KQED's The California Report

In recent years, indigenous Land Back movements have been gaining momentum across the country. However, the effort to make reparations for the past can come with a lot of strings attached. To understand the complicated reality of landback actions today, we head to an island near the town of Eureka in Humboldt County, where a landback movement succeeded far ahead of its time. Izzy Bloom/TCR A recen...

California's Sierra Nevada had record-breaking snow levels earlier this year. The extreme weather created big problems for one endangered animal. Jill Replogle/LAist State Utility regulators will vote on a proposal that advocates say discriminates against schools, farms and apartment buildings. If approved, these multi-meter properties will be forced to sell the energy they produce to utilities......

The end of this year will mark the end of California’s historic program to pay reparations to survivors of state sponsored sterilization. There are an estimated 600 living survivors. But 70% of the applications for reparations that have been received, have been rejected. Guest: Cayla Mihalovich, Reporter with the Investigative Reporting Program at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism  In...

A growing number of California students are choosing to commute to college in Tijuana. They’re drawn by cheaper tuition and other advantages. Reporter: Gustavo Solis, KPBS   As California moves away from fossil fuel energy sources, officials are looking for ways to ease stress on the state’s electrical grid. Attention is now turning to systems powering swimming pools. Reporter: Manola Secaira, Cap...

The aftermath of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel is proving an especially tough time for Jewish progressives in California. While thousands of Californians take to the streets to support Palestine, many in the Jewish community say they feel abandoned. Reporter: Leslie Berestein Rojas, LAist Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Halloween is coming up. For many people it’s just one evening of trick or treating and frightening fun. But in one LA County neighborhood ,there’s a two-block stretch known as “horror row.” It draws people looking to keep things spine-tingling year round. Reporter: Megan Jamerson, KCRW As Fresno Unified teachers prepare to strike next week, they have support from an unlikely source - substitute te...

The Council of American-Islamic Relations is warning its Bay Area members to be alert, after hearing reports that the FBI is targeting Palestinians elsewhere in the country for questioning Reporter: Christopher Alam, KQED  A small rural town in Riverside County faces an unexpected danger -packs of aggressive stray dogs. In recent months, the dogs have killed dozens of livestock and terrorized many...

The Department of Motor Vehicles has suspended permits that allowed robo-taxi company Cruise to operate in San Francisco. That comes after an incident earlier this month, in which one of the company's fully driverless vehicles hit and dragged a pedestrian.  Reporter: Dan Brekke, KQED Teachers from the Fresno Unified School District, California’s third largest public school system, have voted to st...

Last week, Governor Gavin Newsom authorized $30 million in new spending to increase security and police protection at mosques, synagogues, and other houses of worship. It's an example of how war in the Middle East has increased fears about safety within California's Jewish and Muslim communities. Guest: Dr. Alex Lechtman, President of the Board at Congregation B'nai David in Visalia More than two...

Water is the lifeblood of agriculture But as climate change brings more extreme weather, farming towns in the Central Valley face increasing risks from both drought and flooding. But an innovative solution is scaling up with new state investments. Reporter: Tyche Hendricks, KQED  About 30% of Head Start programs in California aren’t within easy walking distance to a transit stop for families with...

It’s been nearly two weeks since Hamas militants abducted nearly 200 people from Israel. Many foreign nationals, including at least 13 Americans, are among the hostages. Here in California, families of the hostages and supporters will be at the state Capitol early next week to demand the release of their loved ones. Guest: Ryan Pessah, Sacramento Resident, Family Abducted by Hamas California's U.S...

A fast growing humanitarian crisis has erupted in Gaza because of the war between Hamas and Israel. More than 5,000 people have been killed since the war began last week. Conflict in this region has been going on for decades, causing many Palestinians to relocate or seek political asylum in other parts of the world, including here in California. Reporter: Madi Bolaños, The California Report Rampan...

In more than a dozen California counties, a little-known rule in the Clean Air Act has forgiven air pollution – not from the sky, but from the record. After wildfires flourished across North America this year, more U.S. states east of the Mississippi may use this exceptional events rule to subtract smoke from the record, if not from the air we breathe. But these exceptional events are no longer ex...

