KQED's The California Report

Mayors across California are feeling the pressure to reduce street homelessness and tent encampments. So, they’re increasingly turning to temporary housing as a solution. But investments in shelters could come at the expense of permanent housing. Reporter: Guy Marzorati, KQED California prides itself on being a diverse state. But actually connecting people who have radically different life experie...

A busload of more than 40 migrants, sent by the state of Texas, arrived in Los Angeles Wednesday afternoon.  The group included at least eight children. Questions linger about how two groups of migrants ended up on flights to Sacramento earlier this month. Some asylum seekers now say the state of Florida hired contractors to push them to get on the flights.  Guest: Jack Herrera, L.A. Times nationa...

Local and state officials are cracking down on the use of gas-powered gardening equipment, like leaf blowers. But not everyone is thrilled about these changes. Reporter: Saul Gonzalez, The California Report Tijuana’s migrant shelters are struggling to stay afloat. A few things threaten their long term future: declining donations and rising costs. Reporter: Gustavo Solis, KPBS Learn more about your...

20 members of Congress from California sent a letter to the EPA. They're worried that a rule intended to improve air quality could make it harder to conduct prescribed burns. Reporter: Danielle Venton, KQED The rejection of a social studies textbook by three conservative Christian school board members in Temecula is causing more upheaval. While California's Attorney General awaits a response from...

There are more than 300,000 licensed security guards in California - a number that’s been growing over the past decade.  But in the wake of a fatal shooting of an alleged shoplifter in San Francisco last month by a Walgreens drug store guard, the training required by state regulators is looking increasingly outdated.  Reporter: Marisa Lagos, KQED Thousands of unionized hotel workers in Southern Ca...

The southern San Andreas Fault hasn’t generated a major earthquake in 300 years. But why? Well, new research published in the scientific journal Nature explains that might be due to the shrinking of the nearby Salton Sea. Campaigns to ban books are on the rise in the U.S. That includes the Riverside County community of Temecula. There, the school board’s decision to reject a textbook has sparked a...

Should Californians have a right to housing enshrined in the state constitution? Well, a bill to do just that just passed its first legislative hurdle in Sacramento. Reporter: Vanessa Rancaño, KQED   Many people living in wildfire-prone areas of California were already struggling with home insurance before the news that Allstate and State Farm would stop writing new policies. So for those who've l...

The administration of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis says it’s responsible for sending two chartered planes of asylum seekers to Sacramento over the past week. That comes after Governor Gavin Newsom suggested that DeSantis, who’s also running for president, might be guilty of kidnapping. Reporter: Tyche Hendricks, KQED The return of a Tulare Lake in California’s Central Valley because of flooding h...

Eviction cases are piling up in Los Angeles County courtrooms, especially now that the county’s COVID protections have ended. Landlords almost always show up with attorneys, while tenants tend to represent themselves. Reporter: David Wagner, LAist  Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg says he's proud of the way community groups and local officials are stepping up, to aid the dozens of bewildered mig...

The CARE Court program is part of the state's big changes in how it treats the most severely mentally ill. A handful of counties are scheduled to begin the programs this year, including Los Angeles County. Reporter: Saul Gonzalez, The California Report State authorities say they’ll investigate how a group of migrants, who were reportedly bused from Texas to New Mexico, before being flown to Califo...

State lawmakers are trying to make renting more affordable by capping how much landlords can charge for security deposits.  Reporter: Alejandra Reyes-Velarde, CalMatters There's been some very un-California weather in the southern part of our state. Cloudy skies have filled the skies the last few weeks. Reporter: Saul Gonzalez, The California Report Accessible health care is often a huge challenge...

By next year, every county in California will have to implement a new statewide program called CARE Court. It focuses on getting unhoused people with severe mental health disorders into treatment.  Eight counties have agreed to begin early, including San Francisco. Reporter: Scott Shafer, KQED Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Catalytic converters are a part that all gas-powered vehicles in California are required to have in order to keep their exhaust up to our air quality standards. Thousands of cars across Los Angeles have had theirs stolen, because of the part’s valuable precious metals. Reporter: Megan Jamerson, KCRW California’s record snowpack is starting to melt, and it might impact peak wildfire season. For som...

