lost in last month’s wildfires in LA. Residents there are now beginning the difficult process of deciding whether they can — or even want to — rebuild. For those who do, experts and survivors of past wildfires say there are ways to build in some resilience against future fires. In Santa Rosa’s Coffey Park, that’s what many residents did after the 2017 Tubbs Fire de...

Schools and colleges are some of the places where the fear of President Donald Trump’s pledge of “mass deportations” is hitting hardest. That’s especially after the administration reversed a policy keeping immigration agents away from schools, churches and other "sensitive locations." In California there are laws to limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. But some lawmakers want to...

With more than 800 miles of coastline, you’d think that one problem the Golden State wouldn’t have to worry about having enough sand -- beach sand. But up and down the coast, many beach cities, like San Clemente in Orange County, are facing a growing problem: their sand is disappearing. Reporter: Saul Gonzalez, The California Report Many federal workers in California are suspicious of the Trump ad...