Thousands of migrant families who were separated at the U.S.-Mexico border by the Trump administration, will now get some benefits and a shot at asylum under a proposed settlement with the federal government. The agreement lets reunified families stay in the U.S. for three years and apply for permanent protection.  Reporter: Tyche Hendricks, KQED It's clear that artificial intelligence is here to...

For the first time in California history, all coastal cities are now required to plan for sea level rise, a looming climate impact yet to be fully experienced. A new law requires those cities to come up with strategies and recommend projects to address future sea level rise by 2034. Reporter: Ezra David Romero, KQED  Climate change is taking a toll on farmworker communities in the Central Valley,...

Hundreds of protesters in Los Angeles and San Francisco rallied against Governor Gavin Newsom’s veto of a bill that would have extended workplace safety protections to domestic workers. Reporter: Farida Jhabvala Romero, KQED The only public employees in California who can’t form a union are its legislative staffers. After four previous attempts failed, Governor Gavin Newsom recently signed landmar...

Attorneys representing people who reported being sexually assaulted during Uber rides are seeking safety improvements from the company, as part of a new consolidated lawsuit. Reporter: Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman, KQED Governor Gavin Newsom has signed a bill extending a state law that makes it easier to build affordable housing in cities that have failed to meet state housing goals. Reporter: Guy Marzor...

California regulators are poised to shake-up the solar market for apartments, schools and farms. An administrative law judge is proposing changes that make the economics of investing in solar projects unappealing.  Reporter: Erik Anderson, KPBS Officials with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation are proposing significant changes to the use of solitary confinement in the stat...

Large-scale traffickers of fentanyl could soon face stiffer criminal penalties in California; that's the result of a law signed by Governor Newsom over the weekend. Reporter: Guy Marzorati, KQED Governor Newsom has signed a bill that delegitimizes a controversial medical diagnostic theory called "excited delirium," which has been used to defend law enforcement in cases where a person has died whil...

As workers across industries walked off the job during this remarkable year of strikes, one union in California won big in its fight for child care providers. The organizers behind this movement were largely immigrants and women of color. Reporter: Daisy Nguyen, KQED  A pair of bills signed over the weekend by Governor Gavin Newsom will require large companies in California to be more transparent...

Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California political legend, was laid to rest in a private ceremony in San Francisco Thursday. Hours earlier, 1500 invited guests attended a memorial service on the steps of San Francisco’s City Hall. Those who gathered there reflected on the long arc of Feinstein's life in San Francisco, where she served as a supervisor and then mayor before being elected to the Senate...

A memorial service for Dianne Feinstein is scheduled for Thursday at San Francisco’s City Hall, where she’s been lying in state. President Joe Biden will deliver remarks by video. Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to attend, as well as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.  Laphonza Butler, who was sworn in this week to replace Dianne Feinstein, is a longtime labor leader, polit...

In an unprecedented move in American politics – Bakersfield Republican Kevin McCarthy was ousted as House speaker on Tuesday. Despite this, many of McCarthy's constituents still support the embattled Congressman.  Reporter: Joshua Yeager, KVPR Thousands of Kaiser Permanente healthcare workers in California have walked off the job, starting a three day strike. A coalition of unions representing the...

When we think of cleaner and greener alternatives to gas-powered cars and trucks in California, electric vehicles come immediately to mind. But there is an alternative --hydrogen-powered cars. Reporter: Saul Gonzalez, The California Report Governor Gavin Newsom is defending his decision to appoint Emily’s List president Laphonza Butler to Dianne Feinstein’s open Senate seat –which potentially upen...

Longtime labor leader and Democratic strategist Laphonza Butler will be California's new U.S. Senator. News of Butler's appointment -- confirmed by Governor Gavin Newsom's office Sunday night -- comes days after the death of Dianne Feinstein, which left the Senate seat vacant. Reporter: Guy Marzorati, KQED This week, seven California counties launch CARE Courts. They’re the new mental health court...