KQED's The California Report

U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, who spent more than three decades in the Senate, has passed away at the age of 90. Senator Feinstein had a long career in politics even before her time in Washington, as a supervisor and mayor in San Francisco. Reporter: Scott Shafer, KQED Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As of this summer, most incarcerated people across the country can apply for a Pell Grant to pay for a higher education. Criminal justice advocates say this is a key step in keeping people from returning to prison. But in California, the demand is already exceeding the supply. Reporter: Madi Bolaños, The California Report Southern California communities are paying the cost of a rise in online shop...

Tijuana has long been a refuge for priced-out Californians looking for affordable housing. But now, rents in Tijuana are rising twice as fast as in San Diego. Reporter: Gustavo Solis, KPBS  A federal judge in San Francisco is ordering two former Trump administration officials to testify in a lawsuit, brought by migrant parents and children separated at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2018. Reporter: Tyc...

Fentanyl-related deaths are up in California. By a lot. And it's no different in Sacramento County, which jumped from 17 fentanyl related deaths in 2018, to 227 last year. One neighborhood nonprofit is trying to save lives, by getting drug users to recognize what might be causing their use in the first place. Reporter: Kate Wolffe, CapRadio   The iconic Bob's Big Boy diner in Burbank has become th...

After nearly 150 days on strike, a tentative deal has been reached between Hollywood writers and studios. The proposed three year deal would boost pay rates and residuals from streaming shows, and also introduce new rules on the use of artificial intelligence. Shasta County is dealing with major staffing shortages across county departments. Those shortages have forced an entire floor of the county...

Governor Gavin Newsom has asked the state insurance commission to take emergency action to fix the troubled homeowner's insurance market. This comes after State Farm, Allstate and more than half of the top 12 insurance groups have paused or restricted new business in the state.   Reporter: Kevin Stark, KQED  More than 300,000 Californians have lost health insurance since the state resumed Medi-Cal...

Nursing homes typically help people recover after surgeries or provide round-the-clock care for people with physical disabilities. But a new LAist investigation finds that thousands of people with serious mental illness are living in California’s nursing homes. Experts call it “warehousing” and say the practice may violate federal law.  Reporter: Elly Yu, LAist Farmworker advocates pushing for saf...

Sacramento County’s district attorney says he’s taking the city of Sacramento to court, for failing to enforce its own homelessness laws. County DA Tien Ho says Sacramento city officials “allowed, created and enabled” a public safety crisis, by not enforcing their own laws, including the city’s ban on blocking sidewalks and camping on public property.  Reporter: Chris Nichols, CapRadio  More water...

It’s been six months since the levee protecting the small Central Coast farming community of Pajaro burst, flooding the town and forcing thousands out of their homes. And while repairs are underway, a permanent fix is still years in the making. Reporter: Scott Cohn, KAZU A group of Democratic state lawmakers is asking California Attorney General Rob Bonta to take the lead on an effort to remove Do...

This week marks six months since powerful storms flooded the small farming community of Pajaro in Santa Cruz County, after its aging levee system failed. The community is still facing major challenges with rebuilding. Reporter: Jerimiah Oetting, KAZU At the Climate Week NYC event, Governor Gavin Newsom announced his intention to sign a first-in-the nation climate bill awaiting his approval back in...

Nearly 60,000 Kaiser Permanente workers have overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike if there’s no agreement in contract negotiations by September 30. The healthcare workers -- most of them in California -- are pushing for a 7% wage increase in the first two years of this next contract, and 6.25% the following two years. A California appeals court has agreed to hear a challenge to the state’s r...

On this final day of the legislative session, a lot of eyes in Sacramento are on one particular measure moving through the State Senate. It would allow workers who are on strike for more than two weeks, like the Hollywood writers and actors, to apply for unemployment insurance. Reporter: Farida Jhabvala Romero, KQED In Sacramento, it’s the final day of the legislative session -- and that means the...

When you think of a meadow, what comes to mind? Probably a peaceful expanse of grass and flowers straight out of a postcard. A perfect place to have a picnic or read a book. But meadows are also key to the health of forests And in the Sierra Nevada most meadows have been degraded or lost. Reporter: Kerry Klein, KVPR Meeting in Long Beach Wednesday morning, California State University’s Board of Tr...