Fentanyl Deaths Up in California, New Data Show New Federal data show overdose deaths in California up slightly, and drug policy experts say lasting change requires lawmakers to examine and treat underlying causes of addiction. Meanwhile, a bill to create a task force is now advancing at the State Capitol. Reporter: Stephanie O’Neill Patison, KFF Health News Carmel-by-the Sea Addresses Its Address...

Consider the beaver. Once thought of as a “nuisance rodent,” yes it’s a rodent, for flooding roads, farmland and other properties that we want to keep dry, the beaver is now embraced as a “climate solving hero” and an eco-engineer. Why? Well for its natural ability to help increase water storage and to create natural buffers against wildfires.  Guests: Laurie Wayburn, Co-Founder of Pacific Forest...

The California State University system has some of the lowest tuition rates in the country. But a huge budget gap could force new tuition hikes.  Reporter: Mikhail Zinshteyn, CalMatters Stanford University is conducting the first clinical trial in the world, looking at whether Paxlovid could be a possible treatment for Long COVID patients.   Reporter: Keith Mizuguchi, The California Report Kennedy...

Every year for the past two decades, tribes along the Oregon-California border have come together for an event known as the Salmon Run. It’s a spiritual run and prayer for the health of the Klamath watershed.   Reporter: Jane Vaughan, Jefferson Public Radio A new state legislative committee is digging into the fentanyl crisis in search of solutions. Over five hours of testimony on Wednesday, publi...

This year, the city of Los Angeles decided to turn one of its methane gas plants into a hydrogen plant. It's part of the city’s ambitious goal to run on 100% renewable energy by 2035. It might sound great, but it’s actually a controversial move. Reporter: Caleigh Wells, KCRW A new state legislative committee focused on fentanyl and opioid addiction is holding its first meeting Wednesday in Sacrame...

A historic agreement has been reached between seven Western states to cut the amount of water they take from the Colorado River. But what are California's responsibilities under the deal? And which part of the state will be most affected? Reporter: Saul Gonzalez, The California Report  California's lawmakers have been scrambling to address the state's fentanyl overdose crisis. The synthetic opioid...

California’s food banks are reporting alarming spikes in demand, that’s according to the state’s association of food banks, which says the end of pandemic-era food benefits and record high inflation is to blame.  In April, the Sacramento food bank and its partners fed 281,000 people – almost double the amount it served before the pandemic. Reporter: Kate Wolffe, CapRadio Fueled by California's rec...

It was once Northern California’s largest settlement of unhoused people. The city of Oakland recently cleared the last remaining portion of the community people called Wood Street.   Reporter: Erin Baldassari, KQED We're learning more about U.S Senator Dianne Feinstein's recent health struggles. They were worse and more complicated than her office first disclosed.  Reporter: Scott Shafer, KQED Cal...

Rivers in California are flowing fast and wide this year as record snowpack in the mountains melt. All that water has created flood damage and worries about more to come, but one industry is thriving after years of drought and shrinking rivers -- whitewater rafting.    Reporter: Joshua Yeager, KVPR California workplace health and safety regulators are holding a public hearing on Thursday on a prop...

 Along the Yuba River on Tuesday, California officials announced a plan to give fish access to areas they haven't swam in for more than a century. Daguerre Point Dam has blocked migrating salmon, sturgeon and Pacific lamprey since it was built in 1910. Reporter: Danielle Venton, KQED After a wildfire destroyed his home a few years back, a young Latino man from Santa Rosa was inspired to become a f...

In 2015, the Berryessa Snow Mountain region became a national monument. The monument status brought protections to the area’s biologically diverse landscape.  But one large swath of land, nestled in the monument’s center, was excluded from protection. Now environmental groups and tribes are trying to fix that.   Reporter: Manola Secaira, CapRadio Governor Gavin Newsom warned of a more than $31 bil...

U.S. immigration officials are expressing confidence in the state of things at the U-S Mexico border. That after the Trump-era Title 42 program ended last week. It prevented migrants from seeking asylum in the U.S. But there are still plenty of concerns from people trying to cross the border. Reporter: Saul Gonzalez, The California Report Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoi...