KQED's The California Report

The best surf spots in Santa Cruz are infamous for territorial locals and some occasionally aggressive confrontations.  But lately, not all of the offenders have been human. A five-year-old sea otter has become famous for stealing surfboards, and evading capture. Reporter: Erin Malsbury, KAZU California regulators are developing emergency rules to protect workers dying from inhaling silica dust, i...

The Grateful Dead’s offshoot band, Dead and Company, says this summer was their last tour. And their final stop on that tour was in San Francisco, where fans celebrated the end of an era.  Reporter: Izzy Bloom, The California Report Doctors in California say a growing number of workers are getting really sick and dying from inhaling silica dust, while they sand and cut artificial stone to make kit...

After months of fighting, the Temecula school board once again failed to approve a new elementary social studies textbook on Tuesday night. That sets up a showdown with the governor’s office. Reporter: Madison Aument, KVCR  California is dumping at least $100 million a year into its flagship rehabilitation program for former prisoners. Specialized Treatment for Optimized Programming, also known as...

Starting this fall, judges in 8 counties will be put in charge of ordering treatment for people with serious psychotic illness. Some politicians say these new CARE Courts will clean up the streets, while health advocates argue a courtroom is no place for vulnerable patients. In Orange County, officials are balancing this tension as they start to implement the controversial new plan. Reporter: Apri...

Central and Southern California are still not in the clear, with heat warnings in place for much of those regions. And for the state’s 115,000 unsheltered homeless residents, trying to keep cool is easier said than done. Reporter: Vanessa Rancano, KQED Construction crews are ahead of schedule on the demolition of the first of four dams on the Klamath River along the Oregon-California border. Repor...

SAG-AFTRA, the union that represents film and TV actors, announced that its 160,000 members are striking, with actors expected to form picket lines outside of studios on Friday. SAG -AFTRA members will join already striking Hollywood writers. Such a labor stoppage by both unions at the same time hasn't happened since 1960 and it basically shuts down Hollywood production. The heat wave that’s expec...

Temperatures are expected to climb well above 100, especially in the state’s valleys and away from the coast the rest of this week. Officials from half a dozen state and federal agencies are warning Californians to prepare for the heat wave. Reporter: Kevin Stark, KQED What’s it like to work and try to protect others in a place that’s sometimes the hottest spot on the planet, with temperatures upw...

LGBTQ Pride events have been taking place across the country amid growing threats of violence towards the community. Along with being frightening, these threats are also impacting Pride organizations' financial bottom lines. One example? Skyrocketing insurance costs. Reporter: Scott Rodd, KPBS   With a strike threat imminent, SAG-AFTRA, the union representing actors, has agreed to last minute fede...

In April, California passed a first of its kind policy to accelerate the transition to electric big rig trucks. But how does it actually feel to be behind the wheel of one? Reporter: Erin Stone, LAist After raising tuition only once in the last decade, California State University Trustees will meet on Tuesday to consider a possible tuition hike for students in the 23 campus system. The proposal is...

After not being seen for decades, a rare native plant was recently rediscovered on the Central Coast. Botanists say the tiny Santa Ynez groundstar grows in the city of Lompoc and nowhere else.  Reporter: Beth Thornton  Tent encampments on sidewalks are often the public face of the homelessness crisis in Los Angeles. But a new census of the homeless shows a big increase of the unhoused who live in...

After months of alarm, forecasters predict that Tulare Lake has peaked in size. That means the risk of flooding has likely subsided for the city of Corcoran. But questions still surround what could have happened if floodwaters had overtaken two state prisons on the outskirts of the city. Reporter: Kerry Klein, KVPR Ford, General Motors and several other truck manufacturers have agreed to abide by...

The Fresno Chaffee Zoo’s long-awaited ‘Kingdoms of Asia’ exhibit has opened. The exhibit's design was inspired by Cambodia's landmark Angkor Wat temple. Reporter: Soreath Hok, KVPR Hotel workers who had been on strike since Sunday in Los Angeles and Orange counties, have returned to work. But the union representing the workers says they could walk out at anytime, if their demands aren't met. Learn...

About 15,000 workers employed at dozens of hotels across Los Angeles and Orange counties have walked off the job, demanding better pay and benefits.  As summer temperatures start to hit triple digits, farmworkers in the Central Valley are especially vulnerable to the toll of excessive heat. And looking ahead it’s not going to get any easier because of climate change, Reporter: Tyche Hendricks, KQE...

The California Air Resources Board, or CARB, which regulates car and truck pollution in the state, will soon fully open its new, very expensive state-of-the-art laboratory and testing center in Riverside. The hope is that it can be a key tool in the decades-long fight against air pollution and, more recently, climate change. Reporter: Saul Gonzalez, The California Report Learn more about your ad c...

This summer, the California Report will be taking you to places and talking to people from all walks of life about what they're doing in the months ahead. But first, we're looking at the dollars and cents of California’s tourism economy and how things are shaping up this summer travel season. Guest: Caroline Beteta, President and CEO of Visit California Many people enjoy spending the summer outdoo...

Homelessness is up 9 percent In LA County. Results of Los Angeles' Annual Homeless Count Are Out ...And It's Not Good.   Anna Scott from KCRW has the details. The State Task Force Studying Reparations For African-Americans In California Has Submitted Its Final Report... And As KQED Politics Correspondent Guy Marzorati Tells Us -- State Legislators Now Face The Political Challenge Of Making Those P...

People who live around several reservoirs in Siskiyou County are facing an uncertain future. Four dams on the Klamath River will be torn down over the next two years. Now, their lakefront properties will change as reservoirs turn into a free-flowing river again. Reporter: Erik Neumann, Jefferson Public Radio   A new report shows California is performing almost 500 more abortions per month than in...

New numbers out from California's Attorney General's office show a more than 20% increase in hate crimes in the state between 2021 and 2022, with more than 2,100 recorded incidents last year. Reported hate crimes targeting Black people had the sharpest rise. There were also big increases in crimes against members of the LGBTQ and Jewish communities. The majority of Californians live in places wher...

Have you been recycling your food scraps? A new report finds that California’s landmark compost law that went into effect last year isn’t close to reaching its organic recycling goals. Reporter: Erin Stone, LAist What happens when an elected official essentially becomes homeless because of the cost of California housing? In the small Ventura County town of Ojai, a councilmember has fought to keep...

By law, California's legislature and the governor must approve a budget by July 1st, the start of the state’s fiscal year. But with that deadline looming, lawmakers and Governor Newsom still haven't struck a budget agreement. Reporter: Nicole Nixon, CapRadio A 2017 law to streamline new housing construction and override neighborhood opposition has been hailed as one of the most successful tools in...

The U.S. is now the second country in the world to approve the sale of cultivated meat. The meat from Bay Area companies Upside Foods and Good Meat doesn’t come from slaughtered animals. Rather it’s made from animal cells.  Reporter: Keith Mizuguchi, The California Report  In honor of Juneteenth, The California Report Magazine. is celebrating with stories of creative, powerful Black women, and the...

California officials are pressuring textbook publishers to produce culturally diverse materials for California classrooms. This comes in light of book bans across the country. Reporter: Riley Palmer, KQED Last fall, Sacramento became one of the latest California cities to ban homeless encampments on public property, after voters approved a controversial law called Measure O. Enforcement of the mea...

California’s sky high housing costs are the biggest contributor to homelessness, and older residents are feeling it the most. That’s according to a new study from the University of California, San Francisco. Reporter: Sydney Johnson, KQED  Hospitals and workers agree - California has a healthcare staffing shortage.  What they don’t agree on is how to fix it. Democrats in the state legislature are...

When a levee burst in a January rainstorm in the Central Valley town of Planada, floodwaters wrecked the homes of hundreds of farmworker families. In March, the same thing happened again, a levee failed in the Salinas Valley and inundated the farmworker town of Pajaro. Those communities are now pushing to get some real help in the state budget. Reporter: Tyche Hendricks, KQED Abortion access is a...

Later this month, the statewide task force studying reparations for black Californians will submit its historic final report to the state legislature for consideration.  Most of the focus has been on monetary reparations, but some say the task force will take a bigger picture approach. Lawmakers in the state senate will consider a bill on Tuesday that aims to help low-income teens access mental he...