After months of bitter conflict, fast food companies and labor unions have reached a deal that could raise the minimum wage for 500,000 fast food workers in California. Reporter: Farida Jhabvala Romero, KQED  If you’re a parent or caregiver in the state, chances are you’ve seen billboards urging you to talk, read and sing to your baby. Now the agency behind those ads, First Five California, is pus...

The popular social media app Instagram and its parent company, Meta, use artificial intelligence to moderate content. But there are growing concerns that the “training data” for AI is biased against women and people of color. A Los Angeles photographer thinks this “algorithmic bias” is part of the reason Instagram disabled his account. Reporter: Beth Tribolet, KQED The California legislature has p...

Pickleball is the fastest growing sport in America. And according to some neighbors, it’s also one of the loudest. Homeowners in the San Diego region, and across the state, are increasingly taking legal action to resolve pickleball noise disputes. Reporter: Scott Rodd, KPBS California is set to scale back its electric car rebate program to focus more on low-income car buyers.  Reporter: Alejandro...

A judge has ruled that a San Bernardino County school district must hold off on enforcing a policy that requires school staff to notify parents if a student identifies as transgender. Chino Valley Unified is being sued by the state attorney general. Reporter: Madison Aument, KVCR  In San Diego, the Black Panther Party is recruiting new members. Decades ago, the U.S. government spread misinformatio...

Central Coast Congressman Salud Carbajal is unveiling new legislation on Wednesday to help communities near regional airports that have long been facing toxic chemical contamination in their groundwater. The “Clean Airport Agenda” will make sure federal agencies phase out the use of these toxic chemicals in such communities.  Reporter: Benjamin Purper, KCBX State lawmakers are voting on a resoluti...

People who live behind a vast number of aging levees in the United States are more likely to be people of color and have less education compared to those who don’t. And that leaves them more vulnerable to flooding and the impacts of climate change. Reporter: Emily Zentner, California Newsroom A state bill that would require many employers in all kinds of industries to take steps to protect workers...

When Joe Sanchez was 8 years old, his grandmother asked him to make a promise to never forget his California Indian heritage. She was determined to see the culture live on, after watching her brothers deny their Coast Miwok ancestry, a matter of economic survival in early 20th century California. Today, at 75, Sanchez is making good on that promise in a more ambitious way than he ever imagined: He...

By all accounts, this year's West Nile virus season has been particularly bad.  The state has reported five fatalities so far this summer. In Sacramento and Yolo Counties, the Mosquito & Vector Control District has been spraying a diluted insecticide throughout the region to kill the mosquitoes that carry the disease.  Reporter: Kate Wolffe, CapRadio Kern County’s maternal mortality rate is one of...

The governor’s office is awarding nearly $760 million in grants for affordable housing projects statewide. The money is expected to help create 2,500 new affordable homes, but will pay for more than just new apartments. Reporter: Chris Nichols, CapRadio   Workers rights advocates are calling on Los Angeles to combat wage theft as one way to tackle the homelessness crisis in the city. New analysis...

COVID cases are on the rise in California. According to the state public health department, hospitalizations have jumped more than 80% over the last month.   Reporter: Jackie Fortier, LAist California produces millions of tons of toxic waste each year, but the state’s relying on a shrinking network of aging sites to process it. Many of the older sites have a troubling history of safety violations...

State Attorney General Rob Bonta is suing Chino Valley Unified School District in San Bernardino County, over their policy of mandatory outing of trans students to family members. The policy requires teachers and staff to notify parents within three days if a student asks to use a different name or pronoun. A new political campaign to roll back several protections for transgender youth is happenin...

A growing number of California winemakers have seen their crop ruined in recent years by wildfire smoke. The impact is huge: After fires in 2020, the California Association of Wine Grape Growers estimated that up to 325,000 tons of grapes weren’t usable, leading to over $3 billion in losses. Reporter: Manola Secaira, CapRadio The three people who died in last week's shooting at an Orange County ba...